Four and Twenty Blackbirds

'Take him to the Abbey,' she said, her mind already calculating where and what to look for to trace the foul magics back to their caster. 'Keep a compress on that wound, and keep him warm.'

'Stop at the inn at the corner and requisition a warming-pan full of coals,' Fenris elaborated. 'Get one of their cots for a litter, and borrow the dead-cart to carry him.'

The four men carried Tal off, and as soon as they were out of sight, Tal was out of her thoughts as well as out of her hands.

Ardis turned her attention and her concentration back to the scene of the attack. Fenris didn't ask what had happened, but Ardis wasn't going to leave him in suspense any longer.

'Help me gather up some evidence before it disappears,' she said in a low voice. He took the hint, and followed her to the back of the cul-de-sac where she had been tossing items she'd taken off of Tal when he froze in place.

'Something back here was carrying that same spell we talked about,' she said quietly, as he picked up items using a silk glove she supplied and dropped them into a silk bag she held out for him. 'It took over Tal, and he started after me. Then—for some reason, he got out a warning, then froze. I don't know whether he managed to fight the magic successfully, or whether something else happened, but he got control of his voice enough to tell me what was going on, and I started stripping him of anything that could have carried the magic. He said, and I think—' she said, fishing the pen out of a pile of refuse and holding it up '—that this is it.'

Fenris frowned at it. 'Visyr came tearing overhead chasing something black,' he told her as she dropped the pen into a separate bag. 'I sent men off after him.'

She nodded. 'Right after I pulled these things off Tal,that man came out of the alley with knives. You'll want to ask Visyr, but it looks to me as if he bears a pretty strong resemblance to the fellowhe saw.' She smiled humorlessly. 'It's a good thing that Tal was pounding theback of his head into the ground, or we wouldn't be able to make that identification. Anyway, Tal got between me and him, and he wounded Tal. Then Tal fought him off and got him down, and took care of him.'

She didn't have to add anything; Fenris saw the results for himself. More footsteps out in the alley heralded the arrival of one of Fenris's men.

'Sir!' he shouted as he came. 'The bird-man wants you, quick! The High Bishop, too! He's killed something!'

Fenris gave her a quick glance that asked without words if she was fit to go. She smiled, crookedly.

'Let's go, Captain, there's work to be done,' she told him firmly. 'This case isn't over yet, although I think . . . the killings are.'

Tal had been hurt before, and it wasn't the first time he'd come to in an Infirmary. He knew the sounds, and more importantly, the smells, pretty well. He stirred a little, trying to assess the extent of the damagethis time, and apparently gave himself away.

'Well, the sleeper awakes.'

The voice was amused, and quite familiar. He opened his eyes, expecting a headache to commence as soon as light struck the back of his eyeballs, and was pleasantly surprised when one didn't.

'Hello, Ardis,' he croaked. 'Sorry, but I seem to have rendered myself unfit for duty for a while.'

'It happens to the best of us,' she replied, and reached over to pat his hand.

The touch sent a shock through his body, despite weakness, dizziness, and the fog of pain-killers. But no sooner had the shock passed, then a chill followed.

That hadnot been the gesture of a woman to the man she loved. A caring sister, a mother even—but not a lover.

And when he looked into her eyes he saw only the serenity of the High Bishop, and the concern of a friend. Nothing more. Nothingless, but nothing more.

Had he imagined that there had ever been anything else there?

If there had been, it was gone now.

Ardis went on, oblivious to the tumult in his heart. 'We got the mage—and there won't be any more murders.