She snorted. She wasn’t terribly maternal. She was, however, tribal, and if Severn could pass her subtle and unofficial tests, she would accept him as something far more valuable to her than family. Those tests, however, weren’t Helmat’s current problem. He glanced at En, and En nodded; they retreated once again to Helmat’s office.
There, Helmat gestured the mirror into its wakeful state. “Security services, Saidh Mankev. Put me through if he’s available.” Although mirrors were flat and small, this one now appeared to bristle. Helmat almost groaned. “That was fast.”
The head of Imperial Security was a small, tidy man; the set of his shoulders matched the long, narrow width of his face—which seemed to have had any expression leeched out of it permanently. He wasn’t a young man, and had probably never been young, even at birth; he had that air about him.
Although he had served as the head of Imperial Security for much of Helmat’s tenure, age, like any other sign of humanity, seemed to avoid Saidh. His hair was still jet-black, his back unstooped.
He was respected by the Halls of Law, which balanced the general rage he was almost certain to engender whenever the Halls of Law crossed paths with the Imperial Security services. Saidh could not be bribed. He could barely be reasoned with; he could not be moved by any command that did not come directly from the Emperor himself.
“Lord of Wolves,” Saidh now said. “I am delighted to hear from you.” His tone and expression conveyed no such delight. Helmat was, however, surprised to hear what might have passed for sarcasm in a different man. “Tha’alani investigation of one crime has led, indirectly, to information involving another—a crime, or a series of crimes, that is now two decades old. The Hawks had given up on the case,” he added, in case this wasn’t clear to Helmat.
Of course it was clear. Ybelline had come because the Tha’alanari was already in chaos. Whatever Timorri had been charged with investigating, he had been prepared to face. He had therefore faced something unexpected—and damaging.
Helmat shut down that line of thought as unprofitable, because Ybelline was right: he was overprotective because she was a young woman—and they seemed to get younger every passing year. A young woman who would become the leader of her people had to be able to face danger and survive.
“You will have heard, given your earlier request of Garadin, that Timorri has retired from the service.”
Helmat nodded, grim now.
“Two other members of the Tha’alanari have requested indeterminate leaves of absence. I have granted both requests.”
“You’ve found our Tha’alani killer.”
“Technically, no. We’ve found one of his mob.” There was a weighted pause. “Is Elluvian with you?”
“He is. Is this a case for Elluvian?”
“Yes. Ybelline is with you.”
“She is not with us at the moment.”
“She has not left the premises.”
“By law, Elluvian does not interact with the Tha’alani.” As, Helmat thought, with growing frustration, Saidh knew well. “If you believe this job requires Elluvian, you’d better start filing paperwork now. The Emperor is willing to grant exemptions to both the Wolves and the Security services—but the need for those exemptions is to be documented.”
“And you are not doing the documentation.”
“Not unless it becomes relevant, no. What happened?”
“We asked for the examination of a prisoner in our jails. Timorri was the examiner sent. His search through the specific set of crimes we wished reviewed led to a crime that we were unaware the man had committed. You know that two decades ago, Tha’alani who stepped outside of the Tha’alani quarter—or who lived too close to its less guarded edges—were murdered. The murders were not quick. They were also not committed by a single person; a crowd of mortals engaged in the torture and degradation of their victims.”
Helmat nodded.
“The Hawks determined this much. What they did not determine, however, was that the crowd was not composed entirelyofmortals.”
“There was a Barrani present,” Helmat said, voice flat.
“There was a Barrani present, yes. This is not proof, of course. But the memories of our criminal made absolutely clear that the Barrani was not simply present; he had engineered both the kidnapping and the creation of the mob that carried out the crime. All of the crimes,” he added. “This is one of the few cases of serial murder in which we are absolutely certain we know the names of all of the victims. Not that the perpetrators made any attempt to hide their crimes.
“Our detainee did not provide us with a Barrani name, but we believe Elluvian might at least recognize the target if he is shown what Timorri witnessed.”
“Be that as it may, Elluvian does not speak with the Tha’alani in that fashion. If you have issues with that, take them up with the Emperor.”
En cleared his throat. Loudly. “Gentlemen. While I find it oddly comforting to listen to the two of you, if your target is Barrani, you waste time we do not have.”
Saidh nodded. “We wish to impart information about the target to you in the most efficient fashion possible.”
Elluvian’s smile was slender. He chose to ignore Saidh’s wishes. “Tell me where the bodies were found. Do not force me to make inquiries of the Hawks. It will spoil both my day and theirs.”