We all went outside. Hardly anyone was moving through this part of the city anymore, especially now. According to Jurian, Potter Street was not far from the center, so we headed that way. Only soldiers and a few hundred people who had refused to leave their homes remained in the city, even though it was obvious that Theocran would soon become a battlefield.
"We need to reach the body as quickly as possible," Lasin said, and we broke into a run.
It was not far. We reached the scene within minutes. Several guards were standing in the middle of the street, preparing to remove the body. As we drew closer, all I could see on the ground was a mangled mass of flesh surrounded by blood. It lay in the middle of a fairly wide street, which made it strange that there did not seem to be any witnesses.
"Stop. From this moment on, the investigation falls under our authority," Lasin called out.
The guards stopped what they were doing. The highest ranking one stepped toward her.
"Do you have any proof of that?" he asked.
Lasin pulled out a small card. I could not make out what was on it from that distance, but the guard simply nodded and raised a hand to stop the others.
Lasin passed him without another word and went straight to the body.
This felt different from Pestor's corpse. It looked as if someone had drained everything that was left inside him.
Were the murders connected?
"Were there any witnesses?" Azi asked.
The guard pointed toward the edge of the street.
A girl was sitting there, leaning against the white plaster of a house.
I recognized her immediately.
Long black hair fell over her shoulders, and horns rose from her forehead.
Tes.
What is she doing here? She should have evacuated.
I left the group and walked over to her.
"What happened here?" I asked.
Jurian and Azi glanced at me briefly, but said nothing.
Tes raised her eyes. For a moment she looked at the people around us, then her gaze stopped on me.
I helped her to her feet and led her a few steps away into a narrow alley.
We stepped into a recess in the wall.
"Did you see it?" I asked.
She was silent for a moment.
Then she nodded.
"Someone came down from the rooftops," she said quietly. "He came out of the shadows."
She swallowed.
"He killed him... and then he drew something on the ground with his blood."
"What did it look like?" I asked.
"I don't know." She shook her head. "Then he started absorbing magic from it."
That caught me off guard.
Absorbing magic was forbidden and almost forgotten. In the past, some rulers had used it to strengthen themselves, but an ordinary body could not endure that kind of power for long.
"Then he vanished," she added.
"Did he see you?" I asked.
"I don't know," she said uncertainly. She was visibly trembling.
I glanced briefly back toward the street.
"Come on. You shouldn't stay here."
We stepped out of the recess and back into the street.
Tes looked once more toward the scene of the murder.
"That symbol... it was strange," she said. "It looked like..."
I stopped.
Something was wrong.
A pressure built inside my head.
As if the blood in my veins had suddenly turned hot.
Blood.
The word flashed through my mind.
Not like a voice.
More like a thought that was not mine.
Blood.
I looked at Tes.
My heartbeat quickened.
Blood.
My hand moved.
I did not know why.
Tes was saying something, but her voice sounded distant, as though it were coming to me through water.
Blood.
Then everything blurred.
When my vision sharpened again, Tes was lying on the ground.
Then I saw the blood. So much blood. My hand was wrapped around the hilt of my sword. The blade was red, and Tes was not moving.
What just happened?
Something shifted at the edge of the roof. A hooded figure was watching me.
Jurian ran into the alley with the others. He glanced across the rooftops and noticed the figure too, but it disappeared at once.
Jurian knelt beside Tes's body and quickly examined the wound.
Then he shook his head.
"I can't save this one," he said sadly.
Lasin stopped beside me.
"What did she know?" Breias asked.
Of course that was all he cared about. We all turned toward him with murderous looks.
"All right, all right, I'm just asking," he said, trying to calm the situation.
I stayed apart from the others. I could not focus after what had just happened.
Then came the sound of hooves on stone. Three soldiers arrived, stopped, and dismounted. At their head was a winged Cerpeir with long black hair tied back out of his face.
Cerpeir were similar to Ming, but their great wings were unmistakable.
Judging by the number of military insignia he wore, he was clearly an officer.
"Good day," he said calmly. "I come in the name of King Oleg."
He paused briefly.
"Legionary Senior Officer Markus Saerin."
I hesitated at the name.
Saerin?
It sounded familiar, but I could not place it.
Lasin stepped forward.
"Officer of the Twelve Swords," she introduced herself. "This investigation falls under my authority."
Markus gave a slight smile.
"The king has entrusted me with the same."
He hesitated for a moment.
"But we can cooperate."
"Under what terms?" Lasin asked.
"Sharing information. Nothing more, nothing less."
Lasin hesitated, but finally agreed. She and Markus began discussing the investigation. The rest of us moved closer together.
"Bruno won't like this," Azi said after a pause. "He doesn't like it when other people interfere."
"He can go fuck himself," Breias said without the slightest hesitation.
Azi shot him a glare that clearly meant:
Watch your mouth.
"No," Breias said loudly. "Let everyone hear it. He's an idiot who has done nothing for the investigation and has only dragged it out."
I raised an eyebrow.
The organization was clearly falling apart from within.
"How long have you been working for him?" I asked, trying to change the subject.
"We came to this city a year ago," Breias said. "We were supposed to stop the cult. But because of him, we've barely gotten anywhere." There was a fire in his eyes that looked capable of melting stone.
"It is strange," Jurian admitted.
Lasin finished speaking with Markus and came back to us.
"Why are we even getting involved in this conflict?" I asked. "Wouldn't it be easier to just run?"
That question had been stuck in my mind for some time.
"I need revenge on a man from the cult," she admitted, though only halfway. Her look made it clear we were not supposed to ask further. "I asked Bruno to let me handle the investigation."
"If it's just one man, we can deal with it easily," Jurian added.
By then the guards had loaded the bodies onto a wagon and driven off. I looked up toward the rooftops.
The man was following me.
He saw me with Tes.
Maybe he would come for me again.