"Yeah," I said, "but given Lucian was probably working with him, he'll know about my connection to both you and the Brindle." I grimaced, then added, "I'd bet my ass he's taken steps to ensure you – and they – can't find him."
"But it would take major magic to achieve something like that, and it would create a ‘hot spot' that could be traced."
Maybe that sort of ruling would apply to Earth-based magic, but would it apply to magic that was Aedh sourced? And even if it did, that still meant dragging more people into the search, and I really didn't want to do that unless absolutely necessary. It was just too damn dangerous.
"It's an option." I sat down. "But it wouldn't be my first."
Ilianna placed the hot bread on the table. "Why not? There's no easier way to find a sorcerer than to trace his magic."
"A normal sorcerer, perhaps. But this one has been working with an Aedh, remember, and has probably acquired much of his knowledge." Which was another reason to be glad Lucian was dead. At least the bastard couldn't pass anything else on to our ever-elusive sorcerer. "Besides, our best option right now is to go through Lucian's things and see if he left any clues behind."
Mirri snorted as she began dishing out the huge chunks of curried vegetables – which wasn't normally a favorite of mine, but it smelled incredible. "Forgive me for stating the obvious, but you've been on a bender for three days. That would have given our sorcerer plenty of time to go through Lucian's things and ditch whatever evidence there might have been."
"Lucian was clever enough not to leave such information in easy reach. If there is incriminating evidence to be found, then it would be somewhere ultimately safe from everyone but him."
And that, I realized suddenly, could mean the gray fields. They might be the unseen pision between worlds, but they were as filled with life as anyplace in this world. And given Lucian had once been an Aedh priest under my father's tutelage, then maybe the first place I should look was in temples near the gates of heaven and hell. I had no idea whether they still stood now that the priests had all but disappeared – or if someone like me would even be able to see them – but what better place would there be to secure information? It was doubtful whether the reapers or the Raziq would bother to look through ruins in an effort to find information on a dark sorcerer.
Of course, that was presuming Lucian could get onto the fields. The ability to attain full Aedh form had apparently been ripped from him by the Raziq, but that hadn't stopped him from shoving his fist into my mother's chest and blowing her apart.
Which is exactly how I'd killed him.
I'd had my revenge, but its taste wasn't as sweet as I'd expected.
I swallowed heavily and added, "The bastard was more cunning that a basketful of foxes."
Ilianna's smile was grim. "But not cunning enough in the end."
"No." I tore off a chunk of bread as Mirri slid a plate of curry my way. "I'll search his place first, then I'll do the same to his lover's place."