Four and Twenty Blackbirds

who was losing his figure. The woman held a scarlet satin sash with a jeweled decoration or order of some sort on it, and watched him with her lovely head to one side and a faintly critical look on her face.

When the coat was on, the sash in place over it, and every last wrinkle smoothed away from the coat, the white silk shirt, and the matching blue-satin breeches, the critical frown vanished to be replaced by an approving smile. 'I wasn't at all sure of that cut, my love,' the woman said, 'but you were right after all.'

'Perhaps now you'll admit that I know what I'm doing when it comes to clothing,' he admonished playfully, turning and craning his neck so he could see his back in the mirror, as the servants discreetly swept up the clothing that he had discarded. 'I think this old thing of my grandfather's is likely to set a new fashion.' He turned to Tal. 'What do you think, Rufen?'

Caught off-guard, Tal could only stammer incoherently, 'Uniforms are more my suit than fine clothing.'

The beautiful woman laughed and pretended to cuff the Duke. 'That isnot fair, nor is it kind,' she chided, and turned to Tal. 'Inquisitor Rufen, I hope you will forgive my Duke. He enjoys discomfiting people, and one of these days the habit will get him in trouble.'

The woman, Tal realized now, was Lady Asher, the Duke's wife. He'd been told she was lovely; he didn't realize that she was so beautiful that she could leave a man dazed just by speaking to him. She had him so dazzled that he really couldn't have said what it was thatshe was wearing; something claret- colored, that left a flawless expanse of white shoulders and milky neck exposed. He mustered what was left of his wits, and answered, as gallantly as he could, 'For your sake, my lady, I would forgive anything short of tossing me in his personal dungeon.'

'Well, it's a good thing I don't have a personal dungeon, or I might see if that was true!' the Duke laughed. 'You've done it again, my love; you've charmed even an impervious Church Inquisitor. Do you care to stay and hear what he has to say, or am I keeping you from other business?'

'You aren't keeping me, but I do have other business of yours to see to—that wretched little Count Lacey, for one,' Lady Asher replied. 'I'll run along and charm him so that he forgets to pry.' She bestowed a kiss on his cheek; he returned one to her hand, and she floated out of the room with the servants in attendance.

The Duke watched her go with a possessive and pleased expression on his face. 'Well?' he asked, when the two of them were alone. 'And what do you think of my lady wife?'

'She's—amazing,' Tal responded, still feeling a little dazed. He shook his head. 'You ought to use her to interrogate people, my Lord Duke; they'd never be able to stand against her. She's astonishing.'

'She is, isn't she?' The Duke chuckled. 'Well, Rufen, what is it that you want? Since you're my cousin's own special Hound of God, I know at least that it isn't to throwme in a gaol. And since I believe you're in charge of finding the fellow who's slaughtering musicians, I assume it has something to do with that?'

'You've got a bird-man doing mapping for you,' Tal began, and as the Duke's face darkened a little, he continued hastily, 'It's not abouthim, not directly, anyway. I'd like permission to ask him for some help, but it's going to be at the expense of his mapping duties.'

The Duke motioned to him to take a seat; the Duke himself remained standing, though, so Tal did the same. The Duke did not pace or otherwise show any signs of impatience; he remained standing, with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes fixed on Tal's face. It was obvious from Lady Asher's comments that Tal was keeping the Duke from some official function, so he hurried through what he'd planned to say. Quickly he outlined what he had in mind for Visyr; the Duke listened carefully, nodding a little now and again.

'You can see for yourself how he'd be worth a dozen times more than a constable on the ground,' Tal concluded. 'And I know that you could order him to help us—but this is one of those cases where you can't order cooperation—'

'Hmph.' The Duke nodded again. 'Wise of you to realize that. He's a Haspur. Willful and principled, and he is already taking less pay than he deserves just out of an ethical desire to help the people of Kingsford.' Tal made another mental note of that, and the Duke's nod showed him that it hadn't gone unnoticed. 'There is another problem here; I've promised not to hold him past a certain date, and if he spends too much time helping you, I may not get my maps done before that date arrives.' He held up his hand to forestall Tal's protests. 'On the other hand, I'll be the first to tell you that no map is worth a human life.I'm certainly eager for you to bring this monster to justice, and if you can persuade Visyr, then by all means, go ahead with this plan of yours.'

He gestured to Tal to follow him into the antechamber; once there, the Duke went over to a small desk took out pen and paper and scrawled a brief note. 'Here,' he said, handing it to Tal. 'If he tells you that he's willing ifI agree, just hand him this, so he doesn't think he has to wait for an audience with me in order to ask me.'

'But I thought he was working only for you, directly—' Tal began.

'He is, but Haspur are—painfully polite. Or at least Visyr is.' Arden grimaced. 'I detest all this protocol nonsense, but Visyr is so intent on not offending me that if I didn't cut through the etiquette, he'd be wasting far too much time going through channels for ridiculously simple requests. Now, I have to go rescue my lady from that odious little Count; you just follow the page to Visyr's quarters.'

In that moment, Tal saw the resemblance between Arden and his cousin, the High Bishop. There was more than a mere family resemblance; there was a resemblance in the way they thought. The biggest difference showed