Reag the stairs again, Gregory and most of the Watch had vanished, leaving only Malstein and a few Watch officers.

  “I wonder if they’re the only ones left,” I said quietly as I struggled dowairs, ign the burst of pain traveling up my leg with each step. “Outside of Lord Montague and Lady Karsin still locked up ohird floor.”

  “I sidered getting up there when we first entered,” Tagashin whispered. “But the dragon spirit would have detected me simply, and I’m not taking that on.”

  I couldn’t fault the Kistune for that. If the vessel they’d made for it to inhabit were any indication of its power, it would be a formidable oppo.

  “I have ideas,” I muttered. “Ohat might require some cooperation ter. It may be possible to get to the Montague’s third floor. There aren’t any doors for the rooms you reach through windows, but if I were to get up there-”

  Malstein was ing over now, and I stopped talking. It wouldn’t do to discuss exactly how I po break the w in front of him.

  “Miss Harrow,” Malsteied us as he met us at the foot of the stairs. “Lregory mentio, but it appears you’ve found Mister Voltar and Doctor Dawes.”

  “Indeed I have,” I said. “Locked up and tied up inside a closet.”

  “They tied you up?” Malstein asked, frowning. “That seems pretty merciful of them.”

  “It was,” Tagashin said with a smile I should have known long before didn’t fit Voltar. Damnable Gmour.

  “They seemed pretty mixed on it themselves,” Dawes said hurriedly. “As far as I could tell, they were worried about the deaths beied by Lord Montague’s spirit.”

  Curious. It hadn’t detected the previous deaths.

  “I attest it's actually them,” I said. “Although I won’t pass up using the paralytic to test them.”

  “The paralytic?”

  I quickly outlihe method I’d discussed with the others.

  “Maybe you should stab them with it,” Malstein said, eyeing the two of them.

  “It’s them,” I assured him. “Not that I don’t think the suggestion has , but I think it’s better used testing those who aren’t aware of it. Otherwise, they fake the paralysis.”

  “That could work,” Malstein said. “A bit of an annoyance if they aren’t a ger to deal with. And expensive depending on how much that paralytic cost to make.”

  “It is,” I admitted. “We do have one hand to test methods on at least. Where is Mr. Hawkins?”

  “Locked inside a wagon,” Malstein said. “With two full squads of Watch keeping an eye on him. Even if he regains his shapeshifting, they’ll notify the rest of us and try to dey him as much as possible. Detective, doctor, while I’m gd to see you are both safe, I o borrow Miss Harrow fht now.”

  “Me?” I asked.

  “You, yes. Something has arisen that I need your specifiput on. Not through the front door, the side one.”

  Well, that was very suspicious. I eyed the number of Wat the room. None of them looked like they weren’t used to the uniform, and there were ten in here besides Malstein. What were the ces they were all gers? Not very high.

  “I don’t see any reason to refuse if you would excuse me, Doctor, Detective,” I said, bidding my farewells and then limping after Malstein as he moved towards the kit hallways I’d traveled down with Gregory.

  “Before we get too far, Captain, I have a question,” I said as he slowed his pae. “I would appreciate some time to interrogate Mr. Hawkins? I don’t need much time, but I’d appreciate some to question him.”

  Malstein sidered it for a few seds. “Under rules set by the Watch, I could arra.”

  “Of course,” I replied cheerily. “No torture without involving the good el Colgraves being invited.”

  “He left an impression on you, didn’t he?” Malstein said as he resumed his walk.

  “Captain, if you remove someone’s fingers, it’s hard not to.”

  ***

  Five bodies hung ireet.

  An archway of marble led to Lord Montague’s estate, a gate of metal bars that could be used to trol access to his little fiefdom iy. White, pure, imperious. No longer any of those things.

  Five bodies hung from the pristine archway, ropes running over the top. They hadn’t died from it. They cked the signs, meaning they’d been staged here afterward.

  The air was cold out, nipping at my exposed skin as a slight breeze passed through the street, carrying the stench of death and something else. No side the muffled sounds of Watch members shuffling about or testing the ropes keeping the corpses suspended.

  Ash and grease formed the sign of the Bck Fme on the archway between the ropes, the goat’s skull staring down at us past the dead bodies.

  There were perhaps ten of the Watch here, most of them keeping wat the other side of the open gate.

  They’re still fresh, the Imp whispered in my head. You did well taking on the mask-wearer earlier, so I won’t force it. But I desire my cows.

  Right, like I needed another reminder. I looked up at the bodies, looking at the faces. All humans, and two of them I reized. Members of that group of Pure-Bloods Gregory and I had spotted outside Lady Karsie.

  “I’m tempted to think this is reted to the attack by the ‘Bck Fme’ tonight,” Malstein said o me.

  “You ’t be sure they weren’t actually members,” I said quietly to Malstein, who snorted.

  “The tattoos were surfaly. Barely pierg the skin. Besides, I know Fme when I see it.”

  Iing. He’s said he’d never seetoo before mine. Had the good Captain hiddeent of his experience when we’d first met?

  “Two of those hanging are Pure Bloods,” I said. “The rest I imagine are also members, meaning there were likely killed by the Fme.”

  “More than likely,” Malstein agreed. “Could you track them?”

  “ I track them?” I said as I tinued looking up at the bodies. “I’m not a bloodhound, Captain. They’ll probably head underground at some point. What advice would I give for trag them down there? Don’t. They’ll probably have an ambush set up for you underground, and having a on foe you’re both fighting won’t stop them fr to kill any Watch members after them.”

  “Yang has the most pleasant people in it,” Malstein said.

  “Fang,” I corrected tersely. “Besides, Versalicci would do it for arying to follow them. He’s not kept alive all this time by letting people know where he is.”

  “It is strange,” Malstein said as one of the bodies was lowered to the ground. “We did find a note on them for a ‘sister.’ I’m assuming that’s you.”

  I sighed. Really subtle, Gio. Now that he needed a duit to the demon full-time again, I should have anticipated something like that. There’d probably be a more public reveal of our retionship in the near future.

  “That’s me, yes,” I said. “One parent shared, if you could call that thing a parent.”

  “The Duke...the name escapes me,” Malstein said.

  “Don’t bother learning it,” I said. “It’s not good on ahroat. I never bothered learning it, and please don’t tell any of the guests wearing fake Infernal accessories that I’m desded from a Hell Noble Incubus. Could you pass me the letter?”

  A piece of paper, folded into precise quarters that I quickly unfolded it. I rolled my eyes at the Bck Fme symbol on the back of it before turning it over to read the tents.

  Sister, I retly discovered some rats running through tuhat didn’t belong to them. I of course decided they should be eliminated, as one does all such vermin, but I remembered you yourself have had a pest problem quite retly. If you wish, I am willing to tell you exactly the methods of dealing with them and where I believe they might be ing from.

  I snorted, handing the letter back.

  “I suppose you’ve already read it?”

  “The Watly reads personal correspondence when there is probable cause of retion to a crime, Miss Harrow,” Malstein answered.

  The wat trying to hold onto the rope for the sed corpse didn’t get a good enough group as her fellow sawed through it. The dead body plummeted to the cobblestones, both me and Malstein wing as its legs snapped on impact with a resounding crack.

  “Of course, I read through it. Your brother clearly wants something from you.”

  “Hopefully, he’ll remain disappointed,” I said, returning the letter. “If you have mages who think they track the ink, you’re wele to try, although I doubt it will be that easy.”

  A suffitly skilled Hydrologist could do so, but even if the Watch had one in their employ, my brother hadn’t lived this long by being careless. He would have covered his tracks one way or another.

  “They’re probably from the Pure Blood’s new residenderground we’ve already found the location of,” I said. “At best, he might narrow it down some.”

  “Do you know that for certain?” Malstein took the paper back, stig it in a pocket on his overcoat, which I’m beginning to wish I had one of. The chill air was a bit different when all you wore was a tattered gsam.

  “I ’t,” I said, turning my attention back to the hanging bodies. The Watch reparing to lower one, someoting the tied off rope while the other held onto it.

  “He tends to offer that which he knows his targets need, but he might not know what the captured Pure Blood is telling us already. And sidering what his prices might be iurn, I think there are safer ways to get that information.”

  The body lowered slowly until the Watan had to let go of the rope, the corpse dropping the remaining few feet before crumpling onto the cobblestones. A Wat immediately started moving towards the corpse, leaning down to grab it.

  “I wouldn’t touch the body if I were you,” I called out to the Wat. “At least not without gloves!”

  The Wat froze, looking over at me and then at Malstein.

  “I cur with the tractor, Officer Theodarian. Miss Harrow, do you want to look his stead.”

  I raised an eyebrow at my suddeatus. tractor? Within the hierarchy but with no actual authority. Pleasant.

  “I examihem, make sure they are safe. And maybe see if I ferret out some clues towards where they came from.”

  “Be my guest,” Malstein said. “I spare the bodies for a bit before they o be taken to the Coffin.”

  “I’d need gloves myself,” I said, holding up my two mostly bare arms. The dress had already been mostly sleeveless, and the fighting sihen had left it in terrible dition.

  Malstein snorted and reached into his pocket, pulling out a pair of leather gloves and handing them over.

  No one I’d ever met had ever described my hands as dainty, but they were swimming in these. Well, I’d have to take some awkward moving as a trade-off for not actally poisoning myself. I knew by heart the most on poisons the Bck Fme might smear bodies with, hoping to catwary Wat out when they brought them in for examination.

  I’d pioneered some of the teiques myself. Something I could only hope no one iew about.

  The first body was in good shape, having not e crashing down to the ground. The third body desded slowly as I leaned down. The two handling the l had learheir lesson.

  Leaning down hurt on my splinted leg, awkward and miserable, but eventually I got myself low enough to start examining the prone corpse.

  I she air as I leaned down by the body, but the smells were moldy and damp like one would expect from the underground. A tinge of chemicals perhaps, but nothing that was like the poisons we would smear that bore odors. That left the odorless ones, and I started looking for the spots they’d smear. Uhe shoulders where bodies were grabbed to be dragged, on the insides of clothes for when those were being taken off of the bodies.

  I blio che the Astral, and nothing. Just the same corpse, with no sign of spirits of any kind. This is for different reasons than Lord Montague’s manor, though. Soul-sucked.

  “He appears to be ,” I said. “Both physically and astrally. I’d still advise gloves that you’re willing to dispose of when handling them, just to be safe. Versalicci’s stocks are limited, so it’s a slim risk, but more than nothing.”

  “Perhaps you could have mentiohat before borrowing my spare pair of good gloves,” Malstein said.

  I grimaced. “Apologies. I buy you a new pair.”

  Assuming I ever actually aid. I’d not gohout anything I’d asked so far at Voltar’s, but actual hard currency was in short supply, at least in terms of arusted to me. Ahing to resolve wheual Voltar was back.

  I grabbed the Pure-Bloods , f the corpse’s mouth open.

  “Could someone please bring a ntern over?” I asked, and one of the Watch went to fete. The rest stared unfortably as I maniputed the corpse. “If he has a moment, someone should fetch Dr. Dawes from inside. Ah, thank you. Could you a so the light goes into his mouth? I just o firm something.”

  It took only a sed of viewing uhe ntern’s light to firm what I suspected.

  “Tongue’s been cut out. After death, from the ck of blood, so reanimating the corpse won’t give us any answers. If they ated for the corpse, they’d also at for the spirit. A look oral indicated no remaining spirit. Probably fed the souls to someone.”

  That got a collective shudder from everyohere, quite a few making religious signs with their hands, some of them pulling out symbols as if to ward away any Bck Fme waiting in the shadows to eat their souls. Even Malstein looked somewhat unbanced by my casualness about this.

  “You’re certain on that?” He asked, his tone just a little less steady.

  “You could bring a neao double-check, but I’m quite fident,” I said, letting go of the head and cheg the dead man’s clothing and pockets. “And whoever you get would o be careful. This many precautions, they may have also decided to y a trap on one of them. Pockets have been picked except for lint. you send some of the clothes to Voltar when you’ve finished with the bodies? I’d like to run an analysis on them, and see if they have residue or other elements they might picked up underground. Anything to help narrohere they were underground.”

  “We do have our own alchemists on staff, Miss Harrow,” Malstein responded, carefully watg as I finished going through the pockets. “I believe they determihat on their own.”

  “I don’t mean to doubt their abilities, Captain,” I said, thinking through my response carefully. I o thread a needle here instead of ht saying I had any doubts in the information he would provide. I couldn’t make this sound unreasonable.

  “I do have experieh the underground directly, having apanied several Delver teams down there,” I told him, keeping my hands in clear sight so it didn’t look like I ocketing anything. “I just want to ensure we have as many eyes looking over potential evidence as possible.”

  Malstein thought it over for a sed. “If they ’t find anything specific or narrow it down far enough, I’ll send some to you. But until then, it will stay under my jurisdi. Uand?”

  “Perfectly,” I said, standing up with no small effort as I got my splinted leg bader me. “ I check the other corpses?”

  “Certainly. But oher thing about what I just said. Do not attempt to leverage Voltar to try a any of those clothes. His habit of taking evidence is beginning to reach its limit with the Watch. Maybe you’d be kind enough to pass that on to him?”

  I nodded while w who that had been, Voltar ashin? This felt like an old pint, probably predating the Kistune as much as I was tempted to bme any gremlinry on her. And also, it felt like if anythiruly needed Voltar would just o lean on his es to intelligence.

  “I’ll see what I do, but to be perfectly frank, he might respect your opinion more than mine,” I told Malstein as I went to the sed corpse. I beed for the ntern-bearer to e closer, most of the other Watch wandering off.

  Probably not far. They’d want to be close in case Malstein needed me handled.

  “So says the only one of us currently living in the man’s house,” Malstein said as I hahe sed corpse, carefully moving the splintered remnants of his legs out of the way.

  “You assume that equals respect, but I have to disagree,” I said as I opened up the jaw, the ntern-bearer already letting light shine inside. “I am….a curiosity? Retive and lieutenant to one of his greatest enemies, diabolist, potentially turning over a new leaf. It’s easy enough to fit a colr oill he figure out how to pierce a mask.”

  “A good blow typically works for that,” Malstein said as I firmed the ck of a tongue and checked the pockets. “Also, ‘potentially turning over a new leaf’? Bit dangerous to phrase it that way, I’d think.”

  I snorted as I finished with the pockets, moving to the shattered legs to check the bottoms of the boots.

  “Even if I didn’t say it, I imagi’s eople are thinking. It’s not like my brother hasn’t pulled off more insidious schemes in the past. I’m sure you’ve read some ats yourself.”

  “I have,” Malstein said as I removed the broken-off feet from the boots, turning them over and looking at the soles. “Even if you agreed to a mind-reading, that couldn’t be a certainty, could it? He’s shown a willio tinker with the brains of his people in the past.”

  “More than you might imagine,” I replied. “Iing. See where the boot leather is cracked on the surface? Looks powdery and red underh. Acid damage, sulfuric specifically. There’s pces you enter it, but underground….some monsters expel or excrete it naturally. Something to work off of.”

  “I’ve seen it before,” Malstein said, frowning as he looked down at the boot. “And it certainly hadn’t been underground when it started doing that. How do you know about it?”

  “It happen as part of the dyeing process,” I replied, putting the boot o it’s dead owner. “But those are more ong book-bindings than boots, so this was likely exposure. Potentially walking through some, which would indicate very high amounts of it. As for how I know, there were experiments involving acid coatings. They didn’t end well. corpse?”

  They’d finished l that one and number four, with number five halfway down by now.

  “There aren’t just records of Versalic there,” Malstein said as I got to work on hree. “You have quite the file on you, everything you’ve done. Even without the Diabolism being known and anything that came from that, quite the impressive list .”

  “I’m sure they are described in the most fttering words,” I said as I checked the first once again. “Are they going to be a problem?”

  “You seem rather vi won’t be,” Malstein said. I paused in my examination.

  Had the invitation here been for more than just the note left behind? Or something else besides that? I did not try looking at anyone besides Malstein, but if I had would I find any firearms leveled my way?

  “Is there a problem between you and me, Captain?”

  Malstein’s expression was carefully frozen. The kind of mask you wore when you didn’t trust your ability to fake anything but nothing.

  “Not today. And not till this is over.”

  “After?” I ventured.

  “Hopefully our paths won’t cross. Anything with this one?”

  I turned my attention back to the body to distract myself from our current versation. Prying wouldn’t result in anything but risking pierg that mask. I didn’t think I’d like what was behind it.

  “Missing wedding ring. You see where the skin’s been covered up. Strange none of the others have one.”

  “Danny O’Shea.”

  I paused. I didn’t reize the name, but there was a weight on it that made it apparent this wasn’t some light remark.

  “I’m unfamiliar with the gentleman,” I said, tinuing my examination, moving to the boots. Sulfuric acid damage again. I’d probably find it on the first corpse’s as well, if I went back to them.

  “I didn’t think you were, but it never hurts to ask. The other names as well. Acid on the boots?”

  I took the out offered away from talking about the name. Asking might open a door I couldn’t close.

  “Yes,” I said. “Si’s sulfuric it might be a chemical process produg it. There are creatures that do it, but unless it’s bined with more esoteric substances or is enhanced with magic most creatures don’t use it as a on. It is probably a creature produg it, sinake it more resistant to water vapor, which bonds easily to it. This reduces the number of creatures that could be making it, to four that I remember for certain, and none of them are on.”

  “Are any of them the Basilisk?” Malstein asked, the heaviness gone from his tone.

  I got up from the corpse, looking around to see Watch members either busy at work or bored standing guard. Perhaps that had been all they’d been doing this eime?

  “No,” I said. “The Basilisk doesn’t produce it. It’s already dangerous enough without. No, but the four that do are notable enough that the Delver’s Guilds would have . I’ll see about getting that information as soon as I , unless you want to hahat yourself?”

  Malstein sidered for a few moments, then shook his head. “No, the Delvers have never been fond of the Watch. Spirits too indepe. Admirable in their free-spirited nature though.”

  Unlike some, was the unsaid portion of that. I straightened up, not moving to the fourth corpse.

  “Who is Danny O’Shea?” I asked.

  “Was,” Malstein said, bitterness creeping into his tone for that word. “He was a member of my squad. Years ago. Along with others. Most of them buried, at Bck Fme hands.”

  “My hands?” I said, keeping a careful eye oer-bearer. He hadn’t moved, and none of the other Watch had either.

  “I ot say,” Malstein said, that face of stone back. “Perhaps so, perhaps not, but you hardly spent all your time with Versalicci cutting throats personally.”

  “I’m hardly responsible for anything the Bck Fme ever did,” I protested, and that face of stone cracked.

  Malsteihed in, then out, reposing himself. “Entirely? No. But this talk isn’t productive. You should head back to the rest of the guests now.”

  I lingered. Should I try to say something else? Try to vince him that my responsibility in his rade’s death was minimal at most?

  He was right on how he would be likely to take that. It's best to stick with this. He could hate me, but as long as he rofessional, I could work with that.

  And with that, I left.