Cast in Honor (Chronicles of Elantra, #11)(80)

This was making assumptions, but Kaylin was fine with that. “No, I don’t think he does.”

“Kattea has explained what death means to the mortal. If you, as Hawks, were called in to investigate deaths, it follows that the men in question could not be the same men.”

“That would be the hope, yes.” Kaylin hesitated. “Did they look dead to you?”

Kattea rolled her eyes. She didn’t expect to be believed. But Kaylin had believed her about the water. She was willing to try. “No. They looked exactly the same as they had the night before.”

“Exactly the same?”

Kattea nodded. “But there were only three this time.”

Gilbert said, “There were only three that you could see. There was a fourth. I am sorry, Kaylin—but they did not appear, to me, to be the same men. I have some difficulty recognizing individuals.”

“Kattea, are you certain?” Kaylin asked.

Kattea nodded. She was done with hesitation. “Gilbert was staring at a wall when they knocked. When Gilbert stares like that, it’s really hard to get his attention.”

“Kattea does manage,” Gilbert said, with a faint smile.

“You told me how. You didn’t tell them.”

“If you didn’t open the door and Gilbert was busy, how did they get in?”

“They came around the back and kicked the door in. I woke Gilbert up,” she added, “when I heard the back door. It took them a while.”

“Gilbert doesn’t sound like he was fully awake.”

Kattea’s snort was not particularly delicate. “He was awake enough to talk.”

“What did they want?”

“Mostly? I think they wanted to kill Gilbert.”

The three corpses, such as they were, had been invisible when viewed through the wing of her familiar. They had, however, been examined by Red—and by Hawks who had seen enough death to be able to recognize it.

“I meant to leave you both with Helen, where you’re safe. But I think we need to visit the Winding Path. I need you to look at the three bodies.”

Two days. Two days, she’d slept. “Next time,” she said to her partner, “wake me up.”

*

Annarion and Mandoran chose to remain with Helen. Given the look on Mandoran’s face, “chose” was probably the wrong verb, but the argument his expression implied was not audible. This meant, on the other hand, that Kaylin’s small and flappy familiar came out of hiding; Helen was capable of muting their voices.

He appeared in midair and landed on Kaylin’s right shoulder.

“He’s back,” Kattea said, voice hushed but perfectly clear.

Kaylin, who would have sworn that the familiar was nothing but a pain on most days, was surprised at how right it felt to have him there. She endured the quiet squawks that sounded suspiciously smug.

“He’d better be useful to you,” Mandoran told her, his perfect mouth folding into a not-entirely-unattractive pout. “He’s most of the reason we’re staying put.”

“You don’t—”

“Sedarias doesn’t want us anywhere near theoretical bodies. Or Gilbert, if it comes to that.”

Although she’d stayed behind in the West March, Sedarias had Annarion’s and Mandoran’s True Names. She could see what they saw, and was free to offer advice and opinion. Sedarias’s opinion carried a lot more weight than anyone who happened to be present.

*

Kattea was, in spite of her fear, excited. Kaylin felt ambivalent about this. There was something wrong when a child was excited about seeing corpses. She attempted to hint at this, but Kattea saw it as Hawk work, and she wanted to be included. Any hope that she would stay—quietly—with Helen when Gilbert left was instantly dashed.

Kaylin, remembering herself at thirteen, couldn’t bring herself to put her foot down. Severn, who had grown up in the same fief that Kaylin had, didn’t blink, either. She expected Marcus to be growly about it, but hoped to avoid actually telling him. She’d have to write a report, but Marcus didn’t usually read those all the way to the end.

The Hawks were in evidence when Kaylin approached the house. She let Severn do most of the talking, because if Kaylin and Severn did not consider a murder site—with bodies—unsuitable for a child, they were probably the only humans on the force who didn’t. In the end, Kaylin said, more or less truthfully, that Kattea was needed as an interpreter for Gilbert, who lived across the street.

“And the neighbor has information that he can’t give us without seeing the bodies first?” This was a perfectly reasonable question. Kaylin tried not to resent it. Gavin had never been her biggest supporter; he was practically purple now.

Kaylin waited while Gavin glared at Gilbert. He did not glare at Kattea; she was too young. At least in that, he was better than Mallory.

“This is highly irregular,” he said.

“I know. I only get called in on the weird magical problems, and this is definitely that.” She almost volunteered to route his request through Marcus, but waited. Marcus would put Gavin at ease, but it would eat time.

Time they didn’t have.

“Gavin, I still have to consult with Evanton, and if there’s time today, I have to go to two of the actual fiefs. I need to get this done. They won’t touch anything; I’ll be there to supervise.”