HAWK & SABLE | FIFTEEN

IRINA LAID DOWN the information she had: yes, those paintings must have been the one used to smuggle the messages. No, she didn't know how those had gone into Jinyao's hands, though she was already sending people out to investigate.

Ciri noted that the princess met not her, Danna or Io's eyes during the entire briefing. She knew better than to believe she'd find a way to keep the two out of Melique, though. Practicality always won for the girl, and even Ciri must admit the advantages of having two more skilled agents in Melique, especially ones who could fit in and seem helpless so easily. Not that she thought the risk was worth it.

But maybe that was her heart speaking, not her head. She was having a bit of a problem separating the two, this week or two. That always happened when she worked on more personal cases.

Perhaps that was why Irina set her and Io on investigating the area again, instead of dispatching her to question Jinyao's neighbours and the workers at the Treasury. They set off with the Wolves and Asteria who had been set on the latter, but separated once they had arrived.

"I want names of people she was close with," Io, demanding as always, muttered as her dark eyes scanned the empty courtyard.

"Nan Zhuying. Qiao Jiaqi. Hua Lin. The minister."

"No one interesting. Got it. She must have hidden their association, then."

"Which points to her at least being partially aware of what she was doing," Ciri pondered aloud.

Io gave her the stink eye. "Stop trying to find ways to make her innocent and help me out. They've let this place stay relatively untouched, and everyone has been asked to enter through the back entrances. There might still be something here."

The blood had been cleaned up. The spot Jinyao had laid was marked out, but other than that, there was nothing to suggest that this had been the venue of a bloody homicide. Io searched the bushes, glanced at the lake.

"You're trying to find the weapon," Ciri guessed.

"A knife," she said. "Someone strong wielded it. A man, most likely. No one seemed to have heard anything from what we know, so it was fast. She was either too shocked to cry out, or was kept quiet by... something. No drugs in her system. No wounds on her body except the killing blow."

"She had no combat experience from what I know."

"All evidence points to that." In moments like these, it was difficult to match this serious, professional Iolanthe with the carefree young girl that was usually presented to the world. "Asteria said she came from the tower?"

"With work left half-finished on her desk," Ciri confirmed. "What do you make of that?"

"Lured out. This was a message for us." What Laurence had said, then. Ciri sighed. "Don't know what they were trying to convey, though," Io continued with a frown. "Messages are meant to be clear. This is a bad message. It just pisses us off and makes us more anxious to hunt them down." If that was meant to point out to her that the mole wasn't as clever as they thought, Ciri disagreed. She stayed quiet, letting Io's mind wander. She was an audience here and no more.

"Skilled enough to come in with no one batting an eye. Or that familiar. Though considering we've gotten nothing from the people so far, I'd say the former." Io's finger pointed towards the grand door. "They come in here at... around nine o'clock, I'd say. Manage to find Ai guniang in the tower— I'll look for signs of traipsing around if I were you, to determine just how familiar the killer must have been with her. Goes in, talks to her, convinces her to abandon her work for a few moments and lures her out here, into the centre of a courtyard."

"He stabs her in the chest."

"He does that." Io nodded, so calmly she might have been discussing the weather instead of a brutal murder. "He yanks the knife back out and leaves, heading out of the Palace and searches her apartment. Around this time, we're informed of this and sent out to investigate. Ten o'clock. We wisened up and sent someone to her house, and missed the killer just in time."

"The records are useless. They'd have snuck in and out."

"No guard was hurt. They're very sneaky, quite admirable." Io nodded. "If we're not careful, Ai guniang wouldn't be the only one hurt."

"We'll try not to drag anyone else into it."

"It's not us I'm worried about." Io rubbed her arm. "This mole has no scruples against killing. He's comfortable with it."

"He?" Ciri raised a brow.

Io shrugged. "Most likely a male, if they're that strong. Most of the females in the Palace aren't combat-trained. They're usually rather frail."

"Soldier, then?"

"Maybe guard," Io shrugged. "Something with combat-training. Which is, you know, quite a large portion of the male population of the Scarlet Palace, despite Irina and the Empress's best efforts. Really sad, actually."

Ciri chose not to comment on that, knowing it would just lead the two of them into a spiral of discussion that had nothing to do with the murder at hand. "Could it be one of the security guards here in the department itself?"

"Possible," Io said with a nod. "I'll ask Irina to look into that."

From the northern house, Asteria poked her head out of the door, glancing around. "Anything?"

"A few new suspicions. No leads. No weapons," Io called back. Ciri nodded in silent agreement. Asteria sighed and stepped out.

She wore a long, white qipao today. She didn't have to mourn Jinyao, technically, but they'd all worn white as a sign of respect, with the exception of Laurence, who had chosen black, the colour of mourning in Arecia. A silent statement. Those who noted it would discuss it among themselves behind raised hands. The wiser would stay quiet about it. That white rose in her hair would have been plucked from the same garden as the one in Jinyao's apartment.

"Nothing from our questioning so far, the Wolves are handling it." She smoothed her robe, the silken fabric rustling around her feet as she stepped down onto the courtyard. "Everyone seemed to have left by then, and the guard had stayed inside the entire time and didn't hear anything."

Ciri's brow arched. "There really should be more than one guard."

"Something I commented to my father." A small smile danced on Asteria's lips. "He wasn't too pleased." Please. The Duke loved his daughter with every fibre of his being.

Io had wandered off to some corner, lost in thought. Ciri paid the girl little attention, continuing to converse with Asteria in hushed tones.

That proved to be a poor choice when moments later, Io let out a yelp. Both older girls snapped towards the sound, Asteria's brow rising. Ciri hurried over to see Io hunched over a small patch of dirt, digging with her hands.

"What are you—"

Asteria stopped mid-sentence when she saw Io's find. Ciri's own mind snapped with understanding a moment later as Io carefully pulled out a short, slender blade, blood dried on steel, dark red standing out on silver.

"There you are," Io murmured, carefully standing up. "You've been troublesome, haven't you?"

✢

'TRUST THE CHILD to find something none of us could," Dominic grumbled in the Iron Wolves' workshop, eyeing the blade that was being inspected. "She's freaky, that's what she is."

Io's voice, annoyed, carried over the room from the corner stool she sat in, back hunched, expression bored. "I'm right here, idiot."

Zhang daren raised his hand, face deep in concentration. Ryan took a step forward. "Well?"

"The wound matches the blade," the man announced. "This is the murder weapon. Good job, Mi guniang."

Ciri stared at the little knife on the desk, laid on top of a silver platter lined with white cloth. Funny how something that small could take a life so quickly. "Standard Meliquean military issue. I've seen Meliquean agents use weapons just like that. There's our final evidence that this was done by the mole, not that we needed any more."

Asteria, being the clever one, said, "It's marked alas de acero. Oak-handled. The engravings themselves were tampered with, as if the wielder tried filing it."

Ciri didn't recognise the name, but she realised it was Meliquean. It translated to... Laurence's eyes flared with recognition. "Steel Wings," he said. "They stopped using those two years ago, after the smiths were caught using second-rate steel."

"So the mole would have been here for at least two years, and had little real connection to his contacts past basic messages and intelligence." Ruge hummed, thinking. Zhang daren nodded to convey his agreements.

Ciri asked the question most of them were probably wondering. "Why bury the knife?"

"It does seem a strange choice. It's as if they wanted us to find it, but also didn't want us to. Further showing that this wasn't properly planned," Irina said. "They keep contradicting themselves. Very conflicted. If I was their reporting officer, I'd be very annoyed."

"It wasn't buried too deep," Io supplied with a shrug. "And the soil was very loose. It's more as if they dropped it into a hole and then decided to kick some dirt on it."

"They weren't in a hurry," Ciri said, because that was what they were all trying to point out, really. "They were familiar with the comings-and-goings of the Treasury employees, as if they'd been watching for a while. But that contradicts the suggestion that this wasn't properly planned. Though if they were stealing secrets from the Treasury..."

"Ai guniang is known for working overtime," Asteria confirmed. "Her neighbours said that she often returned very late. Sometimes, not at all." That information had been gained from Danna, who followed the Iron Wolves to her apartment for questioning, and could mean any number of things, none of them useful. It was obvious that Jinyao was a radical, and she had taken at least one man as a lover. Or she could have been that devoted to her work. Either way, her absence was not suspicious.

"If the mole was noting this, they might have found her an easy way in. Or a pawn to be used." Irina raised a brow. "Seduction is coming to mind."

"Damn," Asteria muttered to herself. "I have to talk to Hua Lin about this. He might know something."

"He doesn't care if his lovers are faithful or not," Rhys admitted, not even the slightest bit of embarrassment on her face. "But he'd probably be aware. Be careful, though, he's smarter than we all act like he is, especially if you're still trying to keep this under wraps."

Irina casted her a look of annoyance. "I'm the one who requests his aid once in a while. I wouldn't do that if I thought him a bloody fool."

"I said smarter than we act like he is, not that we all thought him an idiot," Rhys replied, irritation in her voice matching the princess's. The two girls glared at each other across the room before Dominic cleared his throat. Poor man, he really wasn't fond of Rhys mentioning her lover. Funny. Rhys usually kept silent about her affairs before this. A new place of tension and argument between the two partners, probably, in their never-ending game of who could annoy the other more?. It was working in Rhys' favour so far.

"Can we... focus on the task at hand?"

Zhang daren clapped him on the shoulder, looking amused. That turned Rhys's glower to him. He returned it with a look of mock sympathy. She rolled her eyes and hopped down from the table she had been sitting on, the orb of red she had been playing with vanishing. "Discussing murder. So interesting. We're still not any closer to finding the mole. We're going at this all wrong."

Testily, Irina asked, "Do you have any ideas, then?"

Rhys fixed her with a flat look. "Stop looking at this like a politician or a spy and start viewing it as a detective."

They waited for her to continue. Even Zhang daren, who looked pensive. "You're interviewing people. Spying on people. The mole's careful enough to get past all that. Start looking at the evidence we have, because the mole's obviously leaving those behind. Remember how the paintings were delivered here? Someone should go and see if those guys at the docks ever saw Ai guniang around, because the paintings obviously got into her hands at some point. Check if she's recently taken any days off. Ask her friends directly who she's close to instead of beating around the bush and trying to figure it out yourselves."

The room was quiet.

Rhys let out a groan. "For the sake of Hongyun. I get it. You're all knee-deep in espionage. But investigations?" She jabbed her finger at herself, Dominic and then Zhang daren. "That's our game."

Zhang daren rubbed his jaw. "We need to talk to the Minister. Why haven't we spoken to the Minister?"

Irina, who hated being wrong, said, "Because we've been busy?"

Ryan looked faintly amused. "The Minister, then. And after that?"

"We find out how the paintings got into her hands in the first place. There has to be some kind of trail, especially since we now know exactly where it ends."

Asteria glanced at Ciri. "Partially, anyways. Here's a problem. There's definitely more than three, so the others are probably still floating around the place."

"They're retrieving them. Collecting them all, probably for destruction. Maybe they had planned to save them for further usage before, but now that they know we're on their tail, they're destroying it. Did Ai guniang refuse to hand it over? Perhaps out of frustration, she was attacked, and the mole immediately went to her apartment in an attempt to find it."

"And missed it completely," Ciri pointed out. "That points to them being in a rage, doesn't it?"

"I'll keep an eye out for anyone who's in a horrid mood." Irina's voice was flat. She was still annoyed. She'd get over that in a bit, but not for now. If Myrina was here, the countess would know how to calm her, but Mai was frolicking somewhere outside. Perhaps she was praying for Jinyao's soul in a nearby temple.

"And I have a Vayantean family to look out for," Io hissed, sending an accusatory glance in Irina's direction.

"You're sending her back?" Ciri asked, surprised.

"Of course. And she'd be more careful this time. If she's not, she can talk with that boy and try to see what she could gain. We need to be careful, especially in the case he's a Cuckoo." Irina glanced in Rhys' direction. "I don't suppose you could work whatever magic you have and figure that out?"

"No reason for an Iron Wolf to approach a random fourteen-year-old in the streets, sorry." Rhys raised her shoulders and let them drop. "You'll have to work on that slow."

"And if we're done inspecting the knife, I'll bring that to our evidence box." Zhang daren bowed. "I have to check on the other Wolves. Your Royal Highness. Your Highness, both the Briar and the Notus are under your orders for this operation."

"Thank you for your generosity and cooperation." As noble as ever, Ryan offered a small tilt of his head, the perfect prince. "And we should probably leave the workshop to not bother anyone else."

They scattered. Ciri made sure to avoid Irina, knowing the princess was still in a foul mood. Asteria murmured something to the girl quietly. Laurence joined Ciri near the back of the group, amused. "The princess is very annoyed."

"Irina doesn't like being wrong. She's far too used to being the smartest in the room. In truth, she needs to learn some humility. But she's young, she'll get better."

"What would you be doing now?"

"I believe I'm due a visit with Jiaqi and Zhuying. They might know something. They might be involved themselves." She was thoughtful, tapping her chin with her fingers. "I'll be going alone, I'm afraid."

Laurence nodded. "Perhaps I could go visit Lord Hua."

Ciri looked approving. "That might be a good idea, yes. But like what they said— be careful not to reveal too much."

"You think he's involved?"

Ciri shook her head. "No, but you don't know what he might accidentally reveal. I'd rather not risk that, truth be told."

"I'm discreet," Laurence laughed. "You can trust me. I've been doing this just as long as you have."

"I did not mean to undermine your skills," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Simply that you should still be careful. That's all. And here's where we part. Have a good day, Laurence, I'll see you later."

Ciri found the first servant she could and requested they carry an invitation for lunch to Zhuying and Jiaqi before returning to her apartment and asking her maids to get the kitchen to prepare food for three. All vegetarian, because they were mourning.

Lunch wasn't in a few hours, though. She found herself sitting down in front of her desk. She should write to Cass, see how her sister was in Arecia. She found paper and picked up a brush pen. Her calligraphy wasn't the best, but she'd manage.

Dearest sister...

✢

BOTH GIRLS wore white, offering only tight smiles. Ciri, voice quiet, led them into the dining room.

Jiaqi spoke first. "How?"

"Murdered. The weapon has been found, and they're hunting down the murderer. Hopefully they'll be brought to justice."

The two girls shared a look. "We know you're involved in this investigation."

Ciri nodded slowly. "It falls under the Prince and princess's jurisdiction, so I, as someone who was closer to Jinyao, was called in to help."

Between the two, Zhuying seemed far more distraught. Jiaqi was composed, though there was a hint of discomfort in her expression. Zhuying sniffled, "Why would someone want to kill her?"

"Something I was hoping the two of you'd know, being much more familiar with her. Did she have any enemies you'd know of?" One of her maids came scurrying in with a tray of tea. Ciri poured for them.

Jiaqi thought for a moment and shook her head in reply. "None that I'm aware of. She didn't have too many friends either. She was very devoted to her work. But also... she was rather private, so there may be a lot we don't know." She shrugged helplessly, eyes casted downwards.

Zhuying hesitated. "Was it... painful?"

Ciri shook her head. "I was told it was over quickly. No sign of a struggle."

Her shoulders drooped. "Well, that's good, I guess. At least it was easy." Ciri dipped her head in silent agreement, letting the quiet prod them into revealing more.

"Besides the two of us, the only people we're aware of in her social circle were the Minister and Lord Hua. And both are— were fond of her," Jiaqi said. "Was this an accident?"

"The murder didn't seem pre-planned. More of an impulsive decision," Ciri admitted. "Perhaps a disagreement with someone...?"

"Who was holding a weapon?" Jiaqi asked, raising an eyebrow. "Did they find the weapon?"

Ciri nodded. "A knife. It was left near the bushes."

"I just... don't understand." Zhuying was blinking back tears. "She was with us that afternoon, perfectly fine and alive. This morning we come in and are told she's dead. And murdered by a culprit who hasn't been caught yet." The food remained on the table, untouched. None of them had an appetite for food.

Jiaqi reached out and patted her friend on the shoulder.

"We'll catch them," Ciri said. "We think it's a man, because of how deep the stab wound was."

Jiaqi took a moment for that to sink in. "A guard? Jinyao was friendly with a few of them."

"The weapon doesn't match up to one of a guard's." That was all Ciri could reveal. "But it's possible. I'll ask them to check there."

Jiaqi nodded, but her mind wasn't there. "This is strange. Is it a serial killer? A few weeks ago, a maid who regularly came in to clean at our office was killed while out in the city. Someone... targeting females working in the Treasury?"

Ciri's eyes narrowed. "A maid was killed recently?"

Jiaqi nodded. "Ah, you wouldn't have heard. Happened before you arrived, and no one made a great deal out of it. Should we be careful?"

Ciri nodded. "Definitely. The Prince says he's heightening security, so you don't have to worry too much. Tell me about the maid who was killed."

Jiaqi frowned. "I don't know much about her, actually. She was one of the ones who'd arrive early in the morning, I think, just for cleaning. I only heard about her in passing. Can't even remember her name. Your friends would know, I think."

"I met her once," Zhuying had managed to calm herself enough to answer. "Small. Around twenty, I think. Quite pretty. Rather taciturn. Her family name is Bi."

Bi. There weren't many Bis running around. She'd ask her friends about that name. If it was out of the Palace and with no special suspicion, it might have been struck off as a normal unfortunate assault and be handed over to the Magistrate. But it was too much of a coincidence for Ciri to cast off.

Was this maid another unfortunate ally? A pattern was showing, then. Young pretty employees of the Treasury Department. A man? But the only man Jinyao was linked with was Lord Hua, who had been of great help in many cases. Was there someone else, then? A woman could approach them both as friends, but the only female friends Jinyao seemed to have were sitting in front of her, and their reactions seemed genuine.

"You think it's linked?" Jiaqi asked, eyes sharp.

She nodded. "It's possible. Some killers... choose a specific kind of victim. You should both be careful." Jiaqi was considerably taller, but Zhuying was almost the same size as Jinyao had been. "Don't go anywhere alone, and try not to head out at night."

Jiaqi snorted. "As if we needed to be told that."

Ciri felt a twinge of embarrassment. She'd often forgotten. The women who she stuck around were all more than capable of holding their own against an attacker or two, from Danna, who fought like she was dancing, to Irina, who was a master with a blade. But these two girls wouldn't have those skills. Instead they'd have been told these rules their entire life. Don't go anywhere alone at night. Always make sure someone is within screaming distance. "Sorry."

She waved her hand. "It's okay." Neither of them asked any questions. Jiaqi was bright, she'd probably realised Ciri wasn't a normal lady by now. Zhuying was a bit slower, and too emotional to think clearly right now.

Zhuying managed, weakly, "We could never catch a break, could we, huh?"

Both of the other girls replied with tight smiles. Ciri said, "We'll get to the bottom of this. I promise. I may not have been close friends with Jinyao, but I know her well enough to be determined to serve justice."

Jiaqi leaned over and squeezed her hand. "Don't stress. I know you will. Let's eat, the food is getting cold."