Leaving the children in the dubious protection of their new caretakers, Kano took her greatly reduced group to Sherp’s office. The misshapen little detective should be able to provide information on what was happening in Shorinstown these days, something Kano was apparently sorely lacking, given she had no idea what Miusvon was up to. She’d hoped Himin could help with that, but she seemed to know little of what went on outside the citadel.

And obviously Nove and Urick knew little more than she did, at best. Climbing the rickety stairs, Kano entered the dilapidated office without bothering to knock. Sherp wasn’t worth such courtesies. She probably wasn’t even awake at this time of day. But as Kano made her way inside and looked through the mass of discarded bottles and other garbage, she found that Sherp was nowhere to be found.

Did the horrible little creature really need to find some kind of actual employment now? When she could actually be of some use to the wider world? She really had no sense of timing whatsoever. Deciding that she was probably out on some nonsensical errand or another, Kano decided that they could wait here for now and sat down on Sherp’s desk.

Himin took one look at the interior and said, “I am not waiting in this mess.”

Kano didn’t see what the problem was. The smell wasn’t that bad. But she didn’t care enough to argue. “Then you can wait outside. Maybe Miusvon’s new master will be kind enough to send someone to pick you off while you’re out there.”

Grumbling under her breath, Himin cleared a space for herself in the corner and sat down.

Urick did likewise, while Nove shifted her bulk gingerly through the debris to stand beside Kano. “It seems like we’ve got some time now, if you’d care to explain what happened.”

Kano would rather not go through it all again, but she supposed she owed Nove an explanation. “Actually, Himin, I’ve changed my mind. Wait outside for a while. You can be the lookout while I talk to Nove about something.”

Himin didn’t strike Kano as particularly reasonable, but apparently she had sense enough not to argue. Once she was gone, Kano began her account. She’d intended to keep it short and simple, but as she told Nove how it all began and the abomination nodded her enormous armored head, she felt a sudden need to unburden herself. Words overflowed from her mouth like a dam bursting as she talked and talked. Nove listened in silence except to ask for the occasional clarification.

It was only when Kano, feeling spent but more at peace, reached the end, when she’d destroyed the network that Nove commented, “You did the right thing.”

Kano hardly needed someone to tell her that. Of course she’d done the right thing. But hearing it still made her feel better for some reason. Better and yet more vulnerable, as if Nove’s judgment had suddenly opened up all of Kano’s actions to the same scrutiny. Kano came to the cold realization that just as she’d done the right thing then, there must be times when she’d done the wrong thing.

Not that she could recall any right now, but they probably existed. It was something she’d have to keep in mind, maybe then things would go better for her. She didn’t know how much difference it could really make, given how little time she had left, but it couldn’t hurt to try. Rousing herself from the near trance that her recollections had brought about, Kano sent Urick to fetch Himin.

Once she was back, Himin wasted no time in complaining to Kano. “Took you long enough. I was out there for ages. You’re lucky I wasn’t killed or captured.”

Hearing her whine, Kano wasn’t sure how lucky she’d truly been to avoid such an outcome. “You weren’t gone that long. It’s not like it matters if you’re waiting inside or out.”

“Yeah? You don’t see a problem with me waiting out in this increasingly hostile town, alone and unarmed?”

Kano thought she was being rather dramatic about it all, but she didn’t want to discuss this nonsense any further. “Fine, whatever. You’re in here now.”

It was at least an hour past dusk, and Kano was considering leaving when Sherp finally showed up.

“What are you all doing in here?” the little detective asked, her mouth hanging open and exposing her brown mismatched teeth, her rheumy eyes wide with alarm.

“I need information,” Kano said, gesturing for Sherp to sit down behind her desk.

The chair gave a tortured squeal of rusted metal as Sherp plopped herself down on the ruined seat. “On what?” she asked, drinking from a bottle she pulled out of her coat.

“On the town,” Kano said, snatching whatever wretched concoction Sherp was drinking and swallowing a mouthful. “And what’s been happening here since Shorin left.”

“Well, things have been pretty quiet over in the citadel as far as I know. Not that I usually hear much about what goes on there in the first place. I did hear a rumor that some necromancer moved in up north recently, and the butchers have been suffering a real lack of raw materials lately so—”

Kano raised her hand to cut Sherp off. She really didn’t want to hear about the economic straits of the town, particularly when there were far more important events afoot. “What was that about a necromancer?”

“I heard some salvagers, or something, complaining about how one of their favorite spots had been taken over. They said it was a necromancer, but it’s hard to say if that’s true. They were pretty drunk.”

“Do you know where it is they were talking about?” Kano asked. The words of whatever inebriated lowlifes Sherp was acquainted with weren’t much to go on, but it was better than nothing. And presuming what they said was true, there wasn’t much time to stop the necromancer before they were safely ensconced within the citadel.

“More or less. Why?”

“Because you’ll be taking us there.”

Sherp hunched down in her chair and repeated in a quavering voice, “Why?”

Seizing the detective by the collar of her soiled coat, Kano hauled her up. “We’ve been waiting for you long enough. Now show us the way.”