Jen paced in the Santen’s elaborate foyer. Mikhail flinched every time she drew close, like he expected her to kick him. Two hours had passed since she sent Alec to fetch the watch and still no Master Shen. Where in the world was he? He’d given her the call stick in case she needed him and now that she did he was a no-show.

Edward appeared beside her. “There’s about twenty watchmen headed this way, your friend Tosh in the lead.”

“Damn it!” Jen walked back to the sunroom. Talon sprang up from the undamaged chair when she entered. “Grab his gauntlets and go. We’ll meet you a block north.”

“Will do.” Talon yanked the dead man’s gauntlets off and sped away.

Grumbling about unreliable sorcerers, Jen returned to the foyer. A minute later Captain Tosh strode through the door at the head of a war party of watchmen plus Alec. He looked down at the three dead men, a frown of distaste curling his lips.

He glanced at the cowering merchant. “Who’s this asshole?”

Jen glared at the merchant cowering behind Rhys like her subordinate would protect him. “Mikhail Santen.”

Tosh barked a laugh. “Mikhail’s about six inches taller and twenty pounds lighter than this guy.”

“Well?” Jen said.

The imposter scrambled back a few feet before Rhys grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and lifted him off the ground. He shook the imposter like a dog with a rat. “Speak up!”

“I didn’t do anything.” The prisoner flailed at Rhys’s impassive form. “She paid me fifty royals to pretend to be the merchant for a day.”

“Who paid you?” Jen moved closer so she stood only inches from the squirming man.

“The girl. You know, in the servant’s outfit. It seemed like easy coin.”

Jen glanced at Alec and Edward and the two warlords accelerated away. It wouldn’t take them long to search the grounds.

“Who is she?” Tosh asked, butting his way into her interrogation.

“How do I know, man? I was getting a drink at The Drowned Rat when this girl sidles up to me and whispers in my ear about a job, coin up front. I got here this morning real early like she said and found her in that servant getup. Thought maybe it was some kind of sex thing, you know. I wouldn’t have complained either. She was gorgeous.”

“What about the job?” Jen asked, failing to hide her annoyance.

“Take it easy. She said some people wanted to talk to the merchant, but he wasn’t in town. She gave me these fancy duds, a sack of gold, told me what to say, and then put me in the sunroom to wait for you. Like I said, easy money, at least till that armored guy smashed the windows in.”

Tosh looked at her. “Armored guy?”

Jen nodded toward the arch. “He’s not going anywhere. Any of these slobs look familiar to you?”

Tosh bent down and yanked one of the dead men’s sleeves up to the elbow. He had a tattoo of a raven on the inside of his forearm. “The Unkindness. They’re a group of thugs and skull crackers that hire out to anyone interested. They usually work the docks.”

Jen grunted. A moment later Edward and Alec arrived, causing Tosh to flinch.

“No sign of her,” Edward said.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“She probably took off as soon as she left us with him.” Jen jerked a thumb at the imposter. “I think it’s time we had a word with the grieving wife.”

“Maybe I should handle it,” Tosh said. “She’s bound to be terrified.”

Jen waved him toward the stairs. If Tosh wanted to lead the way he was welcome. She followed the captain up the curved staircase to the balcony. At the top they had a choice of left or right.

Tosh looked at her and raised an eyebrow. Jen enhanced her sense of smell and caught the coppery tang of blood to the right. She nodded that way and Tosh took the lead again.

A short hall ended with a closed white door. The three dead men on the floor in front of it had gotten blood all over its pristine surface. Jen was glad she didn’t have to clean the place.

Tosh knocked on the door. “Mrs. Santen? This is Watch Captain Tosh. Open the door please, it’s safe now. Ma’am?”

Tosh glanced at her and she shrugged. What could she tell him? It wasn’t like she could see through the door. He tried the handle, but it was locked.

“Move.” Jen brushed him aside, reared back, and kicked the door off its hinges. It flew ten feet into the room and skidded to a halt at the foot of a canopy bed the size of Jen’s whole bedroom.

“Are you trying to give the poor woman a heart attack?”

They stepped through the doorway into a cavernous white room empty of all furnishing save the giant bed. Surrounded by white pillows, with her body buried under a white comforter, Mrs. Santen’s face looked tiny. Her eyes never opened despite the crash and clatter of the door. Jen didn’t like the feel of this.

She looked over at Tosh and from his slack-jawed expression suspected he had the same feeling. “You wanted to go first, so go on.”

“Thanks.” Tosh favored her with a sour grimace. “Mrs. Santen?”

They eased closer, each taking a side of the bed. They drew closer still. The woman’s gray, sallow complexion combined with the blue lips told Jen all she needed to know. She grabbed the giant blanket and yanked it back.

She flinched. There was nothing but the woman’s head in the bed. A dried pool of blood stained the white sheets under the blanket. “So much for a heart attack.”

Tosh frowned. “Show some respect.” He flung the blanket up over the remains.

“Is that at least the correct person’s head?”

Tosh nodded and they retreated from the bedroom back toward the foyer. “I met her a couple of times at government functions. What’s going on in my city?”

That’s what Jen wanted to know. It looked like something bigger than a missing merchant. “Someone has it in for the Santen clan. I doubt we’ll find Dominic alive.”

“You mean to continue the search?”

“That’s the mission. Until I find a body or someone tells me to stop, I’ll keep looking.”

“What if I tell you to stop looking?”

Jen laughed.

“That’s what I figured. Try to keep the breakage to a minimum. We’ll clean up here and notify the surviving family.”

She stopped halfway down the stairs. “There are more of them?”

“A daughter. She married into another merchant house. I can’t recall which.”

“Sounds like a good suspect. I assume she stands to inherit all this.”

“Probably. You want to come along when I talk to her?”

Jen frowned. She needed to track down Master Shen and have him look at those gauntlets. Much as she wanted to hear what the daughter had to say, the sorcerer came first. “I’ll leave her to you. What do you say we meet up tomorrow morning and compare notes?”

“My office?”

“Fine. Do you still not get started until midday?”

“Funny. See you tomorrow.”

They left the watch to deal with the villa and headed north to catch up with Talon. They found him leaning against the wall of a general store, the gauntlets tucked under his arm. “What took you so long?” Talon asked.

“We went to talk to Mrs. Santen and found her head, but no body. Tosh is going to talk to the daughter. We need to get to The Mermaid and find out what in the world is going on with Master Shen.”

“What about Mikhail?” Talon asked.

Jen grimaced. They’d left the imposter with Tosh. She doubted they’d drag anything more out of him. “He was a dupe. A disposable tool the girl probably meant to have die in the attack along with the rest of them. The real one’s still in the wind along with his father.”

“What?” Talon stared at each of them in turn.

“I’ll explain on the way.”

They walked out of the alley and headed toward The Mermaid. When they left the Lord’s District behind the streets grew crowded. People hurried along the sidewalks, running errands. All of them made way for Jen and her squad, many throwing sidelong glances at their weapons.

The shouts of vendors filled the air. It seemed like the city came alive around them. It gave Jen a moment’s pause, being surrounded by so much life only minutes after leaving a house full of bodies. Life went on and a house full of dead merchants and thugs wouldn’t slow it down.

The Mermaid lay in the Shipping District abutting the docks. The tang of salt grew stronger the closer they got to the water. The acrid hint of smoke mixed with the normal ocean smells. Jen looked up. Black smoke billowed in the distance.

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

“What?” Edward asked.

“I think The Mermaid’s on fire.”