hawk & sable

CHAPTER FIFTEEN,

HAWK & SABLE | FIFTEEN

IRINA LAID DOWN the information she had: yes, those paintings must have been the one used to smuggle the messages. No, she didn't know how those had gone into Jinyao's hands, though she was already sending people out to investigate.

Ciri noted that the princess met not her, Danna or Io's eyes during the entire briefing. She knew better than to believe she'd find a way to keep the two out of Melique, though. Practicality always won for the girl, and even Ciri must admit the advantages of having two more skilled agents in Melique, especially ones who could fit in and seem helpless so easily. Not that she thought the risk was worth it.

But maybe that was her heart speaking, not her head. She was having a bit of a problem separating the two, this week or two. That always happened when she worked on more personal cases.

Perhaps that was why Irina set her and Io on investigating the area again, instead of dispatching her to question Jinyao's neighbours and the workers at the Treasury. They set off with the Wolves and Asteria who had been set on the latter, but separated once they had arrived.

"I want names of people she was close with," Io, demanding as always, muttered as her dark eyes scanned the empty courtyard.

"Nan Zhuying. Qiao Jiaqi. Hua Lin. The minister."

"No one interesting. Got it. She must have hidden their association, then."

"Which points to her at least being partially aware of what she was doing," Ciri pondered aloud.

Io gave her the stink eye. "Stop trying to find ways to make her innocent and help me out. They've let this place stay relatively untouched, and everyone has been asked to enter through the back entrances. There might still be something here."

The blood had been cleaned up. The spot Jinyao had laid was marked out, but other than that, there was nothing to suggest that this had been the venue of a bloody homicide. Io searched the bushes, glanced at the lake.

"You're trying to find the weapon," Ciri guessed.

"A knife," she said. "Someone strong wielded it. A man, most likely. No one seemed to have heard anything from what we know, so it was fast. She was either too shocked to cry out, or was kept quiet by... something. No drugs in her system. No wounds on her body except the killing blow."

"She had no combat experience from what I know."

"All evidence points to that." In moments like these, it was difficult to match this serious, professional Iolanthe with the carefree young girl that was usually presented to the world. "Asteria said she came from the tower?"

"With work left half-finished on her desk," Ciri confirmed. "What do you make of that?"

"Lured out. This was a message for us." What Laurence had said, then. Ciri sighed. "Don't know what they were trying to convey, though," Io continued with a frown. "Messages are meant to be clear. This is a bad message. It just pisses us off and makes us more anxious to hunt them down." If that was meant to point out to her that the mole wasn't as clever as they thought, Ciri disagreed. She stayed quiet, letting Io's mind wander. She was an audience here and no more.

"Skilled enough to come in with no one batting an eye. Or that familiar. Though considering we've gotten nothing from the people so far, I'd say the former." Io's finger pointed towards the grand door. "They come in here at... around nine o'clock, I'd say. Manage to find Ai guniang in the tower— I'll look for signs of traipsing around if I were you, to determine just how familiar the killer must have been with her. Goes in, talks to her, convinces her to abandon her work for a few moments and lures her out here, into the centre of a courtyard."