The plaza in front of the admin building that had been packed with students during my ordeal in the labyrinth was now being used as a parking lot. There was a jumble of black coaches with the IBF crest on the doors, a few impressive-looking carriages of various designs, and a couple newswagons standing in front of the building.

A pair of imperial agents were stationed in front of the door. A few more were patrolling the area around the building with uniformed provincials. There were crossbowmen on the roof.

“This seems like a bit of overkill,” Ian said. “All this to secure an office building?”

“There are a lot of VIBs in residence right now,” Lee said as we approached the entryway. “The chief ambassador from the Sunward Lands is here. An imperial envoy, too. It’s a complex situation, and it’ll probably get more complicated as it goes along. No one wants to fight the Chaos Wars again.”

So saying, Lee stepped up to address the nearer of the agents by the door, who had stepped slightly forward and to the side to intercept our path. He jumped to the side as the door behind him swung out and Callahan pushed through.

“Speak for yourself,” she said to Lee. Her eyes flicked over our little group. “Are you their lawyer?”

“Uh, hello,” Lee said. “Yes. Are you a friend of…”

“Can I hire you to draft me a statement that can’t be legally construed as a threat?” she said.

“I’m sorry, young lady, but we’re a little busy just this moment,” Lee said. “Maybe you should catch up with your schoolmates back at the dorm?”

I braced myself for something ugly to happen. Callahan’s braying laughter was not much prettier than anything I might have expected.

“Uh, she’s actually the arena coach,” Ian said.

“Yeah, and I’m not used to being stood up,” Callahan said to him. “Not twice, anyway.”

“It won’t happen twice,” Ian said. “I promise. Something c…”

“If you say ‘something came up‘, I will kick your ass so hard your attorney will have to invent a new tort to seek redress,” Callahan said. “They will call it ‘megassault’. The law that defines it will be longer than the combined works of the living elven masters. It will take longer to perform the actions described therein than it will to read aloud. I will do it twice.”

“I left you an echo!” Ian said.

“Yes,” she said, and she smiled. Callahan’s smile held a lot of cheer in it. It didn’t have much warmth. “And I hope you meant what you said, because I’m going to hold you to it.”

“I’m sorry, but we really have to run,” Lee said. “We have a meeting. It was nice meeting you, Coach.”

“Yeah, same to you, buddy,” Callahan said. She gave Ian a slap on the shoulder and went on her way, whistling and skipping.

“I wonder what she was doing here,” Amaranth said. “I can’t imagine that faculty are just coming and going like that if security’s such a concern.”

“She was probably being questioned,” I said. “She seems to have a thing for dismembering students.”

“Baby!” Amaranth said.

“Um, they might have been asking her about students she knows particularly well, outside of class,” Ian said. I thought at first that he was talking about himself, but then he added, “You know, on the subject of people with a thing for dismemberment.”

Was Steff actually that strong a suspect? It seemed like her alibi was almost as good as mine. It seemed like a cursory examination should reveal that she wasn’t physically capable of much in the way of violence at the moment.

“You can ask her all about it at practice,” Lee said. He turned to the rather bemused looking guard. “Hi, Lee Jenkins. I’m bringing my clients Mackenzie Blaise, Ian Mason, and Amaranth to sit down with Inspector Gregory.”

“Uh, right,” the imperial said. “I just need some ID.”

Lee showed him his credentials and we handed him our student IDs. He tapped them with a wand and then held open the door for us.

“Go right through to main reception,” he said.

Inside it was clear that the building had been taken over. It was a hive of activity, people in white shirts scribbling on tablets and peering into mirrors. There probably weren’t so many people in the whole building on a typical Sunday as there were in the main foyer. I doubted many of them were school employees.

“You Blaise?” a blunt-nosed guy with a slouchy hat, very investigative-looking, said while barely glancing at iu.

“This is Ms. Mackenzie Blaise,” Lee said, putting his hands on my shoulders. “We’re here for Inspector Gregory.”

“He wants you in Conference Room B,” the man said, gesturing with a half-eaten apple. “Says he’ll be there shortly.”

“Thank you very much,” Lee said, and he led the way through the throng of people. “This is more of a madhouse than I expected,” he said just loud enough that we could hear him over the general activity. “I guess someone decided to move the whole operation here instead of running it from the Enwich office.”

“Well, my dear boy,” a smooth and cultured voice said, “you do know that this is one of the best-protected offices in the plains.

The voice had a clear quality that cut through the din like a tiny chime. I turned at the sound to see a man who didn’t look at all like an imperial agent, but neither did he look much like a school official or another lawyer… of those possibilities, the last one was probably the best fit, but he’d have to be way more high-level than Lee. His hair was a silvery gray. His face was rather prominently boned, but unlined. He managed to radiate an aura of both age and vitality. He was tall and broad-shouldered, but wiry. I couldn’t claim to be any kind of an expert on fashion, but his suit looked sharp to me and seemed to be tailored to him. It was definitely of a higher quality than the ones worn by the imperial agents who were hanging around.

He could have been the imperial envoy Lee mentioned, or possibly an ambassador of some kind.

“What an unexpected pleasure, Mr. Jenkins,” he said. “Artie told me that you were otherwise engaged.”

“I’m afraid I am, Mr. Embries,” Lee said. The name clicked in my head as being familiar. He gestured towards us. “I’m representing some other clients… Mr. Pendragon said it wouldn’t impact our ability to serve your interests.”

The silver-haired man glanced at Amaranth and Ian, but his gaze settled on me. He was looking at my face, but there was little sense of connection in his eye contact. It was a one-way transaction. I felt like I was very small, and standing quivering before something immense.

“Oh,” Mr. Embries said. “How very… interesting.”

I didn’t know why, or what was so interesting about a lawyer representing some students, but the idea that he found anything about me interesting was itself terrifying. The very thought of his interest was like the baleful gaze of the mermaids in their predatory aspect, magnified a thousandfold.

“I would love to stay and chat, but I think the inspector is waiting for us,” Lee said.

“Well, I’ll let you get to that,” Embries said. He clasped Lee’s hand with both of his. “Always a pleasure.” He looked at me again, though it seemed he was still talking to Lee. “I’ve been meaning to acquaint myself with your client.”

“That’s… not a good idea right now,” Lee said. “She’s involved in arbitration against your… patron.”

So he was a school official, it seemed, though Lee’s choice of wording seemed odd and deliberate. Then I remembered where I knew his name from. I’d seen it and heard it around the school. It showed up on school letterhead and other publications: Edmund Embries. He was the vice-chancellor of Magisterius University.

He seemed a lot more impressive in person than the actual chancellor… though she seemed a lot more like a school administrator.

“Who the fuck was that?” Ian asked in a hoarse whisper.

“Merciful Mother,” Amaranth breathed.

They both seemed to be a little… awestruck.

“Yes, he can have that effect if you’re not prepared,” Lee said. He put his hands on their backs and gave them a little push.

“But who was that?” Ian asked.

“The school’s vice-chancellor,” I said.

“Another client,” Lee said.

“Can you introduce me to him?” Amaranth said. “I think I’d like to get to know him better. Maybe meet him for dinner…”

“Let’s just keep walking,” Lee said, giving the pair of them a harder shove that actually got them moving. We followed a sign to the conference room, which was the size of a small office, made smaller by a large table. A woman in a dark blue suit was scribing a stack of papers in the corner.

Lee knocked on the door frame so as not to startle her.

“Hello,” he said. “We’re supposed to be meeting Mike Gregory?”

“Oh, right,” she said. “I was just looking for an open autoscribe. I’ll be out of here in a second.”

Lee gestured towards some chairs and the three of us sat down. He remained standing, watching the woman like a hawk until she left, then closed the door behind her.

“When we’re dealing with Gregory, remember to keep things business-like,” he said to Amaranth. “Don’t be overly familiar or friendly with him. Don’t get all cute or coy and act like you’ve never met him, but we don’t want him to be uncomfortable with handling you.”

“I think I can manage that,” Amaranth said.

“And all of you watch your tempers,” Lee said. “I don’t expect Mike Gregory to bait anyone, but even if he’s officially heading the investigation there are bound to be a lot of cooks eager for a chance to stir the pot. Don’t make it easy for anyone to make things difficult for you.”

“The way you keep giving us advice, it seems like it would be easier to just let you do the talking,” Ian said.

“That’s about the shape of it,” Lee said. “There’s a reason people call lawyers ‘mouthpieces’, and it’s not just because we do PR. We don’t have to go so far, because that would take a lot more prep work and would come off as more than a little obstructionist when we want to appear cooperative… but really, if there’s any doubt, let me do the talking. Best rule of thumb.”

There was a quick rap on the door a short time later. Lee jumped up and opened the door. The middle-aged man from the inn was there. Behind him was a tall, red-faced man in a tannish coat. He was unwinding a scarf and wearing gloves, so it looked like he’d just got there.

“Hi there,” Lee said to Gregory. “Lee Jenkins, Pendragon and Associates. We reflected briefly. Thank you for making time for us. My clients would like to get back to the comfort and support of their friends during this tragic time.”

“Yeah,” Gregory said, glancing over us. His eyes lingered uncomfortably on Amaranth. He shook his head. “It’s a damned tragedy alright.”

The ruddy-faced man stepped inside the room, and the inspector shut the door.

“I’m Inspector Michael Gregory. This is Del McAvoy,” Gregory said, holding his ID out to Lee in one hand while gesturing with the other to the other man who was pulling off his gloves. “He’s here from Law, in an advisory capacity.”

“Oh, it’s nice to know the empire’s sparing no resources in this investigation,” Lee said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Gregory said. He took a seat on the other side of the corner nearest us. McAvoy remained standing. “Here’s the deal: none of you are under arrest. I’d just like to ask you a few questions, primarily concerning your whereabouts last night and this morning. This conversation will be scried, autotranscribed, and echoed. This is an imperial investigation, so you do not have the privilege of remaining silent. You do have the privilege of having an attorney present during questioning. This privilege can be revoked. Do you understand?”

We nodded. Ian mumbled yes. Amaranth said, “Yes, we understand.”

“Good,” he said. “So… you folks enjoy your stay at the Palace?”

He said it really conversationally. He sounded weary, so the friendliness was a little forced, but it didn’t seem phoney. I looked at Lee, who nodded at me. It seemed like a neutral opening and it touched directly on the fact that we were nowhere near campus when the bad stuff happened.

I nodded at the inspector.

“Very much so,” Amaranth said. “Sir.”

“It’s kind of an unusual choice for students on a weekend getaway,” Gregory said. “I’d think the travelinns nearer to the gates would be more popular.”

“Well, this was special, for Veil,” Amaranth said. “We had a chance to splurge a little, and Mackenzie wanted to go to the Crystal Palace.”

“Why there in particular?” he asked me.

“I stayed there once before,” I said. “I liked it… the architecture, the ambience. I’m kind of a history buff. The pre-Republican architecture…”

I trailed off, not wanting to ramble. I also felt self-conscious, because of course the Crystal Palace inn wasn’t actually pre-Republican. It was built in imitation of that style. According to the cheesy kids’ mystery books I’d read when I was younger, claiming to be a history buff and then misidentifying faux pre-Republican architecture as the real thing would have been proof positive that I was secretly a murderer. Fortunately for me, it seemed that Inspector Gregory read a better class of mysteries.

“That prior visit, would that have been with Miss Hoshinotama?” McAvoy asked.

“I’d like to leave my clients’ personal lives out of this,” Lee said.

“Noted,” Gregory said. He held up a hand to forestall the Lawman. “You folks leave the inn last night?”

“We did,” I said. “Amaranth and I.”

“I was there the whole time,” Ian said. “All night, I mean.”

“Where’d you go?” Gregory asked.

“We had invitations to a private party at a club,” Amaranth said. “The Tomb of Horrors.”

“What sort of club is that?” McAvoy asked.

“It’s a fetish nightclub,” Gregory said. McAvoy made a surprised sound and Gregory looked over his shoulder at him. “My wife has family here,” he explained.

“My clients’ whereabouts at various points during the evening, and in particular during the time of the alleged murder, can be verified with little difficulty,” Lee said. “It’s unquestionable that they were in the Crystal Palace, under the exact same roof as you, between the hours of one and three in the morning. You shouldn’t even have to fight the proprietors for access to the lobby security images. I’ve already sent a release. Further corroboration can be had from the nightclub and the livery company. If it aids the investigation, I’d be happy to put in a bit of legwork myself there.”

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” Gregory said.

“You know, it’s the ‘under the same roof’ part that bothers me,” McAvoy said. “It’s awfully convenient.”

“I’d call it foresight on the part of my clients to find safer activities that keep them far away from campus on a notoriously dangerous night,” Lee said. “There are only so many inns in the city center, and as Ms. Blaise stated, she has stayed at the Crystal Palace before.”

“Your clients’ whereabouts aren’t really in question, Mr. Jenkins,” Gregory said. “It’s damned hard for a half-demon to get in and out of town without being noticed. We’re checking on that. If you’re not being truthful with us, we’ll find out of course.”

“I can assure you, we are being perfectly truthful,” Lee said. “My clients have no reason to lie and nothig to hide.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Gregory said again. He seemed to be tired of the whole thing. “We just have a few other questions.”

“My clients will be happy to answer anything that helps move the investigation forward,” Lee said.

“Great,” the inspector said. “Were you acquainted with the deceased?”

“Only in passing,” Amaranth said. “We lived on the same floor. She seemed nice enough, if a little quiet and kind of aloof, and kind of snide.”

“How was she nice?” Gregory asked.

Amaranth shrugged.

“I always just had the feeling that if I got to know her, I’d find out she was nice,” Amaranth said.

“Did you have any conflict with her?” he asked.

“Oh, no,” Amaranth said.

He looked at me. I shifted uncomfortably. I had shared a bit of an angry confrontation with Leda once. I didn’t want to make it out to be more than it was, but I also didn’t want to seem like I was covering it up. The gossipmongers on the floor would be sure to spread it around. I looked at Lee.

“We’ve established that Ms. Mackenzie was elsewhere at the time of death,” he said.

“It’s a simple question,” McAvoy said.

“‘Conflict’ is perhaps an overly broad term,” Lee said.

“Well, narrow it down for us a bit, then,” Gregory said to me. “Tell me what you’re thinking of that’s making you so uncomfortable.”

“It was during the student elections,” I said. “We… sort of disagreed about the polite way to refer to a transgendered person. I was offended, but it wasn’t like a violent fight or anything.”

“So, Leda had a problem with Steffain Johnson,” McAvoy said.

“My clients barely knew the deceased,” Lee said. “I don’t think they could answer questions about her opinions of others.”

“It wasn’t a question,” McAvoy said with a shrug.

“I think if you check on Steff, you’ll find that she wasn’t in a position to do much this weekend,” I said.

“You have firsthand knowledge of that, even though you were in town?” McAvoy asked.

“Are you going to invoke the right to compel in order to get my clients to speculate about the mindset of the deceased and what other people may or may not have done while they themselves were out of town?” Lee asked.

“No,” Gregory said. “We’re not.”

“Not yet,” McAvoy said. “Not right now. But I know your clients there are intimately familiar with Steff Johnson, who was intimate with our dead princess. I know there was bad blood between the two. I know Johnson is a sick puppy. I don’t doubt that your clients were out of town when it all went down. My question is, did they have some kind of foreknowledge? A warning? An inkling that something bad was going to happen?”

Lee looked at us. Amaranth very calmly shook her head.

“No,” Lee said. “The answer to that is a very simple no. As they have said, they had invitations to a party.”

“Or two of them did,” McAvoy said. He looked at Ian. “Why’d you go along? Nothing better to do on Veil Night?”

Ian looked at Amaranth and me.

“Than stay in an inn room with two hot girls?” he said.

Gregory stood up and turned around to have a quick whispered conversation with McAvoy. McAvoy was a loud whisperer, but I still couldn’t understand what he was saying… the only parts that were really intelligible were a few odd exclamations of “you can’t be serious” and similar things.

Lee leaned in and whispered to me, “I think we’re going to be done here soon. Probably not done-done, unfortunately… this guy’s got an axe to grind and that’s going to complicate things… but I think we’ll be out of here while they hash out what they’re actually doing.”

I nodded.

Gregory seemed to have cowed McAvoy a bit. He took his seat again.

“We have a staff diabolist,” he said to me. “He’s a little busy at the moment but he’s going to want to talk to you.” He looked at Lee. “Your client going to be available for that, Mr. Jenkins?”

“What’s the nature of this discussion going to be?” Lee asked.

“Well, it’s not so much a conversation,” Gregory said. “He needs direct contact with her aura, so he can screen for her presence at the scene and in the impressions kept by the wall wards in Enwich.”

I went stiff in my chair, remembering when Dee had probed my aura.

“How ‘direct’ are we talking?” Lee asked.

“Visual,” Gregory said. “Completely hands-off, from what I understand.” He looked at me. “If you’re magic sensitive, you might feel a tingle.”

“If it helps to positively establish that my client remained in Enwich and was nowhere near the fountain, then I think we’d rather do it sooner than later,” Lee said. “On a related subject, I understand that a paladin has already screened the site for demonic activity and declared it clean.”

“Your client’s grandmother,” McAvoy said. “The coincidences abound.”

“Believe me, no one was more surprised by her presnece than my client,” Lee said. “And while I hope that the investigation isn’t going to hinge on her unsolicited testimony, I don’t think it can be discounted out of hand, under the circumstances.”

“We’re not discounting it,” Gregory said. “We’re taking every lead seriously… and that means verifying the credible ones.”

“One thing,” McAvoy said. “Do your clients know that Steffain Johnson keeps notebooks filled with gruesome pictures depicting grisly murders, including their own?”

“Uh, yeah,” I said. I shrugged uncomfortably. “Sort of. I mean, I know she likes to doodle me… and I know how her imagination runs, but… well, it’s not like she’s actually going to do those things.”

“I actually have copies of some of Steff’s drawings of me,” Amaranth said. “She’s making a whole set of them by my request, from a sort of script I wrote.”

“Again, Mr. McAvoy, my clients will be happy to answer anything that furthers the investigation,” Lee said. “But trying to draw them into speculation about their fellow students isn’t going to benefit anyone.”

“It could benefit them if it removes a danger to their own safety,” McAvoy said. “I’m sorry, I thought they might feel a little differently about protecting their ‘friend’ if they knew… I guess I was wrong.”

“Steff’s not my friend,” Ian said. “She creeps the fuck out of me, actually, but that doesn’t somehow translate into knowledge that she’s a murder.”

“If you don’t have any further questions about my clients’ whereabouts or anything else similarly relevant, I think they’d like to return to their dorms,” Lee said.

“I’ll tell you what, how about I see if I can get the diabolist to look your client over before she goes, just so we don’t have to bother you again today?” Gregory said.

“That would be great,” Lee said.

“You folks can just wait right here,” Gregory said. He took McAvoy by the sleeve and started guiding him towards the door.

I looked at Lee, thinking that… despite the unsettling focus on Steff, this was all far too easy. My mind didn’t like the whole “wait right here, we’ll be right back and then you can leave” thing. Lee seemed to be fairly at ease with it, though.

“I told you this would over soon,” Lee said when the imperial agents had left.

“Lee… that Steff Johnson they keep talking about is our best friend,” Amaranth said. “It seems like Mr. McAvoy’s out to get her.”

“At the risk of sounding callous, that’s something for her lawyer to worry about,” Lee said. “If it goes any further than one Law Department’s pet theories, she will have a lawyer, and if it comes to that, I’ll make sure he or she is apprised of the fact that Mr. McAvoy had a prejudicial attitude towards her and may have been skewing the investigation. There’s not much more that we can do. Be her friend. Be supportive. But don’t try to fight her battle. You don’t even want to fight your own battle. When dealing with the law, fighting is the last resort of trained professionals.”

“You’re right, I know,” Amaranth said. She sighed. “It just… it really sucks.”

“That’s the law for you,” Lee said. “When mortals are forced to encounter it, the best thing to hope for is that it’s over quickly, and we’re getting that.”

It was a good twenty minutes before the diabolist, a gray-robed man whose name (first or last, I wasn’t sure) was given as Malcolm, was shown in. He didn’t say more than two words, and they weren’t to me in particular… he just looked at me, said, “Got it,” and then turned around and walked out.

“Thank you all for your time,” Gregory said. “I’ll be in touch with you if we need anything else from them,” he said to Lee.

“Thanks,” Lee said, shaking his hand. “If there’s anything we can do to help move the investigation forward, please don’t hesitate.” He stepped past Gregory out of the room, then turned around as if to shepherd us safely through the portal.

“Say ‘hi’ to your wife for me!” Amaranth said cheerfully as we filed past.

“Er, yeah,” Gregory said, turning red. He coughed into his hand and then looked at me. “You know, some interesting folks have got your back.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he said. “Just… interesting.”

Next: Steff a fall girl? Two a stool pigeon?? Rhetorical questions???

Discuss this chapter on the Livejournal community.

“Yes?” Amaranth said, loudly and sweetly, in the direction of the door.

“Miss Amaranth? It’s Mike,” Inspector Gregory said from the other side of it. “Is there someone in there with you?”

“Yes, Inspector Gregory,” Amaranth said.

There was a pause where it was pretty clear that he was waiting to see if she’d volunteer the answer to the obviously implied question.

“Is Miss Mackenzie Blaise in there with you?” he prompted.

“How does he know that you’re you?” Ian whispered to me.

I shrugged.

“He said that you looked familiar, so I told him who you were,” Amaranth said. “It seemed harmless,” she added. “I didn’t know what he did… his wife told me that, afterwards. She was kind of chatty. They both seemed nice.”

“Why would Mackenzie look familiar to an imperial agent?” Ian asked her.

“Well, I have made the news a little,” I said.

“Yes, and they follow the news out of Prax because this is where his wife is from,” Amaranth said.

“Miss Amaranth?” Gregory said again, his tone polite but warning.

Amaranth looked at me. I started to shrug, and then nodded. I could refuse to talk to him without my lawyer present, but lying to or trying to evade him seemed like a dangerously stupid idea.

“Ms. Mackenzie is with me, but she’s been instructed not to speak to imperial agents until her lawyer arrives,” Amaranth said towards the door. “We’re perfectly willing to wait here until then, though, and then fully cooperate. How are you?”

The last part sounded both automatic and a little apologetic, like she couldn’t bear being so brusque to him.

“How am… are you planning on staying in the ladies’ room?” Gregory asked.

“Oh, we just ducked in here to use the mirror,” Amaranth said. “I think we’ll be going to the restaurant now and get some breakfast, or lunch if that’s what they’re serving now.” She reached for my hand, and addressed me quietly. “There’s no sense staying here if he knows where we are… we might as well go somewhere more comfortable.”

“Yeah, I think I could use something to eat,” Ian said.

“Alright,” Gregory said through the door. “You’d be doing both of us a favor if you don’t wander off.”

“Of course we won’t,” Amaranth said. “We really want to help any way we can, Inspector.”

We headed out. The imperial agent had backed away, and was talking in quiet tones to the respectable-looking dwarf who’d been following him before, though he kept an eye on us. There were a couple of very obvious agents positioned near the entryway, though.

“Take a look at those swords,” Ian whispered sideways.

“What swords?” I asked, and then one of them shifted and I saw a silver pommel underneath his coat. There was no room for a blade… it was a concealed holding scabbard.

“At least the press hasn’t turned up,” Amaranth said.

“If that guy’s the owner, then we might be lucky there,” Ian said, nodding his head towards the dwarf. “The dwarven word for ‘reporter’ is ‘thief’.”

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration,” Amaranth said. “They use the same word for reporters that they use for thieves.”

In the dining room, we were offered a choice of booth or table. The booths along the walls were clearly designed with dwarven a sensibility in mind, having taller barriers between them that also wrapped around, screening the occupants from sight. Amaranth chewed on her lip for a while before settling on a table.

“It really wouldn’t do to have someone trigger a panic ward because they lost sight of us,” Amaranth said as we were being led to our seats. “And we do want Lee to be able to spot us. I assume he’ll reflect you when he gets here… you might just leave the mirror out on the table so we don’t miss him.”

“Not much chance of them losing sight of us,” Ian said. “Don’t look around, but there’s a lady by the door and a guy at a table that I’m pretty sure are with them. And I think they’re running a trace of some kind on us… I felt a tingle when we were coming out of the bathroom.”

“I don’t think imperial agents would use anything that you could feel to track us,” I said.

“Maybe they got sloppy,” Ian said. “Or maybe they want us to know they’ve got a line on us? It could be psychological warfare. They could be trying to make you paranoid and…”

“You’re making me paranoid,” I snapped, and then regretted it. I was starting to feel sick to my stomach, and the shot of anger was answered by a shot of stabbing pain in my lower abdomen. I wondered if it would be possible for me to give myself an ulcer. “I’m sorry, Ian.”

“No, it’s okay,” he said. “I’m just running my mouth, really. I have no idea how these things work. I’m not even sure what’s going on. Do you know what happened?”

“We know a little, but not the details,” Amaranth said. I let her explain to Ian what we’d learned from Lee.

She stopped when the waiter came to take our order. It was after eleven by this point, and they had switched over to lunch service… not that it mattered to me, as my stomach was twisting around itself the way it had always used to when I felt nervous or guilty, which had been pretty much all the time. I had nothing to feel guilty about and therefore I shouldn’t have had anything to feel nervous about, but there it was, all the same.

One of my dormmates was dead… along with however many other late night monster mauling casualties there may have been, but this one victim meant that I was being watched by imperial agents while waiting for my lawyer to arrive. I was used to feeling uncomfortable with the thought of anyone looking at me… life with Puddy and then Amaranth had given me a crash course in getting over that, but this kind of “official” attention was bringing it all back to me.

Amaranth finished Lee’s rundown and her own explanation of what she knew of Leda as soon as we were alone again.

“Wow,” Ian said. “That’s… this might sound kind of horrible, but it’s kind of galling, to think that there’s going to be a huge investigation and all this interest because she was a princess from some magic kingdom. A lot of human students die every year. A lot of them this weekend.”

“Well… I don’t think race has that much to do with it,” Amaranth said. “It wouldn’t be an imperial matter if there wasn’t the foreign royal connection, but that isn’t necessarily racial… and without that, I think there’d be more of an uproar if a human student had been killed while inside the relative safety of the warded areas. It’s tragic that anyone dies violently, but we’re all given the same warnings about going out after dark and sticking to the lighted paths.”

Ian sort of half-nodded, and then the conversation lapsed. Nobody seemed to have anything to say.

We weren’t just sitting there in silence for long. Amaranth had ordered a salad and Ian had got a sandwich, so it didn’t take long for the food to come out, and then we were just sitting there eating in silence. At least, they were.

“You know what this makes me curious about?” Ian asked.

“What’s that?” Amaranth asked.

“Okay, well, it sounds as though… apart from the location… this doesn’t look any different than the average ‘monster attack’,” Ian said. “And it’s only because it happened in a protected place that they’re looking at students.”

“Or treating it as a homicide at all,” Amaranth said. “They don’t know that it’s a student, I don’t think. They’re just eliminating the more obvious possibilities first.”

“Right, right,” Ian said. “But… is anybody considering the possibilities that the killings that happened off the paths might also have been homicides? I mean, they’re looking at students because ghouls and stuff can’t come onto the paths, but students can go off of them.”

“Are you saying that everyone with teeth and claws should be questioned every time a human dies?” I asked. The implications of the hypothetical were enough to distract me from the actual reality I was trying and failing to deal with.

“No,” Ian said. “I just wonder how much of an investigation is done to see if people need to be questioned, when that happens.”

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Oh, Steff told me that they actually do some rudimentary divining… enough to figure an actual cause of death… when it’s possible,” Amaranth said. “But, you know, a rainstorm can muddle a lot of traces. Something like that wild downpour we had last weekend will wipe them out completely.”

“So, if Leda was killed in the fountain, what would that do?” Ian asked. “I mean, it’s not exactly running water… or would the circulation of the fountain be enough?”

“It really wouldn’t help,” I said. “Water doesn’t hold traces well, and if it’s flowing at all it’s just going to obliterate whatever’s there. If she was actually in the water, I’m sure they’ll be checking the edges of the fountain and the ground around it, but… well, lots of people sit on the fountain during the day and even more walk around it. If something violent or otherwise really distinctive happened outside the water, they might be able to get something.”

“It would be nice if they can,” Ian said. “A lot of people trust forensic evidence over anything else… the fact that you weren’t anywhere near campus won’t mean a thing to them unless a diviner can say that somebody else did it.”

“If somebody’s really bound and determined to blame me, they’ll think it’s a cover-up or a frame job,” I said.

“What, perpetrated by the massive pro-demon lobby?” Ian asked.

“Hey, there are people who can say with a straight face that humans are the last oppressed race in the empire,” I said. “Or that Khersians are a shrinking minority… or that gays and lesbians have special rights. To someone like that, the fact that I’m allowed to live and attend school could be proof that I’ve got some kind of power and influence behind me.”

“On the subject of power and influence… we really should ask Lee to clarify a few things about the payment arrangements,” Amaranth said. “I mean, he’s representing you… but does that mean he has to represent your interests? Are you his client, or is the person paying him his client, or both? He’s a nice person and he seems very honest and forthright, but… well… if he has obligations towards someone else, we kind of have to expect him to be as conscientious in discharging them as he has been towards you.”

“Yeah, let’s not talk about this here, though,” I said.

I wanted to share my theory about the man behind that, but not in the open air and not when we were being watched by imperial agents. Making deals with demons… true demons, full demons… was highly illegal.

Pendragon and Associates were covering themselves on that score as much as they were required to, I was sure… demons weren’t so commonplace that every transaction had to be screened for infernal machinations. But “covering themselves” could extend to getting as far away from me as they could if there was a hint of such impropriety… and the apparent connection between the particular demon and me probably wouldn’t help my case any.

“Khersis, this is fucking surreal,” Ian said. “The whole being watched thing. By government agents, I mean. It’s not like scrutiny is new. For you more than me, but for any of us… one of my instructors asked me if I was sleeping with you or if we were just friends.”

“Seriously?” I asked. That idea was almost as surreal as everything else that was going on.

“Yeah,” Ian said.

“Didn’t that seem a little… intrusive… to you?” I said.

“I don’t know, it was a little shocking but also a little funny,” Ian said. “I think there may have been a wager involved.”

“Oh, that’s loads better,” I said.

“Baby, it’s not like it’s a big secret,” Amaranth said. “And whether you like it or not, you’re sort of a figure of public interest.”

“Yeah, I feel real interesting to the public right now,” I said.

“Oh, baby… you have to admit, it’s better to have people take a friendly interest in your love life than for them to be looking at you with suspicion,” Amaranth said.

“Hey, I think it was actually my love life under discussion,” Ian said.

“It’s the same life, just viewed from different perspectives,” Amaranth said.

“Yeah, I guess,” Ian said. “And I guess that was sort of my point: that kind of scrutiny’s not so bad, comparatively. This puts things in perspective.”

I started to nod in agreement, but a twinge in my stomach brought my mind back around to what exactly “this” was. Leda was dead, and we were waiting for my lawyer to get there because I was under suspicion in an imperial investigation.

“Are you okay, baby?” Amaranth asked.

“Yeah… I just can’t believe we’re sitting here bantering like this,” I said.

“Well… it’s either that or sit in silence, or keep rehashing the same few things that we know,” Amaranth said. “I think this is better, honestly.”

My mirror went off, and I grabbed for it, eager for word from Lee. It was him, of course.

“Mackenzie, where are you now?” he asked. No greeting, straight to business.

“In the restaurant at the Crystal Palace,” I said. “The inspector figured out where we were, Amaranth told him we were waiting for you, and we decided to have lunch.”

“That’s fine,” he said. “The IBF didn’t try to question you, or bother you at all?”

“No,” I said. “They’ve been keeping an eye on us, I think, but they backed off once they knew we were going to stick around.”

“Okay. Good. Enjoy your lunch, Mackenzie… I’m almost to the Crystal Palace. I’m sorry, temple services are getting out and some of the streets are just clogged. Anyway, I’m going to try to meet with the lead investigator and establish some ground rules, and then I’ll join you,” he said. “Now, this is attorney-client communication, which means it’s privileged and they can’t be listening in.”

That sounded important, especially in the slightly authoritative way that he said it, and so I waited to see what he was going to say after it, but he just sat there kind of stony-faced.

“Lee?” I said, a little worried that I might have missed something.

“Sorry,” he said. “I was just waiting a few seconds to give them time to dissolve any surveillance spells. Imperial agents have a fairly broad writ for such things to begin with, and being in a place of public accommodation is apt to make them bolder about how they use them.”

“Should we have stayed in the bathroom?” I asked.

“No, a public restroom is still public,” he said. “Once you were discovered, there wouldn’t be much point… it’s probably better that you’re eating something.”

“I’m not, actually,” I said. “My stomach’s kind of… lodging a formal complaint. It’s okay, though. I’m not going to get dizzy from lack of food.”

“Oh, right,” Lee said. “I’m sorry, I forget. Anyway, I’m going to suggest to Gregory that he talk to you back on campus. They already have a base of operations set up there waiting for him. The only reason that he’s not there already is the fact that you aren’t there. This benefits everybody. He’s going to have to wait to question you anyway, and this way he can be productive instead of hanging around here and chomping at the bit.”

“Champing,” Amaranth said, leaning into me slightly to be visible. “The expression is ‘champing at the bit’.”

“Oh, yes, of course,” Lee said. “Anyway, if he gets to go there, see and hear firsthand what information and leads the investigators on scene have already turned up, then he might already have other, more likely possibilities in mind by the time he can turn his attention to you. That’s good. Innocence is a tremendous advantage to have on your side, but it’s also helpful if someone else is guilty.”

“If they’re not actually arresting me, do they have a choice?” I asked. “I mean, do you have to ask them if I can just go back to campus and do it later, or can you just tell them?”

“Well, we want to be cooperative,” Lee said. “They don’t have to arrest you to detain you for questioning, and that’s the last thing that we want. Because as soon as word gets out… and it will get out… the headline will be ‘Suspect Detained In Murder’. And you’ll be ‘Notorious Half-Demon Mackenzie Jo Blaise’, or maybe ‘Mackenzie “Mack” Blaise’, depending on whether the person writing the copy decides a masculine nickname or a triple name is more threatening.”

“I’m notorious?”

“You will be,” Lee said. “There are many paths to notoriety, but the shortest one is to have a newspaper say you are. If they detain you, that becomes the story, and they keep the story alive by asking ‘hard questions’ about why you’re walking around. The bureau becomes that more invested in treating you as a suspect. It makes my job harder and your life worse. So, instead we make nice. We get what we want, but we do it nicely. Are you with me, Mackenzie?”

“Yeah, okay,” I said, nodding.

“Good,” he said. “I suggest we put the word out ourselves… once you’re in the coach with me and on the way back to the school… that you’re cooperating with the investigation and heading back to campus, cutting short a weekend in town for… was it a Veil party?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Um… does it matter that it was at a sort of a… fetish club?”

“Mackenzie, everything matters if somebody makes it matter,” Lee said. “We’ll leave that out of our statement. We won’t try to hide it from the investigators, because it’s in our interest for them to be able to corroborate your whereabouts. It’ll probably get out. It’ll be a little embarrassing. Don’t sweat it. I suspect the best alibis are slightly embarrassing.”

“Um, listen,” I said. “My… our boyfriend is still with us. I know you said Amaranth is okay because she can’t be compelled to testify…”

“And he was with you for part of the night last night?”

“I was asleep in bed with him during the important part of it,” I said.

“Well, then, let’s keep him close,” Lee said. “He’s hardly going to be considered an impartial witness, but then, we can’t expect someone to be spending the night with you who would be impartial. Does he have an attorney?”

I looked across the table at Ian.

“No,” he said. “Wait… I’m sure my family does.”

“Did you hear that Lee?” I asked.

“He can ride back to campus with us,” Lee said. “We’ll talk more about the circumstances surrounding… well, we’ll talk more then. The fetish club thing is too airtight and also too early in the evening for anyone to bother trying to poke holes in it. If anybody comes at you hard, Mackenzie… imperial or media… they’re going to do it by coming through your lovers. The fact that you were sleeping in a bed with your partners when the crime was committed is the best and worst thing you’ve got going for you.”

Amaranth’s hand closed in around mine and gave it a squeeze. I swallowed and looked up at Ian, expecting to see him looking worried or nervous, but he just gave me a tiny nod. His face was resolute. My stomach settled a little bit, and I smiled in spite of everything.

“Okay, looks like we’re here,” Lee said. “I’ll be with you shortly, Mackenzie. Will you be alright where you are until I join you?”

“I’ll be fine,” I said, and I meant it.

Next: Diary of a Golem Girl. You folks earned it.

After That: For once, Mackenzie is not the only unholy mess on campus… here there be lawyers.

Discuss this chapter on the Livejournal feed.

I had no way of knowing, but I felt an incredible sense of relief when the next thing I was aware of was being on the edge of a queen-sized bed, next to Ian.

Ian seemed confused to wake up between Amaranth and me. He looked sheepish when he realized he’d slept the night away.

“You should have got me up,” he said. “I didn’t mean to go to sleep, I just wanted to be, you know, rested for it.”

“Ian, honey, you were completely out,” Amaranth said. “Even if we had managed to rouse you, I don’t think we would have had much fun, collectively. We’ll do it another time, for sure… and more than once. There will be lots of opportunities, and I’ll make sure that some of them get taken.”

Any thoughts we might have had of making up for the missed opportunity with some early morning fun were quickly ditched when we realized we’d slept right through the early morning. It was about ten minutes before eleven, when we were due to check out. Ian and I dressed in a hurry while Amaranth checked around the room.

She was still looking when we finished. Ian sat down on the edge of the bed and turned on the TV. The local news was on. It was showing more provincial police on campus, setting up floating tape around the south end of the pent.. The headline at the front of the scene said “Carnage On Campus”.

More casualties of Veil-related stupidity, it seemed… I felt a nebulous sort of guilt at that. They had made their choices and paid for it, while I’d made mine and got a small fortune for it. It could have gone a lot worse for me, and it could have gone better for any of them. Doubtlessly there were a lot more students who’d risked the night than ones who hadn’t made it. That was what kept people taking risks.

“Oh, Ian, honey, turn that off,” Amaranth said. “It’s just gory coverage of the post-Veil clean-up, and we don’t need to see that.”

“Okay,” Ian said, and he changed it over to the weather, which showed we were in for a cold, gray day, with a strong chance of freezing rain overnight. Fun. “What are you looking for, anyway?”

“Anything we might otherwise forget,” she said.

“We didn’t really bring anything,” he said.

“Yes, well, it just seems like a good habit to have,” Amaranth said. “I’d like to travel more in the future, and so I’d like to figure these things out now.”

When Amaranth judged that we truly had left nothing behind, we headed downstairs to the front desk where she settled the bill out of the previous night’s earnings. Right before she handed over the scribed copy of the bill, the desk clerk looked at the number and said, “Oh, wait a second,” then reached under the counter and pulled out a big white envelope with a bulge in the center. “Don’t forget about this.”

“What’s this?” Amaranth asked, frowning at the package.

“I don’t know, Miss,” the clerk said. “It was left for your room this morning. The guy who left it said that you all would be looking for it?”

Amaranth slit the end of the envelope open and held it open, slowly sliding the contents out… my mirror. Her look of surprise became an even bigger frown for a moment, but then she shook it off and handed the mirror to me.

“Maybe you lost it without realizing it… and someone found it?” she said.

“Who’d know where we were staying?” Ian asked.

“A divination student?” Amaranth suggested.

“And brought it here?” I asked. I could understand the look of unease she was trying so obviously to dismiss. Things turning up in unexpected places could be disconcerting enough, especially after the ordeal with my pitchfork. The fact that this had been left in an envelope for me made it both better and worse… it made it unlikely that the mirror itself was following us around, but it also suggested that some person was.

“Well, unlikely as it is, it is here now,” Amaranth said. “Just try to keep better track of it in the future, maybe?”

“Yeah,” I said. I pocketed it. Mystery or not, there didn’t seem to be anything more to say about it.

“That’s more than a little weird, though,” Ian said.

“Who left it, exactly?” I asked.

“A younger guy, in a nice suit,” the desk clerk said.

“Somebody from the law firm?” Amaranth said to me.

“I don’t know why they’d be keeping tabs on me like that,” I said.

“Looking out for you, maybe?”

“We’re not even paying them,” I said. I had my own suspicion about the “younger guy in a nice suit”, but I didn’t want to say it, didn’t want to give voice to it.

Any further discussion was cut off by a commotion coming towards us. The middle-aged man whom Amaranth had entertained before was striding down the hall with a mirror up by his face, an elderly-looking dwarf wearing spectacles following at his heels.

“Mr. Gregory,” the silver-bearded dwarf was saying, “I really must insist…”

“Insist all you want, but I can’t stay here… my vacation’s over,” the man said to the dwarf. He stopped at the edge of the lobby. To the mirror in his hand, he started rattling off instructions. “Yeah, if you can get the whole floor roster to me in the next minute, do it, otherwise have it waiting when I get there. If we can’t figure out who her friends were, we’ll start with her neighbors. I want the golem isolated, for a start. I want a forensic diviner from Blackwater, up from the fens. I want our bite team…”

“Mackenzie,” Amaranth said very quietly. Her hand bumped into my arm and then followed it down to my hand. She started pulling me towards the women’s restroom off the lobby. “Let’s get Lee in the mirror.”

“Lee?” I repeated. “Why?”

“Call it a hunch,” Amaranth said.

“Wait… did you bang a cop?” Ian asked her, looking at the guy talking on the mirror.

“I did not,” Amaranth said quietly, gesturing for him to lower his voice. “Mike Gregory is an imperial agent, and to be perfectly technical, I pleasured his wife while he watched. He wasn’t on duty last night, but it sounds like something’s changed… something involving a floor full of people that includes a golem.”

“Oh, shit… Two!” I said.

“Right now, I’m more worried about you,” Amaranth said. “It sounds as though someone has been… attacked. You need your lawyer.”

“Probably, but Lee’s representing me against the school… I don’t exactly have him on retainer,” I said.

“You need a lawyer and we know him,” Amaranth said. “If he can’t help you, he ought to be able to refer us to someone who can. We have some room to talk about fees now.”

“But we’re saving that money for…”

“Emergencies,” Amaranth said. “For love’s sake, Mackenzie, don’t argue with me right now.”

The realization that she’d said my full name twice stunned me enough that I let her pull me into the ladies’ room, where I flipped open my mirror. It started to go off as I was doing so… Lee was already reflecting to me. I accepted it without hesitation.

“Ms. Mackenzie! Khersis, woman, what are you doing, not answering your mirror at a time like this?” he said.

“I’m sorry… I sort of lost track of it for a while,” I said.

“Lost track… where are you?” he asked.

“The Crystal Palace,” I said. “In town.”

“You didn’t flee campus, did you?”

“What? No, I’ve been here… in town, I mean… all night,” I said.

“Is that the honest truth?” he asked. “You’re not trying to create an alibi, are you?”

“Lee, I don’t even know what I’d be creating an alibi for,” I said. “I don’t know what’s going on back on campus, I’m just… sort of celebrating Veil with Amaranth. We kind of caught wind of something, though, and she wanted me to see if you could help…”

“Wait,” he said. “Did you authorize someone to engage us on your behalf this morning?”

“What? No, Lee, I didn’t even know I had a behalf to engage on,” I said. “What’s going on?”

“Well… first of all, you apparently have a benefactor,” he said. “A sealed pouch arrived this morning, with gold and instructions… I was assisting Mr. Pendragon with another client, but owing to our existing relationship he released me. If they want to detain you or charge you with anything, we’ll get you an experienced criminal attorney, but if you haven’t even been on campus then it shouldn’t come to that.”

“What shouldn’t?” I asked.

“I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for forty minutes, in between raising hell with law enforcement. I had thought you’d be expecting my reflection. When I couldn’t get you, I thought they might have been doing something improper.”

“What exactly’s going on?” I asked.

“Haven’t you even turned on a television?” he asked.

“Just for a minute,” I said.

“Well, there was a killing on campus last night.”

I felt a sick, sinking feeling in my stomach… but then cold reason took over.

“It’s Veil,” I said. “A whole bunch of people died the night before. It seems like it’s a dangerous time of year, around here. They’re not using that as an excuse to lock down Harlowe, are they?”

“Mackenzie, this situation is a little different,” he said. “Because the victim was a foreign royal and because it happened in a strongly protected ‘safe’ spot, it’s being investigated as a possible homicide.”

“Who?” I asked. The description of foreign royal was most likely to apply to a Harlowe resident to begin with, and if it was someone from my floor… well, there was only one person I could think of who that would actually fit. Unless he meant Sooni… her family seemed important enough. “Who was it?”

He picked up a piece of paper, evidently from the desk in front of him that was just out of frame.

“Let’s see if I can even say this right… Miss Lidiya Pyotrovna Lebedeva,” he said.

It took me a few seconds to take it in… I’d never heard that name before, but it was a pretty decent fit for the person I was thinking of.

“Leda?” I said. Not Sooni after all. That was actually sort of a relief… though I didn’t feel great about it being anyone.

“Did you know her?” Lee asked.

“Well, she was on my floor,” I said. “She wasn’t really… we weren’t in the same circle.”

“Any hostility? Either way?”

“No,” I said. “I don’t think she liked me, but… aloof. She was, I mean.” I was stumbling over my words, but then, I was talking about a dead person… a murder victim… that I knew. Had known. “She… she might have had some kind of thing with my friend Steff, but I never found out for sure.”

“Thing?”

“Altercation?” I said, groping for a word. “But Steff couldn’t have done anything!” I added quickly, realizing I was potentially implicating her. “She was, well… bed-ridden all weekend.”

“Mackenzie, clearing each and every one of your friends is not going to be our job here,” he said. “Seeing that you’re treated fairly is. There are going to be a lot of eyes on this case, which is generally a good thing, but there’s also going to be a lot of pressure to come up with suspects. The earliest news report just called it a horrific monster attack , but it was in the middle of a safe area… if the school’s wards were holding, then the only ‘monsters’ who could have reached it, if you’ll pardon the term, are students. You’re going to be one of the more attractive possibilities on the list of potential suspects. The best case scenario is that they rule you out quickly and methodically.”

“Why am I the most attractive possibility?” I asked. My horror at the thought that someone I knew was dead was changing into another sort of horror. This was exactly the sort of thing that I’d been afraid of, the thing that had helped keep me meek and mild all through high school… aside from the fear that I might hurt others, there was the fear of what others might do to me, if they thought they had reason. “Aside form the obvious, I mean… yeah, I know I’m a walking scapegoat, but Leda’s not human. Wasn’t human.”

“Listen, Mackenzie, I spent most of the morning helping Mr. Pendragon on another client’s behalf, so I already know the situation pretty well,” Lee said. “The victim was a Shifter… excuse me, I mean a resident of the Khazarus. If she had been human, things might be worse for you, but it’s a tough call whether non-human royalty from the other side of the world is going to be better or worse, on the balance. Her family had an alarm ward on her… they knew she was deceased before the university did, and they’ve been putting pressure on the imps for eight hours already. The Shift is supposed to be pretty lousy with demons… current thought is that there may be more full demons hiding in the Shift than anywhere else in the world… so they may be a little prejudiced, especially as her stepfather is human. In a case like this, doing justice to the family’s satisfaction might take precedence over doing justice.”

“But they’re not going to be directing the investigation, are they?” I asked.

“Hopefully not,” he said. “But they can exert pressure. The media and public opinion can increase that, once there’s a little blood in the water. Add that to whatever personal biases any of the investigators on the ground have… Mackenzie, I know this can’t be pleasant to hear, but your demon blood changes things. It’s going to be safest to assume that everyone has it in for you, that proper safeguards for your legal rights will not be observed unless we’re vigilant and rigorously insist upon it.”

“Hi, Lee?” Amaranth said. “Mackenzie, baby, let me come around so we don’t have to spin him,” she said, taking the mirror from me and pushing me sideways. “I don’t know if this helps or hurts or what, but… the man who seems to be in charge of the investigation, Mike Gregory? He was staying at the same inn as us. That’s how we found out that something had happened. So, he knows that we were off-campus… he can actually vouch for our whereabouts himself, for at least part of the time.”

“Was he actually aware of your presence?”

“Oh, yes. Definitely. I ate a peach out of his wife’s vaginal cavity as an anniversary present,” she said.

“Say that ag… no, on second thought, never say that again,” he said. “You had sexual contact with Inspector Gregory?”

“With his wife… he just watched,” Amaranth said, nodding eagerly. “But it was with his consent, and mutually pleasurable.”

There was silence from the mirror. I tried to imagine Lee’s expression, but couldn’t conjure anything.

“Did you have any acquaintance with either of them?” he asked.

“No, sir,” Amaranth said. “They approached me.”

“Well… if things go poorly, that might be useful in throwing up some procedural objections,” he said. “My instinct is that this is not going to be nearly as cut and dried as it would be if you weren’t a nymph. I’m going to have to research if there’s any precedent… I don’t think it would be to our advantage to get Inspector Gregory off the case. His reputation is for being thorough, fair, and sensitive.”

“Listen,” I said, leaning back into the frame, “I know you said we can’t clear everyone, but… we heard him telling his people to ‘isolate the golem’, and that’s my roommate, Two. Why would they isolate her? Is there some reason she’d be a suspect?”

“Golems are the best witnesses and the worst ones,” Lee said. “They’re very easy to tamper with. It gets especially messy with a freed golem that still has obedient tendencies, since legally they are their own persons.”

“So it probably doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that she’s my roommate?” I asked.

“Not as such, no, but you can bet she’ll be questioned about you,” Lee said. “Aside from Amaranth’s encounter with Mrs. Gregory, is there anyone else who can corroborate your whereabouts? Especially around two, three in the morning?”

I looked at Amaranth. We’d left the club long before then.

“We were at a private club, Lee, earlier in the night,” Amaranth said. “The Tomb of Horrors. The two of us were actually up on stage in front of the crowd for a bit, and the entire building is scried. We took a private carriage back to the inn. I have a feeling the driver and dispatcher will probably both remember us… I had a little conversation with the dispatcher, her name was Ceridwen. The night auditor here, too, might remember seeing us coming back.”

“You do have the advantage of being memorable,” Lee said. “This is all very good. The fact that you weren’t on campus is a very lucky stroke, but if they’re looking for you then the fact that you aren’t there is probably weighing against you moment by moment. You should come in to the office, and then we’ll contact the authorities and let them know the situation, and that you’re making yourself available for questions about your whereabouts, in the presence of your attorney. You’re at the Crystal Palace, you said?” Amaranth nodded. “I’ll send a coach to pick the two of you up.”

“We’re actually three,” Amaranth said. “Our boyfriend, Ian, is with us. Though he could probably just take the regular coach back to school if that’s simpler…”

“The coaches are actually suspended for the moment, as the campus is locked down,” Lee said. “Try to get him to come with you, if he will. Was he with you all night?”

“Except when we were at the club,” Amaranth said. “Though, to be perfectly honest, he was asleep when we got back.”

“Be perfectly honest,” Lee said. “Dishonesty rarely helps accomplish justice, and never when you’re lying to your own attorney. Is Gregory still at the inn?”

“He was right before we came in here to talk to you,” Amaranth said. “But it sounded like he was leaving in a minute.”

“Where are you now, your inn room?”

“The ladies’ room in the lobby,” Amaranth said. “We’d just checked out when we overheard Mr. Gregory talking about the investigation, then we kind of ducked in here so he wouldn’t see us before we had a chance to talk to you.”

“So the last time you saw Gregory?”

“He was heading for the lobby,” Amaranth said. “We came in here to be out of sight while we tried to get you.”

“Okay, you stay there, then, if you’re not sure that he’s gone,” he said. “I’ll be coming over to get you. I’ll see if I can get through to Gregory on my way over, to minimize any sudden surprises. You just sit tight.”

“In the bathroom?” I said.

“It seems like the easiest way of lessening the chance that you have to deal with an IBF agent without your attorney present,” Lee said. “If it does happen, you just tell him that your attorney is on the way, that they can contact Pendragon and Associates for details, and nothing more. We already have an official liaison for this matter, but I’d rather keep you separate from all of that if I can.”

“Since we know he’s here and we know he’ll want to talk to Mack, wouldn’t it look more cooperative if she went out and said ‘Hi, Mr. Gregory, I’m still here from the night before, and if you’d like to talk to me, I’m just waiting for my attorney.’?” Amaranth asked. “I mean, if he’s been given my name or a description of Mack, it can’t have slipped his mind that we were here.”

“Listen, Amaranth, that wouldn’t be the worst way to handle it, but if my choice is between having my client saying that much to an imperial investigator by herself or waiting for me, I’d rather that she wait,” Lee said. “It’s your call, Ms. Mackenzie, but I’m being paid to advise and to represent you. In that spirit, I advise that you let me represent you.”

“Yeah, okay, okay,” I said, shaking my head and then realizing that meant no and nodding instead. I felt dizzy. We’d done alright taking care of our own problems the night before, but trying to handle this by ourselves was not a good idea. “Whatever you say, Lee.”

“Good,” he said. “I’d better get going if I’m going to ride to the rescue. See you soon, and sit tight.”

“Yeah, bye,” I said. “Thanks!”

“He didn’t seem very curious about the pouch of gold,” Amaranth said when the image faded. She was frowning slightly, the way she did when she was thinking hard. “I suppose… priorities, right? He seems like a genuinely helpful person. If we’re not questioning the gift horse, he’s not going to, either… and it’s too fortuitous to question, really.”

“It sounds like there’s a ‘but’ there,” I said.

“Not really,” she said. She looked down at the mirror that she was still holding. “Though it seems like he’s not the only helpful person. Mercy?”

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” I said. “She wouldn’t hide her involvement from us. You can’t be in someone’s debt if you don’t even know what they did for you.”

Amaranth looked like she was going to ask me a question, but then we heard someone shouting a stream of curses, muffled by the bathroom door. A few moments later, Ian came scooting inside.

“Uh, I think you guys are about to have company,” he said. “That imperial guy just got a list, a copy of your floor roster, I think… he started swearing as soon as he saw it, and the last I saw him he was describing you to the desk girl,” he said, looking at Amaranth.

“Do you think we should just go out?” Amaranth asked.

“You heard what Lee said,” I said.

“Yes, but I think there’s going to be less chance for an unfortunate misunderstanding if we go out there and let him know where we are instead of waiting to see if…”

There was a set of three knocks on the door, sharp and authoritative.

Next time: Mackenzie – murder suspect.

Drama overdosed? Watch this space tomorrow for something fun.

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“You get into more trouble in that bathroom,” she said. “You can shower here.”

“Uh… there are no girls’ showers here,” Ian said.

“Yes, but it’ll be fine if I’m with her,” Amaranth said. “It’s single stalls, anyway… anyway, if you’re the only girl who slept over here last night, I’ll be very much surprised.”

“If we’re trying to avoid trouble, then I’m not taking a shower in the snooty rich boys’ dorms,” I said. “No offense,” I added to Ian.

“Yeah, no, that seems like a really bad idea,” Ian said. “I’ve seen other guys’ girlfriends in there before, but you’re not just any other girl.”

“Well, you don’t have to shower,” Amaranth said.

“I don’t want to shower, particularly… I really want to take a bubble bath,” I said. “I want to be completely relaxed.”

“And just how relaxing do your baths usually end up?” Amaranth asked. “How relaxing would it be if you ended up running into Feejee, or getting into a fight with Sooni or the twins or one of the skirmisher girls…”

“Okay, okay,” I said.

“Hey, weren’t we going to get the inn room taken care of before you have to go to the club?” Ian asked. “Private bathroom, private bath… and if it actually does relax you, you won’t have the whole day to get worked up again.”

“Hey, yeah,” I said.

“Thank you, Ian, that’s a wonderfully level-headed suggestion,” Amaranth said.

“The only downside is that you’ll have to go around for a few hours smelling like sweat, sex, and demon funk,” Ian said.

“What?” I said.

“That’s… somewhat less helpful,” Amaranth said.

“I’m just kidding!” Ian said. “You don’t… I mean, I’m sure I smell worse. In fact, I should probably run and take a shower before I get dressed. I’ll, uh, be right back.”

It seemed like it only took Ian like five minutes to shower. I was still getting dressed when he got back. I had no idea how that was even possible. It took me about five minutes for the air to reach a comfortable temperature, and another five before I was really relaxed. Even skipping all that, I couldn’t possibly get clean in five minutes.

“Let’s just get going,” Amaranth said, handing me my coat.

I was very glad to have it back when we got outside… it was a very gray morning, made colder by a spitting mist. Despite that, the morning air felt strangely invigorating. I felt wide awake within seconds of getting outside, wonderfully alive and ready to face the day, despite a growing awareness of the emptiness in my stomach.

Sodden streamers of toilet paper hung from the branches of the tree outside Weyland Hall. Campus guards were out in force, and each group of them had a man or woman in a uniform I didn’t recognize, with a vest of mail over a long sleeved and collared maroon shirt.

“Who are those guys?” I asked Amaranth.

“Provincial Marshals,” she said, right as I spotted the “PPM” emblem on the back of one of the vests.

“They don’t get called out for vandalism, do they?” I asked. On top of the TP, there were smashed pumpkins and broken glass in evidence.

“I don’t think they’re here for that. While I was checking on Steff, there was a reflection for her asking if she could come in and help out in reception,” she said.

“Reception?” I repeated, picturing Steff sitting behind a desk in the administrative building.

“You know, at the vaults,” Amaranth said. “Receiving… arrivals.”

“Oh,” I said.

“People do stupid shit on Veil,” Ian said. “They stay out partying. They get drunk and stumble around campus. They try magic they wouldn’t normally mess with, to give somebody a scare or try to get back at someone who scared them. The Marshals are probably just here to help clean up the aftermath.”

“I think that’s probably why they never hold the Veil Ball on Veil itself,” Amaranth said. “Warding magic weakens and the walls between things get thinner on Veil Night. If they can’t stop people from being foolish, they can redirect some of that foolishness to a less dangerous time.” She fixed me with a sideways glance. “Luckily, your foolishness doesn’t involve any magic, so the date shouldn’t matter.”

Right after her eyes flickered back ahead, she stopped moving.

“Let’s cut across here,” she said, pointing across the grassy way to another path.

“Why?” I asked, annoyed. We were almost to the coach stop, and I wanted to get to town, and maybe get something in my belly. Amaranth had said no meals, but a little breakfast wouldn’t hurt anyone that much. “That’s kind of out of our way.”

She grabbed my hand.

“No arguments, baby,” she said, and she started pulling me off the path. “Don’t look back,” she said, as my head swiveled to see what it was that had distressed her. All I saw was some bushes next to a sidewalk junction, but I caught the most tantalizing tang in the air.

“What’s…?” Ian asked.

“No,” Amaranth said firmly, yanking on my arm.

I dug in my heels and growled at her, ready to pull away… or bite, if she wouldn’t let go. Knuckles hit my nose, and I whimpered as pain knocked both the sense of sight and smell out of my head. By the time it cleared, I’d been dragged across the green.

“Is everything alright here, sir?” a Marshall was asking Ian, in the tone of voice that let us know that he knew nothing was.

“We’re all fine,” Amaranth said, pulling me close. I tried very hard to look like I wasn’t feeling the pain equivalent of a broken nose. “You’ll want to check those bushes back there. Our friend here just has a sort of hysterical response to… certain things. A slap might be old-fashioned, but it does work sometimes.”

“Slap, nothing,” the man said. He leaned in close, peering at my face. “If that was just a slap, I’ll… huh.”

“If there’s nothing else,” Amaranth said, tilting her face down and her eyes up, “we’d like to get to the coaches… we have plans to spend a quiet Veil Night away from campus.”

“Sure, uh… move along,” the Marshall said. He started heading back towards the intersection with the bushes, raising his wand towards his face. “Moving in to check out a possible…”

“Thank you, Ian,” Amaranth said.

“Yeah, thanks,” I said. I touched my nose to make sure it was straight and whole, a move that was as unwise as it was unnecessary. “Ow.”

“I think we’re going to have to make a tradition of avoiding campus around Veil,” Amaranth said. “I’ll see what other nights are known for the highest student casualty rates.”

“Mid-terms and finals,” Ian said.

“Well, we can’t exactly avoid campus then,” Amaranth said. “We’ll just have to be careful.”

That whole experience cast a bit of a pall over the carriage ride… once we got past the horror of what might have happened, we were left with the horror of what actually had happened. Amaranth, who must have seen something, was pale and shaky. Pale was not a good look on her.

Once in town, we took the mass coach to the transit center, which Ian had never seen before.

“Tell me this is just for Veil,” Ian said, goggling at the crypt-like interior, with the walls of dark cut stone, leering statue faces, and vaulted ceilings.

“No, just a sterling example of pre-Imperial architecture,” I said.

“After this, the Tomb of Horrors is going to look like nothing,” he said.

One shorter coach ride later, and it turned out he was right: it was just a plain brick building, two stories tall. There were no windows on the ground floor, and no sign. The only noteworthy feature was the entrance, a set of big double doors bound in iron and set back from the street in a little alcove. Amaranth went up and rapped on the door with one of the big iron rings, but there was no answer.

“At least we know where it is,” she said, shrugging.

“Are you sure it’s the right building, though?” Ian asked.

“Oh, yes,” she said. “The picture matches. I would have liked a chance to talk to someone in person, and maybe take a look around the lobby… I know Mack has an easier time coping with things if she knows what to expect from them.”

“Well, at least we know it’s her kind of place,” he said, putting an arm around me.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“It’s got huge knockers,” he said.

“Okay, we’ll find an inn next,” Amaranth said. “There are quite a few in the town center, and unfortunately they’re all either really old and run down, or really old and respectable, which means we’ll be able to find any price except for moderate. Since the idea is to minimize danger…”

“There are three of us,” Ian said. “We can afford a cheap room at a good place for one night.”

“Okay,” Amaranth said. “I was leading up to that. Of course, it’s early, so they might not have a room ready for us to check into right away, but at the very least we can make sure we can get one.”

“Too bad the Crystal Palace is outside the town center,” I said. “It was pretty nice when I stayed there with Sooni. I really wouldn’t mind staying there again.”

“Where is it?” Amaranth asked.

“On the edge of this park,” I said. “Um, it’s kind of uptown.”

“Well…” Amaranth said. She was chewing her lip. “There’s nowhere in Enwich that really takes more than an hour to get to,” she said eventually, “if you have coach fare, and we were already taking spending that into account. Do you really want to stay there?”

“I wouldn’t mind it,” I said. It had been an idle thought, but as I thought about it more, I realized I really would like to have someplace even kind of familiar waiting for me to go back to after the club. In a night of new experiences, I needed something to cling to. “But if it doesn’t work out…”

“Let’s make a quick reflection and find out if they’ll be able to accommodate us, and when,” Amaranth said. “That way we’re not spending extra time and extra fare going back and forth. Do you have your mirror?”

“Did you bring my mirror?” I asked.

“I thought it would be in your coat pocket,” she said, frowning. “Well, there’s a pay mirror across the street.”

It turned out that the Palace did have rooms available, with the rack rate for the cheapest ones being eighteen silver a night. We could check in at eleven, which was still two hours away. Amaranth made a reservation in my name, and got the address and the coach number to take from the transit center.

“That’s insane,” I said when Amaranth ended the reflection.

“It’s six silver each,” Amaranth said. “For comfort and safety and peace of mind. Anyway, if we don’t make at least one gold in tips, I’ll pay the whole thing myself.”

“You don’t have to,” I said.

“Wait, do you mean if the tips don’t add up to one gold, or if you don’t get at least one actual standard weight gold coin among the other tips?” Ian asked.

“I meant the former, but you know what? I’ll make it the latter,” Amaranth said confidently. “I’m that confident in our ability to put on a pleasing performance. You should be, too, baby. Remember your first spanking?”

I blushed and couldn’t bring myself to say anything, agreeing or disagreeing.

“So here’s my thought: I doubt the library’s going to be open this early on a weekend, either, so we take the public coaches over to the Palace,” Amaranth said. “That will kill some time, and then we can hang out in their cafe or whatever until check-in. It’s possible the room will be available early, too… we can always check. You can get your shower, or bath as you like. We can find out the library hours and then make the decision when to come back over here to minimize the back-and-forth. Does that sound acceptable to everyone?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

“Sounds good,” Ian said.

The public coach let us off outside the park. I started looking around, trying to remember where exactly the Crystal Palace was. I was about to say that if we headed over to the restaurant, then I’d be able to find it, but Amaranth grabbed my hand and started walking.

“It’d be this way,” she said.

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“I got the address, remember?” she said, and sure enough, she led us right to it.

“Wow,” Ian said when he saw the colonial manor-style exterior. “I think we’re lucky to get a room in here for under half a gold.”

“It’s not as old as it looks,” I said.

“It’s not much younger, though,” Amaranth said.

Inside, Amaranth politely informed the man behind the desk that our party would be in the restaurant if our room became available.

As we sat in the restaurant, I hoped we didn’t have to wait long, because I felt awkward sticking to orange juice and water while Amaranth and Ian both chowed down. I wasn’t that envious of them… I agreed with Amaranth that an empty stomach would help curtail the chance of disaster… but I wondered if I wasn’t stretching the boundaries of restaurant propriety by not actually ordering food.

“Relax, sweetie,” Amaranth said. “You’re a customer of the inn, and it’s not like you’re taking up a table all by yourself.”

“What’s this jackass staring at?” Ian asked.

“Me,” Amaranth said pleasantly. She gave a little wave. I turned and looked to see who they were talking about. There was a man with a little bit of salt mixed with his pepper and weathered, angular features sitting at a table with a woman with auburn hair that looked dyed and more than a few laugh lines around her eyes. She waved back, and then gave the man a little push. He got up and walked over self-consciously.

“Hello there,” Amaranth said, smiling beatifically.

“Hi… uh, hi,” he said. “Listen, my wife and I are celebrating our anniversary…”

“Oh, aren’t you a sweet thing to ask for her?” Amaranth said. “But I’m sorry, I’m afraid I’m sort of engaged for the night.”

“Oh, alright,” he said. He sounded a little relieved.

“If you want to give me your contact information, I could maybe get back to you during the week,” Amaranth said.

“Oh, we won’t be here, but thanks,” he said, and he went back to his table.

“Oh, she looks disappointed,” Amaranth said. “Maybe if we get back early… no, I can do my duty to my goddess while doing my duty to you. Unless maybe you’d like an hour or two alone together in the wee hours?” She turned and looked at Ian, who was staring dumbfounded at the couple. “Yes, Ian, married people have sex, too,” she said.

“I… I know,” he said. “But… how old do you think they are?”

“No older than you’ll be one day, if you’re lucky,” Amaranth said. “And if you’re very lucky, you’ll still have a woman in your life who enjoys doing something different every once in a while.”

“Uh, yeah, I suppose,” Ian said.

We got into our room a bit after ten thirty. It was smaller than the room I’d shared with Sooni, with a detached bathroom instead of the big open plan one… but it did have a bed that would fit the three of us a lot more comfortably than the dorm bunks. Amaranth told me to take my time in the bathtub, and I did. I didn’t have any bubble stuff, but there was actually a little sachet of salts on the edge of the tub. They smelled vaguely floral… not my first choice, but not bad. The smell grew on me after an hour.

Amaranth was gone when I got out.

“Where’s Amaranth?” I asked Ian, who was watching TV.

“I’m pretending she’s getting ice.”

“But where is she?” I asked.

“Getting ice,” he said.

She got back about half an hour later, with a big smile on her face.

“If we have time and I remember it, I want to look at cards tomorrow,” she said. “I know it’s silly, but it feels rude giving someone a present without a card.”

“I never thought I’d say this, but can we please just get to the library?” Ian asked.

“Yeah, I’m feeling a lot better and now I want to do something fun,” I said.

“Sure, baby,” Amaranth said, and we headed out through the lobby.

The sun had come out a little bit. It wasn’t a lot warmer, but it was drier, and that helped.

“Now, as I understand it, the central branch of the library is only two streets down and three blocks over from the Tomb,” Amaranth said as we stepped outside.

“Or we could just go to that one,” Ian said, pointing across the street.

We looked, and saw a building in a kind of low-key temple or courthouse style that could have been any of a number of public edifices, but big letters engraved across the top of the portico read “ENWICH PUBLIC LIBRARY – C. H. LA BELLE BRANCH“.

“Well, the central branch would put us closer to where we need to be…” Amaranth said.

“We need to go to this one,” I said.

Friday: Family histories, party at the Tomb.

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“Hello, and welcome to the Crystal Palace,” the woman behind the desk said. “How may I help you?”

“Yeah, hi… I’d like to check in,” the man said.

“Certainly, sir,” the desk clerk said. “What’s the name?”

“Gregory… Michael,” he said.

“Is Gregory your first name or your last?”

“Agent Gregory, as I live and breathe!” a voice said from behind him. He turned to see the squat figure of a bald dwarf with a sable silver beard and a pair of platinum pince-nez spectacles. “I saw your name on the reservations list, but I couldn’t be sure it was the selfsame man.”

“Master Gebhard,” Gregory said.

“It’s Mr. Gebhard now,” the dwarf said. “I’m afraid I’m no longer the master of anything.”

“Oh, sorry… no offense meant,” Gregory said.

“None taken!” Gebhard said. He strode up towards the desk. “Allison, what room is Mr. Gregory down for?”

“312,” she said. “It’s a deluxe single.”

“Well, put him into a suite,” Gebhard said. “No charge.”

“Certainly, Mr. Gebhard,” Allison said. “How many keys do you need, Mr. Gregory?”

“Just two,” Gregory said. He turned to the dwarf. “What, you own this place or something?”

“Indeed I do,” Gebhard said. “I was most impressed with your handling of the Khersentide robbery, you know.”

“Were you?” Gregory asked.

“Certainly,” Gebhard said. “Most impressed.”

“That crime was never solved,” Gregory said.

“Still, you handled it impressively,” Gebhard said. “I hope the lack of progress was not held against you, at the bureau.”

“I think my superiors had a pretty fair understanding of the circumstances,” Gregory said.

The investigator and the dwarf had both reached the same conclusion about who was responsible for the theft of jewelry from Clan Sternbauer’s shop in Phale, but because Gregory had been made to wait for the man’s name and address to come from the dwarven embassy, the dwarves had gotten to him first and dealt with him in their own fashion. Because of their wealth and influence, the death had been ruled a suicide and was never officially connected to Clan Sternbauer or the robbery.

“How nice for you,” Gebhard said. He sniffed “My supervisors, on the other hand, were a tad less forgiving. If you’d care to meet me in the bar once you’re settled in, I should like to tell you about it.”

“I think I will,” Gregory said. He glanced at the timepiece on the desk. It was almost six. “Seven?”

“A most auspicious hour,” Gebhard said. “I will see you then.”

An hour later, after the Gregories had been installed in their suite and Mrs. Gregory had settled down for a nap, Mike Gregory made his way down to the bar. He found Gebhard waiting for him by a table, reading a book of runes.

“Ah, how very prompt,” Gebhard said, waving him over. “What would you like to drink? The mead, of course, is excellent, if you care for such things.”

“I’ll just have a gin and tonic, thanks,” Gregory said, and Gebhard had two brought out with startling speed.

“So, what brings you to the plains of Prax?” Gebhard asked.

“I’m not here for the bureau, if that’s what you mean,” Gregory replied. “I’m off-duty. The wife has family here. We’re on vacation.”

“How nice for you,” Gebhard said. “It is, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Gregory asked.

“Human marriage… odd custom,” Gebhard said, shaking his head. “I can never wrap my head around it. I last saw my wife in the year… let’s see, it’s 222 now, so that would be… 176. No, 166. I remember because that was the year the winter was… well, I didn’t ask you here to tell you about my wife.”

“So, they blamed you for the robbery?” Gregory asked. “You gave me the impression that the security arrangements were set by Clan Sternbauer, not individual store managers… er, masters.”

“True. But it’s almost a superstition, with us,” Gebhard said. “The failure happened on my watch. For me to remain would be to invite it to return.”

“So you were forced out.”

“I stepped down,” Gebhard said. “To avoid that sort of unpleasantness. I will do what needs doing, Mr. Gregory, but…”

“Sometimes you’ll do it twice,” Gregory said, thinking of a body with sixteen crossbow bolts in the back… as if eight wasn’t enough to kill any human.

“What? Ah, yes,” Gebhard said, and he chuckled. “The truth is, I have a most un-dwarven abhorrence of conflict. It’s why I only married the one time.”

“You told me you fought alongside Magisterion,” Gregory reminded him.

“Yes, well, as I said… I will do what needs doing,” Gebhard said, stroking his beard and drawing himself up to his full height. “I was a different dwarf then, as well… I don’t know as I would do the same thing today. I daresay if you live another two centuries, you might be surprised at the changes that come over you in that time.”

“I daresay you’re right,” Gregory said.

“The thing you have to realize, Mr. Gregory, is that Clan Sternbauer isn’t just a clan… it’s a corporation,” Gebhard said. “And the corporation holds a trademark on the Clan Sternbauer name. Young dwarves who are not inclined towards the jewelry business seek out another clan to pledge themselves to, but I am not such a young dwarf.”

“So now you really are just Gebhard,” Gregory said.

“I am afraid so,” the dwarf said, smiling ruefully beneath his silver whiskers. “Son of no father, of the Clan Unmentionable.”

“What happened with your father?”

“He opposed the human revolution,” Gebhard said. “Thought it would be more profitable to deal with an established power than with a bunch of raggedy colonies. He didn’t think the cross-ocean trade would survive, you see. We might have agreed to disagree, but when I enlisted in the human army, it was the final pebble. He disowned me.”

“And now your clan has, too.”

“Yes, for all intents and purposes. They gave me a severance package, of sorts,” Gebhard said. “A master’s wages for one hundred years.”

“That’s what you call generous,” Gregory said.

“Is it?” Gebhard said. “I may live another two centuries or more. I’m legally enjoined from working in the only trade that I know, and far too old to learn a new one. Do you know what it’s like to be a dwarf who’s out of work? What it feels like? I tell you, before I purchased this establishment, many was the time I considered taking elven leave of the world.”

“Elven leave?” Gregory repeated blankly.

Gebhard put a hand up by his neck and mimed the jerking of a noose.

“Oh, I got you,” Gregory said. “What stops you? The last time I saw you, you were all ready to throw yourself on a sword.”

“For my clan, Mr. Gregory, for my clan,” Gebhard said. “Such isn’t counted as suicide… dying to protect the clan is akin to falling in battle, whatever the circumstances. Ending one’s life for no greater cause, or out of boredom or dissatisfaction… well, when we call that ‘elven leave’, you must not imagine that it is because of the great esteem in which we hold the undying folk.”

“I didn’t figure,” Gregory said.

“It was in a room in this very inn that I finally resolved to do it,” Gebhard said. “I was going to hang myself. I climbed up on a table, threw a noose over the rafter, but before I could slip it on… well, the table was wobbly to begin with, and one of the legs broke.”

“And I suppose you took that as a sign from your gods that your life wasn’t over?” Gregory asked.

“Not a bit, Mr. Gregory,” Gebhard said. “I took it as a sign that the inn required new management. I had the funds available and, while my capitalizing on my skills in jewelry and metalworking was verboten, as we say, I had learned something of the arts of management, accounting, and the like in my time overseeing the Clan’s shop. I was able to turn this place around in no time… and of course, the first thing I did was to replace all of the rickety furniture.”

“I’m sure the next poor sap who goes to hang himself will thank you for that,” Gregory said.

“I daresay he won’t, but under the circumstances I’ll be inclined to forgive the discourtesy, ” Gebhard said.

“Can I ask a question?”

“Certainly.”

“I wouldn’t expect you’d be happy to see me,” Gregory said. “So what gives?”

“Well, now,” the dwarf said, tilting his head and peering at the investigator over the tops of his glasses. “Exactly how off-duty are you at the moment?”

“Completely,” Gregory said. “The case is closed and closed hard. Don’t think for a minute that you put one over on the imperial government, Gebhard. I could walk back into the bureau next month with your signed confession in the slaying of the golem-maker, and my boss would wipe his ass with it.”

“Then I don’t mind saying that I owe you a great deal,” Gebhard said. “Because the thief was discovered and punished, and the stolen merchandise recovered, I was able to part company with the clan amicably and with the funds which bankrolled my current venture. Without your help, your insight, I would have remained ignorant of the crucial blind spot in our security until the miscreant had made good his escape… and that would truly have been the end for me, and my apprentices would have been viewed as irredeemably tainted. But you solved the case, Mr. Gregory, and for that I will be forever grateful.”

Mike Gregory smiled.

“Say that again, Gebhard,” he said.

“I will be forever grateful,” Gebhard said.

“No, not that… the other part.”

“You solved the case?”

“Yeah,” Gregory said, his weathered face cracking a thin smile. “You know, I’ve been waiting ten years to hear somebody say that.”

Gebhard laughed.

“I’m sorry you didn’t get any official recognition…” he said.

“Oh, it wasn’t exactly a black eye,” Gregory said. “I got a reputation for sensitivity and discretion, if you can believe that… they actually attached me to the dwarven embassy for a while. It was a good career move, but I transferred out three years later. Being paid to not investigate things isn’t exactly my thing.”

“No, I can’t imagine that it is,” Gebhard said. He leaned forward over the table. “There’s another reason I’m grateful to you, you know.”

“Oh?”

“Your warning,” Gebhard said. “Against killing the boy… attacking a child isn’t ‘exactly my thing’, but because he was used in the commission of the crime, our way would have been to consider him an accomplice. Because I was able to point to your specific warning on the subject when I discussed the matter with the Clan, cooler heads prevailed. Even if you consider a thief’s murder to be justice thwarted, you should know that you accomplished some good that day.”

“I do consider it justice thwarted, actually,” Gregory said. “But I’m a realist. I have to be, in my job.”

“I expect that you do,” Gebhard said. “I send him a little money, from time to time… the boy, I mean.”

“That’s nice,” Gregory said.

“So, how long are you in town for?” Gebhard asked.

“Two weeks,” Gregory said.

“That long?”

“It’s been years since I had a real vacation and they practically threw me out the door,” he said.

“Well, I hope to see you again,” Gebhard said. “And my inn is yours for the duration. We have an excellent restaurant. Whatever you want, it’s on the house.”

“Really, that’s too much,” Gregory said. “The room’s enough.”

“You don’t want my hospitality?” Gebhard asked, bristling with mock umbrage.

“No,” Gregory said. “But with what I make at the bureau, I don’t want my wife getting used to it.”

City of Phale, Phalen Province (Year 212)

“Sorry sir, but we are currently closed for renovations,” the short, stocky doorman said. His uniform was trimmed with festive holiday garlands. Snow was on the ground and the whole of the high street was decked out with gold tinsel and red ribbons.

“I’m an investigator with the Imperial Bureau of Finding,” Mike Gregory said, holding up his credentials.

“Sorry sir, but we are currently closed for renovations,” the sentinel repeated. Gregory rolled his eyes and knocked on the door, then peered through the little glass panes set into it. He thought he saw some movement in the dim hallway. He held his badge up, hoping it would be recognized.

“Hello, little girl!” the doorman called cheerfully. “Blessed season to you!”

“Bess’d season!” a girl of about three or four called back.

The investigator rolled his eyes again, though he had to fight to keep from smiling. He had to fight even harder when he glanced to the side and saw that the golem had pulled a tiny gift box out of his coat and was offering it to the tyke. The kid was visibly torn, obviously terrified by the bearded figure looming over her but also tempted by the present.

“Tell the nice man ‘thank you’,” her mother said, snatching the box away and handing it to her kid. She looked more frightened of the automaton than her kid was.

The door opened as the doorman was giving more packages to a pair of children. A silver-bearded dwarf, bald as a boiled egg and wearing a pair of pince-nez spectacles, peered up at Gregory.

“Are you from the constabulary?” he asked.

“Investigator Mike Gregory, IBF,” Gregory said, showing his badge.

“Forgive me for saying, but you’re awfully tall for an imp,” the dwarf said, chuckling.

“I haven’t actually heard that one before,” Gregory said. “You going to let me in?”

“Are you here about… the robbery?” the dwarf asked, whispering the last word and looking at the doorman and the latest child, both a good five feet away, as if he thought they were in on it.

“No, I’m here to buy a boat,” Gregory said.

“And I haven’t heard that one before,” the dwarf said. “I’m sorry, this whole thing has me out of sorts. Do come in, Mr. Gregory.”

He pulled the door open further and stepped back so the detective could enter.

“You closed the store but you’re still doing your giveaway?” Gregory asked.

“In all honesty, I didn’t give it any thought when I closed the shop… and since I didn’t say to not give the gifts, of course it goes ahead and does it. All the same, it’s a very popular promotion,” he said. “The people around here have come to expect it. They bring their children into the city to see the window displays and get a little gift from Clan Sternbauer… it’s terrible that we were robbed, but why should I compound that by stealing away that bit of joy?”

“You’re all heart, Mr….”

“Gebhard,” he said.

“Son of…?”

“Just Gebhard,” the dwarf said. “Master Jeweler, fifth rank, of Clan Sternbauer. I’m sorry for my manner at the door… we aren’t used to dealing with outside authorities. Ordinarily, when items go missing, Clan Sternbauer treats it as a purely internal matter, but given the sheer scope of the transgression…”

“Mr. Gebhard, the Bureau is here to help, not to steal your secrets,” Gregory said. “Also, failure to report a crime can itself be a crime.”

“Well, naturally, which is why we conduct a thorough internal investigation to see if a crime has been committed,” Gebhard said, wringing his hands as he led Gregory through the second set of doors, past a duplicate of the uniformed figure outside, and into the shop. The interior of CS&C didn’t look like a place that had been robbed of millions of silver in merchandise. Everything was bright, shiny, and clean. There were no signs of violence, no visible damage, and plenty of extremely valuable-looking goodies hanging out in plain sight. “In this case, the evidence is unmistakable. A dwarven dozen items, all gone. I don’t know what it is about this time of year. I understand it’s supposed to be a festive season, but we get more trouble at Khersentide… did you know that last year, somebody cleft our Sam in twain with a greatsword?”

“Murder?” Gregory said. “I didn’t hear about that… if you kept something like that ‘an internal matter’…”

“Murder? Well, some of us might have felt it was like a murder, but in point of fact it was an act of vandalism. Sam is our faithful doorman, you see… we took it a little hard, as he’s one of the most visible symbols of our company. We sell little animated plushes on our weavesite, you know, and in the stores during the holidays.”

“I do remember hearing about that now,” Gregory said.

“The perpetrator was never found, unfortunately,” Gebhard said. “It was such a random, senseless thing…”

“Right,” the detective said. “Do you have a list of what’s missing?”

“Yes, right over here,” Gebhard said. He went through a gate back onto the raised platform behind the counter… this let him look the imperial agent in the eye as he spoke, Gregory noticed. Gebhard picked up a piece of parchment and held it out.

Gregory scanned it.

“Platinum… platinum… platinum… what the hell is palladium?”

“For most purposes, it might be thought of as platinum, but more so,” Gebhard said.

“So, what do these things have in common?”

“Well, they’re all quite small, and very valuable,” the dwarf said. “Though, they hardly rank among the most valuable objects in our collection. Certainly none of them are unique. None of them came out of a vault or a higher security area, though we say ‘higher security’ for a reason. Our default precautions are nothing to sneeze at.”

“What are they?” Gregory asked.

“Well, to begin with, do you see this glass?” the dwarf asked, tapping the top of the counter.

“Yes.”

“No, you don’t. What you see is metal that has been rendered ninety-nine percent invisible.”

“What kind of metal?”

“That’s a trade secret, but suffice it to say, the frame it’s in would give way long before a thief managed to so much as scratch it. As you can see, that hasn’t happened.”

“And if somebody were that determined?” the detective asked.

“Our first countermeasures kick in on the third violent blow,” Gebhard said. “They would be enough to render most thieves insensate. In any event, any contact with the cases or the merchandise after the shop has been locked down would sound an alarm in our living quarters below.”

“You mean, you live on the premises?”

“Yes. Well, I mean beneath them, of course.”

“How many people are in residence here, exactly?”

“Myself, and seven apprentices.”

“I’m going to need to talk to your apprentices,” Gregory said.

“They’re all waiting downstairs,” he said. “They know the shop is closed, but they don’t know why. But, Mr. Gregory, I can assure you they had nothing to do with it… once we’ve closed the shop for the day, the passage is closed. It can only be opened in an emergency, which requires the cooperation of three staff members and results in a silent alert to all of us.”

“Who would be able to disable that, apart from yourself?”

“Nobody, including myself,” Gebhard said. “And I check those wards and seals every day before opening. I double-checked them when I discovered the shortages.”

“So, nobody used the trapdoor,” Gregory said. “I assume the security on the external doors is even higher?”

“As high as the law allows,” Gebhard said. “That’s one reason we have double doors, actually… those laws allow much more persuasive protections on the inner set than they do on the ones that anybody could stumble against.”

“One reason?”

“I’m sure you could see the advantages during daytime operations,” Gebhard said. “Jewelry frequently leaves the protection of the cases in the normal course of the working day. If somebody does a runner, we have the ability to trap them in the hallway and subdue them through the vertical target access slots.”

“The what?”

“We used to call them ‘glory holes’, but apparently that term’s picked up another meaning in the past century,” Gebhard said. “We also have surveillance balls recessed in the ceiling above the entryway. They record all activity in front of the store and in the hallway. My review of last night’s impressions revealed nothing, though you’re welcome to check it yourself.”

“Thanks, we will,” Gregory said. “Mr. Gebhard, not to be indelicate, but you do realize that with this level of security, any robbery is pretty much going to have to be an inside job?”

“Well, of course I know that,” the dwarf sputtered. “That’s why we usually try to handle things ourselves… but that’s usually somebody being imprudent during the day, when money and jewelry are out in the open and changing hands. I can’t see how one of my apprentices could be involved in this.”

“Okay, let’s leave that alone for the moment,” Gregory said. “We know the doors weren’t forced, and neither were the jewelry cases. Teleportation? Phasing? Dimensional gate?”

“All quite impossible,” Gebhard said. “And anybody who tried would get a nasty surprise.”

“What sort of surprise?”

“I’m afraid I can’t reveal that,” Gebhard said. “You have to understand, I’m hardly comfortable discussing our security precautions even to the extent that I’ve done so far.”

“Do you think the Imperium is going to rob your store?”

“Under the present government? No,” Gebhard said. “Clan Sternbauer has a wonderful relationship with the Imperial Republic… in fact, I personally fought alongside Magisterion I. Which brings me to my point: human governments tend to change at an alarming pace. We’ll play along with the current regime, but we don’t expect it to last forever.”

“Mr. Gebhard, when our office received the report, we wanted to get a whole team of investigators down here,” he said. “Forensic enchanters, diviners, the whole works… but we had to go through the dwarven embassy, and they said the most we could send was a single agent, with no magical sensitivity. What I’m trying to say here is that we’re bending over backwards to respect your privacy here… and that isn’t a great position to catch crooks from.”

“I’m sorry, but my hands are tied,” Gebhard said. “I did anticipate this need on your part, and have sent word to my superiors, but I cannot give any more specific information about our magical protections until I receive that word.”

“What if I come back with an imperial decree ordering your compliance?”

“Then I will compose a brief note to my grandchildren and ask to borrow your sword for a moment,” Gebhard said. “It will be messy, but poison is somewhat unreliable when ingested by my kind.”

“Are you for real?”

“Completely. Mr. Gregory, I will not get my clan in ‘hot water’ with the Imperium by breaking its laws, but neither will I dishonor the laws of my own people,” Gebhard said. “For both of our conveniences, I suggest you wait until I hear from headquarters. In the meantime, perhaps we should see what you can come up with based on the information available? Because I can assure you, if you did know the scope of our protections, you would agree that it’s not possible for an item to have been removed from the premises by means such as teleportation or extradimensional transit.”

“No? What about the Khersentide presents?” Gregory asked. “I didn’t see any bulges in Sam’s coat.”

“Ah. That. Hmm… well, you’ve hit on the one exception,” Gebhard said. “Yes, for our gift giveaway, we attach an extradimensional storage pouch to the inside of his jacket. Patrons… and employees… are stopped in the hallway if they’re carrying similar devices, but the spell screens for Sam’s sack specially.”

“So where is he, at night?” Gregory asked. “Sam the Doorman. Does he stand there all night, does he join you in the basement, does he go home to Samantha and their little Samlings?”

“Oh, no, he comes inside with his brother when we close. They straighten up after we go downstairs… wipe the display cases down, clean whatever jewelry’s been recently handled, and so on. It really is an ingenious system. We used to have one dwarf stay behind and do the cleaning, but there was too much temptation and distrust.”

“That means Sam can touch the display cases without setting off any wards?”

“Well, yes, I suppose ‘he’ can,” Gebhard said slowly. “I didn’t think of that, of course… as much as we have a tendency to imbue him with a personality, he is, after all, only a golem.”

“So, what exactly stops Sammy from slipping a few items in his extradimensional pouch?”

“Are you serious, Mr. Gregory? Sam is mindless… he follows orders and that’s all he does.”

“What if somebody ordered him to?” Gregory asked. “Would he do it then?”

“That isn’t among the orders he recognizes,” Gebhard said. “Our ‘Sams’ are made to exacting specifications. All of our stores use two models: the outdoor one, which is both more durable and more versatile, and the indoor one. Neither model recognizes the Master Jeweler or his apprentices as their owner and master, but instead are given a specific and precise set of instructions by their maker. These instructions include a directive to follow certain sets of orders when given by a Clan Sternbauer & Company employee, and stealing from the company most certainly does not fall within those parameters.”

“Who is that maker?”

“Each location has one golem maker who is engaged… quite literally, as they are under a geas of secrecy about our specs… to produce Sams,” Gebhard said.

“And yours?”

“That would be… well, that would be among the information I’ve requested permission to release,” Gebhard said.

“Really?” Gregory asked. “It hardly seems like it would be a breach of secrecy, if the golem maker’s not able to talk about the Sams’ construction or directives, anyway… in fact, it almost sounded like you were about to tell me.”

“Yes, well, I was, but then I thought better of it,” Gebhard said. “It’s really not the sort of thing I can discuss without permission.”

“Are you sure?” Gregory asked.

“Quite sure.”

“Well, think hard about that,” Gregory said. “And maybe talk to your people about expediting your request, because I can get an imperial decree in a matter of hours and I’d hate to see you punching your ticket over something as small as this.”

“I hardly think it’s important for you to talk to our golem maker, Mr. Gregory,” Gebhard said. “We will be happy to investigate this facet of the matter ourselves, internally…”

“You realize that if you make an act of retribution against an Imperial citizen, on Imperial soil, that’s not only a crime but possibly an act of war, Mr. Gebhard?”

“Sir, I have no idea what you’re insinuating,” Gebhard said. “Why don’t you come back this afternoon? I’m sure I’ll have the go-ahead to give you all the information you need by then… I can have my apprentice notify the bureau the instant it comes in.”

“Yeah, sure,” Gregory said. “But remember what I said: an act of war.”

“I’ll take that under advisement.”

“Take this under advisement, too… there’s an old human saying: nobody kills a kid at Khersentide and gets away with it.”

“I definitely haven’t heard that one.”

A message for Mike Gregory arrived at the Bureau headquarters at one minute past noon. It contained the name and address of a golem maker and a note that the clan chiefs had agreed with the investigator that this information was not crucial to withhold. Gregory headed to the enchanter’s home workshop with sirens blazing, but he was too late to prevent the golem maker’s death via sixteen crossbow bolts to the back.

Many campaign contributions later, this death was ruled a suicide.

The fourteen stolen pieces of jewelry were never officially recovered. They certainly weren’t found on the golem maker’s body, and if they had turned up back at the store from which they had been stolen there would have been some awkward questions. But as Gebhard had noted, none of the pieces were unique, and items identical to them were certainly available at the other CS&C locations up and down the eastern seaboard.

The unfortunate golem maker’s six-year-old son… who, in what can only officially be described as a freakish coincidence, had been the first person to receive a gift box from Sam the morning of the robbery… happened to be in his father’s workshop at the time of his death, but thankfully he was sound asleep… very sound asleep. He was physically unharmed, and given to the care of his mother.

Early the following year, the firm of Clan Sternbauer & Company bought the exclusive services of a single golem maker and moved production of their trademarked “Sam The Doorman” golems under him.