He checked the harness methodically, examining the whole rig, every buckle and billet and length of strap, and I watched his hands and said nothing. Kailin had checked it herself. She'd told me so. And even though she blamed herself for not being thorough enough, I knew she had done what she'd been supposed to do. Kailin never half-assed anything.
Whatever had taken her out of the sky, it wasn't a faulty buckle she'd failed to inspect.
"Well," Amik said at last, and turned to me. "At a glance, I'd write this off as chafe and brittleness. The billet failed where billets always fail, under load, at the fold. Nothing here a board of inquiry would look at twice."
That wasn't what I wanted to hear. "Those saddles are inspected daily because riders' lives depend on them. Wear and tear is taken into account, and each strap and buckle is markedwith the date it was attached so it can be replaced well before it wears out. This shouldn't have happened."
"I agree." He picked it up again and held it to the light so I could see the broken edge. "Look at how it's gone. That's old leather's failure, dry and crazed all through the grain. And this isn't old leather. I checked the marks. This saddle is relatively new, and all the straps were replaced four months ago and kept oiled. They had no business being this brittle. The leather should've bent and stretched before it ever broke. This snapped like a winter twig."
Something cold settled in my chest. "Meaning?"
"Meaning, either there was a flaw in the leather, or something was put on it to make it deteriorate faster. A solvent, an agent that drinks the life out of the leather and leaves what looks like honest aging. I don't know of any such solvents that can work fast, but over time, even simple chemicals can do enough damage. Not oiling it properly can also hasten its wear and tear. Kailin checked the straps when her dragon was on the ground, and they might have looked perfectly fine, but then when gravitational forces put a strain on them, they snapped."
Whatever had weakened that leather, it had nothing to do with Kailin. Riders inspected their own rigs before every flight, but the oiling and upkeep belonged to the maintenance crew, not the rider.
"Can you prove it?" I asked.
He shook his head. "Whatever it was is gone now. All I have is a hunch."
"Your hunch is good enough for me. I'm going to interrogate everyone who had access to this saddle."
He gave me a sympathetic look. "That would be the entire maintenance crew. It's not like specific people are assigned to specific saddles."
"Perhaps that needs to change, so when a saddle fails, we know who to hold accountable."
"That's not a bad idea." He wiped his hands on a rag. "I'll run every test I have, but I'll likely find nothing. The inquiry will rule it wear and want of maintenance, and they'll put the blame on Kailin, who did everything right."
"They wouldn't dare blame the Hero of Elucia for neglecting her duties, and if they do, they will have to deal with me."
Onyx stirred in my mind then, the way he usually did when he sensed I was irate.
"I'm fine, Onyx. I'm investigating the saddle failure."
"I know. I have a message for you from Veynathei, or rather for Kailin. She is offering to have Kailin as her rider until Morgateth returns so she can keep up her training."
"That's a great idea, but why didn't she contact Kailin directly?"
"She wanted to get your approval first," Onyx said. "As Kailin's flight instructor."
"I'm all for it. If Alar doesn't return, it might become a permanent arrangement."
"He'll return," Onyx said. "And so will Morgateth. Nyxath says to leave him alone. He will return when he processes the shame and guilt."
"I'll speak with Kailin," I told him, and turned back to Amik. "Let me know when you find something, and even if you don't."
"I will." He clapped me on the back. "And don't be a stranger. We miss you at the card table."
"Let me know when you are having the next game," I said, knowing that I probably wouldn't attend.
Between my regular duties, training Kailin, and investigating sabotage and assassination attempts, I didn't have the time or the mental capacity for friendly card games.
I made my way to where I knew I'd find Kailin this time of day, which was in Saphir's office.
After the cadet manning the front desk in the shaman's antechamber let me in, I found Kailin standing in the middle of the large office, reciting the ten main Precepts of Truth.
Moki was draped along the edge of Saphir's desk, watching her with his strangely human eyes and waving his tail in sync with Kailin's cadence. Or maybe it was the other way around, and she was taking her cues from his tail.
It was hard to tell.
