“Stop your prattling, girl,” Anji said, her voice ringing behind the mask. The sound reverberated up the metal and through her skull. She was shocked at how much it had enhanced her vision and hearing the moment she slipped it on. The damned things really were maxial. And heavy. And itchy.

A bell clanged somewhere distant. Gulls cried overhead. The docks had teemed with their usual activity at her approach, but a crowd had already begun to gather around the Hawk and her dead charge. High above the crowd sat a young girl on her mother’s shoulders, her hands tangled in the woman’s dark hair. The girl’s eyes were wide as saucers, staring at Anji as though she’d walked right out of a story. Anji turned away as the dock attendant crept forward, adjusting her tricorn hat, and studied Kit’s body and face.

“Is that—”

Anji lowered herself down, the Hawk’s leathers bunching around her knees, her elbows. She laid Kit on the planks, then dug into her purse and held out a full Rhoda to the attendant. “Find whoever set the bounty on Rolandrian’s killer. Tell them she has been apprehended by the Hawk. Go!” The attendant chanced a wide-eyed look at the body and scampered off the dock and out of sight.

Chapter 47

47

Two constables hauled Kit’s body on a stretcher through Linura’s streets, preceded by a Sun Warden who shouted at the crowds gathered on sidewalks.

“See the fruits of idleness and ingratitude! An addict! A Dredger! This monster killed your beloved king! Rolandrian of House Demuratia lies cold in his crypt by the hands of this vagabond!”

Anji marched at their backs, her heart fluttering with anxiety and a spreading, sickening dread at the sight of so many people. Constables lined the sides of the street, holding back the churning, chattering crowd. Streamers and other garbage fell from windows, from people crammed onto rooftops to get a view of the Hawk and her charge. Linurans from every neighborhood had come to see the king killer. Some whispered and pointed as Anji passed; some cried; some called out angry taunts.

After an interminable time, Anji was led into a giant, spherical building in Laurelside, newly built, shining under the blue sky. Kit’s body was hauled through the open door, and Anji followed in after. The Warden led Anji up a wide flight of carpeted steps, along a short hall hung with gilt-framed paintings, and stopped at a pair of double doors gilded with the symbol of the One Path.

The Warden knocked once and opened the door as a gruff command to enter issued from inside.