“Children. I know.” Teela frowned. “There’s nothing here that catches my eye—and I’ve been examining things very carefully. Can you see anything?”

Kaylin shook her head. “Mrs. Erickson isn’t a mage.”

“No, apparently she’s something more dangerous. I find it surprisingly hard to keep that in mind—it must be your influence.”

“She’d never purposefully harm anyone.”

“That doesn’t usually make a difference to my people. If she weren’t mortal, it wouldn’t make a difference to the Dragon Court, either. I’m frankly shocked that Sanabalis was willing to let her leave.”

“She hasn’t done anything wrong, and it would be against the Emperor’s Law to have her detained.”

“The Emperor is the law.” Teela exhaled. “Next room.”

The next room in the small house was clear, if one didn’t count the dust and the cobwebs.

“She doesn’t appear to use this room much. The house is small enough—I wonder why.”

If Kaylin had to guess, she’d say the children avoided the room. “I can ask.”

“Can you ask and return in reasonable time?”

“Guilty as charged. I’m afraid it has something to do with the kids—and if it does, there’s probably going to be a bit of a ruckus.”

Teela considered this with care.

“Why don’t we scan the room and if something comes up, we can ask. If the room is clean, I don’t see the point.”

“You do, you’re just being a coward.”

Kaylin grimaced. “I’ve never seen the kids like that. They thought you were Azoria, the dead Barrani Lord we’re not supposed to be investigating or mentioning. But if they thought you were Azoria, she wasn’t dead when she was supposed to be; she couldn’t be and have kidnapped those children.”

“I am capable of rudimentary math, yes.” Teela gestured and Kaylin’s skin felt a wave of pain. “I understand why the Barrani believe she is best left to the dust of history—but given the events of today, I am no longer sure I’m in agreement.” Teela frowned. “I think you’ll want to talk to the children. I can’t hear them; I’ll wait.”

“What have you found?”

“If you can separate Mrs. Erickson from the children, you might get more cogent answers from her.”

“Teela?”

“Something is vaguely off in this room. There is no sigil that I can detect, no obvious magic. But Azoria was considered a genius. She could be enormously subtle, although that wasn’t considered her strength.”

“Did you know her?”

“I knew of her. I didn’t pay much attention, given my position at the time, and by the time I had come into my own, Berranin as a line was long dead. Clearly, I should have been more watchful.”

“She wasn’t your enemy. You had enough of those.”

Teela nodded. “What do you see here?”