But she had never come with Severn before.
And Severn became completely still beside her.
Corporal Handred, Mallory said, greeting him as if that stillness were not a warning signal. Our newest recruit.
Severn extended a hand, and Mallory took it firmly. I see that they have you babysitting. Its unusual to see the private in any company that isnt Barrani. How are you finding the Hawks so far?
Interesting, Severn replied. At least he hadnt gone monosyllabic.
Compared to the Wolves?
Severn didnt even pause. Yes. Longer hours. I confess that Ive seen many reports from your office, but Ive seldom had a chance to visit in person.
Mallory looked slightly at a loss, but he recovered quickly enough. We do important work here, he began, straightening his shoulders somewhat. Its here that most of the cases that require official attention are brought to the notice of the Law.
I imagine you deal with a lot of reports. How do you separate the frauds from the actual crimes?
Mallory looked genuinely surprised, and Kaylin fought an urge to kick someonemostly because she couldnt decide whether or not shed kick Severn or Mallory. Mallory took the lead, and Severn, walking by his side, continued to ask pleasant questions, his voice engulfed slowly by the office noise.
Leaving Kaylin on her own, with no Mallory vindictively standing over her shoulder. It was a trick not even Teela had ever tried.
There were two ways to get useful information about the missing persons being reported by the people who came to the Halls. The hard waywhich was to take notes, to have the official artists employed by the Halls on hand, and to attempt to draw a picture of some sort that could be used as an identifier. This was both the least efficient and the most commonly used method of gaining some sort of visual information the Hawks could then use.
The second, and far more efficient, method involved the Thaalani. And the reason it was little used was, in Kaylins opinion, pretty damn obvious. She looked across the crowded office as if the people in it were shadows and smoke, and against the far wall, bordered on either side by finely crafted wooden dividers, and no door, sat a gray-haired man.
At least he looked like a man from the back. But he wore robes, rather than the official uniform of the Hawks; if he was finicky about detail, there might be a gold Hawk embroidered on the left breast of the gray cloth; if he wasnt, there would be nothing at all.
Kaylin preferred the nothing at all.
From the front, although he didnt turn, the illusion of humanity would vanish; the slender stalks that rose from his forehead would be visible in the hallmark paleness of his face. His eyes would probably be blue; hard to tell with the Thaalani, but then again, she usually avoided meeting their eyesit meant she was standing too damn close.
Those stalks were their weapons, their means of invasion; they were prehensile, and they moved. They would attach themselves to the face of anyoneanything at allin the Empire, and they would draw from that persons thoughts everything. Everything they were told to look for. Possibly more. All the hidden secrets, the private memories, the terrors and the joys would be laid bare for their inspection.
Officially, there were no Thaalani in the ranks of the Hawks; they were, however, always on call should the law require their services. The only office that had a Thaalani on staff was this one, and he was a grant from the Imperial Court. All of the Thaalani who served the Law were seconded by the Dragon Emperor. A warning to anyone who might otherwise treat them like the invasive horrors they actually were.
It was probably the real reason she hated the Missing Persons office so much. Men like Mallory were so common in her life, she could only expend so much energy hating him. Most of the time.
To the left of the stall in which the Thaalani sat, back facing her, was a long, slender mirror edged in gold that had seen better days. It was flecked and peeling. It was also out of sight of the public, tucked as it was against the other edge of the wall and the divider.
Records.
She squared her shoulders and moved toward the mirror on the wall. It was inactive and she could see Severn and Mallory bent over Mallorys impeccable desk, discussing something that no doubt would have bored her to tears. She probably owed Severn a drink or ten.
She walked toward the mirror, and forced herself to relax, to walk naturally. She tried to remember the one Thaalani woman she had met that had not somehow terrified her. She was slender, and had reminded Kaylin inexplicably of warm sun in autumn. Now, however, was not the time to think of sunlight, or warmth. It made her job difficult. Instead, Kaylin tried to remember what Ybelline had said about the lives of the Thaalani who could serve time among the deaf, and by that, she had clearly meant humans. Kaylins kind. No, wait, one of the Dragons had said that.
The Thaalani woman, Ybelline, had corrected him gently for his unkindness, although Kaylin hadnt bothered to be kind first.
Ybelline had somehow made Kaylin feel comfortable and safe. Had taken memories from the sleeping child she and Severn had brought with them to the officea child kidnapped by the undead, and almost sacrificedsparing the child the waking experience of the Thaalani mind-touch. Holding on to that memory, Kaylin did relax.
Until she was almost at the records mirror itself, and the Thaalani rose.
He was older than any Thaalani she had ever met, although he was by no means as aged as Evanton; his hair, which had looked gray, was gray, and his face was lined with age, with sun and wind. His eyes were slate-gray, not a friendly color, and his lips were thin and pale.
And the disturbing stalks on his forehead were weaving in and out among themselves, as if it were the only way he knew how to fidget. It came to Kaylin as she watched them warily that he was, in fact, fidgeting.
Had she ever noticed this before?
Did they all do this?
There was no Hawk on his robes, no official sign. She wondered if he was always in this office, or if he was only here on this particular shift. Wondered, with just a faint edge of hysteria to sharpen the humor, what hed done to deserve it, if he was.
But he bowed to her, and by this, she knew two things: that hed risen because she approached him, and only because of that, and that hed been somehow waiting for her. It didnt make her comfortable. For perhaps the first time she noticed, as he rose, the deepening lines around his mouth, the slight thinning of his lips. As a thirteen-year-old girl, she had thought it a cruel expression, and that had left scars in her memory that had been slow to heal.
Now she thought, as objectively as she couldand given she was Kaylin that was hardthat it might be a grimace of pain. And she felt, mingled with her own very visceral revulsion, a twinge of sympathy for a total stranger.
She tried very hard not to notice the way his stalks were swaying. But she did notice; they were swaying to and fro, but almost seemed to be shying away. From her. From, she realized, her revulsion.
She swallowed. Composed herselfas much as that was possible. Private Kaylin Neya, she said, introducing herself. She did not offer him her hand, and he did not extend his own.
I am called Draalzyn, by my people. The word was broken by an unexpected syllable. The Thaalani had a language that Kaylin had never bothered to learn because as far as she could tell it contained no colorfulwhich is to say usefulwords. It, in fact, seemed to be free of most words; when Thaalani conversed, they conversed in silence, and only their hands and their stalks seemed to move. They also touched each other too much.
And she was projecting again. She could see that clearly by the subtle shift of his expression. She wanted to tell the bastard to keep away from her thoughts. It was her first reaction.
But a second reaction followed swiftly. She knew she was the proverbial open book; how often in her life had Severn just glanced at her face and known what it was that was bothering her? Shed never bothered to count. Probably couldnt count that high unless it involved a wager.
And the second thought, the Thaalani almost seemed to sense, for his expression grew slightly less severe.
Private, Draalzyn said quietly, I hoped to see you at some point in time.
I work inside.
He nodded. He knew where she worked; that much was clear to her. He seemed to have trouble speaking; he opened his mouth several times, as if searching for words. Or, as if hed found them, and discarded them as useless.
She waited, eyeing the mirror, and catching a reflected glimpse of Severn as he ran interference. It wouldnt last.
At last the Thaalani said, Ybelline asked me to carry a message to you, if our paths should cross.
Ybelline. The one Thaalani Kaylin had met that she had almost liked.
Why me? Unlike Draalzyn, Kaylin rarely bothered to stop the words that first came to mind from falling out of her mouth. But she remembered this honey-haired woman so clearly she felt almostalmostprotective of her. She had been so gentle with Catti, an orphan, as unwanted by the world at large as Kaylin had been at her age.
She believed you could be of assistance to us, he replied quietly. And the matter is of some urgency. He paused, and she realized that the pallor of his face was probably unnatural. He was worried. Or frightened. Or both.
Whats happened?
If you would come to her dwelling in the enclaveor if you would choose a meeting place that is not so crowded in the city itself, she will explain.
Kaylin nodded.
And the Thaalani seemed to relax; his shoulders slumped a little in the folds of his robe, as if he had been expecting something else.
Fair enough. Had it been any other Thaalani, any at all, Kaylin would have refused. Or worse.
She is willing, of course, to promise that there will be no intrusion, and nothing will be taken from you without
Kaylin lifted a hand. I know the drill, she said, and you dont have to repeat it. Itrust her. And I dont have time, she added bitterly, looking again at the mirrors surface, and at Mallory.
You wish to access records without interference? he asked. As if he had read herno, she told herself forcefully. It was bloody obvious he had. Youd have to be blind and stupid not to recognize the fact.
Yes.
You are looking for?
She stopped. Looked at him, truly looked at him, as if seeing him for the first time. The Thaalani worked in this office for a reason. But
The image of a bruised childs face rose up before her eyes, captured in waters depths. It was so strong, so clear, that she couldnt shake it. It was more concrete in that moment than the rest of the office.
The man waited.
She noted this, her Hawks training in place. And she knew as well that all real images that went into records, any real information, would come, in the end, through him or his kin.
You know whats in the records?
Not all of it, he began.
The recent reports. You might know if someone came in looking for a missing girl.
Of what age? His eyes seemed to glaze over, as if he were a living embodiment of what the records contained, and he was accessing the data.
Nine, maybe ten. Scraggly dark hair, dark eyes. Pale skin. Poor family, I think.
How long would she be considered missing?
I dont know. More than two days. Maybe, given her condition, many more.
He was still frowning.
And Kaylin clenched her jaw tightly, stepped forward toward him, and, lifting her hands, drew her hair from her forehead. She was shaking. But the girls image was strong enough.
You know this child? he asked, understanding exactly what she offered.
No. But Ive seen her once.
And you are willing But he stopped. He was, by law, required to give her a long speech full of unreassuring reassurances.
None of which she had time for. He did her the courtesy of not failing to read this clearly, and held her gaze for just that little bit longer than required. She didnt blink.
His forehead stalks began to elongate, to thin, as they moved toward her exposed skin.
Dont touch the mark, she warned him.
Ah, he replied. No. I will not.
And they were feathery, those stalks, like the brush of fingertips against forehead. He did not touch her face with his hands, did nothing to hold her in place. In every way, this was unlike the first time she had submitted to the Thaalani. But this was an act of choice.
And if he saw more than she wanted him to see, what of it? It made her squirm, the fear of exposure, and she balanced that fearas she so often didwith the greater fear: the childs bruised face. The frustration, anger and, yes, pride and joy that she felt just being deemed worthy to bear the Hawk. The fear of failing what that meant, all that that entailed.
The Thaalani stalks were pale and trembling, as if in a breeze, but they lingered a long time against her skin, although she did not relive any memories but the memory of the water, its dark, dark depths, and the emergence of that strange childs face.
Then he withdrew, and he offered her a half-bow. He rose quickly, however, dispensing courtesy as required, and with sincerity, but no more. I better understand Ybellines odd request, he told her quietly. And I do not know if what I tell you will give you comfort or grief, but no such child has been reported missing. There is no image of her in the records.
But go, and speak with Ybelline, Private Neya. I fear that your partner is about to lose his composure. He bent to his desk, and wrote something carefully in bold, neat Barrani lettering. An address.
CHAPTER
3
And youve never hit him? Severn asked, as they left the crowded courtyard behind in the growing shadows of afternoon.
No. He and Marcus have history. I couldnt find where Malloryd buried the skeletons in his closet, so it didnt seem wise. Marcus, in case you hadnt noticed, has a bit of a temper.
Severns dark brow rose slightly. Wise? You have grown. He paused and added, He probably doesnt have them in his closethe probably has them neatly categorized by bone type in his filing cabinets.
Kaylin snickered. You feel like a long walk?
Was that rhetorical?