Chapter 13: The High Reset

The steward's shears went in at Kael's left wrist and ran the linen open to the heel of the hand. "The wraps are to be inspected," the steward said. He wore the Hall's sash, and he held the cut strip to the passage light and turned it, hunting a ward sewn into the hem. "It is noted that none is found. The Ring is glad of it." The right wrap went the same way. Kael stood with his palms turned up and the old burns open to the evening, and Inspector Marlowe read them to the pen from the gate post, her knuckle on the wood. "Palm, right: scar. Palm, left: weeping." Tap. "Cover to be re-applied by the entrant." "By the entrant." "There is nobody else." She tapped the post again and went to stand at the passage mouth. The pen was a railed yard of packed earth at…