“What the hell are you two doing here?” I asked them.
“I called them in, Ambassador,” Councilman Murdock said. “I also scried King Raza, but he said he trusts you to handle the situation.”
“He's good like that,” I continued to stare at Tiernan.
Tiernan looked completely healed. He should be, there were healers in Fairy who could bring you back from Death's door without even a bruise on your knuckles to show that you had knocked. Tiernan was dressed in human clothes, as was Bress and the rest of my Guard, and he looked amazing in them. That wasn't surprising either, Tiernan looked amazing in everything, and in nothing at all. What surprised me was the way he stared at me like there was no one else in the room... and I was wearing nothing.
“Your father sends his love,” Bress said into the awkward silence.
“Thank you, Cousin,” I waved a hand to some empty seats at the table. “Please, join us.”
Bress nodded and sat, but Tiernan took up a position directly behind my chair. The chairs to either side of me were already taken by Killian and Conri, and I guess Tiernan didn't want to sit further down the table. He crossed his arms and looked to Murdock. Cat got up to whine at Tiernan until he relaxed enough to pet her. Then she plopped on the ground between us, making it clear that she considered herself to be my guardian first and foremost. Tiernan gave her a little smile.
“Now that we're all here,” Murdock sat, “we can get to it. I don't want to waste any time. I know how important a fresh scene is when using psychometry.”
Killian perked up, “You have someplace for me to investigate?”
“Yes, but let me explain what we've discovered first,” Murdock held up a hand.
“Of course,” Killian said. “Sorry for the interruption.”
“We did a background check on the human who was elf-shot,” Murdock waved away Killian's apology. “And we found something suspicious, so we delved deeper.”
The human council members were all staring at me with grim countenances. All except for Councilman Simmel, of course. He gave me a wink and a wave.
“He was a weaponsmith,” Murdock went on. “Not exactly a common profession.”
“He actually forged weapons?” I asked.
“Swords and axes and stuff?” Killian added.
“Yes,” Murdock nodded. “And arrows.”
We all went still.
“Fuck!” Killian cursed.
“What sort of arrows?” Tiernan asked in a deadly voice.
“Now that is the correct question to ask, Lord Hunter,” Karmen set his sharp stare on Tiernan. “Well done. See me after the meeting for your prize.”
“Iron arrows,” Murdock dropped the bomb, and every fairy in the room gasped. “He was one of our suppliers. We go through intermediaries, so we didn't catch on to his identity at first. Mr. Morris supplied us with an assortment of iron weapons, including arrows, though that was rare. Extinguishers usually deal with fairies one-on-one. We haven't been to war in centuries, and arrows are range weapons.”
“So Morris was targeted on purpose,” Killian said.
“It would seem so,” Murdock agreed. “But we haven't found any connection to the previous victims. They may have simply been killed to mask the reason for the attack on Mr. Morris.”
I heard what Murdock was saying, but it was background noise to my own thoughts. I knew about extinguisher weapons because I'd been an extinguisher. What I was processing was something that had never occurred to me; the possibility that an extinguisher weapon could be used by a fairy.
“It's the perfect weapon for one fairy to use against another,” I said softly.
My voice may have been quiet, but everyone heard me. The fairies all stared at me in horror. I looked to them as Murdock hung his head. He already knew what I was about to say.
“The shaft can be made of aluminum,” I explained, “completely safe for a fairy to handle. If used carefully, the arrowhead need never be touched. And there are crossbows now which can shoot an arrow with nearly the same strength and accuracy of a gun.”
“And they can be fired rapidly,” Murdock added. “It's basically a bullet that can kill fairies, and be used by them.”
“I don't know why the extinguishers don't carry them,” Councilman Ray Teagan muttered.
