their mouths," Leesil snapped. "They'll talk up just about anything, including… especially what they don't know a whit about."
"Then why did you come to pay my fines?" Brenden barked back at him.
Leesil had no answer, or at least not one he could put into words. Perhaps Magiere's generosity to Caleb and Beth-rae was contagious. Perhaps, like his partner, he was examining his own past and realizing for the first time how much harm they must have caused swindling village after village. But what possible good could this sudden attack of conscience bring? How could he make amends, any amends? And for all this rather new self-examination, Leesil still considered most people to be mindless cattle who deserved to be cheated by the more intelligent, or wolves who preyed on others through power or wealth. Helping any of them seemed pointless… but this blacksmith?
The man had walked into a public tavern and confronted a worthless town constable and demanded justice. Although Leesil tended to circumnavigate problems instead of facing them straight on, he could appreciate bravery when he saw it, and he could respect loyalty to the dead, to those who had no voice.
And for his bravery, Brenden had been called a criminal and locked up in a cell. It wasn't right. Leesil was well aware that his own sense of right and wrong was tenuous at best, but helping Brenden seemed the proper course of action.
The two of them continued walking in silence until they reached the end of the street, where Leesil had to turn down through the middle of town toward the tavern. They both stopped in another uncomfortable pause.
"Don't judge Magiere. You don't know anything about us," Leesil said more gently. "Come to The Sea Lion anytime. I'll tell Magiere you're my friend."
"Am I your friend?" Brenden asked, his tone somewhere between puzzlement and suspicion.
"Why not? I only have two, and one of them is a dog, by the by, not a wolf." Leesil made a mock face of great seriousness. "I'm a very particular fellow."
Brenden slightly smiled, but with a hint of sadness. "I may stop by… more quietly next time."
They parted. In the empty space between them, a light, brighter than the midday sun, flashed once. A few passersby blinked, turning their heads as if something had been there, then went on their way.
* * *
"He was with the blacksmith," Edwan said in the small sitting room beneath the warehouse. "I saw him."
Rashed approached Edwan's visage, not certain why the ghost was so troubled. One minute, he and Teesha had been going over import accounts, and the next, Edwan appeared, rambling about the hunter's half-elf and a blacksmith.
"Slowly," Rashed ordered. "What is this about?"
"You need to kill that hunter now," Edwan said, with emphasized precision in his voice.
"No." Rashed turned away. Rash actions on top of Ratboy's foolishness would only make them more vulnerable to discovery. "It's too soon. We will wait until she has lost some of her apprehension."
"You're wrong. She visited the death place of the girl Ratboy destroyed. I saw her."
"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" Rashed asked angrily.
"And today the half-elf, her partner, paid for Brenden's release. They talked together."
Rashed shook his head and turned to Teesha with a questioning expression.
"Brenden is the dead girl's brother, and the blacksmith in this town," Teesha said from the couch.
"What?" Rashed turned back on Edwan as if the agitated spirit had suddenly become the source—rather than messenger—of misfortune. He began pacing again in silence, eyes shifting about without focus as his thoughts worked on themselves.
"She's preparing to hunt, isn't she?" Teesha asked. "Why else would she be searching for a trail, sending the half-breed to befriend the victim's remaining family?"
Yes, why else would she? Rashed asked himself. Moving this quickly after one murder was dangerous, but that damned Ratboy had left them little choice. If she investigated too far and some connection led back to any of them or the warehouse, there would be little time to prepare. Ratboy had been reckless, and there hadn't been enough time to even clean up after him. It was impossible to guess what clues might have been left at the site of the girl's slaughter.
"We'll have to move against her first," he said. 'Teesha, stay here, but prepare us to leave if it comes to the worst. Ratboy will come with me." He raised a hand calmly to her coming objection. "No, I'll do it quietly myself, and no one will find a body. She'll simply