Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Beyond—to Kingsford, which was the next large city in the chain, if the pattern was to follow the Kanar River.

He came to the end of his chain of reasoning just as she came to that realization.

'Interesting.' She watched him narrowly; he didn't flinch or look away. 'And you think that Kingsford is now going to be visited by a similar set of occurrences? That is what brought you here?'

'Yes, High Bishop,' he told her, and only then did he raise a hand to rub at his eyes, wearily. 'I do. And now I must also make a confession to you.'

'I am a Priest,' she said dryly. 'I'm rather accustomed to hearing them.'

She had hoped to invoke at least a faint smile from him, but all he did was sigh. 'I fear that I am here under somewhat false pretenses. Iwas a constable of Haldene, but I'm rather afraid that I am no longer. I began investigating this string of tragedies over the objections of my superiors; I continued against their direct orders. When they discovered what I had learned, they dismissed me.' He waited to see if she was going to react to that, or say something, and continued when she did not. 'I would have quit in any case, when I saw where this—series of coincidences—was heading.' He smiled, with no trace of humor. 'There is a better chance that the King will turn Gypsy tomorrow than that my superiors would permit me to take leave to inform authorities in Kingsford about this. After all, the plague has left Haldene; it is no longer a problem for those in authority there.'

'I . . . see.' She wondered for a moment if he was going to ask her for a position. Had all of this been manufactured just to get her attention? 'Have you gone to the Captain of the constables in Kingsford?'

'I tried,' he replied, and this time hedid smile faintly. 'He's not an easy man to get to.'

'Hmm. True.' In fact, Captain Fenris was the hardest man tofind in Kingsford, but not because he was mewed up in an office behind a battery of secretaries. It might take weeks before Tal was able to track him down. 'I believe that at the moment he is on double-shift, training the new recruits. He could be anywhere in the city at any given moment, and his second-in-command is unlikely to make any decisions in a situation like this.'

'More to the point, I'm hardly going to get a glowing recommendation from my former superiors in Haldene, if his second-in-command were to make an inquiry about me,' Tal pointed out. 'They'll probably tell him I'm a troublemaker with a history of mental instability.'

Honest. And he hasn't said a word about wanting a position.

'I will admit that I'm becoming obsessed with this case,' Tal continued, and then she saw a hint, just the barest glimpse, of something fierce and implacable. It gazed at her out of his eyes for a moment, then vanished. 'Who or whatever is behind this, I want it stopped.'

'And you want from me?' Ardis spread her hands. Now, if there was going to be a plea for anything, she had given Tal an opening.

He hesitated. 'I want—authority,' he said finally. 'Credentials. Not a great deal, just enough that if anyone asks me why I'm snooping around, I can say I'm acting on your behalf and with your knowledge. Of course, I'll keep you informed every day, even if I find nothing, and I won't actuallydo anything unless it is to stop a murder in progress. I won't search houses or people, I won't try and haul anyone off to gaol, I won't threaten or bully. I'll just observe and ask questions.'

Ardis graced him with her most skeptical look. 'And that's all you want?'

'Well, obviously I'dlike to have all of the Kingsford constables working on this, I'dlike the services of a mage, and I'dlike four or five personal assistants,' he replied a little sarcastically. 'But I'd also like to be made Captain of the constables, stop this madness before it infects Kingsford, and be rewarded with the Grand Duke's daughter. Obviously none of this is possible, so I'm asking for the least I need to continue to track this case.'

'And what had you planned to do to make ends meet?' she asked bluntly. 'I assume you aren't independently wealthy.'

He shrugged. 'I was working on the case in my off-time anyway. I have enough muscle and experience to get a job as a private guard, or even a peace-keeper in a tavern. I can still work on it in my off-time, and without being harassed for doing so, if I can just get minimal credentials.'

So, he's willing to support himself in a strange city just so that he can continue following this— whatever it is. He's right. He's obsessed. I wish more people would become that obsessed when it is necessary.

'Let me assume for the moment that there reallyis a—force—that is causing these deaths. It occurs to me that alerting the entire constabulary to this case might also make that force go into hiding,' she said aloud, not quite willing to answer his request yet.

'That could easily be true,' he agreed. 'Which is, unfortunately, a good reasonnot to inform Captain Fenris—or at least, to ask him not to inform the rest of the constabulary. And it also occurs to me