Returning to where the remnants of the party were gathered, there was nothing but silence between me and the other Montagues.
There’d be a meeting tomorrow, where two of them would come over, and we would begin to discuss how to get one of us into the archives. I hoped so at least, there remained the possibility that they would choose not to and instead to inform their family. All three of them had been distant since that agreement and a lot more somber than I expected.
I couldn’t place exactly why. None of them seemed to like their father, but the idea that he’d had his own scheme running tonight wasn’t sitting well with them. Or maybe some sense of duty to the Archives?
The silence hurt in more ways than one. It left nothing else to focus on while my body continued to protest the fact I was still moving when I shouldn’t be. Not just my hoof, my back and neck where divine magic had burnt the skin. My shoulder still ached from where teeth had nearly gone into bone. Nicks and cuts all over, my palm where the stab wound through had been closed by my last health potion but not too tightly. It could reopen. Adrenaline had carried me part of the way, the health potion the rest but that was fading.
There was nothing to focus on but each of those aches and pains as I limped towards the rear. A space had developed between me and the siblings from my slow pace, only a few feet but it suddenly felt like a thousand.
Going back to the front of manor at least gave me something to look for. Looking over the groups for the band, for Voltar, for Dawes, Lord Montague, Malstein. I did spot one.
Voltar had just left the ballroom, alone and without Dawes. Oh brilliant, the Kitsune had been on her own inside the manor. I limped on over to her as fast as I could.
“Where have you been?” I whispered to Tagashin as the Montagues went over to the rest of their family in the group of guests, who seemed more restless than before. The shock of the evening was fading. Soon they’d be demanding the right to go home.
“Poking around,” she replied in faux innocence. The coyness of the reply felt even more unsettling in Voltar’s voice. How had I ever fallen for this charade?
Living next to someone capable of practically coating me with Glamour every night was probably why. I’d need to keep that in mind for the future and keep my guard up around the Kitsune. Hopefully the bounds enforced by Imperial intelligence were high. Then again, Dawes, her supposed handler, was nowhere in sight.
Then again, he was my handler as well. Neither of us were making that easy for him.
“By poking around, do you mean the guests or parts of the manor?” I asked. “Because earlier, it seemed the manor would be quite risky for you.”
The Voltar-guise’s smile faded just a little. “It is. I’m sure you’ve noticed the lack of spirits inside. It makes doing things in there...difficult.”
I could not even begin to guess the mechanics of the fey’s magic, so I’d have to take their word on it.
“So the guests then. Trying to ferret out any changers?”
“Among other things. It's irrelevant to the case, but the little things I’ve overheard are entertaining. But in terms of directly finding changers? Nothing yet. I’ve mostly focused on the smaller groups, twos, and threes, trying to isolate themselves. That would be my guess for the remaining numbers of changers.”
Well, it was nice to be more in the know than the kitsune, even if the specifics of that weren’t good information.
“Not quite,” I said, then outlined briefly the missing band’s carriage. “So while it is entirely possible they chose to flee, there is the possibility they are still here. Albeit riskily. I can’t imagine the Watch’s scouring of the manor for the dead is going to take too long.”
“Depends on how well they are hidden,” Tagashin replied. “They didn’t have any mages of note among them, so they may not catch all of them. Maybe it is worth checking the insides of the manor if I can charm the spirit guarding it. A dozen or more shapechangers?”
“If there are non-changers among the group, I don’t see any reason for them all to ditch their clothes,” I said, before frowning. Why had they left the clothes behind? Something else to check on.
“Oh, I could think of a few reasons,” Tagashin replied coyly.
“I doubt they decided to waste time doing that,” I noted.
“It is a party,” Tagashin said with a smile. “Are you denying that if nothing had interrupted that party, you wouldn’t have ended up seeing how well Gregory could play a violin?”
“Maybe,” I said as coolly as I could manage. “Maybe not. It’s hardly even a first date if it’s under an assumed name, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Not as easy to fluster when he’s not right here, are you?”
“Maybe,” I said. “Or maybe your barbs are so blatant that they’re losing their efficacy. Did you focus on the guests or the servants?”
“The latter,” Tagashin answered, seemingly abandoning the needling for now. “Do I need to spell out why?”
Just the needling over Gregory was being dropped then.
“You don’t need to,” I replied, looking out where the servants were gathered. The manor guards had been left alone for now, perhaps because the Watch corralling armed men and women wasn’t as easy as the unarmed. There were a lot fewer of them left than I expected. The second wave of Infernals coming in from the kitchens had taken their toll.
That part of the deception was actually dead on, if one assumed the Black Flame operated like a drunk, rampaging animal. Actual Black Flame operations have never considered servants anything but additional obstacles in our way. Nobles and people of good reputation didn’t hire Infernals as servants back then. It simply wasn’t done. Concerns about them among our ranks had been...small. No horns, no need to worry.
More often than not, they had been a hindrance, even if I couldn’t agree with some of the things more malicious members of the gang had done. Silencing was one thing. Taking things further was unconscionable.
“Servants aren’t paid attention to,” I said. “And one could even put on a face that wasn’t even here tonight and claim to have been an outside hire to help with the party. Of course, it feels like hiding among them is pointless. They missed their shot. Lord Montague will keep his son sealed up on the third floor tighter than ever. Everyone is vigilant. The window where the swap could occur with as few questions as possible is over. Unless they really messed things up, they should know if Edward Montague is a shapechanger or not, and pretty soon what his new personality may be like.”
“At the end of the day, perhaps Lord Montague will wish a changer has replaced his son,” Tagashin noted with a smile.
“I don’t think so,” I said back. I didn’t care too much, but I didn’t think that poorly of his lordship. Then again….well, not my problem.
“Speaking of being replaced by changers, where did Dawes go? Not to sound paranoid, but every second one of us is gone on their own here is time they could get replaced in.”
We needed a method for this. I could make more of the paralytic, but that was an awkward solution at best. Experimentation would probably be needed, specifically on Hawkins.
“Don’t worry, he’s not locked in another closet,” Tagashin snickered. “He’s with the captain trying to coax Lord Montague out of that third floor.”
“Maybe he will,” I muttered. “I imagine his Lordship might be reconsidering staying there with every second that passes while he’s up there and his guests and family are in the open on his front lawn.”
Pig-headed as he was, I couldn’t see him risking that much damage to his reputation. Tonight had already been a disaster for him, something I could already anticipate his anger for. I hadn’t compared the number of guests out here to those who I’d watched enter the party, but there were plenty missing at a glance. Some of them were just wounded, but others were dead, and every one of them had family, powerful family.
Blame would be spread around a fair bit tonight. The lion’s share, I was sure, would go to the Infernals. To most people, the Black Flame was not a household name. The details of our activities were never announced to the public by ourselves or our enemies. It was a swing and a miss on the part of the changers, but all it meant was that Infernals in general, would be blamed for most of tonight’s events. The Changers some as well. There was no hiding Hawkins, but by the time it had worked its way to first the papers and then down to the streets, who knows how much the story would change.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Hells, I’d bet a sovereign that my defeat of Hawkins using Diabolism would be turned into Hawkins being a monster created with Diabolism by the end of the week.
But another person blame was sure to fall upon? The host, the man so many guests had entrusted with their safety, Lord Bartholemew Montague. That would be a difficult needle to thread for him and all his family. I felt sympathy, more towards those of the family I’d met who hadn’t met me with hostility, but their patriarch?
Given how he’d handled security, he’d practically invited this on himself.
“It shouldn’t matter too much,” Tagashin said, looking up at the third-floor windows of the manor. “We got what we wanted out of tonight. Let him sulk inside his halls.”
“Did we get what we wanted out of today?” I muttered. “You tell me. Your plan, Tagashin.”
Not-Voltar’s expression remained an easy smile, and I would not trust for a second my read on the Kitsune. Still, I’d like to imagine that the sudden freezing of expression was not just my imagination or assumptions.
“We did catch ourselves a shapechanger,” She said, looking over to a Watch wagon surrounded by nervous-looking Watch. “I’d say that makes tonight a success.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Interrogation isn’t easy, especially when you only have one. Ideally, we’d have two, so I want to know if any more changers were on those upper floors. We have bits of hints and clues, and I’m presuming their grand attempt to replace Montague has resulted in failure. Meanwhile we also have a bunch of dead corpses, some of which are going to need someone to answer for their deaths-”
“Am I interrupting?”
“Lady Karsin,” I said, curtsying as best I could in the splint.
I did keep myself from falling over, while Tagashin bowed. Lady Karsin returned the gesture.
She’d practically crept up on us, although Tagashin should have been able to see her approach. Why did the Kitsune choose not to say anything? Something to think about later.
“I thought you were with Lord Montague on the third floor, milady?” I asked.
“It opened up not that long ago,” Lady Karsin replied a mite sourly. “I made my way out as soon as it had.”
Not even trying to hide her disdain for Lord Montague’s company? No, it's best not to read into that too much. Fleeing up there only to deal with rampaging changers could explain that just as well.
“He’ll be down shortly then?” I asked.
“Soon,” she replied. “He was talking with Doctor Dawes and the Watch Captain on the scene and seemed very interested in talking with you, Mr. Voltar.”
“I imagine he wants to discuss the events of tonight,” Tagashin said. “I hope tonight’s events weren’t too disturbing for you, Milady?”
“I lived through Her Most Profane Majesty, detective,” Lady Karsin said. “This? A trifle to live through. Lending a hand upstairs was perhaps a bit refreshing.”
“Really?” I said. “We should compare notes sometime. You probably saw my handiwork on your way out.”
“Yes, the stench was quite overwhelming.”
Well, I had rotted that flesh. It wouldn't smell of roses.
“I believe you were talking to the detective about the efficacy of his plan? And you mentioned capturing a changer? Surely not the same one whose remains are scattered around the ballroom?”
“The same,” I confirmed. “I think I just overwhelmed his biology and some…core was preserved. They are interesting creatures to be able to produce so much mass. By all rights, it shouldn’t be possible even under most bio-sculpting tenets.”
“Very impressive knowledge on bio-sculpting for a Tarver Novitiate,” Lady Karsin said.
Right, she thought I was Danielle Waters. Tagashin spoke up first.
“A necessary deception, Lady Karsin,” she said as Voltar. “One that worked in the end. This is Malvia Harrow, formerly of the Black Flame.”
“Quite a few of you are popping up,” Lady Karsin noted. “You’re the one who changed Skall’s appearance and later told Voltar, aren’t you? From your performance in the ballroom, an alchemist and a diabolist as well?”
Thank you Voltar, or Tagashin, for deciding this was the way to go with this.
“Both of those things,” I said. “My apologies to you on giving Skall a new identity, I should have known from personal experience how deranged she could be.”
Karsin’s eyebrow raised. “I would hardly call Skall deranged.”
Well, you never shared a bed with her, for one thing. This was moronic.
“Well, maybe she had been getting better. Just not in all the right ways. Lady Karsin, is my prior affiliation an issue?”
“If the detective vouches for you, no, I think not.”
That might have been more reassuring on a personal level if the ‘detective’ was not a fox-tailed fey, probably pumping glamour by the pound into the elf.
There was the sound of yelling from the main entrance to the estate, followed by the sound of the doors being forced open.
“If I might bother you for a second mi’lady?” I asked her as Lord Montague strode out of the manor, a dozen guards and even more Watch following.
Both Dawes and Malstein were there, talking animatedly with him. I couldn’t hear them yet, but from the expressions on their face I did not have much time before that crisis would be right in our faces.
“I have one,” Lady Karsin said, also watching the nearing storm. “Briefly, while I might still get out of here.”
“I have a method, not perfect, but I think it will work well, of determining if someone is a shapechanger or not. I would like to offer to test your son using it.”
Her gaze snapped back to me, eyes narrowing.
“What would the cost be for it?”
“No cost,” I replied, trying to let the tensions ease out of me in preparation for what was coming. “In terms of you paying me or to your son if the test doesn’t work. If he isn’t a changer, he’ll experience a definite inconvenience, but only briefly.”
I could hear the conversation between Lord Montague, Dawes, and Malstein now, and it didn’t sound pleasant.
“-either Voltar turns up right now or my guards search this estate for him right now!”
Lady Karsin coughed, looking over my shoulder.
I looked behind me, seeing nothing. Until I looked down.
“What in the hells do you think you’re doing?” I asked the crouching Voltar behind me, Tagashin apparently deciding I’d be useful as a shield of some kind.
“Taking cover?” The kitsune replied with a wink that sent a shiver down my spine.
I’d make a remark about how terrible her disguise was, but Lady Karsin was right here. Kitsune were powerful, and this one especially needed to be considering how her illusions and glamour were being wielded like a club. Definitely not part of the stories I’d been told as a child, about great-grandmother’s cunning and guile needed to match the wits of the Kitsune she’d fought.
Well, more than fought, if the stories were true. I was suddenly struck by a very unpleasent possibility regarding Tagashin I immediately swore never to think about again.
Still, why be so blatant and use even more magic to cover up for it? It could not be easy even for a powerful fey to rely on this so liberally, to test the limits so much. People would notice sooner or later, the illusion would thin. Then again, why should she care? She was a prisoner in this like I technically was, but unlike me she seemed to have very few personal stakes in all of this.
I ignored the Kitsune for now, turning my attention back to Lady Karsin.
“The test?”
“I’ll allow it,” Lady Karsin said. “If you’ll tell me what it is first.”
“At a later time?”
Lord Montague was now only a couple dozen paces away and nearing fast. Unsurprisingly, hiding behind my knees had not kept Tagashin from being spotted.
“Certainly,” she said, already heading away from us as Lord Montague neared.
I limped off to the side, only for Tagashin to move along with me, Lord Montague’s unamused expression on the both of us. Unamused and maybe with a glimmer of suspicion. Damn it all, Tagashin.
From the expression on Dawes’ face, he was thinking much the same thing.
“Not my idea, your lordship,” I said, moving away from Voltar once again.
“Foulhorn,” Lord Montague said to me, the distaste in his voice only matched by the look on his face. “I’ve seen your handiwork in the ballroom, so I will acknowledge you’ve done me a service despite any harm you might have caused. As yourself or any of...whoever knows how many identities you’ve pranced around me as, duplicitous creature that you are.”
This sounded like a fantastic acknowledgment of having helped save his guest’s lives twice, but I limited my response to a stiff nod.
“I’ll pay you this one kindness. Leave right now, or you might not find it so easy to in a few minutes.”
Ominous. I nodded, then moved to the side. The kneeling form of Voltar rose up onto it’s feet, and I wasn’t sure if Tagashin was actually there or merely casting an illusion of Voltar in that space.
“Lord Montague!” Tagashin greeted Montague cheerily while the noble’s eyes narrowed. “How nice of you to finally join us from the safety of your-”
Lord Montague slapped Tagashin in the cheek, the force of it twisting the fake Voltar’s side as it echoed across the courtyard. Conversations ended as everyone turned to look as the host of the party then drove his other fist into Tagashin’s stomach. To everyone but the two of us who knew, the Empire’s Greatest Detective fell to the ground, curling into a ball.
My eyes flickered between the prone but probably faking Tagashin and a Lord Montague who looked angrier than I’d ever seen him before. Too angry actually, a mask. A show. Ah.
Why come down from the third floor when he’d refused to so far? Something had changed, and he’d gotten what he wanted out of tonight. And by doing so he no longer needed us. How could Lord Montague help salvage some of his reputation tonight? By simply speaking the truth.
He had done me a service with his warning, and my head start meant I wasn’t standing right next to the focus of everyone’s attention. I kept my limping retreat at a slow pace though. Moving too fast would draw far too much attention.
Poor Dr. Dawes was not as lucky, stuck right in the middle, especially as he moved in between Lord Montague and Tagashin. Montague made no efforts to continue his assault though, instead turning to the assembled guests, servants, Watch, and everyone else from tonight.
“I would like to announce to all those assembled here,” Lord Montague yelled as Tagashin disguised as Voltar got back to her feet, illusory hand caressing the struck cheek.
“I was originally going to cancel this event, in light of recent events regarding my son. As you may be aware, he was poisoned, by a concerted alliance of foul entities seeking to undermine the empire. A gang of foulhorns steeped in Diabolism, and shapechanging monstrosities from the distant past. For the safety of my son, my family, and all of you, I was going to cancel the ball, until I was convinced by one person that instead it could be used as a trap to end this threat once and for all. Mr. Voltar told me it would be worth the risk, that he would ensure the safety of everyone here. In that he has failed miserably.”
I limped further even as Malstein hesitated. Sure, a lord of the realm had just assaulted someone, but the Watch barely had the numbers here. I counted guards as I continued to limp. Far more than I’d seen throughout the manor. Far more than I’d seen down in the ballroom during the attack of the fake Black Flame. The Watch would have more, but spread out throughout the estate, and besides, how much would Malstein stick his neck out for Voltar?
Not very far was my bet. Not unless they got dragged into this.
“He suggested to me people to help, organizations to call on the aid of. To their credit, they have tried their best, from those I already had confidence in, such as the Watch of our great city, to those I doubted the most, such as a foulhorn diabolist who, at great risk to herself, killed one of those shapechanging monstrosities and several of her former criminal comrades! But still, he could not protect us to the extent he promised. Part of that is on me for letting myself be talked into this-”
As I continued my retreat I felt a tug inside my brain. Not a literal one of course, more a pulling sensation that there was something I needed to do still.
I didn’t want to listen to the entire thing anyway. I limped faster towards the ballroom.
Time to see what the Imp wanted.