The weapon is tied to the green, he said. I intend—I intended—to meet you at Mrs. Erickson’s, to find some way into the building you can see. But if the power she sought in the green was the weapon I carry, it might be smarter to leave it at home.

What, where it can be stolen?

I can leave it with Helen, if that makes you feel better.

Kaylin exhaled. “I have a related question.”

Amaldi nodded.

“Well, two. The first: How do you know it’s Azoria’s house? The entire house that Mrs. Erickson occupies was built by her parents on what was probably a small, empty lot.”

Amaldi’s brows gathered toward the bridge of her nose, as did Darreno’s. “Is that what you see?”

“Yes. On the inside and the outside. But...at night, I can see the ghost of a larger building—a building that wouldn’t really pass for a house in that neighborhood; most lack the tower. And the scope. The two buildings don’t seem connected at all.”

The two once again exchanged an uncertain glance.

It was Amaldi who said, “It doesn’t look that way to us.” She hesitated, but before she could speak, the Avatar did.

“Ask your second question.” His eyes were a curious color; almost gray, but oddly shining.

“The first question is relevant, and it’s not quite answered yet,” Kaylin replied.

“The second question is, as you put it, extremely relevant.”

When Kaylin failed to ask it immediately, the Avatar took matters into his own hands.

“Amaldi, Darreno, according to Lord Kaylin, she started her investigation because the two of you recognized the weapon Lord Severn carries, and spoke to Mrs. Erickson about it. How did you recognize the weapon?

“Understand,” he added, when they failed to answer immediately, “that your former master is considered one of our greatest criminals. It had been assumed that she was dead, and therefore irrelevant. Even now, we have no proof that this is not the case, but the circumstantial evidence is now against that assumption.

“It’s possible that she is dead; in any Barrani sense of the word that might be accurate. But if so, the spells she cast and the machinations she began seem to linger in echoes. You are part of those echoes. And possibly part of the solution. But we do not entirely understand the whole of her plans, the goals she might have had. In truth, were it not for Lord Kaylin’s familiar and young Terrano, I doubt I would have been aware of your existence at all. It is not to my liking.

“But you should not recognize the weapon in question. You did. How?”

The question made almost no sense to the two out-of-phase mortals; that much was clear to Kaylin. She lifted a hand. “Can I handle this?”

The Avatar frowned. “You did not ask the question.”