understand. And I do not wish to.'
Dismissing the subject, he gazed at Damir. 'I come bearing more bad news, I fear. I have not had contact with Jemma in many days.'
'When was your last contact?'
Darshirin thought. 'Fifteen days, as you land dwellers measure them.'
Damir closed his eyes. Things were just getting worse and worse. 'Any word at all?'
'None. I reported that she has made contact with Castyll, as you recall, but I have heard nothing since. She does not come to the ocean anymore, and I do not think it is because she does not wish to. There is an increased presence of Mharian guards along the docks.'
'Somehow that doesn't surprise me,' said Damir. 'Thank you, Darshirin. Your information and help have been invaluable. I think, though, it is time for me to become more active in this little scenario. I must journey to Mhar myself.'
They talked for a few moments longer as Damir explained his plan. Darshirin listened, nodded. 'It is past time that I returned to the ocean,' he reprimanded Damir softly at length. He rubbed his forearm, which was beginning to dry out.
'Of course. I shouldn't have kept you so long.'
Darshirin glanced down at Lorinda's body. 'What will you do with her?'
Damir again knelt beside Lorinda. He closed his eyes and muttered an incantation. Light began to glow from his palm, and he moved his hand gently over Lorinda's body, covering every part of her. Beneath his radiant hand, Lorinda's body changed. When he was finished, she looked healthy and whole, as if she was just asleep and would awaken soon to look at the world again through laughing eyes.
'That was kind of you,' said Darshirin. 'Those who love her would not wish to see her as we have.'
Damir knew that Darshirin, being related to the elven clans, could see through the illusion, as if the whole Lorinda was painted on gauze and laid over the real body like a shroud. 'It's the least I can do. Would that we could have brought her safely home.'
'She will not be forgotten,' said Darshirin quite unexpectedly. 'I have sung for her, Damir, and now all the ocean knows of her loss.'
The admission startled Damir. Moved, he reached to clasp Darshirin's shoulder. Gently, the seabeing laid his own hand-slippery, moist, webbed, and warmly comforting-on Damir's own. Then he turned and slipped into the ocean. Damir did not see him again.
He took a deep breath. Death was no stranger to him. He had even seen corpses mangled almost as badly as Lorinda's was. But few of those were people he had known; fewer still, people he had liked. Gently, he picked up the body, selfishly grateful for the mind magic that allowed him to, at least partially, fool himself as well as others.
Deveren's mare was skittish at the smell of death, and pranced nervously as Damir approached. Not for the First time, Damir wished he could use his mind magic on animals. But they were less-or perhaps, Damir mused drily, more-intelligent than humans and their minds could not be so easily manipulated. For several long minutes, Damir used soothing words to try to calm the agitated creature. At last, her soft brown eyes still rolling in fear, she permitted him to strap Lorinda's corpse to her saddle.
It would be a long walk, Damir thought, but at least this time he had brought his cloak. And it would give him time to plan.
Alone with his brother in the fine dining room, Deveren stared into his goblet, not seeing the distorted reflection of his unhappy face in the glossy red surface of the wine.
Lorinda… dead. Not just dead, murdered. And not just murdered — butchered. His heart hurt just thinking about it; ached with sympathy for the loving father and the devoted paramour of the girl; and cried out, most of all, for his own wife, killed in a similar, if not quite so brutal, manner.
He listened without comment as Damir coolly told the story of how he had found the girl washed up on the beach when he had left earlier to take a long ride. How he had cast a spell over the damaged corpse and walked beside the mare for many miles to bring it home to Vandaris. How he had not told the grieving parent just how badly his only child had been mutilated. How Pedric had sat and stared numbly, his eyes dry, his voice mute.
'What in the Nightlands,' said Deveren at last, wetting his throat with the ruby liquor, 'is happening? Silence from Mhar. Lorinda-gods, an innocent if there ever was one- murdered. An attempt on my life, and some kind of ratlike thing crawling about in Braedon's sewers.' He raised sad eyes to his brother, who had no solace to offer.
'I don't know,' said Damir softly. He rose, and in passing laid a strong hand on Deveren's shoulder, gripping it tightly in mute sympathy. Damir went to the sideboard and poured himself a drink. He sipped it for a long minute. Deveren watched him dully.
'I want to find out, though,' Damir said at last. 'And I intend to.'
Deveren frowned. 'What do you mean?'
Damir turned to face him. 'I've decided to go to Mhar. In disguise. Too many things are happening for this to be just a run of bad luck, Deveren. My whole career has been based on an ability to determine what is merely bizarre coincidence and what's got some sort of plan behind it. And this thing reeks of Mharian interference. To be more precise, Bhakir's interference.'
Deveren leaned back in his chair, studying his older sibling. 'What makes you so sure?' Damir smiled slightly, his thin lips curving upward. 'Oh, I have my ways.'
Deveren shook his head. 'It's too dangerous. Send one of your, er, 'ways' to do the job.'
'Can't. Dev, think for a minute.' Damir sat down and gazed at his brother intently. 'If I have my spies, then you have to know that Bhakir has his. Word surely has gone out that I'm here. For all we know, all this could be connected with him trying to get at me.'
'I wouldn't flatter yourself. After all…' Deveren broke off suddenly and took a gulp of wine. 'After all,' Damir finished in a soft, compassionate voice, 'my spies couldn't find the killer of your Kastara.'
Deveren shot his brother an angry look. 'Don't read my thoughts!'
'I didn't. I only read your face. Dev, I know this has to be bringing back painful memories. And I did use all my sources to try to find out who'd killed her. But Kastara's murder was an accident. She wasn't the target. It was clearly a theft gone wrong-horribly wrong. But that's all it was. Lorinda's murder has an element of anger about it, of-of ritual, if you will.'
'Why didn't you tell Vandaris that?'
'If you'd seen the body, you'd understand. There's nothing his policing efforts could do. Enough for him to know that she was murdered-enough for Pedric, too.'
Deveren leaned forward. 'Show me.'
Damir seemed surprised. 'I really don't think-'
'Show me. If you're going to go into Mhar and probably get killed over this, I want to know what you know!'
Damir hesitated. Deveren met his gaze evenly. He had to know. At last, Damir nodded. Wordlessly, he rose and reseated himself next to Deveren. As he placed his fingers on his brother's temples, Damir said half-jokingly, 'You know the routine.'
Deveren did. He closed his eyes and opened his mind to the delicate probing of his brother's magic.
Though his eyes were closed, he could see clearly, through Damir's eyes. He saw the beautiful, limp body of Lorinda in her father's arms. There was a single wound, if the bloodstain between her breasts was any indication. Damir had been honest about her death, at least-Vandaris knew she had been murdered.
Before his eyes, the scene shifted. Suddenly he was on a beach at twilight, staring down at the same corpse. The illusion melted away, like wax from a candle flame, and Deveren stifled a gasp.
Dear gods. Who — no, whatever did this could hardly be called human, could they-what sort of monster had done this to a young girl? Nearly every inch of skin on the young woman had been cut. Her features-they were barely recognizable. And, Damir's 'voice' whispered in his mind, she had been alive when they had done this.
Deveren jerked away. He stared at Damir, his breathing quickened, and he blinked away the horrified tears of compassion that had sprung to his hazel eyes.
Damir's face was sad, sympathetic. 'Now do you see?'
Shuddering, Deveren wiped at his eyes. He nodded. Yes. Now he could see why Damir had gentled Lorinda's
