Valerius held it up to the light, sniffed it, then licked it. Shaking his head, he handed it back. “What am I supposed to make of this?”

“You don’t sense anything from it?”

“Nothing. It’s not poisoned, if that’s what you were thinking. And I suppose if it were cursed or bespelled, I’d be hearing about it from you, Thero.”

“I sense nothing on it, but this kind of stone doesn’t retain impressions.”

“You mean we went through all that for nothing?” Alec exclaimed in dismay.

“No, Alec,” said Seregil. “We just need to get something else, and now we know how.”

Thero rested a hand on Alec’s shoulder. “This is getting desperate. I know what this means to you, but the two of you have made inroads in both cabals that can’t be taken over by anyone else.”

“What about Micum Cavish?” asked Valerius. “Maybe he could look into this raven business for you. He’s very good with the lower classes.”

Seregil arched a wry eyebrow. “Do you want to tell Kari Cavish that we intend to send her husband into the south Ring?”

“You don’t think he can handle himself there?”

“Of course he can. But not alone. Bilairy’s Balls, Valerius, I wouldn’t go in there alone, and I doubt you would, either.”

“Micum wouldn’t have to,” said Alec. “We could take turns during the day, helping Micum.”

“What about Malthus and his friends?” asked Thero. “And the reprisals?”

Seregil sighed. “The two sides may do the job for us.”

“Have they tried assassinating you lately?”

“Nothing so far. Perhaps word got back to them somehow that we aren’t so easy to kill. Or it was only Laneus sending them. With two failed attempts, I suspect that if the others come after us again, it won’t be by way of an assassin. Given what we’ve seen of the methods on both sides, it’s more likely to be some form of blackmail.”

Valerius snorted at that. “What could they do to you that way? It’s not like either of you has a pristine character.”

“I expect it would be something along the lines of another incriminating letter, like the one found with Laneus’s body.”

“At least Korathan knows the circumstances of that one,” said Thero.

Seregil frowned. “If too many more of those sorts of things come to light, he might just start to doubt all of us. Now, as for Micum, will you send one of your little messengers out to Watermead? Just tell him we have a job we need help with.”

Thero summoned a tiny spark of blue light into being and said softly, “Micum, we need you in Rhiminee. Watcher business.” With that, he flicked his finger and the little light flew across the room and disappeared through the wall by the door.

“What will you do now?” Thero asked.

“We’re close, I think. All we need to do is get our hands on something that will hold an impression for you to read and we’ll have them.”

Just then a frantic knocking came at the door, and what sounded like a scuffle.

“Let me in, Thero!” a woman’s ragged voice cried out over the softer sound of a man’s trying to reassure her. The lock rattled and the door banged wide, framing Thero’s servant Wethis supporting a rain-soaked woman. She wore no cloak over her mud-spattered gown, and her black hair was plastered to her face and shoulders. It wasn’t until she cried out

and rushed to throw herself sobbing into Seregil’s arms that Alec realized it was Eirual. Seregil caught her and they swayed together a moment before sinking to the floor in each other’s arms.

“Oh, no. No!” Alec gasped. Eirual was too hysterical to speak, but there was no doubt in anyone’s mind what had happened.

“The lady arrived on horseback, insisting that she see you and Lord Valerius at once, my lord,” Wethis explained.

“Fetch blankets and hot wine,” Thero told him. “Then find a nightdress and make up one of the guest beds.”

Thero cast a fire in the workroom fireplace. They wrapped Eirual in blankets and Seregil held her in his arms before it. He coaxed a little of the wine into her, as well, and Valerius pressed his hand to her brow and murmured a healing. The hysterical weeping slowly subsided into sobs and then to tearful sighs.

“Myrhichia is dead,” she managed at last. “She just closed her eyes and…”

Seregil stroked her wet hair. “I’m so sorry, my love. So very sorry.”

She looked up at the wizard and drysian. “Why couldn’t you help her?”

Thero knelt and took her cold hand between his. “We tried, Eirual, but we haven’t found the cause yet. I’m sorry.”

“My poor, darling girl.” Tears overflowed those sad violet eyes again and she sank against Seregil in a swoon.

With Alec’s help he got her downstairs to Thero’s guest chamber and into bed in the dry nightgown. He rested a hand on her forehead. “She’s feverish.”

“That’s not unusual after such a shock,” Valerius explained when they’d carried the news upstairs. “I’ll see to it personally that she’s properly cared for.”

“She can remain here, or I’ll have her taken home in a carriage, if she’d rather,” Thero told them.

“Maybe we should stay tonight, too,” Alec suggested.

“We might as well. Do you still have those spare clothes I left here, Thero?”

“Yes, of course. They’re in the chest in the apprentice chamber.”

Seregil and Alec stayed with Eirual, but though they slept entwined in each other’s arms again, there was still a cold space where Myrhichia should have been.

CHAPTER 33. In the Ravens' Wake

THE following morning Alec helped Seregil escort Eirual home in a hired carriage. Leaning silently on Seregil’s shoulder, holding both their hands, she seemed to have no more tears left, but her cheeks were pale, her eyes dull with grief.

Alec couldn’t think of any words of comfort to offer; his own sorrow was too raw, and he suspected Seregil felt the same, though he was concentrating on soothing Eirual.

The house was closed in mourning. Word had been given out that Myrhichia had died of fever.

Seregil gave Eirual his arm and helped her up to her bed. As he pulled the coverlet over her, she caught his hand. “Who would want to kill poor Myrhichia? She never harmed a soul!”

“I don’t know. But they’ll pay, I swear to you.”

Her dark eyes met his. “The Cat. Will you speak to him? I’ll give anything!”

He kissed her brow. “I will. And he won’t take a penny of yours for avenging her, I promise you.”

She gave a tremulous sigh. “I wish I could thank him myself.”

He gave her a fond smile as he stroked the hair back from her cheek. “You know it doesn’t work that way.”

“Not even after all this time?”

“No. He won’t change.”

Hyli and a few other girls came in to sit with her. Alec and Seregil took their leave and went to Myrhichia’s room.

The velvet drapes were drawn and candles had been lit. Coils of sweet smoke rose from an incense burner hanging from the ceiling to cover the smell of death.

Myrhichia had been laid out on her own bed. The women of the house had bathed her and dressed her in a white silk gown. Her hands were folded on her breast; the gold sesters on her eyes glittered like tears in the flickering light. Devoid of cosmetics, her pinched, waxen features lacked any semblance of life, and when Alec touched her hand he found it stiff and cold. The young woman who’d so sweetly ushered him into the soft give and take of real lovemaking was gone. A sob caught in his throat at the memory.

Seregil put his arm around Alec’s shoulders and pulled him close. “We did all we could, tali.”

Alec shook his head angrily. “Not enough! If we’d caught that old man-”

“I’m sorry. I swear to you, we’ll find out what happened and avenge her. But we have a duty to keep Elani and Klia safe. We can’t do anything more for Myrhichia now.”

He held Alec and let him cry for a while, then handed him his handkerchief. “Come on, tali. Work’s the best thing for us now.”