She turned her attention back to Fairview. A wall encircled it, twice as tall as a man. Guard towers squatted on either side of the main gate, but unlike the simple platforms at Edgewood, these were boxed shelters. She squinted, trying to see guards within. Tyrus pointed at the tower on the left, motioning for her to look on the far right side. She could just make out the pale fabric of a tunic within. As they drew closer, she noted a figure in the second tower as well. Both sentinels watched from deep in the shadows of their shelters. The gate itself was closed, with no one standing guard.
"They've gone in," Tyrus murmured. "Saw us coming, retreated, and shut tight the gate."
Moria understood the strategy, but Ashyn asked, "Why?"
"It forces us to draw nearer," Tyrus said. "If they come to meet us, our archers can cover us. If we are forced to knock at the gates, with their guards posted above . . ."
"The gates are shrouded in shadow from the afternoon sun," Ashyn said. "So the archers will have a difficult time reacting swiftly and accurately."
"We ought to have come when the sun moved," Moria said.
Tyrus nodded. There was naught that could be done now, though, without retreating. So they continued until they were less than ten paces from the gate. Tyrus pulled his horse forward and shifted position, displaying his forearm tattoos should anyone watching have failed to notice them as he rode.
"I am Tyrus Tatsu," he called. "Son of the emperor and his first concubine, Maiko. I bring the Seeker and Keeper of Edgewood. We wish to speak to Alvar Kitsune, if he is here. If he is not, then his son, Gavril, or his commander, Barthol."
Moria stiffened. She knew Gavril might be here. What would she do if those gates opened and he walked out? How would she stay her daggers? Worse, what if she did not even reach for her daggers, but stood like a wounded child, hoping for an explanation.
It's not what you think, Keeper. I'd never hurt you, never betray you.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
"Moria?"
She looked to see Tyrus, worry darkening his eyes.
"I'm fine," she said.
A half nod, acknowledging without believing. Then he straightened and turned forward again. There was no sign of movement at the gates. The shadowy figures of the tower guards stayed where they were.
"I am Tyrus Tatsu!" he said again, louder this time. "I come as an envoy to discuss the situation, and I expect the courtesy of a reply!"
When no response came, the minor counselor eased his horse forward. "My lord--"
Tyrus raised a hand to cut him short. His dark eyes blazed with rising fury. He might be more modest than one would expect of a prince, but he was still the emperor's son.
"We'll ride forward," he said to Moria. "Ashyn? Retreat with the counselors."
He glanced back at the two men, as if making sure they'd heard, but more seeking their approval of the plan. He was no seasoned diplomat, and he knew it.
The major counselor gave the barest nod. "Ancestors watch you, my lord."
"Ride back and compel the archers forward," Tyrus said. "Have them stop midway between the camp and here."
Tyrus rode to Moria as Ashyn retreated with Tova.
"Watch the towers," Tyrus said as they continued forward. "I'll keep my eyes on the gate."
The figures in the towers remained exactly where they'd been since Moria first spotted them, and she began to suspect they'd miscalculated the darkness of their shelter and thought themselves hidden.
As they rode into the shadow cast by the wall, cool air rushed past on a strong breeze. Moria picked up traces of an unfamiliar scent and heard a slow thump-thump-thump from inside the wall. Not footsteps--the thumps were too regular.
Moria realized the sound was the gate itself, opening a little and then closing in the wind. As they drew closer, she could see something under the gate. Feet? It was hard to tell.
"You there!" she called. "In the tower. Acknowledge us."
Silence.
"Do you think I cannot see you both?" she snapped. "On the left, you wear a light tunic and your hair is long and loose. On the right, your tunic is brown and I see no hair, so I presume it is short. The shadows may hide your faces, but that is all."
When still neither moved, her hand went to her dagger.
"Moria," Tyrus murmured.
"I would not," she said.
"I know." His voice dropped more. "I mean watch your temper. They're hoping you cannot."
His own eyes simmered with outrage, but he controlled it. The guards were mocking them, and if Moria and Tyrus seethed they'd say, "You may think you are a Keeper and an imperial prince, but we see only two children playing at being warriors."
"Remember these are bandits," Tyrus said. "I may give Barthol the honorific of commander, but he is no warrior." And thus they could not expect them to act with honor. "Remember who you are."
She backed up her horse to look again at the unmoving guards. When she noticed Tyrus dismounting, she stopped him.
"Remember who you are," she said.
Few people in the empire outranked a Keeper, but an imperial prince was one of them. So it fell to her to open the gate. When she tried, though, she discovered why it was banging in the wind. It was barricaded from within.
"They toy with us," she muttered.
"As is to be expected. Here, I'll--"
"Remain on your steed, your highness. If those guards will not respond, perhaps they are hard of hearing. I'll take my message to them."
Moria shimmied up the posts as deftly as a cat, if not quite as gracefully. Tyrus's gaze swung from one guard tower to the other, ready to alert her to trouble. Daigo climbed the other post and they both drew up to the window openings--
"Moria!"
She looked to see Tyrus swinging off his horse, his face taut with alarm. "Down! Now!"
She went still, trying to hear or see what had caught his attention.
"It's a trap!" he hissed. "They're fake."
She'd planned to drop down as he asked, but at that she paused. "Fake?"
"The guards still have not moved. Get down!"
She boosted herself up the last handspan to peek into the tower. This guard was no fake. His arms were bare, as she'd noted from below. They were held oddly, though, at his sides, as if in a gesture of surrender, palms out . . .
His palms were darker than his brown skin. And there was something in the center of them.
Spikes. There were spikes through his hands, nailing them to--
Her gaze shot up. She saw the hair first, the loose hair she'd noticed before and--
It was not a guard. Not even a man. It was a woman, nailed to the back of the guard box by her feet and hands, her head lolling, her eyes dead and staring.
"Moria!"
She tore her gaze from the corpse.
"It's a woman. She's dead. They've nailed her up to look like a guard."
"A woman?" He frowned. "Why would they use--?"
He stopped short as Moria squeezed through the window.
"Where are you going?" he said, but she was already in the tower. With a clatter of blades, Tyrus followed.
FOURTEEN
Moria climbed down the tower ladder. At the base was a door leading into town. When she reached it, Tyrus called, "Stop." His tone was not that of a friend giving advice, but a prince issuing an order. He jumped down the rest of the way, knocking into Daigo, who snapped and glowered.
"Don't shove me aside next time, then," Tyrus said to him.
When Moria reached again for the door, Tyrus caught her arm. He held fast, his free arm going around her waist, pulling her against him, his mouth at her ear, whispering, "Steady," as he held her still. She could feel herself shaking against him. She tried to pull away, embarrassed, but he only tightened his grip, his body against hers.
"I know . . ." She swallowed. "I know why they used a woman. I know what's out there." It is like Edgewood.
"You don't know that."
Her chin shot up.
"I do. I--"
"You suspect it. You cannot know. It could be a trap, and if you rush in, you'll . . ." He trailed off, and when he spoke again, steel threaded his voice. "I feared a trap with the guards, and I wanted you to come down."
"I--"
"I may outrank you, Moria, but no one commands you. I understand that. I will ask, though, that you pay me the courtesy of at least listening when I speak."
"I--"
"I had cause to be concerned. You ignored me. We are partners, Moria. I'm watching out for you, as you are watching out for me. I would like you to remember that."
Shame washed over her. "I'm sor--"
"Don't be. Just heed me a little, now and then." A half smile. "If only to make me feel like an equal partner."
"You are," she said. "And I do apologize."
He let her go and leaned against the door, listening. Moria could hear only the thump of the gate. Tyrus motioned her behind him, unlatched the door, and swung it open. She could see the gate now, barricaded by cloth-covered heaps along the bottom. Corpses lining . . .
They weren't corpses. They were bags. Of sand or something similar. Tyrus eased closer to the open door for a better look around. From where Moria stood, she could see exactly what she had seen the first time she'd been brought through these gates: a silent town. People had stayed in their shuttered homes then, waiting for their ordeal to end. Yet there had been bandits and mercenaries milling about, keeping the town under control. Now there was no one.
"I want you to watch the nearest homes," Tyrus said. "Particularly the windows to see if anyone peers out and tries to warn us."
She nodded. He withdrew his sword and moved through the doorway. Daigo slipped past, and Moria swung out at his side, both daggers drawn.
The gate thumped. The wind whistled past, whirling sand. When Moria heard that wind, she realized she didn't hear something else.
Spirits? Where are you?
Not even the faintest murmur answered. After four days on the road, she'd grown accustomed to the silence. Now, it chilled her. There ought to be spirits here.
A thump, like the gate only softer, came from the house on her right. She whipped around to face it, but only a window shutter moved. Blame her dark imagination, always seeing the worst.
She motioned to the window. Tyrus hoped the townspeople would warn them, but that had not been her experience on her first visit. They'd been too terrified.
"I am Tyrus Tatsu!" he shouted, startling both her and Daigo. "My father, the emperor, sends me with the Keeper of Edgewood, who bore your master's message. I come in my father's name, without guards, to meet with you honorably. The former marshal would not wish his men to hide behind civilians. Come and speak to me."
No answer.
"All right, then," he muttered. "I'll find someone who will speak to me."
They approached the house where the shutter had moved. It had gone still now, but inside, Moria could hear scuffling, as if the inhabitants sought hiding places. Tyrus rapped at the door and waited only a heartbeat. As he opened it, noise erupted on the other side. A scrabbling. He adjusted his grip on his sword. The door swung open and--
A shape sprang at them with a bloodcurdling yowl. Tyrus's blade flew up just as Moria caught a glimpse of orange fur and shouted, "No!" It may have been her cry that stopped him. Or he may simply have realized he was about to cleave something much too small to be a human attacker. He caught the creature with the side of his blade, knocking it away. A blur of orange fur as the beast hit the floor, then shot off, hissing, brush-like tail behind it.
"A cat." Tyrus looked at Daigo as they walked inside. "You could have warned us."
Daigo stood there, stiff-legged, his yellow eyes fixed on the doorway the cat had run through. His growl reverberated through the room.
"He doesn't like house cats," Moria said.
"All the more reason for him to warn us." He started to lower his blade, then went still. "Do you smell that?"
"Yes. Someone has not provided that cat with a proper box. No wonder Daigo is annoyed."
Moria pointed at two piles of feces. Then she paused and glanced around the room. It was the cooking area, situated close to the front door to allow ventilation in warm weather. Besides the cat's mess, the room was tidy and clean. This was no squalid hovel, where cat feces might go unnoticed, and Moria doubted even the most slovenly housekeeper would allow it so close to food.
Then she saw the marks on the floor. Long scratches in the rough wood. Blood-smeared scratches, as if someone had been dragged, nails raking the floor, splinters digging in, blood filling the creases--
The scratches led to an interior doorway.
She raced for it, but Tyrus caught her arm.
"No," he said.
"But--"
"I'll not have you run onto a blade, Moria. Nor into something worse. I'll not allow it. Is that clear?"
Fury whipped through her, and she glanced at Daigo for help, but the wildcat sat on his haunches, watching. Telling Moria he agreed.
"Steady," Tyrus murmured.
"I am steady," she snarled.
"No, you are not, and we both know why you are not." He met her gaze, then he released her arm. "Be steady and stay at my back. Guard me."
She still bristled. Tyrus walked into the next room with Daigo at his side, and she bristled at that, too, but paused only a moment before duty compelled her to follow.
The next room was the living area. Two doors presumably opened to bedchambers--one for the homeowners, one for their children. The left was partly open, and bloodstained streaks led into the room beyond. They were not gouges now, only trails of blood. There were gaps, though, oddly spaced, and when Daigo bent to sniff the trail, Moria had an image of the orange cat lapping at the blood. She shuddered and turned away.
"I think it was the cat," Tyrus said.
"Yes," Moria said. "Judging by the feces, it's been locked in here a while. I suppose it had to eat something."
He frowned. "I meant the window shutter."
He pointed, and she saw a table beneath the window, everything on it now scattered across the floor. It had been the cat moving the closed shutter upon hearing someone outside. Which meant . . . She swallowed and looked from the blood to the piles of feces. Was she truly questioning what it meant? No. She knew.
She followed the blood to the bedroom door. She put her fingers against it. Across the room, Tyrus tensed, but she was being cautious, and he didn't try to stop her. She pushed open the door and saw . . .
Nothing. There was blood on the floor, but otherwise, nothing except--
"By the ancestors," Tyrus breathed, his eyes widening as his hands shot to his nose.
It was the scent she'd noticed on the breeze earlier, but magnified now, a thousand times over, hitting her like an anvil to the chest, her gorge rising.
Daigo pushed past. He snorted, as if clearing his nose, but continued padding forward, his head lowered as he walked around the sleeping pallet. There, on the floor--
Tyrus retched. It happened so fast that Moria barely had time to glance at him before he was doubled over, the contents of his stomach spewing out, the horror in his eyes . . . She knew it was horror partly for what they were seeing, but perhaps, even more, for his reaction. He clapped a hand over his mouth and staggered backward.
"You need air," she said. "It's the smell."
He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut, then loosened his grip on his mouth and inhaled deep breaths, sucking air through his fingers. Finally, he let his hand fall away and straightened, and she saw the shame in his eyes.
"It's the smell," she said. "And the pickled eggs you had this morning."
Again, he shook his head, rejecting the excuse.
"If you want to step out, there's no one here but me."
"And me," he said. "There's still me."
She opened her mouth, but he said, "I'm fine. We ought to . . . make an accounting. We'll need to tell what we've seen." He paused.
"Unless you'd prefer not to."
"Yes," she said. "I would very much prefer not to take a closer look." She met his gaze and he nodded, acknowledging her admission. "But you're right. We need to. So I will."
Daigo waited at the side of the pallet, fastidiously perched beyond the reach of the vomit. And the blood. As ashamed as Tyrus was, it had been a spontaneous reaction to the smell and the sight. If she'd eaten more today, she might have done the same.
The woman was dead. Of that there was no doubt. Yet the stench was not so much rot as infection. Moria recognized that from being with Ashyn when she'd assisted the healer. This woman hadn't been killed by her attacker. She'd been battered and beaten, her legs both broken, one bone poking through. She'd been clawed and bitten, her flesh torn and gouged. Some of the damage, though . . . There were cat prints through the blood. Many prints, as if the cat had visited and revisited, and Moria wanted to tell herself the beast had come in, distressed and worried about its mistress. And yet, some of those bites . . .
Her stomach lurched. Best not to think of that. No need to think of that. The point was what had attacked the woman, and judging by those deeper gouges and bigger bites, it was no cat. Moria suspected the culprit, yet she feared if she spoke the words too soon, it would seem as if she was fixated on that one answer, on the creature that haunted her nightmares.
"Moria?"
Tyrus had bent beside her, and she was about to say she was fine. Then she noticed he was lifting the blanket on the pallet. At first she saw nothing. Then she bent to peer underneath and . . .
There was an arm. Yet not an arm. A twisted thing, muscles and tendons bulging and contorted, fingers elongated and wizened, the nails thickened to claws. The same claws that had gouged tracks in the dead woman. She'd seen that arm before . . . or one like it. On her father, on the twisted thing that he'd become.
"Shadow stalker," she whispered. "That is . . . My father . . ." She swallowed. "I have seen such a thing."
Daigo bumped her arm, ignoring the pool of blood now as he rubbed against her. She put her arm around him. Tyrus squeezed her shoulder.
"You should step out," he said.
She shook her head. "You're right. It needs to be documented. We ought to . . . take the thing. If we can. When we're ready to leave the town. Take it so the court physician can examine it."