A Flight of Ravens by John Conroe (books to improve english .TXT) 📕

in the survival of a child she had never met.  Probably not even a child that she had met.  Fontina had a definitive reputation for ruthlessness.

Her dark eyes bored into me and I could just about hear her brain working overtime.  She started to open her mouth but the door opened and Drew stuck his head in.

“Ah, boss.  A word?”

I nodded and headed his way.  As soon as I was through, he closed the door behind me, almost in Fontina’s face, leaving her under Soshi’s careful watch.

“There’s been a problem at the castle,” he said, pitching his voice low.  “Someone took out Lady Dominick right in her cell.”

“The princess and the king?” I asked.

“Both safe and under guard.”

I thought fast, then yanked the door back open.  Fontina was right where I had left her, under Soshi’s narrowed gaze.

“Today’s session is cancelled.  Let’s get your earplugs back on and your blindfold.  We’re headed out.”

“Your debrief has barely begun.  Time is of an essence with regard to the woldling’s information.”

“Well, no one will be questioning him for the time being and I’m not leaving you here.”

“I must insist.”

“Which carries no weight whatsoever.  Plus, your boss is going to want you at the castle two hours ago.”

“What’s happened?”

“Lady Dominick has been assassinated.”

“Didn’t you, yourself, design the prison and castle defenses?” she asked, eyebrow arching.

“I played a role in both, but it was a committee that included your boss, and, as you know, the defenses were tested by both agencies.  If I recall, your signature was one also listed on the Raven’s report.”

She frowned, her lips thinning, before finally nodding.

Soshi moved up behind her, earplugs and blindfold in hand.

Fontina reached backward without looking, holding her hand palm up for the plugs.

She put them in herself, but Soshi checked their fit, then wound the blindfold back over her eyes.  As soon as she stepped back, Drew pulled the black bag over our Raven’s head and cinched it down to block light from below.

We spun her around, then led her through a different set of tunnels and up a different set of stairs.  The same carriage was waiting as we exited.  The building we left was twenty spans from the one we had entered, which was the Knife and Needle itself.  We had a warren of tunnels underneath, some of which led to neighboring buildings that we also owned.  We were keeping Ash close to hand in the center of our territory.

Chapter 14

We travelled around Haven for about thirty-five minutes and ended up at the castle, where we released Fontina.

“I will accompany you, as I will not have you returning to your questioning without me.  If this was all a ploy to remove me, the king will hear of it,” she said as the blindfold and earplugs came off.

A royal guardsman trotted up to us.  “Captain, please follow me.  Your presence is needed.”

We walked at a fast pace into the offices and then came upon a full squad of guards with naked steel at the main gate to the lower levels.  At swordpoint, we were tested with the vile green urmak fluid to verify that we weren’t shapers.  Then we descended into the basements and got a second round of tests at the gates to the jail cells, normal procedure to prevent a shaper from infiltrating.

An offshoot of the Paul’s experiments, shapers could literally mold their facial features into those of someone else.  Their skulls are malleable, and they can literally look into a mirror, pushing and pressing their faces around with their fingers until they take on another’s shape.

It requires great skill and experience to copy another person’s face; they are also trained in the actor’s makeup art to the highest level.  The compound urmak, derived from a rare plant, causes an instant and very painful skin reaction with shapers, a dead giveaway.

I thought about how the guards had just tested us at both checkpoints, the tactical part of my mind bothered with their methodology.

A large group of guards ahead, at the cells, alerted me to royal presences, as did King Helat’s deep voice.

Warily, the guards stepped a little aside to let us through to join the king and princess, along with Slinch, Colonel Erser, and Doctor Eltienne, the royal physicker.  I noticed Rose standing a little behind Brona’s left side, with Salis on my princess’s other flank.

Brent was close behind the king, and his eyes were on everyone around them instead of the gory scene inside the cell.

King Helat met my eyes, his stare hard and angry.  I nodded and then turned my attention to the area of the crime.

Lady Dominick lay on her back, draped over her thin, hard cot.  Her throat was cut almost to the spine and blood spattered everywhere, pooling on the rock underneath her.

“How?” Helat asked me, his eyes flicking to include Fontina.  Slinch made to speak but stilled when the king raised his hand without looking away from us.

“She was killed by a single stroke of a very sharp blade across the throat,” Fontina said, moving forward.  “The killer stood about here,” she said, putting herself in the spot that had a discernable lack of spatter.

Helat waved her explanation away as inconsequential.  She might be a highly skilled operative at the top of her game, but I think she lacked experience dealing with the king himself.  The manner of the death stroke was obvious to anyone with any edged weapon skill.

“How many guards died?” I asked Erser.

“Three.  One back here and the two at the jail checkpoint.”

“How were they killed?” I asked Doctor Eltienne.

“A sharp, narrow blade, likely a stiletto.  Same weapon that killed her,” Eltienne said with a wave at the bloody cell.  “The two by the gate were taken from behind, kidney and throat.  The one killed here was a straight stab up through the throat into the brain.”

“What are you thinking?” King Helat asked, more curious then demanding.

“Our testing procedure has grown stale,” I said as my mind delivered its analysis of