“It killed itself, didn’t it?” I said softly, and at his jerky nod a sense of dread I’d been carrying without even knowing it slipped down my spine and crashed to the floor.
There are rules.
I’d known. Mercy’s misery, the ki-rin’s stony silence…the refusal of the Council to say or do anything against the ki-rin… It was a noble beast that had done something terrible for love. There was no way it could go on pretending it hadn’t happened…and no way it could live with the fact that it had.
“A ritual slaying,” Nick said, picking up the story, as I went to sit down next to Pietr, letting my head rest against his shoulder. I wasn’t sure, but I thought that his outline solidified a little, and he came more clearly into view, when I touched him. Venec stayed where he was, in the doorway, still as though he were carved from stone.
“It had a sword, or got a sword, and fell on it, right through the breastbone. I can’t imagine too many people other than a ki-rin know exactly where their breastbone is, much less how to puncture it…so it’s a suicide. Case closed. Nothing for us to investigate.”
“No,” Ian said quietly, his voice more terrible than any lamentations. “Nothing for you to investigate.” He paused, then turned and went into the inner office, closing the door behind him, leaving us there. We were finished. Case closed.
Normally after a case, we’d go drinking to celebrate. This time…nobody seemed in the mood.
“This job sucks,” Nick said, and someone let out a ragged laugh of agreement.
I looked up, and met Venec’s gaze. His eyes were hooded, his skin tired-looking, but there was a stillness to him that wasn’t sadness, or anger, or frustration but a sense of something else I couldn’t quite grasp.
“They chose their own paths,” he said, talking to all of us, but looking right at me. Into me. “The job sucks, but you all did it well, with honor, and with respect.” He paused. “I’m proud of you. And so is Ian, even if he’s too much of an ass to remember to say it. Now go home. Get some rest. Drink yourselves into oblivion, if that’s what it takes. I don’t want to see any of you here until next Monday.”
The others didn’t wait for him to change his mind, and nobody seemed to notice that I stayed on the sofa, not moving as they all grabbed their stuff and disappeared out the door.
And then it was just the two of us, staring at each other from across the room. “Bonnie…”
He sounded so tired, I didn’t have the heart to say whatever it was I thought I needed to say. I just got up, and walked across the room, and put my arms up around his shoulders, bringing him forward so I could whisper in his ear. “We’re proud of you, too, boss.”
And then I kissed him on the cheek, and went home.
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Pack of Lies psi-2 Page 31