Cast in Moonlight by Michelle Sagara

Author:Michelle Sagara [Sagara, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Downstairs in this case meant ladders. Teela didn’t trust the look of the main floor; Kaylin did—she was certain it would collapse if she tried to walk across it. The ladders, on the other hand, were solid. She made her way down into a darkness alleviated by lamplight. A lot of lamplight. They weren’t the only people in the basement, but the other three were Hawks, not mages. They didn’t wear the tabards that Teela and Tain wore, but their jackets had the same Hawk embroidered across either shoulder.

“Teela,” one of the men said.

“You talked to the neighbors?”

He nodded. “They didn’t see anything unusual. The house was apparently being rented.”

“Did they see or speak with the tenant?”

“Not often. He was apparently friendly and not particularly suspicious.”

“Age, height?”

“Thirty-five to forty, about six-three. Reasonably well dressed, apparently well educated, although not in Elantra.”

“Human?”

“What else in this part of town?”

Teela frowned, and the man grimaced. “Yes, sir. He apparently went out during the day, came back around dinnertime. He wasn’t covered in blood, didn’t entertain any obvious mages, and had the usual number of friends.”

“Which would be?”

“A few couples who would arrive around dinner and leave afterward. That’s it. He wasn’t fat, wasn’t fit, wasn’t bald, wasn’t striking—very, very nondescript.”

“Name?”

“Luivide.”

“Is that his first name or his family name?”

“Family name. Garron is his first name.”

“You ran a check?”

The man nodded. “We’ve got nothing in Records.”

“How surprising. Has he been seen since?”

“No. They assume he died in the, er, fire.”

Kaylin peered around Teela. She’d been listening to the conversation and looking at everything that the lamplight touched, her brow furrowed. “Is that the same description of the guys at the other places? Teela said this was the third.”

The man raised both brows. “What’s this, Teela? You’ve got a trainee? Seems a little on the young side.”

“Shut up and answer her question.”

The man chuckled. “No. All of the buildings were rented, but one of them was rented by a woman, the other by an older man. Hey, don’t touch anything—Teela, keep an eye on her!”

“Kaylin, listen to him. We haven’t finished sifting through the wreckage yet.”

But Kaylin barely heard her. The glowing blue runes that dominated the floor above had worked their way down to the basement, but they were fainter and more diffuse; they lay not across the walls, but across the packed dirt of the floor itself. She edged through them, searching.

Teela followed quietly, moving like a cat, her steps light and deliberate. After a moment, she said, “This way.”

Kaylin allowed herself to be led. Ceridath had started to speak—when, she wasn’t certain—and his voice was now a steady, slow drone. The large runes began to shift in place, their patterns blurring—but they didn’t get any brighter.

Teela led her to what remained of a small room. Here, of all the space in the basement so far, the blue light from the large runes was strongest; it lay pulsing against the three walls that didn’t contain what was left of a door. Kaylin squinted, frowned, and began to cough.

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