The Emperor's Wolves (Wolves of Elantra #1) - Michelle Sagara Page 0,41

will ask that you not honor my request.”

“And you’ve told him this,” Elluvian said, “because his minor desire to spite Garadin might tip the scales in your favor?”

She smiled, then. It was rueful. “We are not all of one mind, although we are connected.”

“If you would be so good as to wake our new recruit, I will consider your request with far more favor.”

* * *

Severn did not wake quickly. In the interstices between sleep and full mental acuity, Helmat asked Rosen to have food sent up from the mess hall. He wasn’t entirely certain the youth would eat, and left the babysitting, such as it was, to Rosen, who didn’t appreciate it. She did, however, obey. “He could use some weight. You said he was eighteen?”

“I believe he said he was eighteen.”

She shook her head. “I’ll feed him.”

“Do not force-feed him.”

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