Four and Twenty Blackbirds

If it hadn't been for you, I would probably be dead, and the murders would still be going on, because I rather doubt that Revaner would have stopped with me—'

A low voice Tal couldn't quite hear interrupted her; she looked up, listened for a moment, and nodded. He tried to turn his head to see who it was that had spoken to her, but it was too much of an effort.

'The Infirmarian tells me,' she said, with a quirk of her mouth, 'that if I don't leave you alone to rest, he'll bar me from the Infirmary. He told me that you'll be well enough in a day or so to make your report, and that until then I'm not to bother you.'

'It's—no bother—' he began thickly.

She reached out again, and laid her hand on his. 'Rest,' she commanded. 'You saved my life, Tal Rufen. The least I can do is let you have a little peace.'

Once again, he looked deeply into her eyes—but what he hoped to see was not there.

If it ever had been.

Then, she was gone, and it was too much effort to keep his eyes open anymore.

'—and that, more or less, is when I fell over,' Tal concluded.

Ardis nodded. It was very good to be sitting in her chair, knowing that there would be no more dead women to deal with. Across from her sat Kayne and Tal, both of them much the better for an uninterrupted night's sleep, Tal bandaged and a little pale, but in good spirits. Ardis wrote down the final word of Tal's statement in her case- book, and leaned back with a sigh. 'So,' she said, closing it, 'that's the last that we'll ever know.'

'I wish we knew more,' Kayne said fretfully. Tal said at the same time, 'That's more than enough.'

She smiled wryly at both of them. 'From now on, between the two of you, I ought to have a completely balanced set of opinions on everything.'

Kayne made a face. 'All we know is that Revanerdidn't die, he escaped. We don't know how. We don't know how he got where he was when he started killing people. We don't knowwhy he was killing people, we only guess that he needed the energies for magic. We don't know how he met that other fellow, or evenwho that other fellow is, really. We don't know how he persuaded the man to help him!'

'But we do know that he was the one behind the killings,' Tal pointed out quietly. 'And wedo know why he was doing them, and why he chose the targets he did. We know he was building up to take revenge on the people he felt had gotten him into the situation he was in; nothing else explains behavior that was completely irrational. The fellow he chose for his accomplice was probably a criminal, and there was plenty of money on him; the easiest way to persuade a criminal is to offer him a great deal of money.' He turned to Ardis. 'I also think that if he'd had access to female Priests, he'd have murdered them the way he murdered female musicians; in my opinion, gathering magical energy was secondary to him, and what he really wanted was revenge.'

'I suspect you're right,' Ardis agreed, as Kayne shuddered.

'I'm just glad I never leave the Abbey,' the novice said. 'I could have been one of his victims!'

Ardis put her hand on top of the book, glad to have it all over and done with. 'Tal is right,' she said. 'We know enough. We know who, how, and why. We might even know enough now to catch someone else who follows the same path. We mustn't let this knowledge be lost; though may God protect us from another one such as Revaner.'

'May God help us toprevent another one such as Revaner.' Tal rubbed his shoulder, and nodded. Ardis wondered if it was hurting him, or if the gesture was only habit.Well, if it is, he's bright enough to take himself to the Infirmarian and have it dealt with, she thought dismissively.

And that was not the reaction of a woman in love.

Her peace of mind and heart was back, as surely as if it had never deserted her. After she had gotten back to the Abbey, with the body of the Black Bird and all of the evidence in hand, she had not thought of anything else until she had the bones of her solution in place. After that, she had assigned the rest of the investigation to other Justiciar-Mages, so that all of the loose ends could be neatly packaged up with the appropriate evidence. She looked in on Tal long enough to assure him that the long quest for the killer was over. Then she sent word to the other Orders in Kingsford to begin ministering to the souls of the murdered dead and the bereaved living, and had gone to bed to sleep deeply nearly twice her normal hours.

When she awoke again she worked like a fiend to catch up on some of the work she'd neglected all these months, and only when she had done a full day's work did she look in again on Tal. It was at that moment that she had realized her work, her vocation, and her duty were more important to her than Tal was—and that what she had felt for him might well have been attraction, but it wasn't a passionate love.