“If it wouldn’t risk fire in other houses,” he said to Dorrin without preamble, “I’d say burn this place out. Those spells are stubborn—oh! Marshal-General. I didn’t know you were here.”

“I came to help, if I can,” the Marshal-General said. “What’s the problem?”

“Blood magery, and the blood’s soaked into the fabric of the house—into the wood of the floor in this instance. I think someone or something was killed here, under the bed.”

The bed had been moved aside; they all looked at the old brown stain on the floor. The room seemed to darken as Dorrin stared, though the window stood open to the afternoon sunlight.

“What have you tried?” the Marshal-General asked.

“Prayer, of course, and the Relic of our grange.”

Sudden nausea gripped Dorrin’s belly; she gagged and grabbed for a basin on a table to one side. As the others watched, she heaved into it, too sick to be embarrassed for the moment.

“What—?” the Marshal-General said.

“It’s a body,” Dorrin said. “We have to get the floor up. It’s—under there.”

“It?”

“The body—the blood’s coming up, not down.” She saw their faces pale and knew her own must be bloodless as well. “And we must do it now. Quickly.” She stepped to the door of the room and called out. “Bring an ax; there’s one in the stable! Bring it here at once.” Feet thudded in the distance as someone ran through the house.

“What do you think it is?”

“Someone was killed to hide a secret. I don’t know how it was done, but the blood survives until a counterspell removes it.”

“And you know the counterspell,” Arianya said.

“I hope I do,” Dorrin said. “Something similar guarded the vault in which I found the crown—you heard about that, did you not?”

“Yes.”

“I think this is another old family secret, and it’s dangerous.”

Inder appeared at the head of the stairs, a towel tied around his waist, with an ax and a sharpening stone. “It’s not that sharp, m’lord, but you said hurry—”

“Thank you, Inder. You should go back downstairs—do not be alarmed if you hear wood cracking, but if you see—” She paused. What might he see that would give warning for her servants’ escape? “If you see an odd mist in the house, get everyone out.”

“Yes, m’lord.”

Dorrin took the ax into the bedroom. She heard a thin buzzing whine, as if a wasp circled her head. “You should leave the room,” she said to the others. “And risk or no, set fire to the place if I’m not successful.”

“I do not run from danger,” the Marshal-General said. “I will witness.”

“I do not know if I can protect you,” Dorrin said.

“Dorrin, I don’t ask your protection. Perhaps I can even help. Tamis, what Relic do you have?”

“It’s supposed to be a piece of the Cudgel … of a cudgel, anyway.”

“Hold it up, then.”

Dorrin raised the ax; the buzzing grew louder. “Do you hear anything?” she asked, wondering if the sound were perceptible to those without magery.