Gilded Latten Bones

83

Our visitor was General Block. He was in a good mood. He did not ask for alcohol. He reckoned black tea would be entirely adequate.

"Breakthrough?" I asked.

"We found out where the custom glassware came from. Weast Brothers, in Leifmold. Shone and Sons handled the importing using Dustin Lord Shippers. The purchasers paid cash and collected the materials from the dock using their own transport. They purchased seventy-two items that came in three shipments, the first about a month after the thing at the World Theater went quiescent."

Quiescent? Where did he ever hear a word that big?

"Is there a connection?"

"I doubt it."

Strafa said, "There weren't half that many pieces in that warehouse."

"There were twenty-six. We have friends in the crew that moved them. Only a few got broken."

"That's all interesting," I said. "But helpful how?"

"Helpful because we now know where they were manufactured. A team of Specials is headed down there already. So. What about you all? Come up with anything?"

He looked straight at Strafa. He knew she had been to the warehouse again.

She said, "We didn't find anything. Not even a speck of dust. What did your sorcerers find?"

"Some useless specks of dust. Professionals cleaned that place out."

I asked, "Any ideas about why the cover-up?"

"I know exactly why. So I'm told. I'm on my way home from the Palace. I took a serious ass-munching from Prince Rupert. He made it perfectly clear-for the benefit of witnesses who didn't think I knew they were watching. The Crown is determined to avoid a popular panic. Therefore, this business is too important to be handled by the Guard."

I snorted.

Block nodded. "Experts off the Hill say TunFaire is unstable and volatile because of high unemployment and strained racial relations resulting from the conclusion of the war with Venageta."

Singe said, "When have our lords of the Hill ever cared about that?"

Block raised a hand. "Truth has nothing to do with any of this. They did make one good point. The real hot weather will be here soon."

I could put a cot in there with the Dead Man.

"The orchestrated manipulation of a populace already hot, worried about jobs, and troubled by arcane happenings, might provoke riots and witch hunts."

"Glory Mooncalled," I said.

Block looked at me like I was nuts.

"Just speculation. There was a rumor a couple years ago that he was back, then a whole lot of nothing, like maybe somebody clamped down. This could be some kind of urban guerrilla warfare."

"You do have an imagination, Garrett. If there is any political angle, the source is more likely inside the human rights movement."

I glanced at Morley.

He shook his head. "No way. I don't know what I was doing when they captured me. But I wasn't on a mission from the Elven Defense League. Those people are nuts."

Block asked the question. "So you were taken captive, then?"

"I. ." Morley frowned. "I guess. It stands to reason. Ugh!"

"What?"

"I had a flash vision of somewhere dark and smelly. What you would expect where you keep people locked up."

Singe was all over him immediately. "Describe the smells!"

"Back off, people! It was just a flash. There isn't anything there to get hold of yet." He met my eye, glanced eastward.

It was a shame, indeed, that the Dead Man was on hiatus.

For no reason I understood at the moment, I asked, "Where is Penny? Anybody seen her?"

No one had. A flurry of activity ended seconds later when Strafa looked into the Dead Man's room. Penny was in there with the Bird. Bird was teaching her to paint.

Back in Singe's office, I asked, "When did the Bird show up?"

No one knew. Concerned, I hustled to the kitchen to ask Dean. Dean had no idea, either, but had Playmate and Dollar Dan in there with him. Dollar Dan said, "That painter guy came the same time I did. The young girl let us in."

Interesting. "Thanks." I hustled back to the others, where I told Singe what Dollar Dan had said.

"I'll talk to Penny. She's careful about strangers but she should keep us posted about friends."

Block asked, "Anything else you people want to tell me?"

Ah, hell. He was getting that look.

I said, "Tell me what you have. I'm one hundred percent open this time so I'll give you anything you don't already have."

He did not believe me but he played along, telling me some of what the Guard had. I told him, "That's already more than we know here. What could you possibly think we're holding back?"

"You must be. You're constitutionally unable to. ."

"Captain, stop!" Thus spake the Windwalker, Furious Tide of Light. "It would seem that you have a constitutional handicap of your own."

Captain? Block said, "Yes, ma'am." Meekly.

Singe said, "We could have something more later. You are the first of our contacts to visit us today."

I was trying to recall what I was hiding so I could keep my stories straight.

Block changed the subject. "Prince Rupert wants to see you, Garrett. He said to tell you."

"Why?"

"Going to offer you a job again. Lurking Felhske isn't as straight-arrow as he hoped."

I shrugged. "Not interested."

"You'll have to tell him yourself."

"I don't have time. I'm busy here."

"Garrett! The Crown Prince wants to talk to you."

"If it's that important he knows where to find me."

Block looked at me like he had caught me pissing on an altar.

I was being outrageous. But I figured Rupert was too busy to take umbrage.

Somebody knocked.