The Wild Dead (The Bannerless Saga 2)

“I’m sorry for that.”

“Kellan didn’t do it. You told your partner, yeah?”

“It would help if we had some evidence that he wasn’t involved.”

Mart scowled. “He’s usually off by himself, scavenging on the shore. Alone.”

“Yeah,” she said, looking away. That was what she had assumed. Evidence would have to come from someplace else. “Right. Well. I’m going after Hawk to see if there’s anything he can tell me. I don’t suppose you know exactly where he’s run off to?”

Folding his arms, holding himself close in, Mart shook his head. “He said we must have done it. That we may not have held the knife, but we drove Ella out and got her killed. Offered her a place, then didn’t protect her. He just . . . I think he just wanted us to say it was our fault. He wants to blame someone.”

“Everybody does. You think he’s trying to blame someone else because maybe it was him that did it?”

“What? No—at least, I hadn’t thought so.” His gaze turned inward. He was thinking about it now.

“You know anything about that knife Kellan was looking for?”

“Yeah—Hawk was looking for it too.”

“You saw it, before it disappeared.”

“Neeve gave it to her,” he said.

“Gave—not traded?”

He chuckled. “Maybe it was a bribe. But I haven’t seen it since the last time Ella was down this way. Month or so ago, I guess. She had it then.”

“And the next time you saw her was after Kellan found the body, and there was no knife.”

Mart shrugged, a noncommittal gesture. He seemed to be trying to put together the same broken pieces she was.

“Any idea where it could have ended up?” asked Enid.

“With whoever killed her, I guess. They likely buried it somewhere.”

“Even though a blade like that would be valuable to outsider folk?”

“I don’t know; you’re the investigator, you tell me.”

She suppressed a smile. “Right, then. I should be back in a couple of days. Maybe I’ll have it all figured out by then.”

She started walking, and Mart called after her. “They’re violent out there. Wouldn’t put it past them. If it wasn’t Hawk that killed her, it was likely one of the others, one of his kin.”

“That’s what I’m going to try to find out.”

“Enid, wait.” He trotted down the stairs, came close enough that he didn’t need to raise his voice. “With you gone, your partner’ll be back up here. He’ll lay this on Kellan. What’re we supposed to do then?”

“I’ll be back to clear everything up.”

“But what if you aren’t?”

They were so sure she wouldn’t be back.

“How about we figure all this out then?”

She walked on.

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