Dagger's Edge (Shadow series) (26 page)

“And a few days is hardly enough time for him to get this all started,” Jael said thoughtfully. “Unless he isn’t the leader of the group, and someone else had already made contact with the necromancers.”

“Someone like Sheesa, or maybe the Dyers’ Guild?” Tanis suggested. “But then why would they need Ankaras, when they could hire necromancers—or any other way of killing elves they pleased—anytime they liked?”

Jael thought about that for a long moment.

“I can think of a couple of reasons,” she said slowly. “First, the Temple of Baaros was growing fast. Maybe the Dyers’ Guild looked on it as a good way of persuading other citizens of Allanmere in a plan to maybe push the elves out of the mercantile community. Also, the Council of Churches has never been very favorably inclined toward the elves, not since Aunt Shadow made the Guild of Thieves a respectable voice in Allanmere again—the Guild has a large elven membership and a lot of elven support. Dealing through the Temple of Baaros might have been a way to involve the Council of Churches.”

“But why hire necromancers?” Tanis asked her. “Yes, it’s an ugly way to kill someone, and maybe that makes the murders more impressive, but any hired thug could kill someone that way. Why spend the kind of money it must cost to hire illegal necromancers unless they actually wanted necromancy? And what kind of ritual would a necromancer need all these—well—
things
for?”

“I don’t know,” Jael admitted. “Who knows much about necromancy except a necromancer? But I’ll ask Uncle Aubry and the castle mages. Can you keep watching Ankaras?”

“That won’t be difficult, but there won’t be much to see,” Tanis told her. “The Grand Summoning’s in three days. High Priest Urien is going to have all of us busy again with preparations, even Ankaras. I’m glad that you don’t want to go prowling in the basements of Rivertown, at least, looking for necromancers.”

“Not even if I was
really
good with my sword,” Jael said fervently. “I don’t want
my
head to finish up in a bucket, and I don’t even like to imagine what might happen to the other parts. I don’t care to find any more illusions wandering in the alleys, either.”

“Maybe we should just tell the City Guard what we’ve learned already,” Tanis suggested. “Or maybe you should just tell the High Lord and Lady.”

“Tell them what?” Jael asked him. “Tell them that Ankaras has been talking to a merchant who happens to be the daughter of the Guildmistress of the Dyers’ Guild? Maybe I should tell them that we were the ones who found Evriel’s body in the alley and didn’t tell anyone. Or that I was conspiring with the Thieves’ Guild to use necromancers without Mother and Father even knowing.”

“While you’re confessing, maybe you should tell them that Shadow took you to visit the most notorious assassin in Allanmere,” Tanis chuckled, joining the game. “Then at least we’ll have some company in the dungeons.”

He glanced up at the sky.

“I’d better hurry back to the temple,” he said. “We have a ceremony at moonrise, and High Priest Urien may let us assist him.” He smiled. “I’m glad we were able to talk, and I’m glad you shared your secret with me.”

“So am I.” Jael patted his hand. “I didn’t want to lose my best friend. But will I see you again before the Grand Summoning, if you’re so busy at the temple?”

“Likely not, unless I need to tell you something important,” Tanis said regretfully. “But if I can, I’ll come to see you here.” He sighed. “You probably shouldn’t let High Priest Urien see you around the temple.”

Jael didn’t know what to say to that; impulsively she leaned over and kissed Tanis on the cheek. Before she could back away, however, Tanis folded his arms around her and hugged her fiercely.

“Keep yourself safe, please,” he muttered into Jael’s ear. “I can be patient as long as it takes.” Before Jael could try to push him away, Tanis released her and ducked quickly out through the hidden door.

Jael stared after Tanis for a long moment, then sighed and turned toward the castle. She wasn’t quite certain exactly how she did feel about Tanis—the thought was too abruptly new and uncomfortable. For that matter, though, she was far from sure how she felt about Urien, especially after his rather brusque dismissal of her the night before. Despite his apparent sympathy when they’d supped together, was he angry at her because he hadn’t succeeded in seducing her? Had her meeting him in the market simply been inconveniently public, even embarrassing to him, or did he not want to be bothered with her when it didn’t suit his purposes?

Jael shook her head irritably. Argent’s warning when she had asked him for the potion had put some uncomfortable thoughts into her mind. Gods, surely Aunt Shadow didn’t have to go through all these doubts every time she thought about having a simple tumble with some fellow, did she?

But, then, was there actually such a thing as a simple tumble for the mixed-blood daughter of the High Lord and Lady of Allanmere? Likely not, especially with a handsome, foreign merchant lord who was also the High Priest of the most talked-about sect in Allanmere. Such ingredients sounded like the makings of a marvelous scandal.

She did not have time to brood, however; as soon as she stepped into the castle, she was ambushed by a bevy of servants, who hurried her to the main hall where Donya sat waiting.

“There you are,” Donya said relievedly, rising from her chair. “Jaellyn, can your stomach take another trip to the cellar? There’s been another murder, a human this time, and this one was found so quickly that Jermyn is sure he can learn something from it.”

Jael’s stomach lurched at Donya’s words, but she took a deep breath and clasped her hands so they wouldn’t shake.

“All right,” she said. “I’ll go.”

“That’s my brave daughter.” Donya steadied Jael with a muscled arm around her shoulders as they descended the stairs. “Jaellyn, it might be better if you don’t look at this one. If you like, I’ll tie a cloth over your eyes.”

“Really, Mother,” Jael protested, her indignation momentarily overcoming her anxiety. “Just because I dropped my supper last night, that doesn’t mean I’m a complete coward.”

“I didn’t mean to say that you are.” Donya hesitated at the bottom of the stairs. “He was wearing a Thieves’ Guild token. I thought it might be someone you know.”

“You don’t know who he is?” Jael asked, before she realized the true importance of what Donya had said. Unlike the other victims, this one was no merchant.

“The body’s in such a condition that it’s difficult to tell,” Donya said quietly. “It’s different from the others in some ways. It doesn’t even look like a murder, more like an animal attack. The only reason I would connect it with the other murders is because of the divination shroud over it, and because the blood’s gone.” She stopped outside one of the cellar doors, different from the one in which the other bodies had been kept. “If you’re sure—”

“I’ll be all right.” Jael had some doubts of that herself, but this was her chance to compensate for her embarrassing nausea of the night before.

“All right, then.” There was apparently no spell on this lock, for Donya opened it herself, preceding Jael into the room.

Jael gasped and hurriedly turned around, for this body had not been covered. For a moment the room seemed to spin under Jael’s feet, but she took a deep breath and steadied herself against the wall, forcing herself to turn back to the table.

As her mother had implied, there was little to identify the body on the table other than the Guild token worn as a ring on the left hand. The leather clothing might equally have been that of a noble or beggar, torn and shredded and liberally spattered with gore, gaping open in the front where the body had been seemingly ripped open from throat to belly. The body had not been gutted like Evriel’s, although some of the entrails were hanging out of the torn cavity. The skin of the face had been savagely slashed and gouged beyond any recognition, and the eye sockets gaped empty. The scalp had seemingly been ripped away and the skull torn open with such strength that the head was almost split in two.

Animal attack,
Jael thought, remembering the creature she’d seen in the alley.

Horrified, yet unable to look away from the ravaged face, Jael stepped up to the table. She reached down and gingerly touched the rigid hand, then gasped again.

“Mother?” To Jael’s disgust, the word came out almost as a whimper.

“What is it?” Donya laid a steadying hand on Jael’s shoulder, bending over the corpse.

“This.” Jael pointed to the sides of the corpse’s head. On the left ear hung a thick gold ring set with three green stones. On the right ear, the lobe was missing entirely, the heavy scarring showing that the wound was an old one. Another gold ring hung from this ear, but this time from a hole near the top rim of the ear.

Donya gazed at Jael searchingly.

“Do you know him?”

“It’s Solly,” Jael whispered. “The thief who found Game and Crow. He lost the other earlobe in a fight with another thief, but he loved those earrings, so he had another hole cut in his ear.”

Donya frowned.

“Where did you hear that?” she demanded. “That he was the one who found Garric and Crow, I mean.”

Too late, Jael remembered that she’d read Solly’s name on Donya’s map.

“Aubry told me,” Jael said quickly. “Sometimes I go to the Guild for news. Most of my friends are Guild members.”

“That’s true.” Donya’s frown faded slowly. “I’m sorry, Jael. Was Solly one of your friends?”

Jael nodded, unable to force words around the lump in her throat. She stared at the torn face, searching in the ruined features for some trace of the familiar gap-toothed smile, the laughter-wrinkled eyes that had winked at her mischievously while Solly’s surprisingly nimble-fingered hands snatched sweets or trinkets for her from a merchant’s tray or a noble’s pocket.

She touched one of those hands now. It was stiff and still and foreign to her, not the hand of her friend.
Solly
had gone from those hands.

Donya put her arm around Jael’s shoulders and squeezed her comfortingly.

“Go back outside,” she said. “I’ll join you in a moment.”

Jael was desperately glad to return to the corridor and lean her back against the comforting solidity of the stone wall. She scooted down the wall until she sat, wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her forehead on her knees. Oddly she felt neither nausea nor grief, only a horrified emptiness that seemed to reach deep into her.

A few moments later Donya stepped into the corridor, closing the door behind her. She held out her hand and Jael took

it, a little comforted by her mother’s strength as Donya drew her effortlessly to her feet.

“Let’s get out of this cellar,” Donya said, leading Jael to the stairs. “This place is beginning to give me an eerie feeling.” She tucked something into Jael’s hand; Jael glanced down and recognized Solly’s Guild token and the gold earrings, and a leather purse.

“That’s everything of any value he had on him,” Donya said gently. “There’s some kind of dried fluid on his dagger, so Jermyn took that. Do you want to take the token back to the Guild, or shall I have one of the guards do it?”

“I’ll do it,” Jael said quickly. Solly had been a friend of Aubry’s, too; Jael didn’t want some guard telling the Guildmaster how Solly had died, and she needed to speak to Aubry anyway. “Mother, where was Solly found, and how? Aubry will want to know.”

“He was found in an alley behind the Fin and Flagon, not far from where he found Game and Crow,” Donya told her. “Since the murders I’ve had thrice as many guards patrolling those alleys. One of the guards heard a scream. It couldn’t have been more than a few moments before he reached the spot and found Solly just as you see him. The heart and some of the entrails are gone, but it’s more as though they were, well, eaten. The eyes and brain were ripped out. The blood on his clothes was still fairly fresh. The scream wasn’t Solly, though; it was the owner of the Fin and Flagon, who had just discovered the body on his back doorstep.”

“How could anyone have the time to mangle him that badly and cast a spell to prevent divination, too,” Jael protested, “and still have time to carry the body to the Fin and Flagon?”

“And
bleed him almost dry,” Donya added. “Well, now we know we’re looking for a place in Rivertown. There simply wouldn’t have been time to carry the body from anywhere farther away.”

“I’ll tell Aubry, if you don’t mind,” Jael said. “The Guild has so many people in Rivertown, maybe someone’s heard something.”

“No.” Donya stopped and turned to face Jael. “You can tell him where the body was found and the condition of the body, but nothing else. Aubry’s trustworthy enough, and we could surely use the information his people could give us, but there are too many ears at the Guild, most of them as keen as yours. I don’t want anyone to know what we know. And you can go to the Guild tomorrow morning. I don’t want you going through the city this late at night, and by morning Jermyn may have learned something that you
can
tell Aubry. We’ll have to cancel your lesson, at least in the afternoon—I won’t have time to work with you now.” She sighed. “Meanwhile, there’s a message for you from Lord Urien. I put it in your room so the twins wouldn’t get into it. I also received a formal invitation from the Temple of Baaros for the family to attend the Grand Summoning day after tomorrow, at sunset. It was signed by High Priest Ankaras, too.”

“Ankaras?” Jael’s amazement momentarily banished her grief.

“That’s what the message said.” Donya shook her head. “Maybe you can ask Urien to explain. The Temple of Baaros really doesn’t concern me anymore, now that it’s stopped stirring up the people. We’ll attend, of course—inviting us was an excellent gesture. But the whole thing just doesn’t seem very important now. Go on to bed now. Argent knows I was waiting for you, and he’s left you a sleeping potion.”

Jael found the message on her bedside table, sitting beside a small stoppered flask. Jael broke the seal on the message first.

Dearest Jaellyn,
the message read,
I hope that you will forgive my impatience in the market last night. As you well know, had we been seen together under such circumstances, there might have been disastrous consequences for me, but much more importantly, for you. My soul could never be at peace if I thought I had caused the slightest hint of impropriety to stain your good character or that of your family.