"Things have just been so confused...so hard. I haven't always been thinking straight, but I've never hated you. I've never blamed you."

"I know." Harper took the four steps that closed the distance between them. "You know that I don't blame you either, don't you? I'm sorry as hell about Peter and for Edward, but mostly I just miss having you around."

Harper took her hands carefully in his and gave her a reassuring squeeze, just as he had always done in the past. The same small gesture had always conveyed his love: after their mother's death, after their father's disappearance, throughout their lives. He hadn't known that one gesture was all his sister had been waiting for, just a single sign that they were still brother and sister.

"I've missed you too, Will." Joan pressed against his chest, hugging him. "It's been like some terrible nightmare that I can't wake up from. All I could think of was how furious I was, how much I missed Peter. And I kept thinking that I should have been there with him. I should have been down in Hells Below living with him, not hiding behind Edward and you, pretending I was someone I'm not."

"Even if you had been there, you couldn't have saved him." Harper wrapped his arms around her.

"I might have," she whispered against his shirt. "If I had been with him instead of running and hiding, who knows how it would have turned out?" Harper heard the tremble in her voice and the slight pause as she pulled herself back from the point of tears. She sniffed and drew a step back from him.

"This time I want to do things differently, but I need your help."

"They've arrested Sariel, haven't they?" In the back of his mind, Harper had known they would. Sariel was one of the few remaining Prodigals who could fly. Between that and his involvement in Good Commons, he made the perfect scapegoat for the murder of Lord Cedric's niece.

"They took him in for questioning six days ago, and we've heard nothing from him since."

"They're probably torturing a confession out of him."

"But he hasn't done anything," Joan said.

"He doesn't have to have done anything. There are plenty of crimes that have already been committed. They'll just assign one of those to him."

"Can you get him out?" Joan asked.

"Possibly." Harper felt suddenly very tired. Part of him didn't even want to get Sariel out. A deep, bitter vein of malice within him wanted Sariel to suffer as Belimai had suffered.

He wondered what Belimai would do if he found out that Sariel was in Inquisition custody. Would he collapse back into addiction? Or more likely, and far worse, he would confess to the murder himself to get Sariel released.

"It's not just Nick, either," Joan went on. "Two days ago they took Edward into custody also."

For a moment, Harper was simply too stunned by the idea to react.

"They took him in for questioning. I think they suspect that I'm the one who killed Scott-Beck," Joan said.

"I doubt it has to do with that." Harper's head was beginning to throb with tense pain. Somewhere in the very back of his thoughts, a count was beginning. He was already two days too late to save Edward. Every passing moment brought Edward closer to breaking down into a forced confession.

"Why else would they take Edward in?" Joan asked. "He's never done anything wrong in his life."

"It's not your fault, Joan. If anything, it's mine." Harper pressed his fingers up against the sides of his temple as if he could some-how just push the sharp bursts of pain back from his awareness. "I'll have to leave right away."

"We can go right now if you want. I'll need a fresh horse, but there should be several in the stable—"

"No. I need you to stay here." Harper dug into his pocket and handed the keys to his handcuffs to his sister. "Look after Belimai for me. He's going to need someone to be here with him. Just, whatever you do, don't tell him about Sariel, all right?"

"I haven't even agreed to stay," Joan protested.

"Joan, please don't make me waste time arguing with you about this. Edward is in a House of the Inquisition. If I get to him quickly, I might be able to do something, but I can't just leave Belimai here alone."

"Fine. I'll stay."

"Thank you." Harper hugged her once quickly. He turned to go and then stopped for a moment to watch Belimai shift in his sleep.

"Tell him I'm sorry," Harper said to his sister, and then he left.

Chapter Seven

Rust

Harper drew in a last drag from his cigarette, then flicked  the short butt into a murky stream of rainwater trick-ling past his feet. The ember extinguished with a hiss that was almost inaudible beneath the wail of the city alarm. Searchlights flared through the dark sky, illuminating the ornate faces of the nearby buildings. The lights swept over the carved facade of the High Cross Library and then shot through the crystal dome of the Water Works Building. All along the Civic Plaza, Inquisitors rushed from building to building, evacuating workmen, academics, and public servants. Teams of acolytes raced back and forth, shutting off the gas lines.

Harper watched as the last engineers were hustled out of the Water Works Building. He ducked back into the alley beside the Notary Building as an elderly Sister of Scriptures was dragged shrieking from the library. Two angry Inquisitors carried her away.

Just ahead of him, the glass housing of a streetlamp exploded. Flames burst up through the pipes. Blinding blue light arced into the air as the lime filament seared to vapor. Harper pulled his cap low over his eyes and rushed out from the narrow alley. He strode purposefully past two white-faced acolytes who gaped at the geyser of flame.

"Don't just stand there with your gobs open! Get clear before the gas main blows!" Harper shouted over the howling siren. The acolytes immediately fled back behind the fire-barricades. Harper strode ahead into the Water Works Building.

"This is the last warning!" Harper shouted as he walked across the marble foyer toward the pump rooms. Shafts of light splintered and flashed around him as another searchlight swept across the crystal dome above. Shadows twisted and jumped, then the search-light passed and darkness enveloped the room. No one seemed to have lingered. Harper continued to call out as he walked to the maintenance stairs, just in case.

"We need everyone out of this building. There's been a rupture in the street gas line. This is the last warning." As Harper descended the winding iron staircase, the noise from the plaza faded. A deep thrum pulsed out from the turbines. It vibrated through the massive pipelines and through the rungs of the stairs spiraling down around them.

With all the gas lines shut down, the only sources of illumination remaining were dim phosphor lamps that hung from the handrail. They bathed Harper in a dull green glow. He unclipped one of the cylindrical lamps and continued down. As he descended, the air grew thick and stagnant.

At the bottom of the staircase, Harper entered a long concrete corridor. Heavy iron hatches, each leading to a maintenance shaft, lined the walls. Harper checked the letters and numbers engraved above each of the hatches. Mt 22-21, Mrk 1-14, Mt 10-8.

"Matthew, Mark, and Matthew again," he whispered.

One of his first assignments in the Inquisition had been in these maintenance shafts. Harper had spent nearly a week searching for a lost Prodigal child. Eventually he had found her, but in the intervening time he'd learned how completely the maintenance shafts infiltrated the city. Anywhere a major water pipe existed, a maintenance shaft ran alongside it. And there were water pipes everywhere. The only problem was finding the right one.