CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Mikael watched from the office windows as Cerradine handed the girl up into his carriage. She turned her head and waved up at him, nearly taking off Cerradine’s hat. Mikael grinned, marveling that she knew where he was standing.

It worried him, what had happened in the cold room. She’d fallen to the floor, evidently sickened by the same impulse that usually made him retch. He’d forced himself back under control, but the fact that he could trigger what appeared to be a physical reaction in her concerned him. He’d never before made another sensitive physically ill—not when awake.

Then again, a few times he thought he’d been able to sense her. His own stomach had turned when she’d noticed her hands were contaminated. He’d felt it—sensed it—when the ambient seized her on the sparring floor. Not only her shock, but the ambient itself. He’d been deaf to it for so long he couldn’t be certain, but it had felt real.

He might just be interpreting her expression. She does have a delightfully animated face.

She is a child, he reminded himself then, what felt like the thousandth time that day. As with any other interaction with a child, his behavior would be under strict observation by the elders. In fact, if Deborah had woken in time, she might have refused to go along with the colonel’s plans.

And Deborah might be correct in her concern. He had not been on his best behavior. True, it was frightening how she read his thoughts like a book, but he’d found himself talking to Miss Anjir like he’d known her for years.

To be honest, he wasn’t sure that her attempt to see into his dreams had revealed anything new. He wasn’t sure the colonel’s idea of having her there when he actually dreamed would produce anything either. What she had done, though, was yank him out of his memories before he felt himself dying. If she could do that when he was actually dreaming . . .

“Why sacrifice Iselin?” Kai asked.

Kai and his father were standing next to Kai’s desk talking when Mikael looked away from the windows. Peder, Elisabet’s Second, stood in her customary place, his much larger frame nearly blocking the doorway completely. Kai had evidently gotten around Elisabet by taking one of her Seconds with him. Mikael wondered at that for only a split second before dismissing it as Kai’s capriciousness.

They’d discussed every bit of information they’d gathered with the colonel before he left, including the fact that Iselin had been struck from behind and tied up. Jakob’s conclusions after examining the body had evidently matched Miss Anjir’s revelations about Iselin’s death. “It wasn’t a sacrifice,” Mikael said.

Dahar paused midgesture. “What?”

Mikael left the windows and came back toward his desk. “This can’t be about sacrifice. If they were making a sacrifice, they would have stopped when Iselin died. From what I read in the Andersens’ files, the victim has to bleed out, so Iselin’s sacrifice wasn’t valid. Yet they kept carving the marks even after she was dead. That has to be the point, then, not the sacrifice itself.”

The expression on Kai’s face went guarded and still.

The first death, unsubstantiated since the body was missing, could have been seen as a mysterious death. The second killing had alerted the army to the murders, and the third, the Family. On a night when the Family was on alert, the killers had found a Family woman outside the fortress. Mikael would be interested to learn what Aldassa had heard from Iselin’s musician paramour—whether she’d arrived at their assignation at all. It might be important to know whether the questionable police officer and his accomplice last night had followed Iselin away from the palace grounds. Given the sudden headache he’d developed the previous evening, Mikael suspected that it coincided with Iselin being knocked unconscious.

“It’s a message,” he continued. “I don’t know to whom it’s being sent. We’re just in the middle here, between these . . . priests and whoever or whatever they want.”

Kai ran a hand through his dark hair, a rare nervous gesture. “The first two bodies were left exposed, even if one of them was later thrown into the river by the landowner. Iselin’s body was dumped on the riverside in the middle of the city. They wanted them to be found.” He turned away from them for a moment. When he turned back, his face was expressionless. “I’m supposed to be on the sparring floor soon. If you’ll excuse me, sir.”

Kai left, Peder trailing him. Mikael stared at the door for a moment, wondering what was running through Kai’s mind, what had caused him to leave so abruptly.

“He’s upset,” Dahar observed.

“Kai did train Iselin’s yeargroup on rifles at one point, sir. I can understand his feelings. And I think he and Elisabet are having a disagreement,” he added with a shrug.

“Don’t make excuses for him, Mikael.” Dahar strode over to his desk and picked up his teacup. After taking a sip, he turned to throw the porcelain piece into the fireplace, but then stopped himself and set it carefully back on the tray.

“You should go,” Dahar told him then, his burst of anger abated. He sounded exhausted. “You’ve had a long day.”

Mikael snatched up his coat from the chair where he’d placed it and left Dahar to brood.

•   •   •

Shironne felt the colonel’s worry as they rode in his carriage toward the house on Antrija Street. He’d queried her about her impressions of the palace and the fortress, and then what she thought of her newfound uncle and cousin. She hadn’t interacted much with the prince, and she tried to do her best to be positive about Kai.

“And Mr. Lee?” the colonel asked. “Was he too overpowering?”

She wouldn’t have thought to characterize Mikael Lee that way. “No. He’s very . . . practiced about when not to feel things.”

“He didn’t behave in any inappropriate way, did he?”

The colonel dreaded her answer, as if he was responsible for Mikael Lee’s actions. She didn’t see why he felt that way. It wasn’t as if she’d had no choice in the matter. “No, he was fine. He was . . . amusing.”

“You would tell me if you don’t want to work with him, wouldn’t you?” he pressed.

Ah, this was the tiresome child thing. “Absolutely. I’ve wanted to meet him for a couple of years now, sir. You know that.”

“And you’re sure you’ve never met him before?”

Now, that was an odd question. “Where would I have met someone from one of the Families?”

The coach came to a halt, and as soon as she sniffed she knew they were in the back courtyard at her house. The colonel opened the door, stepped down, and then helped her down.

“I do wish I could speak to your mother about today’s events,” he said as he led her toward the back door. “I would feel better if I could keep her abreast of what you were doing.”

Shironne sighed. Her mother wasn’t likely to be the problem. “She’ll be back soon, and I’ll tell her everything, I promise.”

She felt his resignation wrapped like a cloak around him. “I’d like to speak with her as soon as she returns,” he said, “which I realize she’s not supposed to do, but I’d prefer not to take you off to some tavern at night without her express permission.”

“I am an adult, sir.”

He chuckled and set her hand on the doorframe. “So you keep telling me.”

Shironne shook her head but bid him a good afternoon before going inside. After only a moment, she regretted coming inside. And letting the colonel leave.

Verinne was not happy with her.

•   •   •

Mikael ate a solitary dinner in the mess hall. Most days he sat alone there. If Deborah was unoccupied she would eat with him, but she was meeting with the elders—likely to discuss him again—so he didn’t have her to talk with either. He’d almost finished his solitary dinner when he looked up to find Elisabet standing across the table from him. He gestured for her to sit, surprised she’d honored him with her presence. “What do you need?”

She sat as stiffly as if she still wore her overcoat with its steel plates. “Keep an eye on Kai.”

“Isn’t one of your Seconds with him now?” Mikael asked, confused by the request. They were responsible for Kai when she needed to be elsewhere. She should ask them, not him.

“Peder is with him.” She paused, her eyes going distant for a moment before she continued. “Kai is having priority problems. He asked me to take myself off duty this afternoon. I’m concerned he might make a poor decision and endanger his safety.”

That was the longest speech he’d ever heard Elisabet make, which meant it was important. “I’ll try,” Mikael said, “but he doesn’t listen to me, Elisabet. Are you concerned Peder or Tova might not be able to protect him?”

“Kai is intelligent, Mr. Lee, but foolish at times.” Elisabet stood, ending their conversation. She walked out of the mess hall without looking back.

Evidently, Kai had gone too far. Mikael had always considered Elisabet the less fragile of the two, and wondered why Kai didn’t see that. Then again, their relationship had always been a mystery to him.