The Emperor's Wolves (Wolves of Elantra #1) - Michelle Sagara Page 0,136

would meet the fate desired by the Emperor without the intervention of Wolves.

An’Tellarus, however, complicated matters. She had no close allies in the traditional sense of the word, but the alliances she did have were solid. Once you entered her orbit, for however short a period, you never fully escaped it. And it was never wise to anger her.

It was never, of course, wise to anger any Lord of the High Court, but one might safely dare the anger of An’Sennarin; one did not dare the anger of An’Tellarus. How public was her declaration of support? How well-known was the alliance she had claimed so baldly?

These questions occupied his time for the remainder of the day. They occupied his time for all of the next three, during which Severn studied Records and attempted to glean information from the Hawks. This information required Elluvian’s presence, and it was therefore gleaned slowly.

Elluvian did not speak with An’Sennarin at all. If An’Sennarin was not a half-wit, he was now well aware of Elluvian’s interest. He was not enough of a power that people were terrified at the mention of his name—but the name of the line did give pause to those like Corvallan. Dread of a particular type took centuries to firmly entrench, and the young An’Sennarin had not had the time required to build that.

The reaction was therefore due the previous title holder, or so he assumed. If An’Sennarin of old had been that terrifying, his death was almost inexplicable. Perhaps, Elluvian mused, that was the focal point of this investigation. The current An’Sennarin had taken the seat only upon the death of the ruler and his chosen heir. There were bound to be other deaths, other examples set, and the history was so recent, they could not be fully hidden.

* * *

On the fourth day of Elluvian’s intermittent presence in the office, Severn left. He required permission to visit the Tha’alani quarter, and the Wolflord was unamused enough that were Severn a different person, he would have simply failed to acquire that permission. He was, however, on probation, and his furious studies of the Wolves, their various cases, the likelihood of both survival and success, had not yet given him the certainty about the nature of both inquiries and cases.

He relied to a greater extent on Rosen. She was willing to discuss—often at length—previous missions; she preferred to discuss those that had been successful, but given the recent thinning of the Wolves, had been willing to discuss the failures. She had also, less happily, discussed the internal office squabbles that had led to that thinning.

He had some sense of what had caused Darrell’s death. He didn’t understand Mellianne’s rage, but rage—when confronted with things that were immutable and could not be changed—had never been his first reaction. Nor had revenge.

He made no attempt to engage the Barrani—those outside the High Halls—at all, but his foray into the various Records, and his discussion with Ybelline, had given him some idea of where those Barrani might be found. The information was useful if one wanted to avoid interacting with them entirely.

The majority of the cases the Hawks—and Swords—dealt with involved humans. There were, however, scattered cases in which the criminal was Aerian or Leontine. The Leontine cases tended toward aggravated assault, sometimes leading to death; the Aerian cases, like the human cases, covered a range of crimes.

The Barrani didn’t make their way into Records either, unless they were the author of the Hawks’ reports. There were, however, cases that had been logged in Records, in which suspects—not criminals—were Barrani. They always appeared to end in one way: a Barrani corpse was found shortly after the name had been logged. Sometimes the corpse was found on the front stairs of the Halls of Law; sometimes it was found in the Ablayne. Twice the corpses had been discovered in the warrens.

No Barrani had been arrested; no Barrani had been sent to trial.

Finding information about Barrani informants—because such informants did exist—was not more difficult than finding information about human informants, but there was no easy way to list them. They gave information to the Hawks investigating various crimes; they were part of the budget the Hawks were granted. They weren’t officially involved with the Halls of Law in any other way.

This made sense. Severn, in his early days in the streets of this city, might have made coin by offering information—if he had had information of worth—but he would never have wanted to be fingered as