“Missing from where?”
“Outside of the west warrens. Assumed missing in the warrens. The Barrani Hawks searched, but he couldn’t be found, dead or alive.”
“What is he doinghere?”
“That would be the question.”
Bellusdeo frowned. “There are others like this boy in the wall?”
Kaylin could no longer see anything. “There were.”
“How many?”
“I didn’t count. At least a dozen. Probably more.”
“Probably?”
“They weren’t completely distinct. It was like looking at a crowd made of stone.”
“Were they all human?”
“I’m not sure.”
“All, or almost all,” Severn said at about the same time. “There may have been Barrani, but they were at the back of the crowd, not the forefront.”
The familiar returned to Kaylin’s shoulder, where he wrapped himself around her neck like a limp shawl. When she poked him, he swiveled one eye balefully in her direction. “Sorry, buddy, but—the wing would be helpful.”
He pushed himself into his relaxed seated position and lifted his wing. He didn’t even hit her with it first.
She then began a slower examination of the wall. “What do you think the wall is?”
Severn shrugged. “At the very least, a convenient way to get rid of people.”
“If it’s just that, it seems like a big outlay of magic and planning.”
“Corpses breed questions. Questions get the Halls of Law involved. Enough deaths, enough questions, and the Imperial Mages might be called. There. Stop there.”
She did. She looked through Hope’s wing.
“Barrani,” she said. “I don’t recognize him.”
“No. You don’t have to recognize him. I believe there’s another—the farthest one back. The figure is small, but the features appear distinct, even given the size.”
“How many of those missing persons reports involved people from the warrens?” Kaylin asked the Dragon, the closest thing to Records on hand.
“Not many people who live in the warrens visit the Halls of Law,” the Dragon replied. “I begin to understand why Mandoran is so foolish in his desire to give his name—and the power that implies—to you. I find it intensely frustrating not to be able to see what you’re seeing; you are clearly making decisions based on it.”
“Donotgive me the name I didn’t take when it was clear to me. I like my head more or less where it is.”
This annoyed Bellusdeo, which wasn’t Kaylin’s intent, but the subtext—that the Emperor would be angry and that Kaylin wished to avoid this—was clear. The Dragon exhaled smoke.
“People have been reported as missing from the warrens. If I can’t see what you can see—and I don’t suggest that your familiar attempt to breathe upon the entire wall—I can’t tell you if any of them are here.”
Kaylin nodded. “I think the two Barrani might be significant.”
“More so than the mortals?”
“To Candallar, yes. And probably to the High Court, as well. We need to go back to the Halls.”
