Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Well, that was not likely to happen. Rand wanted to break his spell entirely.

Which is probably a very good reason why he would like to choose High Bishop Ardis as a victim. Not only is she female, not only is she the direct cause of him being the way he is, but she cast the spell in the first place. Not only would he gain revenge, but since she's the mage involved, the only way to break the spell might be to kill the caster. I hope he doesn't think of that.

He sighed. It was a pity that Rand couldn't be more content with life as it was.He wouldn't mind spending about half his time as a bird! Think of all the things he could overhear, perched in the shadow of chimneys or lurking in the branches of trees in private gardens—listening outside windows, or on balconies!

Too bad, but things aren't going to change, and I need to start for the Purple Eel, he decided, getting reluctantly up from his armchair. All of his brilliance and my cleverness aren't going to help if someone's got an unexpected card up his sleeve.

You couldn't plan for the unexpected, but you could prepare your mind to deal with it. That was Orm's motto, and he went out into the dusk to make good on it.

Chapter Nine

Ardis, Tal, and Kayne sat in Ardis's office with the door locked and a guard posted to ensure that no one disturbed them unless it was a life-or-death emergency. Ardis had finally gotten the last of her information. Some came from the farthest town with murders that matched the pattern, and more detailed information arrived from Master Wren, her cousin. She also had something that Tal would never have access to: the records from the Confessional for all of the victims—or at least, all of those that attended Confession. Rather surprisingly, a majority of them had, and she now possessed detailed glimpses into their personalities.

'I'm going to try something different this time,' she said to the other two. 'Instead of trying to deduce anything more directly about the murderer, I want to look at his victims and come up with more information about him based on what they were like. And I want to start from the negative—what those victimsaren't .'

Kayne looked alert and thoughtful, but it was Tal who spoke first. 'Rich,' Tal said promptly. 'Or even moderately well-off. I'm talking about the women, of course, but only one of the men was what you would call rich, and that was the last one—the first one we know about in Kingsford. The rest were never better off monetarily than working tradesmen.'

'They aren't whores, either; in fact, most of them would have been insulted if you suggested they were,' Kayne put in, as Ardis noted that the word 'whore' slid off her tongue without eliciting so much as a blush, which was in itself an interesting development. 'There are more whores in any town or city than there are street musicians, so he's really having to make an effort to find them.'

Ardis nodded, for that agreed with the information she had; when she had been able to find the female victims in the Confessional records, they had been honest musicians who left paid love to the professionals. 'What about the men?' she asked.

Tal scratched his head. 'There you have me,' he admitted. 'They don't match a pattern, not even close. They're all kinds.'

Now was the time to spring her surprise. 'Until you look in here.' She tapped the folder of records. 'I have access to certain confidential records; I can't letyou look at them, but what I see shows at least one pattern, which is that our murderer worked very cautiously, at first.'

'Oh?' Tal said skeptically. 'He doesn't seem all that cautious to me.'

'The men who attacked women in the open, in daylight, in front of witnesses are all recent. I think he's gotten bolder with success.' She placed her palm on top of the folder. 'Now, the others, the ones that occurred in the street at night under cover, or even under the protection of a roof—that's where I'm seeing a pattern. The men all confessed to sins of the flesh and preferred lights-of-love who at least pretended to be musicians. If at all possible, they wanted a mistress, even for an hour, who was more than just a whore. It made them feel as if they had discernment and taste, according to what I read here.'

'Interesting.' Tal chewed his lower lip. 'So what we have is a man who is likely to be out in the street in the first place, and equally likely to accost women who are acting like musicians to see if they might have other—ah— talents.'He blushed, which was interesting; it was unlikely he felt embarrassment on his own behalf, so it was probably because he was in Kayne's presence—or hers. 'So, the question is, why go to all this trouble to pick that kind of victim?'

'So that he wouldn't break a pattern of behavior and alert the neighbors or the family that there was something wrong,' Kayne declared, her head up.

But Tal shook his head. 'Not logical; most of the murders took place too quickly. It wouldn't matter if the neighbors saw something just before that made them think there was something wrong with the man. I still don't think there was a pattern there, or a reason—unless—' He paused, as if struck by a thought.

'Unless what?' Ardis asked.