Frown deepening, I walked over and bent to pick it up. It was an elongated, hexagon-shaped cuff link, the setting thick gold that bore intricate scrollwork with a huge sapphire dominating its center. I didn't know much about cuff links, but I knew my stones, and this one was worth a fortune. It wasn't new, either, because the fixed back showed signs of wear. I turned it around. Two initials – RJ – and underneath the letters sat what looked like a half-moon. I held it up so Azriel could see it.
He raised an eyebrow. "And this will help us how?"
"It's handmade, and there's a maker's mark on the back." I tucked it into my purse. "If we can track the maker down, then maybe they could give us the details of the person they sold them to."
It was a long shot, but long shots were all we really had.
"Shall we head to the Razans' place next?"
"I guess." I walked back across the room. "What will we do if the Razan are alive, though?"
"We question them." Azriel wrapped his arms around me again. "If they are alive, then someone else made them. And that might imply there is another Aedh involved, one we have not yet sighted."
I glanced up and met his gaze. "Do you really think that's possible?"
"No. But I am not about to discount the possibility given – as you have often noted – the lack of help coming from the fates' hands."
His energy whirled through us, snapping us through the fields so fast I almost felt out of breath when we re-formed.
I didn't immediately move, remaining locked in Azriel's embrace as I breathed deep, tasting the various scents in the air, searching for any sign or smell of the Razan. Or anyone else, for that matter.
All I smelled was death.
"That is because the Razan lie dead in this place."
I stepped back, my gaze sweeping the room. We'd reappeared in the small but tidy kitchen. There were dishes piled up on the drainer and ants crawling all over the small bag of rubbish that was sitting on the counter. It'd been neatly tied, as if ready for someone to pick it up and take it to the bin. Outside, in the small paved courtyard, water sprayed high into the air, splattering both the pond and its surrounds and making the water lilies dance about. The two cuneiform-etched stones that had stood in the middle of the pond were gone.
"That is not surprising," Azriel said. "Our sorceress would not want them found."