“Well, leave it for a bit and eat something. You’ll be better for a break.”

  “Aye.” I still wasn’t hungry, not at all, but I felt obliged to eat after Aiden had gone to the trouble to get the food. “How’s the leg?” I asked him.

  “Not too bad.”

  “You were moving really well today. Sometimes you don’t even limp.”

  He smiled. “Aye.”

  “So do you think you’ll try dancing again?” I didn’t mean in competition. Just a little practice run, with some friends manipulating the bars very slowly.

  Aiden looked me in the eye. “I won’t dance again, Dunleavy,” he said. “I can walk, and the night this happened I was afraid I’d never get even that much back. I certainly thought I’d be bedridden much longer than I have been. I’m grateful for what I’ve gotten.” He reached across the table to take my hand in his. “The clicking in my knee is still there, Dunleavy. I don’t expect it to go away.”

  I rubbed my temple with my free hand. I was developing a headache.

  “I didn’t tell you that to make you feel guilty,” he said gently. “I told you because you asked. Can I not talk about this?”

  “Of course you can,” I answered.

  “Without you getting that guilty look on your face?”

  “Guilt is a waste of an emotion.”

  He looked amused. “One of your tenets?”

  “Simple truth.”

  Unfortunately, the fact that it was true didn’t seem to make it particularly effective. I did feel guilty. Even though I hadn’t done anything, either deliberately or accidentally, to cause Aiden’s injury. Even though injuries were a risk every dancer faced, including me. I couldn’t help feeling responsible for it, and badly about it. My professors would be disappointed.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Karish was missing.

  That was the first clear thought in my head as I woke at an uncharacteristically early hour. The letters I had taken from Karish’s desk were on my table. I’d wanted to run them over to the Headquarters as soon as I’d gotten through the lot, but Aiden had persuaded me it would be too difficult to convince the Runners of the letters’ significance when it was the middle of the night and everyone was tired and irritable and stubborn. Wait until morning, he’d said, when everyone was rested and thinking clearly and in a better mood. After all, they’d either seen the letters and dismissed them, or had missed them altogether. Either way, they weren’t going to like my going in and telling them how to do their job. No point in going out of my way to make the task more difficult than it would naturally be. So he’d gone home and I’d gone to bed, where I barely slept, certain that I would die in my sleep.

  I did eventually doze off, and when I woke, before taking note of the time and place, I noticed anew that Karish was gone. It was almost something I could feel, deep in my mind. It was disturbing.

  I got up. I dressed. I made myself some coffee. Aiden arrived as early as he had promised to, and we went back to the Runners’ Headquarters.

  A lot had happened since the day before. There were more familiar faces at Headquarters; I remembered them from the hospital. From them I learned that everyone on the list had been ruthlessly rounded up and questioned. The hospital where Karish had convalesced had been searched, and all the staff had been questioned. Every route out of the city was being posted with Runners, and a house-by-house search had been started. Overnight.

  “He’s Lord Shintaro,” Aiden said when I commented on this.

  “What, you think all the Runners in High Scape are in love with him, too?”

  He chuckled, and smiled, and kissed my cheek. “I forget how . . . innocent you are, sometimes.”

  I looked at him for a long moment. “I’m going to hit you now,” I announced.

  “It’s not your fault. You’ve been holed up in an academy for most of your life, so you don’t know how the world works for the rest of us.” His mouth crooked up with sympathetic amusement. “Lord Shintaro isn’t human, you know.”

  I didn’t think so, either, but I suspected the reason for Aiden’s belief was different from mine. “Isn’t he?”

  “He’s a duke,” Aiden told me gently, with all the condescension of a tutor with a particularly dense student. “Or he will be soon. He’s practically royalty. To the rest of the world he might as well be, for he’s just as remote in his way, just as privileged and blessed and untouchable. People will deny it to their last breath, but buried in the back of our minds is the knowledge that Karish and his kind are, in many ways, different from us. Better than us. No, I’m serious.” For I had smiled at that. And how could anyone think Karish untouchable?

  “The aristocracy is worshipped,” Aiden continued. “When something like this happens”—he nodded at a Runner rushing by him—“people do everything they can to fix it.”

  I couldn’t deny that was how it appeared. The Runners had accomplished in one night what I would have thought would take days. I did doubt that so much effort would be made for an ordinary person.

  “Aside from his godliness, Karish is an extremely important person. I don’t know much about Westsea, but I know it’s huge. He’ll have enormous political power. He’ll be a magistrate director. He’ll be extremely wealthy. If he dies now with no clear immediate heir to step in, it’ll be a mess. The political and economic repercussions could be staggering. Every potential heir he’s got will be up in arms, grabbing for the seat. Hell, an estate that size, it could start a war.”

  I stared at him. I’d had no idea. Well, I had, in a vague sort of way, but I hadn’t really thought about it. It had never had anything to do with me.

  “Don’t be embarrassed,” he said. “I’ll wager Lord Shintaro doesn’t understand, either. But he’ll find out once he’s able to get to Flown Raven and look into his affairs.”

  And any faint hope I’d had that he really would refuse the title evaporated. He couldn’t refuse. If Westsea was that important, if his refusal could do that much damage, he would have to take the title. I really had to start looking into what I was going to do as a bonded but Sourceless Shield.

  Later. After I found him. I had Karish’s letters, and I had to point out their significance to someone in authority. The Runners in the common area tried to tell me the captain was too busy to see me. Risa Demaris was there, and she remembered me from the hospital. She easily brushed off the Runner holding me back and led me to the door to the captain’s office. After a brisk knock I entered, Aiden at my heels.

  Mulroney was too busy? Hah. He was alone, staring sightlessly at the one paper he held in his hand. He looked up at me with the worn face and reddened eyes of a man who’d had too little sleep or too much alcohol. Possibly both. Irritation at the interruption gave way to resignation as he rolled his eyes. “Zaire,” he swore. Then he spied Aiden. “Who the hell are you?” he demanded.

  “I belong to her,” Aiden answered, and I suppressed my surprise at his choice of words.

  “This has nothing to do with you. Unless you’re intimately familiar with Lord Shintaro’s activities of the past couple days.”

  “Not at all, sir.”

  “Then get out.”

  That seemed unnecessarily brusque.

  Looking almost humble, Aiden bowed and left the office.

  “I’ve got some letters that might be of use to you,” I said quickly, before the captain could start yelling. “And I want to know what’s going on.”

  “I told you yesterday I would contact you if anything came up.”

  Had he really expected me to sit at home and wait until he decided to send word to me? “The letters were sent to Karish. I think they might have some useful information.”

  “We looked through Lord Karish’s correspondence.”

  “I know,” I said, to be polite, “but none of you are his intimates.” And I felt like a bit of a fraud as I said that, for I could hardly be called one of Karish’s intimates, either. I held out the letters to him. “I think these might give you some ideas about who might have taken Karish.”

  He accepted them gracefully enough. “I’ll have another look at them,” he promised me, “but it’s pretty clear he’s been taken to Flown Raven.”

  “Why is it clear?” And why had no one told me that? What was that he had just said about informing me when anything new came to light?

  “Dosh’s livery got an order for a small carriage with sprung wheels from some out-of-towners who claimed to be from Shina Lake. One of them had a tattoo of a black sun over his left temple. Have you heard of the Reanists?”

  “Of course,” I said, a little too sharply, for he gave me a look.

  “They’re on the rise again. Guess they’ve gotten sick of the flash floods Shina Lake’s been getting and decided to soothe their gods’ nerves with a little aristocratic blood.”

  “That’s what they do.” And why every last one of them hadn’t been rounded up, I couldn’t fathom. They all insisted on wearing those ridiculous tattoos on their faces. And they were fanatics. Pretty easy to spot. The fact that a handful of them had managed to get hold of a prince about eightieth in line to the throne and stake him before the Imperial Guards caught them should have been all the excuse anyone needed. Instead, they’d executed the ringleaders and let the others free to wander about and be abused by the general population. It had been claimed that only the ringleaders had been actually involved in the murder, and therefore only they could be executed, but I found that hard to believe. “One of those letters is from a Reanist, inviting Karish to be their next sacrifice.”

  Mulroney snorted. “Aye, I’ve heard of that,” he said. “A lot of aristocrats get them, but of course it doesn’t usually come to anything. But I don’t think a religious sacrifice is what this is all about, though no doubt we’re supposed to think it is. More likely the ringleader is using some of these old fanatics to do his dirty work. I don’t imagine it would be difficult to turn that sort of person on to another ‘mission.’ ” Mulroney picked up another paper from the collection on his desk. “Someone saw the same carriage leaving High Scape by the west gate the night Lord Shintaro disappeared. We’ve tracked the wagon some distance, and we know it’s going west and south.” The general direction of Flown Raven and Shina Lake and a dozen other major sites. “We’ve also started asking questions about the person most likely to be designated Lord Shintaro’s heir, a cousin of his by the name of Alcina Mass. Infamous for her gambling, as well as her lack of skill in it. We haven’t gotten far with her yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a few heavy debts hanging around her neck.” He dropped the paper on the desk. “Flown Raven and Shina Lake are the obvious places to start.”

  He was the expert. I had to assume he knew what he was doing. “What’s the next step?”

  “Send some Runners to Shina Lake and Flown Raven.”

  “I’m going with them,” I announced.

  Oddly enough, Mulroney didn’t seem at all surprised. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  I raised a brow at him. “I beg your pardon?”

  “What do you know about investigating a kidnapping?”

  Like that had anything to do with anything. “He’s my Source.”

  “I don’t care what he is to you.” He shoved all the papers on his desk into a pile. “I’m not letting you anywhere near this.”

  “I won’t get in your way,” I promised him. “I’ll only look around and ask a few questions. There’s no harm in that.”

  Mulroney muttered something. Highly complimentary, I was sure. “There’s a hell of a lot of harm in it,” he snapped, “if you start asking the wrong sort of people the wrong sort of questions. Lord Shintaro is the one they’ll want to keep in one piece. They won’t care about your health.”

  “If I die, so does Karish,” I reminded him. “Everyone knows that.”

  That slowed him down not a jot. “They don’t have to kill you to incapacitate you, do they? If you’re lucky they’ll only leave you bound and gagged in a cellar somewhere. But if you irritate them they might gouge out your eyes or chop off a few body parts. That’ll do the trick and won’t do a lick of harm to Lord Shintaro.”

  I tried to keep the expression of disgust off my face, ignoring the lovely little images of torture and mutilation that were dancing through my head. “I can be of use to you,” I said. “I can feel where Karish is. When we’re within a certain distance, I mean. If he’s in Shina Lake or Flown Raven, I’ll lead you straight to him.”

  He looked at me with hard eyes. “You’re a good liar,” he commented flatly.

  Hell. I hated lying, so when I did it I should at least be good at it. Good enough to fool a stranger, at least.

  “If I didn’t know for a fact that wasn’t true, I might have bought it.”

  What did he mean, know it for a fact? It was a very popular myth.

  “I’ve lived in High Scape all my life. Known a lot of Pairs.”

  Oh. “If you don’t let me go with them, I’ll just follow them,” I threatened him.

  “Try it, and I’ll toss you into a cell until this is finished.”

  That shocked me. “You can’t imprison me without just cause,” I objected.

  “All right. I’ll just hand you over to the Triple S council, poor little distraught Shield that you are. But whatever I have to do, I’m not going to let your thirst for heroics endanger Lord Shintaro.”

  Thirst for heroics? Son of a bitch. “Do you understand the bond works both ways?” I asked him. “If Karish dies, so do I. That’s the fear that I’m living under right now.”

  This had no softening effect on Mulroney. “So I guess it’s time for that stoicism you Shields are so famous for,” he said. “And you’ll appreciate why I want this job done right. There’s no room for amateurs.” He waved a dismissive hand at me. “Go home. We’ll contact you when we find him.”

  Condescending, unimaginative, shortsighted bastard.

  I left the office. Obviously I would get no help from him. I would have to manage something on my own.

  I slipped through the chaos of the common area and headed for the exit. Aiden stepped in behind me. It was a fortunate thing that he had noticed my leaving because I wouldn’t have called to him. I had, shamefully enough, forgotten he was there.

  “What’s happened?” he asked as soon as we were back on the street.

  So I told him in a few short sentences. “The hell with him,” I muttered, referring to Mulroney. “How dare he tell me where I can and cannot go? I’ll go to Flown Raven whenever I damn well please, and it pleases me to go now.”

  “To investigate Lord Shintaro’s disappearance.”

  “Of course.”

  “Because you can’t trust the Runners to do the job properly.”

  The tone was mild, but the words jerked me to a stop. “What?”

  He stopped, too. He faced me, farther away from me than he usually stood, his arms crossed. An uncharacteristic posture for him. “Do you really think you can do the Runners’ job better than they can?”

  Of course not. Not really. It was just . . . “I can help,” I said through my teeth, “but they’re treating me like a useless idiot.”

  “It has nothing to do with intelligence, Dunleavy,” he said, his voice filled with an expression of patience that was just a little too obvious. “Every job requires training and experience. No matter how intelligent a person is, they can’t step into someone else’s job and do it as well as a professional. Except for you, of course. We all know the only reason you’re not solving crimes and setting bones and writing wills is that you’re too busy being a Shield.”

  Where had that come from? I had never said I could do everything, and I certainly didn’t think it. On the other hand, my accompanying the Runners wouldn’t do any harm. I wasn’t a fool, and I would have done what I was told. “I am going to Flown Raven, and there’s nothing yon noble captain can do about it.” I started on down the street.

  “Lord Shintaro’s Shield isn’t going to get anywhere poking her nose into everyone’s business in Flown Raven.”

  He had a point. “So I’ll take off the braid.”

  He looked stunned. “What?”

  “I’ll take off the braid,” I said with a nonchalance I was far from feeling. Take off my braid? Every coat, cloak, shirt, blouse, and dress I owned had the white braid sewn into the left shoulder. I had waited years for the right to wear the braid. It meant something, and I had the ridiculous fear that I would feel naked without it.

  Legally, it wasn’t the best of ideas. It wasn’t exactly illegal not to wear the braid, but should a Shield go about without her braid and then do something dangerous while under the influence of music, I imagined the authorities would be a lot less lenient. Which was only right.

  Still, if it was necessary, I would do it. I’d been naked before.

  “You’ll need new clothes,” said Aiden.

  “So I’ll get some.”

  “They’ll wonder why a Shield is getting clothes without the braid.”

  “They can wonder away.”

  “All right, then, how much money have you got?”

  What a stupid question. “None, of course.”

  “Then how are you going to pay for food, lodging, horses, tolls, and whatever else in your guise as a regular person?”

  I opened my mouth to utter a cutting, witty response. I closed my mouth as I realized I was an idiot.

  Aiden’s expression was now one of annoyingly amused compassion. “It’s not your fault, my dear,” he assured me. “You were raised to be ignorant.”

  I could hit him for that, couldn’t I?

  “I suppose I should stop resenting Lord Shintaro for being an aristocrat and having such an easy life,” Aiden said with a reluctant smile. “Yours has been much the same. You’ve never had to worry about how you’re going to earn your food or shelter, or paying taxes, or what you’re going to do if you’re injured or ill and you can’t work anymore.”

  What did that have to do with anything? “Is there a point to this little lecture?”