There was a Touched in the city.

I wanted to scream the warning at the top of my lungs, but for some reason Master James was signaling for me to stay quiet.

“This looks like this is the way the killer got out.” Master James nodded at me.

“That window is always locked.” Helru started wringing her hands together.

I looked down at the frosty clue and saw that it was now gone.

“Masters, would you see if you can find out where the killer may have gone?” Master James turned back to the two humans in the office. “I have a few things that I would like to finish asking these poor women, then I will join you back at the house to go over what we’ve found.”

“Yes, Master James.” I looked at Val, “Come on Master Val, let’s go down the alley.”

“Do not disturb the people..!” Gili started, but her rant was cut short as Master James shut the window.

“Why did he do that?” Val looked confused as we walked down the alley.

It went for a single extra house before it opened up into the main road. We were close to the mouth of the mine, which was one of the safer places if the city gate was breached, but it was also closer to the mine which meant more noise. The miners had already started working, and the people were setting up their various workshops and such for the day. With all the people milling about, of which there were probably only a few hundred in the whole town, it was still going to be impossible to find anything frosty that the sun or a person hadn’t destroyed.

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“I have no idea.” I shrugged, “But this is the way that Masters are.” I looked around at the people, then back down the side alley. “Do you want to go back and see if we can find something else?”

Val looked up the alley at the building and shook her head. “There wasn’t anything in the alley.” She shook her head, “And I can bet what the captain will do if we start randomly asking people if they saw anything.”

I was about to tell her that was one of the perks of being a Bokor, you could just ignore the guard captain, but realized something.

“They haven’t told anyone.”

Val looked shocked, “Seriously?’

I motioned for her to follow me and led her around the side of the building. When we reached the front, there were a few people who were walking up to the doctor’s office, but Meler, Helru’s main assistant, was turning them away telling them that the doctor wasn’t feeling well and would have to reschedule them later.

I looked at Val. “When we first got here, people were coming to see what we were doing. At the Bar, there was a crowd of people, but here…” I nodded at the empty space, “No one.”

Val clenched her fists. “They’re covering it up.”

I shrugged, “Or Master James wants some space to work. One of my jobs as an apprentice was to chase people away while Master Bran was working.” I shrugged, “Though Master Bran tended to do that all by himself.”

Val was trying to stabilize her breathing. I could tell that she was upset, but she must have been going through things in her head.

“If there’s nothing else out here and we can’t ask anything that might tip off the people…” She looked around. “We might as well go back to the house and wait for Master James.”

She didn’t wait for my response and started walking.

I hurried after her. Hopefully Master James had some answers.