Harvest Moon (20 page)
Authors: Mercedes Lackey
She knew it was stupid. It was more than stupidâit was dangerous. She didn't know Elantra. She couldn't trust the Hawks. She had no weapons, and even if she had, there were
two Barrani
here; she didn't have a hope in a direct confrontation with even one. But all of her lifeâall of the life she could rememberâshe'd dreamed of crossing the bridge over the Ablayne River, of leaving the fiefs and arriving in the City, where things were
safe.
“Why?”
Where it was safe to have friends and safe to love people because none of them would die. Not this way. Not this way, again. And maybe, a dark thought said, this is what
she
deserved; the life that she'd lived was hers no matter
where
she lived it. She shouted once, wordless, in fury and denial and found herself a foot away from Ceridath.
Ceridath met her eyes, his own as human and un
changing as hers, and said, “Because they have my granddaughter.” And he raised shaking hands to cover those eyes and his face.
She stared at the fine, jade veins in those hands and the fury was instantly guttered. It left her feeling cold and empty, but thatâshe was used to that. His words were the only spoken words for several minutes.
Lord Grammayre broke the silence. “Why,” he said softly, “did you not come to us?”
The hands fell away. Ceridath looked at him, and then from him to the dead, and he said, “You couldn't save them. How could I count on you to save her? She's eight years old,” he added, closing his eyes again. “She's eight, she's been so shelteredâ”
“Do you know who has her?”
“No. I know the message came keyed to my personal mirrorâat homeâand I haven't been able to trace it. I didn't try very hard. The first attempt was detected, and theyâ” He flinched. “She's eight,” he said again.
“What were you told to do?”
“I was to make certain I would be sent to the Halls of Law today because they knew someone would be sent. I was to falsify reports
if
there was anything to be reported. I have a spotless record,” he added bitterly, “and my report would not be questioned.”
“Did you recognize the signature you saw on the dead girl?”
He shook his head. “No.”
The other mage lifted a hand; his eyes had dimmed from the fiery orange to something that was almost gold. “Have you been to any of the three sites?”
“No. I was scheduled,” he added, “to attend the investigation into the third site this afternoon.”
“At your request?”
“Yes.”
“Good. It means there's something to be detected there. I will send Farris.”
“A fine choice. He has no family. No wife, no children. His mother is up the coast.” He hesitated again, and then squared his shoulders. “I have forfeited all rights, but nonetheless I ask that you allow me to communicate with my daughter.”
“It's her child?”
“Yes.”
Kaylin surprised herself now. “If you don't go,” she told Ceridath, “they'll kill her. If she's even alive now.”
“She's alive for the moment.”
“But they'll killâ”
“Yes.”
Kaylin swallowed, wanting the anger and the confusion that had fled. Turning to Lord Grammayre, she said, “Let him come with us. Please.”
He raised a brow. “With âus'?”
Teela cleared her throat. “We're due on-site this afternoon. I thought we'd take her with us. She could see some of the work the Hawks do, and it would keep her out of Caitlin's hair. And frankly, a first introduction to the Hawks shouldn't be a face full of angry Leontine, and he's going to be in a mood when he hears about this.”
The Hawklord frowned. “This was not exactly what I had in mind for Kaylin,” he finally said. “But you are correct in at least one thingâthe Sergeant will be ill-pleased. Very well. But Teela? While I have no objections to her presence in this particular part of the investigation, you are to return her toâ”
“Caitlin at the end of the day in one piece.”
He raised a pale brow.
“She already handed us the memo when she dropped Kaylin off at the morgue.” She bent and whispered, “Caitlin is scarier, in the end.”
Kaylin looked at the Barrani as if she were insane, which caused Tain to chuckle.
“When you're old enough, you'll understand the joys of paperwork and reports. Caitlin can either expedite them or accidentally lose them. Or see that they're sent to the wrong department entirely. If you need to piss off anyone in the department, avoid pissing off Caitlin.”
“You are
also
to return Kaylin to the Halls if there is
any
sign of unforeseen difficulty, Teela. She hasn't been trained, and even I am not willing to throw an untrained, unschooled girl into a conflict that involves magic and far too much money. Do I make myself clear?”
“As glass, sir.”
“Good.” He turned.
“Wait!” Kaylin said, taking an anxious step forward. Teela caught her by the shoulder, and she shrugged the hand off.
“While you are in transit, Corporal, I would appreciate if you explain explicitly the allowable forms of address, and the proper occasions for them.” The Hawklord's voice defined the word
icy.
Ice clearly didn't stop Kaylin. “What about the mage? Will you let him comeâ”
The Hawklord now turned his backâwhich was basically large folded wingsâtoward her.
“Lord Sanabalis. My apologies for the disruption of
your day, and if you feel he will accept them, my apologies for my curt words with Magister Dreury.”
This time, when Teela grabbed Kaylin's shoulders, she held tightly; it'd leave bruises. “Hush, and listen,” she whispered.
“I feel,” the Hawklord continued, as if there had been no interruption, “if we are to even attempt a facade for the sake of the mage's grandchild, it is best that the results of your visit are not openly known. Whether or not you feel Ceridath deserves mercy or leeway, I must leave up to you. The addition of the second mage, however, is not optional.” He gestured and the doors slid open.
Before Kaylin could hear the reply, Teela dragged her out of the room.
Â
“I absolutely forbid it.”
Sergeant Kassan was not, as Teela had implied, happy. His eyes were a shade of unpleasant orange, but even if Caitlin hadn't given warning, Kaylin would have known he was in a foul mood. The office was a
lot
quieter than it had been the previous day. But the silence was different. People were grimmer. The conversations that occurred were hushed, but not in a furtive way; there was no laughter. There were no smiles.
“Word got here before we did,” Teela said to Tain.
He shrugged. “I told you the Quartermaster was going to give you a hassle. She's thirteen, Teela. He hates to equip half the Hawks on a good day, and they're the Imperial version of legal.”
“The Quartermaster mirrored,” the Sergeant added. “And it took five minutes to talk him off the ceiling. He has no intention of arming a child.”
The child in question bristled, but managed to keep quiet, even though she knew how to wield a dagger.
“We didn't intend for him to arm her,” Teela explained. “But some sort of rudimentary armorâ”
“Which she would have
no use for
anywhere she's going?”
Teela grimaced. It looked lovely. “I don't know how much Lord Grammayre told you, butâ¦she was helpful, Marcus. She was even, in my opinion, necessary. No, she didn't have to fight a mage, and no, she's not expected to storm a blockade, but she didn't have to do either.”
“What, exactly, are you claiming she did?”
“She saw something that the mage missed.”
“Probably the nose in front of his damn face.” The Sergeant followed this with something that had a lot of
r
's in it. “I don't care if she saw the end of the world, Teela. I forbid it. She is not going on-site with you.”
“What is she going to do instead? Shuffle paper? File? You know if she touches the files, Caitlin's going to pull all her hair out, and human hair doesn't grow back so easily. They won't take her in Missing Personsâshe's too young, and the visitors who come there are already spooked enough they
want
authority figures.” She leaned over his desk, somehow avoiding the piles of paper there. “She'll be with us. Nothing we're likely to encounter is going through two Barrani to get to a child.”
“Did I give the impression there was room for argument?”
“No, sir.”
“Then why are you still here?”
Teela nodded sharply and stepped away from the desk.
Kaylin, silent until this moment, stepped forward. She couldn't lean over the desk without sending the papers flying, and didn't tryâinstead, she walked around its side to stand to the right of the chair the Sergeant was now filling. He watched her, his eyes bronze, his brows scrunched over them in recognizable confusion. “Yes?”
“I want to go with them.”
One brow rose, changing the lines of his facial fur. “And some people want to jump off high buildings.”
“Yes, but they want to die. Or try flying, which is about the same thing if you don't have wings. I
don't
want to die.”
“Then you
don't
want to tag along with Barrani. Trust me.”
She swallowed. “I don't want to be with Barrani, no. But I want to go where they're going.”
A low growl began in his throat; she was afraid he'd open his mouth and it would emerge as a roar. But she stood her ground, lifting her chin as Caitlin had showed her, although it made it harder to talk. “I was in the morgue today. I was there when they uncovered one of theâthe victims. Someone is killing them, and if I can help at all, even by accident, I
want to help.
”
“Why?”
She almost didn't answer. Almost couldn't. But silence wouldn't help her here, and it certainly wouldn't help anyone else. “Because helping is not what I did in my old life. And I want this life to be different.”
He stared at her. His eyes hadn't changed color, but
he hadn't roared yet either. “Go on.” He did fold his arms across his very broad chest, and she noticed that his claws were extended.
“I couldn't save anyone in the fiefs. I thought here no one would
need
saving.” She swallowed again, mouth dry. “So I was wrong about that, too. But⦔ She turned to look at Teela, who was waiting in silence. “I did help. No, I didn't fight, and I wasn't muscle. I didn't make any threats. I couldn't even understand half of what was
said
in the damn room. But I helped.
“Teela thinks I'll be useful at the site. She's probably wrong. But I want to try. Because if you don't find enough information, whoever's been doing this will keep on doing it. More people will die.”
“That's not going to change one way or the other. You can be here or you can be there and it's still true.”
“Yes, but if I'm
there,
I might see something, somehow, that gives that little bit more information. If I'm here, I won't see anything.”
“And if there's danger? If you do, in fact, have to fight?”
Teela snorted, but otherwise said nothing.
“It won't be the first time,” Kaylin replied. “It might be the first time I fight with backup.” He was still silent, and she thought it was hesitation. “I'm not stupid. I know when to cut my losses. I know when to run.”
“You know when to obey a direct order?”
“Yeah. Didn't get many of those that were physically possible,” she added.
He stared at her for what felt like a long damn time. “You understand that if anything happens to
you,
my neck is on the block. You are thirteen years old. If either
Corporal gives you an order, you obey it before you breathe. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
He growled. “I
do not
like this,” he finally said.
She waited.
“Fine.
Fine
. Teela, if anything happens to her, my neck is not going to be the only neck at risk. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Tain?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Get out of here.”
Â
“Well, that could have gone worse,” Tain said to Teela when they were well out of the Sergeant's earshot.
Teela raised a dark brow. Her eyes were a stunning, deep emerald, as were Tain's. She headed down a hall Kaylin hadn't seen yet. “Come and see the glory of the locker room. If you stick around for long enough, one of these lockers will be yours.”
Kaylin followed Teela while Tain peeled off.
Locker room described a room with a bunch of what looked like tiny closets with things written on them. Those things, Teela said, were the names of their various owners. One had been scratched out. “Locker names are low on the list of priorities.”
“Why are we here?”
“In theory? We're getting changed. In practice, you've got nothing to change into, and I'm already ready for street duty.”
“Thenâ”
Teela opened one of the small closets. She pulled out
two sheathed daggers that hung on a small belt. “These are for you.”
“Butâ”
“He said the Quartermaster wasn't going to arm you. He didn't specifically say I couldn't.”
“Butâ”
“And frankly, it gets on my nerves when you flail around at your hip for a nonexistent weapon. Dealing with the mortals is hard enough as isâI don't need more irritants.” She smiled, and once again Kaylin was struck by how absolutely gorgeous she was. “There's a trick you'll need to learn. Don't ask permission for anything unless it's serious. It's too damn easy for your superior officers to say no, and it's usually the first thing that comes out of their mouth. I can't do anything about your lack of armor, though.”
Kaylin took the daggers. “You think I'll need them?”
“You'd better not,” was the cheerful reply. “I can take any human I've ever met in a fight, but a Leontine is less certain. We don't have all day,” she added.
Kaylin took the hint, slid the belt around her waist, and readjusted it. “Where are we going?”
“We're going to what's left of the building. The mages will meet us there. If you can, fail to speak. The Imperial mages are big on appropriate respect. Ceridath has reason to tolerate you now. The other mage won't.”
“Got it.”
Teela shook her head. “You're going to have to learn to speak High Barrani.”
“What? Why?”
“Because it's a lot harder to show obvious disrespect in High Barrani than it is in your mother tongue. That, and most of our laws were written in it.”
“Why?”
“Because the Emperor is a Dragon, and he considers Barrani the language of bureaucracy?” Teela chuckled.
Kaylin didn't even ask what she meant by bureaucracy; she figured she could pick it up on her own.
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Kaylin eyed the carriage dubiously. “We can't walk?”
“No. What's wrong? You've never been in a carriage before?”
“There aren't many carriages in the fief, and if you get into one, you don't have a lot of choice about where you go or when you get out.”
“Fair enough.” Teela opened the door and climbed into the carriage's interior. Kaylin joined her, although the door was high enough up it took longer. “You ever run into the Ferals there?”
Kaylin laughed. It was a slightly wild laugh. “Yes.” The carriage lurched forward and began to jump up and down as it moved. Kaylin grabbed the window's edge to steady herself. It didn't really work.
Teela, on the other hand, might have spent her entire life in a cramped, moving box. “See them a lot?”
“Hear them a lot. It's not considered safe to actually see them.” She shrugged and added, “I don't think Nightshade's Barrani guards were bothered by them.”
“No, they wouldn't be. But a pack of Ferals would still be a challenge if you wanted to escape unscratched. It's a pity they don't cross the bridge.”
Kaylin gaped at her. It was a pity that a bunch of large, fanged predators who killed anything that moved didn't
cross the bridge?
“There'd be a lot less nighttime traffic, and a lot less crime,” Teela offered. She was grinning.
Kaylin, who had run from the
sound
of Ferals in her time, failed to see the humor.
“Kaylin, whether or not you find amusement in the situation doesn't change the situation itselfâso you might as well dredge up something to laugh at. If you can't, life is pretty much all tears.”
Kaylin said nothing. Instead, she turned to stare out the window because the world was moving past. It wasn't moving quickly, but it was a lot closer to the ground than she currently was, and she found it fascinating. She'd seen the streets of the city closest to the Ablayne, and the buildings there were obviously in better repair than the buildings in the fiefs; the people who walked the roads nearest the bridge were better fed and better dressed, especially in the winter, when falling asleep in the wrong place meant you'd never wake up.
But she'd never seen the streets the carriage now took, winding away from the river and toward the city's outer circle. The closest she had come was her trek to the Halls of Law itself, but the buildings that surrounded the Halls weren't homes; they were merchant shops, two inns, and a guild building. Farther away from the Halls were the larger, taller buildings that housed many families, but these buildings were actually in decent repair, with doors that worked and actual locks, as Kaylin had discovered on her first night across the bridge. They weren't
great
locks, but some training would be required to actually get around them.
Here, however, the large buildings with their rows and columns of almost identical windows gave way to shorter, flatter, and wider buildings. These buildings moved farther away from the streets in which the
carriage traveled. The people who lived in them must be rich.
Teela's brows rose into her hairline and almost disappeared. “What, here?” She began to chuckle.
Kaylin grimaced and waited for the amusement to die out. It took too damn long.
“Apologies, Kaylin. This would not be considered the more expensive part of the City. If you ever see that, you'll know. But we're almost there now.”
“Caitlin livesâ”
“Caitlin lives in a modest apartment in a very safe part of town, yes. But it's Caitlin. As far as I can tell there's not much she spends money on, and not much she wants. She loves her job, she has no family in the City, and she spends some time on days off at the Foundling Halls. Some of her money goes there. We have no idea where the rest of it goes. But she doesn't want the bother of taking care of a house, as she calls it. We're reasonably certain she could afford to live hereâit would be a longer walk to work, but that's about it.”
“And you?”
“I live where I want to live.”
“With Tain?”
Teela laughed. “Sometimes,” she said with genuine amusement. She got out of the carriage before it rolled to a stop, which annoyed the driver, judging from his pinched expression. She didn't offer to help Kaylin down, and Kaylin jumped out of the coach, landing less than gracefully on her feet, knees bent.
“This way,” Teela said.
It wasn't necessary. The contrast between the house that the carriage had stopped in front of and the houses to either side was marked: the house in the middle was
scored black, missing glass in the windows, and missing a front door. The roof looked shaky as well; Kaylin wasn't certain how much weight it would support if someone were stupid enough to try to climb up on it.
“Is it safe?” she asked as she joined Teela.
“More or less.”
“What does that mean?”
“The fire ate some of the structural beams; the explosion ate some of the floor. We've got scaffolding on the interior that's built from the basement up. If you don't wander far off that, you should avoid breaking a limb.”
Â
Tain was waiting inside. From the inside, things looked worse, and the uncertainty about the stability of the roof hardened. But there was, as Teela had said, some scaffolding and planking set up. Ceridath and another man in long robes were standing on some of it.
“Pretend,” Teela whispered, “you're certain either one of these two men could kill youâor anyone you care aboutâif you breathe the wrong way around them.”
Kaylin nodded. She looked at blackened walls, blackened and questionable stairs leading up, and a large hole in the floor that indicated there was a down. “They were discovered here?”
Teela nodded. The almost smug amusement that seemed her most frequent expression was entirely absent.
So,
Kaylin thought,
there are some things that aren't funny, even for you.
She found it oddly comforting. “Where?”
“In the basement. There were a series of small rooms in the basement.” Her lips thinned.
“You think magic was used here.”
“Yes. The neighbors are close enough that they would have heard something if the zone hadn't been magically silenced. You could centralize the magic over the children's virtual prisonsâbut depending on how long they lasted, and how long they were kept here, the magic would have to be either recast, in which case a mage was on-site, or extended, in which case the permanence would leave, or should leave, some mark. Understand?”
Kaylin nodded. “How did you get down to the basement?”
“There are ladders. None of the scaffolding is magical in nature, which is important at the moment. The basement floor is solidâit's this one that's questionable. We've had people downstairs for our first rough sweep.”
“Mages?”
“Sort of.” She grimaced. “No one as skilled as Ceridath. Ceridath is actually considered one of a handful of experts, but most mages will detect something. The mage we did bring wasn't hopeful.”
“Why?”
“How much do you know about magic?”
Kaylin pinched her fingers together, and Teela winced.
“What you saw in the morgue was what we call a signature or an imprint. Any strong magic theoretically leaves oneâbut not all mages are sensitive enough to individuate what they see or read. Rudimentary magic makes clear that magic was doneâ¦a more subtle form of magic is required to actually tell someone by whom.”
“And you had reasonsâbesides the wreckageâto suspect magic?”
“When magic is done and the mage isn't a fool, he
knows that it's possible that he might be traced. If he can detonate a large amount of magic that is
not
his, it will overwhelm any traces he might leave behind. Welcome to the Arcane bomb.”
“One was used here?”
Teela nodded. “Which of course means there was something to hide. Welcome,” she grimaced, “to most of our job. Heads up,” she added.
Kaylin looked in the direction of Teela's glance. Ceridath was starting to cast. “I'd've noticed without the warning,” she whispered.
Teela frowned. “Keep that to yourself for now. Tap my shoulder or arm if you notice anything. That's it.”
Â
Kaylin watched Ceridath. His movements were broader and wider; he spoke softly, and in an almost cajoling tone of voice. The man at his side, to whom she hadn't been introduced, nodded once, and then began to cast himself.
Kaylin had never been exposed to much magic, and was now very, very grateful for the lack. Butâ¦there'd been worse pain, and nothing was either broken or bleeding; she endured in a silence of drawn and held breath and heavy exhales.
Ceridath met her eyes only once, but the expression on his face made her want to cry. She recognized it. She thought she'd even felt it herself. She looked away, then. But there was no safety in shifting her gaze, because as his spell continued, her vision wobbled. Mindful of Teela's quiet warning, she remained silentâbut it was difficult. Along one of the walls, she could see faint, blue light resolve itself into one large rune. It was more circular in shape than the marks on her arms, although it
looked like some sort of writing. Except huge and
solid
. What had drifted up from the dead girl's eyes had been wispy, slight; there was nothing slight about this mark.
She frowned and leaned forward on the scaffolding, catching a beam to anchor her weight and getting splinters as well as stability. There was a second rune farther down the wall; it was as large, and it, too, was an even, glowing blue. As Ceridath continued to cast, both runes grew brighter, until they made the rest of the building look shadowed and dim in comparison.
Teela poked her sharply, and Kaylin looked up. She nodded.
“What do you see?”
“You told me I wasn't supposed to sayâ”
“Say it quietly. They're only human, they won't catch it.”
Tain chuckled.
Kaylin frowned. “Can you ask Ceridath to stop?”
“Stop?”
“Or go back?”
“That's even less clear, Kaylin.”
“When he first started, I could see runes, but they were fainter. And about the height of the wall.”
“The whole wall?”
“Between what's left of the floor and what's left of the ceiling.”
“And now?”
“They're really, really bright.”
“Which is why you're squinting so badly?”
Kaylin nodded. “I thinkâI think if there
were
anything else to see, he's not going to see it now.”
“But you think you might.”
“No, not now. I can barely make out the gaping hole
in the floor anymore. Butâ¦at the beginning, I think maybe.”
Teela asked a few more questions, and then squared her shoulders. “There is one problem.”
“Only one?”
This earned a brief grin. “Are you certain it's Ceridath's spell and not Farris's?”
“No.”
“Farris is here to confirm the accuracy of Ceridath's findings.”
Kaylin nodded.