he told himself as the sergeant straightened. If you’re being arrested, why is there just one of them?
“Your glass ball cleared around dawn,” the sergeant said. “You did do that, am I correct?”
Keth swore silently as he felt a blush creep over his face. His blushes always made him feel like an idiot. “Yes,” he muttered. He met the sergeant’s eyes. “The killer…?” he asked, but she was shaking her head.
“A yaskedasu, in the temple of Ngohi. Not long dead, from what Dhaskoi Nomasdina could tell. He asked me to let you know you won’t see him today,” the sergeant continued. An odd expression crossed her face. She rubbed her nose and explained, “He’s, ah, he’s been granted the chance to cleanse himself and to rededicate himself to the purity of the city.”
Keth blinked at her. “What does that mean, exactly?”
“The priesthood of the All-Seeing took him in charge, to pray and fast for a day and a night,” the sergeant explained. “He got a little careless about taking death pollution out into the city proper. He’s been warned before.”
“You know, you’d catch criminals a lot faster if you just accepted death as part of life,” Keth pointed out.
“And what of our souls?” enquired the sergeant. “I for one don’t want to come back to another life as one of the Fifth Class, or worse, a prathmun. Belonging to the Fourth Class is hard enough.” She nodded to Keth. “Good day to you, Koris Warder.” She walked out of the courtyard.
When Tris arrived an hour later, Keth was catching up on work he’d promised Antonou. Seeing he wasn’t ready to do magic, the girl produced a large-toothed comb from her sash and began to groom Little Bear. As she struggled with a particularly stubborn knot, Keth told her about the dead yaskedasu, and about Dema.
Tris gaped at him. “These people,” she said at last. “I won’t understand them if I live for a century. He should be trying to find the one who killed that poor girl, not holed up in some temple.”
“The Tharians see it differently,” Keth answered, and sighed. “To them it’s the pollution that matters. I have to wonder if they’d be so concerned about Dema’s wallowing in death if the victims belonged to their precious Assembly.” He was putting a crucible of sand and chemicals into the furnace to melt when he realized he’d forgotten to use gloves or tongs. He felt nothing except a gentle warmth against his skin. The crucible placed, he held up his hands and looked at them. The only change was a bit of ash on his knuckles. He blew it off, and noticed that Tris was looking at him. “I didn’t know,” he commented, then grimaced at the stupid remark.
“There are good things about what’s happened to you,” she pointed out. “You can admit it, if you like. I promise not to say ‘I told you so.’ ”
“Oh, no,” retorted Keth. “You’d just think it really loudly.” He looked at Chime, who’d perched on top of the furnace. “Aren’t you afraid you’ll melt?” he asked the dragon.
For answer, Chime curled up, tucked her muzzle under one paw, and appeared to go to sleep.
“I don’t know how much work on globes you’ll do today,” Tris remarked after Keth had worked in silence for a time. Once Little Bear was combed, she had taken out a book and begun to read. “I’ve been watching. While your power’s come back, it’s not what you started with yesterday.”
“It doesn’t seem a rush, since he kills every other day or so, but I still want to try,” Keth said, twirling his blowpipe in one hand as he pressed a bowl mould to the molten glass to shape it.
“We’ll meditate in a while, then,” said Tris, “and try for a globe after midday.” She went to the doorway and sniffed the air. “There will be rain tonight.”
“We need it,” Keth said absently as he set his bowl in the annealing oven.
Other chores caught him up. Tris stayed out of his way, though once she startled him when she sang the words to a song he didn’t even know he was humming. “So that one made it all the way to the Pebbled Sea,” he remarked.
“Here I thought it made it all the way to Namorn,” she retorted.
They didn’t get to meditate until after midday. Tris enclosed the workshop within her magical protection — Keth’s mage relatives would have ground their teeth to see how easy it