A House Divided

Chapter 12

True to his word, the next day Kila said nothing to Burl of his meeting with Cianne Wyland. Even had Miss Wyland not extracted the promise from him, he wouldn't have said anything. The handkerchief could connect Elder Borean to the incident at the Stowley manor, or it could not. Either way, Kila didn't trust Burl with such information. If Toran Stowley's death hadn't been a suicide, if someone had, in fact, killed him and staged it to make it look like a suicide, Kila couldn't trust that they'd done it without assistance. The Elders would have known that Burl would arrive at the scene, but they couldn't have trusted that she would be the sole Enforcement officer to arrive.

He mentally went over the scene in Toran Stowley's study again. He had thought things seemed very neat there, but he couldn't allow himself to pursue that train of thought without solid proof. Determining that the evidence didn't fit based on his personal view of what a suicide scene looked like was a real, dangerous possibility for him.

Curiosity ate at him. He was certain his conversation with Miss Wyland had barely scratched the surface, and he wondered what more she had to tell him.

For the time being, he had decided to also withhold the information from Chief Flim. Yes, Miss Wyland had asked him not to tell anyone, but perhaps she didn't know that there were Enforcers who were skeptical about what was going on in the Houses. Chief Flim could be a valuable ally, but he would wait to establish a connection between her and Miss Wyland until he had a better idea of what was going on.

Exactly how many sides was he playing, he wondered. Enforcement had been his life, necessitating subterfuge from time to time, so he didn't feel guilty about keeping things from his chief or from the House, but he did feel guilty about keeping them from Miss Wyland. He didn't know why. Perhaps it was because he sensed she might see it as a betrayal if she found out. Perhaps it was because she seemed desperate to believe that someone could be working with her instead of alongside her. What she had said of her relationship with the captain, of the interplay between her father, Moiria Stowley, and the Elders, indicated that the poor woman was surrounded by machinations and searching for someone she could trust not to manipulate her.

Is she at that? Or are you being taken in by her? You think members of the Houses are incapable of forming their own agendas, agendas that might not mesh with those of the rest of the House?

The doubt chafed at him. He remembered those earnest eyes, that lovely face, her delicate form. But he also remembered the fluid grace of her movements, the skill with which she'd produced the dagger. He'd been expecting the move, but he had been impressed nonetheless. Testing her would be the wise thing to do, perhaps even asking her to practice with him as she once had. She might only have perfected the first form, but even executing that with the level of skill she'd displayed would have taken a great deal of practice. When coupled with her skill at sneaking up on him, leaping from the wall and down to his garden without making a noise, he felt it was safe to assume that Miss Wyland had plenty of useful skills. The question was, were they truly a secret from the rest of the House as she had claimed, or were they solely a secret from select members of the House? After all, what she had told him of the good captain suggested the man would be willing to do just about anything for her.

Kila would have to observe her. She wanted to meet with him again to give him more information about the House, and he would encourage that. Spending time with her would help him draw a conclusion about her motives, and it would give him a chance to match what she told him against what he was able to observe himself and gather from his work with Burl.

"An Movis, with me," Burl said, crooking her finger at him.

"The Healers have a report for us?" he asked.