“I think he’s trying to remove Moran’s wings somehow. I think he intends to wear them himself.”
* * *
Clint’s eyes were almost black. He couldn’t look more dangerous unless he were bristling with weapons.
“Moran said that when an Aerian is made outcaste, their wings dissolve.”
Clint’s nod was controlled. It had to be. She’d seen him annoyed and irritated in her time with the Hawks. She had never seen him angry. Not like this.
“I’m not sure that’s true.”
“It is true for the Aerian. The wings dissolve; they are no longer wings. They have no right to the power of flight, and it is taken from them,” Clint said.
“Is the bracelet used in this ceremony? Moran was a child the only time she saw it. I’m not sure she paid attention to the particulars; the horror of watching wings dissolve had all her attention.”
“The bracelet is used. It is not worn, unless thepraevolois present.”
Moran had been present. She hadn’t been wearing the bracelet. Kaylin said nothing. But she had her answer now. She frowned.
“You’re thinking.”
“I am. Someone gave the man who took control of Margot the bracelet. The bracelet, a feather, and a collar.”
Clint stiffened further, which shouldn’t have been possible. “A collar.”
“Yes. Is a collar part of the regalia? Moran didn’t seem to recognize it.”
“If it was taken to the Oracle, it’s significant. A collar is wornbythe traitor during the ceremony. You kept the bracelet. You gave it to Moran. Did you keep the feather and the collar?”
“Technically, no.”
“Are they here?”
“In the evidence lockers, probably. The bracelet seemed important.”
“You’re going to think the collar’s important as well, if you’re investigating the ceremony of exclusion.” He headed toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
“The lockers. The Hawklord is going to want the evidence in hand by the end of your meeting.”
* * *
The Hawklord was grim, dark-eyed and high-winged. Clint had apparently gone to the evidence lockers and circumvented Hanson; he was in the Tower when the doors opened.
But so was Moran. Since Moran was there, Bellusdeo was also there. She was still wearing scale armor. Severn and Kaylin were the late arrivals, and they interrupted what was only barely a conversation from the sound of raised voices. Those voices stopped abruptly as the doors rolled open and all eyes turned to the newcomers.
“Private. Corporal. Please join us,” the Hawklord said, voice heavy with sarcasm.
“We made an appointment, sir.”
“Yes. You were the only people considerate enough to do so, given the current political fracas. I have had to put off a mirror meeting with the Caste Court—the Aerian Caste Court. Until I have that meeting, I have had to put off a meeting with the leader of the human Caste Court. And until I have endured both, I am putting off a report to the Eternal Emperor.”
No one in the room except Clint and Kaylin seemed worried about either the Caste Courts or the Emperor.
The collar was not like the bracelet. It wasn’t obviously valuable in the same way. Kaylin had found it creepy and disgusting, and hadn’t bothered to evaluate either reaction. To Kaylin, collar implied one of two things: pet, which was the cheery one, and slave, which was not. And she had seen people in collars before, in her early life in the fiefs.
“Do you know what this is?”