You didnt disapprove of Teela or Tain, that I recall.
It hardly matters, where the Barrani are concerned. And Teela is a slightly unusual case. I have known her for some time, he added, almost gently. She was the first customer I had in this store, when I finally opened it.
When you finally opened it?
Ah, yes. It took me some time to find my way back. From this place, he added, looking beyond Kaylin, his eyes slightly unfocused. She knew the look; he was remembering something. Something she was certain he wasnt about to share. And she was waiting, with, I might add, her usual patience. Which would of course be none at all.
How long had she waited?
Quite a while, from all accounts. It was well before she joined the Hawks, he added, and she cut a formidable figure.
Thinking about the drug dealers on the banks of the Ablaynethe ones who had been unfortunate enough to sell LetheKaylin said, Shes pretty damn formidable now.
In a fashion. She was waiting for me, and she was not with Tain. She did have a greatsword, however, a fine piece of work. It predated the Empire, he added. But I do not believe it was a named weapon.
Dont believe? You mean you arent certain? Kaylin felt her jaw drop. Luckily, it was attached to her face, or it would have bounced off the grass.
Not entirely certain, no. There was something of a glamour on it, and since it looked like a serviceable, if old-fashioned, sword, the glamour clearly wasnt there to make it look more impressive. But making it look less impressive, holding some power in reservethats Barrani all over.
She shook her head. Teela doesnt even use a sword.
If the sword she had with her that day were one of the named weapons, she wouldntshe wouldnt insult the responsibility of ownership by using a lesser blade. What does she use, anyway?
Mostly hands or feet, but sometimes a great big stick.
He nodded.
Severn, who was the model of studied patience, finally spoke, scattering the pleasant gossip to the winds that Evanton had mentioned. Why are you showing us this?
A very good question. Im surprised Kaylin didnt ask it, he added, frowning at her, although he spoke to Severn. She always asks too many questionsthey try what little patience Ive managed to preserve. But he said it without rancor. This is not unlike the High Halls of the Barraniand if Im not mistaken, Corporal Handred, you are also entitled to be called Lord while you are in the High Halls.
Severn nodded.
This place is, however, older, I think, than the Halls, and one of the few such ancient places within the city that are not governed by either Barrani or the Dragon Emperor himself.
Although when I was called to answer for my stewardship of this place, I will say the Dragon Emperor was a tad testy. Id advise you to stay on his good side when you do meet him.
You mean the side without the teeth, right? Kaylin asked.
Evanton chuckled. That side, yes, although the tail can be quite deadly.
She didnt ask him how he knew this. His words had caught up with her thoughts. What do you mean when I meet him?
His frown was momentary. Never mind, girl. All in goodor badtime. He is watching you, but even his reach is not so long that he can see you here. He is almost certainly aware that you are here, however.
What do you mean?
He has my shop watched.
Oh. She paused, and took a step forward into a room that was, in her eyes, almost devoid of any trace of human interference. But it belonged to Evanton, and because it did, she could see odd things that lay on stone pedestals, on stone shelves, and in alcoves that lined the nearest walls. Things that held candlescandelabras?that were lined up in perfect precision, unlit and therefore unblemished. There were books, boxes that looked as if theyd been left out in the rainand the sun and the snow for good measureand small, golden tablets that looked as if they had, conversely, barely been touched by eyes. Still, it was the candles that caught her attention.
Are they ever lit?
Never, Evanton replied. And if they are to be lit, let it be during someone elses watch.
She nodded and kept walking, and after a while, she said, This is circular, this room?
A large circle, but yes. Evantons eyes were gleaming and dark as he answered. His nod was more a nod of approval than Kaylin had ever seen from him. She took encouragement from it, and continued to watch the room with the eyesthe trained eyesof a hawk.
Saw a small pond, saw a fire burning in a brazier; felt the winds voice above her head and saw the leaves turn at its passing. Saw, in the distance, a rock garden in which no water trickled.
She said, Elemental.
And Evanton nodded again.
Severn?
I concur. But it is unusual.
And the books, Evanton?
Good girl, he said softly. Those, do not touch. You may approach them, but do not touch them.
I doubt Id be able to read them.
It is not in the reading that they present the greatest threat, and Kaylin, if you spoke no words at all, if you were entirely deprived of language, these books would still speak to you.
Magic, she said with disdain.
Indeed, and older magic than the magic that is the current fashion. Fashion, he added, may be frowned on by the old, but I believe that the trend is not a bad one.
She half closed her eyes. Listened to the voice of the wind as it rustled through slender branches; golden leaves, white leaves and a pale, pale bloodred, all turned as it passed. Heard, for a moment, a name that was not quite hers as she looked up, to feel its touch across her cheeks.
The mark of Nightshade began to tingle. It was not entirely comfortable. Without thinking, she lifted a hand to her face to touch the mark.
The mark you bear affords you some protection. He must value you, Kaylin, Evanton said. He was closer than she realized; she should have heard his shuffling step, but she had heard only the wind. And felt, for a moment, the glimmering dream of flight.
His voice dispelled the winds, sent it scattering, left her boundas she would always be boundto ground. And because he simply waited, she began to walk again.
To the pond, where small shelves and altars sat across moss beds. Books lay there, and again, candles, unlit, by the dozen. There were small boxes, and a mirrorthe first shed seen since shed entered this room.
The mirror
Do not touch it.
Wasnt going to, she said, although her hand stopped in midair. But does it work?
Work?
Is it functional? If I wanted to send a message, could I?
Not, he replied, to anyone you would care to speak to. It was an evasion. She accepted it. At the moment, the investigationsuch as it was, since he hadnt actually told them anything usefulwas not about mirrors or messages, but it was the first truly modern thing shed encountered.
Yet even as she thought it, she looked at the mirror, and thought again. Its surface was tarnished and cloudy, and its frame, gold and silver, poorly tended. Unlike the rest of the small, jeweled boxes, the reliquariesshe recognized them for that nowthis had been left alone.
Do they all have mirrors?
All?
The elemental gardens. There should be fourthe fire in the brazier, the water in this small pond, the rocks just beyond those silver trees. I cant see anything for air
It is very, very hard to build a garden to air, he replied. But it is here, and perhaps it is the freest of the elements because it can travel so readily. And the answer is no. None of them do.
But this one
Was brought here. It does not belong in this room.
But you havent moved it.
No, he replied. And until the Hawks deem it wise, I will not return it to its place. But do not touch it. The hand that held it last left some impression, but it will not, I think, be the equal of yours.
You think of everything.
I? Hardly. Had I, you would not be here now.
Good point. Maybe. It was hard to leave the mirror, but she did, because the surface of the pond was everything the surface of the mirror was not: clean, smooth, reflective. The breeze that blew above did not touch it at all; she wondered if a pebble would ripple its surface.
No, Evanton replied, as if he were reading her mindwhich shed gotten used to in the last few weeks, but still didnt much care for. It would not. The earth and the water barely meet here. The pond is not wide, he added, but it runs very, very deep.
She nodded. These footprints, she said, although she had barely grazed ground with her eyes, arent yours.
No.
You know whose they are?
I have some suspicion.
Severn knelt with care at Kaylins side and examined the moss. He had seen what she had seen, of course. There are at least two sets, he told them both. The larger set belongs to a person of heavier build than the smaller. I would say human, and probably male, from the size.
Evantons answer was lost.
Kaylin was gazing at the surface of the pond. Although the water was clear, there was a darkness in the heart of it that seemed endless. Deep, he had said, and she now believed it; you could throw a body down here and it would simply vanish. The idea of taking a swim had less than no appeal.
But the waters surface caught and held light, the light from the ceiling above, the one that Aerians would so love, it was that tall.
She could almost see them fly across it, reflected for a moment in passage, and felt again the yearning to fly and be free. To join them.
It was illusion, of course. There was no such thing as freedom. There was only
Reflection. Movement.
Not hers, and not Severns; Evanton stood far enough back that he cast no reflection.
Kaylin? Severn said, his voice close to her ear.
But Kaylin was gazing now into the eyesthe wide eyes of a childs bruised face. A girl, her hair long and stringy in the way that unwashed childrens hair could often be, her skin pale with winter, although winter was well away. She wore clothing that was too large for her, and threadbare, and undyed. She wore nothing at all on her feet, for Kaylin could see her toes, dirt in the nails.
She came back to the eyes.
The girl whispered a single word.
Kaylin.
CHAPTER
2
The first thing Kaylin had been taught when shed been allowed to accompany groundhawks on her first investigation of a crime scene was Do not touch anything or we will never bring you back. This also meant, Do not embarrass us by attempting to steal anything. The Hawks were pretty matter-of-fact about her upbringing; they didnt actually care. The fiefs couldnt be actively policed, so it wasnt as if anything shed done there was on record. If she had been canny enough to survive life on the streets of Nightshade, tough enough to emerge unscathed, and idealistic enough to want to uphold the Law rather than slide through its grip, so much the better.
It had been a missing-person investigationwhich usually meant dead person whose body had yet to be foundand theyd walked the narrow streets that faced the fiefs withoutquitetouching them. The Law still ruled in this old, boarded-up manor house, by a riverbank and a couple of narrow bridges.
She had been all of fourteen years old, and had spent six long months begging, badgering, and wheedling; when they said yes, she could follow them, she had nearly stopped breathing.
By that point, being a Hawk was the only thing she wanted, and she had held her fidget-prone hands by her sides, stiff as boards, while the HawksTeela and Tain for the most part, although Marcus had come along to supervisehad rambled about a series of large, run-down rooms for what felt like hours.
There wasnt much in the way of temptation on that particular day: nothing worth stealing.
Nothing she wanted to touch.
But this was so much harder. The girl was young. Younger than many of her orphans, the kitlings she visited, taught to read, and told storiescasually censoredof her adventures to. This girl was bruised; her eyes were wide with terror, her face gaunt with either cold or hunger. And she was real.
The water did not distort her; she did not sink into the depths, beckoning for Kaylin to follow to a watery, slow death. There was an aura about her, some faint hint of magic, but there would have to be.
Kaylin knelt with care by the side of this deep, deep pond, this scion of elemental magics. She did not touch the waters surface, but it was a struggle not to; not to reach out a hand, palm out, to the child whose dark eyes met hers.
As if he knew itand he probably didSevern was behind her. He did not approach the water as closely as she herself had done, but instead put both of his hands on her shoulders and held tight.
Corporal, she heard Evanton say quietly, what do you see?
Water, Severn replied. Very, very deep water.
Interesting.
You?
I see many things, Evanton replied. Always. The water here is death. He paused and then added, Almost everything is, to the unwary, in this place.
Figures, Kaylin heard herself say, in a voice that was almost normal. But whose death?
A good question, girl. As always.
You usually tell me my questions are
Hush.
But the girl didnt vanish until Evanton came to stand by Kaylins side. Youre not one for obedience, blind or otherwise, he told her, with just a hint of frustration in a voice that was mostly approving. But I believe I told you to look at nothing too closely.
If you saw what I saw
I may well, girl. But as I said, I see many things that the water chooses to reveal. There is always temptation, here, and it knows enough to see deeply.
Thisis not
Is it not? Here you sit, spellbound, horrified, gathering and hoarding your angerwhich, I believe, is growing as the minutes pass. It isnt always things that tempt our basest desirenot all temptation is sensual or monetary in nature. He lifted his hands and gestured and the water rippled at the passage of a strong, strong gust.
All images were broken as it did, and the girls face passed into memorybut it was burned there. Kaylin would not forget. Couldnt. Didnt, if she were honest, have any desire to do so.