Severn looked to the Wolflord, who nodded, expression almost completely absent from his face.
“You think the criminal the Tha’alani witnessed was operating under someone else’s orders.”
Helmat nodded. Elluvian didn’t answer Severn’s question.
“You are perhaps aware of informants,” Helmat said, when Elluvian continued to be silent.
Severn nodded.
“I do not know if you have ever chosen to work in that capacity; it is often the choice of people who are not otherwise a power in their own right.”
“I know of them.”
“Informants can play both sides of the table if they’re careful, ambitious, or stupid.”
“Informants didn’t kill people.”
“No, not generally. En probably thinks the man responsible for the murder you witnessed via Ybelline to be the equivalent of an informer. He is not a man who is highly valued by the court; he is unlikely to technically be a member of the High Court, if I judge En’s actions correctly. Lords of the High Court lose some prestige when they deal directly with all but a handful of mortals; they therefore have servants who do so in their stead.
“The men who became a small mob at the encouragement of the Barrani would not be considered among that handful of mortals. It is possible that the criminal in question was operating on his own, out of petty boredom—but En clearly feels that’s unlikely.”
Severn bowed his head for a long moment. When he lifted it, both men were watching him. “Was the command of execution for the Barrani indirectly witnessed by Ybelline?”
The Wolflord and the Barrani exchanged a brief glance.
“What do you think?” Lord Marlin asked.
Severn shook his head. “It’s not what I think that matters. I don’t have enough information—”
“I told you,” Helmat then said to Elluvian.
Elluvian nodded. Anger—if it had been genuine—left the lines of his face. “The Emperor’s writ of execution is not for the underling, although the underling has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder. My goal at the moment is to find that underling before the investigation becomes common knowledge.
“We do not,” he continued, at Severn’s expression, “have recourse to the Tha’alani; it is not, and has never been, required. The writ of execution itself follows Barrani law in some fashion: it is the man who was responsible for giving the orders to that underling that the Emperor has now condemned.”
“You know who he is.”
“I have suspicions, yes. They are not certainties—and even if they were, I would not speak of them in this office. Those certainties are covered by the laws of exemption.Anyaction that we take in this case will be covered by those laws.”
“Except the execution.”
“Even that, Wolf Cub. It is why this is purely a matter for the lone Barrani Wolf the Emperor employs. You do not understand the necessity for this particular political dance because you have never seen the Barrani go to war.
“We have.”
“We?”
Elluvian didn’t offer any further explanation.
CHAPTER NINE
“I would like to apologize for what I am about to do to you,”Elluvian said.
On this fourth day of their partnership, it had been decided that no further murder sites would be examined for now. Severn suspected that Elluvian considered the prior three days—with the exception of a visit to an old man in a shop that saw no custom—a waste of time.
“It was not a waste of time,” Elluvian said, when Severn made this clear. “I am forced, by the Wolflord’s dictate, to take a mortal partner.”
“There are no Barrani Wolves.”