Doppelganger by Marie Brennan Page A

still—where did they come from? There were a dozen popular answers to that, but no proof. Did the witches really build them out of twigs and hair? Or were they the revived bodies of dead witches? She'd never seen a male Cousin, any more than she'd seen a male witch; either they never had sons, or they kept them all hidden here, in their home domain. Maybe as one of her three boons, when she finished this commission, she could ask their employer. Despite trying to stay mostly away from witches, she
was
sometimes curious about them.
    Not long after that she returned and woke Eclipse, then lay down to rest. Her sleep was even lighter than usual; her nerves were tight enough that it was all she could manage. She didn't mind. This edge of excitement was what she had been lacking.
    In the late afternoon Eclipse nudged her awake and offered her a meal of bread, raisins, and cold sausage. They ate in silence, then waited for the sun to set.
    "I'm leaning toward Wolfstar," Eclipse said as they waited.
    Mirage nodded. "I am, too. The pattern seems like them, with things 'accidentally' failing—the banister, the step, the girth strap. A Stoneshadow would have used poison, I think."
    "You're probably right. Which means we can tentatively take the domain rulers off the suspect list. They all have bonded assassins; they would have used them."
    "True enough. And a pity, too." Eclipse raised an eyebrow, and she elaborated. "We know who employs Stone-shadows. So find the assassin, and you find the employer, and vice versa. It might have made things easier."
    "Yes. And there's an unpleasantly large number of people left to suspect—pretty much any person or group of people who could afford to hire a Wolfstar."
    "On the other hand, it does make some things simpler."
    "Like what?"
    "Repercussions. We can worry less about having to call Hunt on a Lord or Lady."
    Eclipse looked puzzled. "You did that before, didn't you, with Kobach?"
    "That was different. He was a usurper, and by the time I was hired all his allies had abandoned him. So that was less tricky. But we have
no
idea what the politics are here—why Tari-nakana was assassinated in the first place. I'm just as glad the employer is someone less influential than a Lord."
    "I don't know about influential—there are some merchant consortia that have more clout than their supposed 'rulers.'"
    Mirage rose and dusted off her hands. "We'll worry about that if we come to it. If we don't start searching that mess, it'll be a moot point. We won't know who's behind it anyway. Let's go."
     
    Searching Tarinakana's private rooms was a frustrating task. Mirage was not certain what she was looking for, or even if there was anything to find; she knew all too well that whoever had ransacked the place had probably taken or destroyed everything important. Assuming they had found anything. Assuming there had been anything to find.
    They split up the task; Mirage searched the bedroom and the bath, while Eclipse took the study. When they finished, they would switch and search again, each hoping to find something the other had missed the first time around.
    It promised to be a long and tedious night.
    Mirage checked the clothes first, examining them by the light of her shuttered thieves' lantern, piling each garment into the corner as she finished with it. They had not been treated with anything as far as she could tell; perhaps the staircase had been the assassin's last planned trick.
    She headed for the bath next, looking again for assassin's traps. She found nothing beyond a palatial setup powered by spells that provided heated, running water. Moral superiority and envy warred with one another in Mirage's heart; envy won out. It would be nice to always have a hot bath. She frequently had to make do wife streams, snowmelt as often as not.
    Well,
this job should pay enough that you can winter somewhere comfortable. Assuming it's finished by then. And assuming you actually succeed, and don't get killed by