Chapter 156: Indicators Aren’t Proof

Daphne found the next one at dusk.

The scouts hadn’t returned. Renn was becoming less conversational by the minute. He didn’t pace, which would have been too obvious; he simply spent more and more time near the courtyard gates.

Dinner came and went without news, and afterwards the five of us ended up walking the western hall together, because apparently none of us had anything better to do. That wasn’t true. I had several better things to do, all of them horizontal.

Daphne stopped. One step, and then nothing. Sophie nearly walked into her.

"What?"

Daphne was looking down the north corridor, and her face hadn’t changed. "Blood."

James straightened at once. "Where?"

She lifted one hand a little. "That way."

I smelled nothing. Sophie breathed in and shook her head.

"How do you know?" said Elizabeth.

"Blood attribute. Spilled blood. It’s close enough."

I sometimes forgot that other people’s abilities were inconveniently useful.

"Human?" I asked.

"Can’t tell."

"How fresh?"

"Fresh."

"How much?"

Daphne was quiet for several seconds. "Not much."

James looked at me. I didn’t like the look.

"The fur salve," Sophie said quietly.

"The food," said James.

"The supply counts," said Elizabeth.

"The guards facing inward," I said.

Daphne looked at each of us. "Blood."

Nobody made a joke. The pieces were getting harder to keep apart.

Footsteps sounded in the corridor behind us, and we moved before anyone had to say so: not running, nothing suspicious, just five guests continuing toward the sitting room. A Merrow guard passed us, bowed, and went on north. James waited until he had turned the corner.

"Tonight," he said.

Elizabeth looked at him. "What?"

"We look."

"No."

James blinked. "No?"

"We think first."

"We’ve been thinking all day."

"Then ten more minutes won’t kill you."

"You don’t know that."

Elizabeth ignored him. I approved, mainly because I wanted to sit down.

***

The scouts came back after dark, all four of them. Renn met them in the courtyard, and so did Merrow. We were supposed to stay inside, so naturally all five of us found different windows. From mine I couldn’t hear anything, but I saw Renn crouch to look at one rider’s boots, and then at something wrapped in cloth, and then the guide pointed west. Merrow spoke and Renn answered, and nobody looked relaxed.

Twenty minutes later, Sorel came up to our rooms. "The convoy stays here tomorrow."

James was standing in his doorway. "Why?"

"Renn’s scouts confirmed the abandoned cart."

"And the beastkin?"

"Tracks."

"Did they see any?"

"No."

"The signing’s in six days," said James.

"Renn can count."

Elizabeth stepped out into the corridor. "Blood?"

"Yes."

"Human?"

Sorel’s eyes moved to her. "Apparently."

Daphne was standing at the far end of the corridor, and her face didn’t change. "Apparently," she repeated.

Sorel looked at her. "Meaning?"

"Nothing."

Sorel watched her for another second. "Nobody leaves the estate grounds. Renn is doubling the watch tonight. Do not create work for him."

James nodded. So did Sophie, and Elizabeth, and Daphne, and I. Sorel looked straight at me.

"What?" I said. "I nodded."

"You have a history."

"Several."

"Stay inside."

"Gladly."

She left. James waited until her footsteps had faded, then looked at Elizabeth.

"Ten minutes?"

Elizabeth sighed. "My room."

***

Elizabeth’s room really was larger, which was unfair. It had a sitting area by the fireplace, a writing desk, two armchairs and a small couch. James took the couch and Sophie took one of the chairs. Daphne stood by the window. I took the rug, with Dream Haven.

Elizabeth looked down at me. "There are chairs."

"I know."

She gave up, which I considered good leadership, and shut the door. For a few seconds nobody spoke.

"Only things we know," Elizabeth said.

James raised a hand. "We know Merrow is suspicious."

"No."

"He is."

"We know facts."

James lowered his hand. Elizabeth turned to Sophie.

"You first."

Sophie leaned forward. "One of the servants in the greenhouse flinched at sudden noises. Twice. Once when someone dropped a tool, and once when a stable hand shouted outside."

"What kind of flinch?"

"Fear."

Elizabeth looked at Daphne. "Agreed?"

"I saw it. Fear."

Elizabeth nodded. "James."

"The guard posts by the north wing face inward. They’re watching the doors and the service courtyard, not the estate’s perimeter."

"How many?"

"Four that I saw. There could be more."

"Alash."

I adjusted Dream Haven. "A covered food tray went north last night, with a salve meant for injuries under fur."

"Certain?"

"About the kind of salve? Mostly."

"Mostly?"

"Smell isn’t laboratory testing."

"Good."

James looked at her. "Good?"

"He’s separating what he knows from what he thinks," said Elizabeth.

"I do that."

"No, you don’t."

"I do sometimes."

Elizabeth turned to Daphne. "Blood."

"Fresh. The north corridor. Not much."

"Human?"

"I can’t tell."

"Where, exactly?"

"Below the corridor, I think. The lower floor."

"How confident?"

Daphne considered it. "Seven."

James looked at her. "Out of ten?"

"Yes."

"Why seven?"

"Because eight would be irresponsible."

He stared at her. I understood completely.

"And the tiger mark in Marrowfield," Daphne added.

"Which may be old," said Elizabeth.

"Large cat tracks on the road," I said.

Elizabeth looked at me for a moment, and then went on. "The food records show regular consumption above the declared population of the estate."

"Enough for fifteen to twenty people," said Sophie.

"Roughly."

James leaned forward. "And this morning, beastkin supposedly appear on the road."

"Supposedly?" said Elizabeth.

"The scouts found tracks."

"They found tracks," she agreed. "Not beastkin."

"The cart?"

"Real."

"The blood?"

"Real."

"Convenient."

Elizabeth didn’t disagree. I looked up at the ceiling. The pieces sat together now. They still weren’t proof, but they had stopped looking like accidents.

"What if there are beastkin in that wing?" said Sophie quietly.

Nobody answered at once. Then James did.

"We find out."

Elizabeth looked at him. "Without getting caught."

"Naturally."

"And no Spatial jumps unless they’re necessary."

His expression tightened. "I know."

"Do you?"

"Elizabeth."

She held his eyes, then nodded. "Fine."

Daphne came away from the window. "The upper floor is closed."

"Merrow said they use the lower storerooms," I said.

"So we don’t start with the upper floor."

James looked between us. "When?"

Elizabeth thought about it. "Not tonight."

He nearly stood up. "What?"

"There’s a doubled watch outside, and Merrow knows Renn tightened security around us."

"So tomorrow is better?"

"Tomorrow the household expects us to be awake and wandering."

Sophie nodded slowly. "Guests wandering during the day is normal."

"Exactly. And tonight," said Elizabeth, "if anyone finds one of us near the north wing, there’s no innocent explanation."

James looked annoyed, but not because she was wrong.

"We could watch the exits," said Daphne.

"From here?"

"Partly."

James pointed at the window. "I’ll take first watch."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because you need sleep."

"So do you."

"I didn’t volunteer."

Sophie smiled. "I’ll do it."

"No," said Elizabeth.

Sophie blinked. "Why not?"

"Because we aren’t taking turns staring out of a window all night."

I looked at Dream Haven. Finally, leadership.

"We sleep," said Elizabeth. "Tomorrow we confirm what we can without crossing a line we can’t explain."

James stared at her. "And if they move whoever’s in there tonight?"

The room went quiet. That was the question. Elizabeth’s mouth tightened.

Daphne answered. "The guards are still in place."

"So?"

"If they were moving people tonight, the activity would change."

"Maybe."

"It hasn’t."

"That you know of."

Daphne didn’t answer that. Elizabeth looked at me, which I hated.

"What?"

"You’ve been quiet."

"I support sleeping."

"About the rest of it."

I looked around the room at four people waiting for me to say something. That had happened too often lately.

"I think we have enough to keep looking," I said.

James sighed. "Very useful."

"We don’t have enough to accuse Merrow."

His expression changed, and not because he agreed. It was because I had said Merrow, not the estate or the household. I noticed it too late. Elizabeth noticed it at once.

"You think he’s involved."

"I think it’s his house."

"That isn’t an answer."

"It’s the one I have."

She watched me a moment longer, and nodded. "Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow," said James, and leaned back. Sophie nodded, and so did Daphne.

Apparently we had made a plan. It was a bad one, and in my experience those were the plans that turned out to matter.

***

I got back to my room after midnight. Not because the meeting had run that long, but because James kept arguing after it ended, mostly with Elizabeth, and then Sophie argued with James, and then Daphne corrected a detail nobody else cared about, and I nearly fell asleep on Elizabeth’s rug.

Dream Haven expanded the moment I closed the door, and I climbed onto it.

[You are concerned.]

’Observant.’

[You have accumulated several indicators.]

’Indicators aren’t proof.’

[You have said that several times today.]

’Because you keep sounding like you want me to break into a nobleman’s house.’

[I have suggested no such thing.]

’You were thinking it.’

[I do not have a face for you to interpret.]

’Convenient.’

I pulled Dream Haven up over my shoulder. The estate had gone quieter than any of the waystations. The walls were thicker, and fewer people walked around at night. Now and then I heard the wind, or a floorboard settling, and nothing else.

My eyes closed. Then something sounded beneath me, and I opened them.

It was very faint, a single sound, low and short, and then silence. I waited.

[Host?]

’Quiet.’

The System went silent. I sat up, and it came again: not a word, but two sounds this time, the first low and the second higher, cut off short at the end.

My skin went cold before I understood why. I had heard it before, years ago, underground, among stone walls and low firelight, while beastkin moved quietly through Mia’s refuge and scouts came and went through tunnels I never learned to find my way through. It was a call they used when voices would carry too far: soft enough to vanish under ordinary noise, and distinct enough that anyone listening for it would know.

I got off Dream Haven. Another call came up through the floor, from far below and to the north. I stood completely still.

[Alash.]

The humor was gone from it.

’Yes.’

I listened. Nothing else came, and it didn’t matter anymore.

Tomorrow had just become too far away.