Gilded Latten Bones

9

Singe made sure I was armed and ready for the older, less friendly TunFaire before she let me leave. "I will pray to the human gods that the Civil Guard doesn't roust you. You aren't a good liar. They'll pat you down ten seconds after they stop you."

And my record as one of the finest subjects of the Karentine Crown would not tilt the balance away from an arrest for possession of proscribed weaponry.

Singe would not let me go with anything less. And, "Even though this does not look like a situation where we will need the Dead Man, I'll try to wake him up."

"Singe, you are a treasure."

That was a wonderful straight line. I regretted it before I finished saying it. Singe, however, confounded heaven and earth by disdaining her opportunity. "I know. I have trouble imagining how you have survived without me. Get along. No! Wait! What about your other friends?"

Symptomatic of my reduced status, I asked, "What? Who?"

"Saucerhead. Winger. Playmate. Half a dozen others."

"Oh. Them." At the moment Mama Garrett's boy didn't have much of a positive attitude toward her second favorite son. I had done so little to keep in touch. "I guess you could, like quietly, let them know there's a situation. Without mentioning what happened to Morley. But I don't think we'll be asking them to get involved."

Singe just shook her head.

I needed to get out there and make my special ratgirl happy by finding the real, missing Garrett.