Page 5 of Paladin's Hope

“Um,” said the paladin, eyes locked on the saw.

Generally it takes longer for me to make a fool of myself in front of good-looking men. I’m getting more efficient.

“I apologize,” said Piper, lowering the bonesaw. “I, err…wasn’t expecting a visitor.”

He looked down and discovered that he had two visitors. Earstripe the gnole was looking up at him with a bemused expression, although it had to be said that gnoles nearly always looked at humans with bemused expressions, so that might not mean anything.

“Doctor Piper?” said the paladin.

“Yes.” He remembered he was wearing his mask and pulled it down. “Sorry. What can I do for you?” He instinctively tried to block their view of the room, even though the constable had undoubtedly seen dead bodies before and the paladin had undoubtedly made a number of bodies dead himself. For some odd reason, there was something different about a body on a slab. Men who thought nothing of sticking a sword into a living human being went green when you stuck a little tiny scalpel into a dead one.

“We were hoping to speak to you, if we may?”

Galen, that was the man’s name. Piper hadn’t forgotten. It would have been very difficult to forget a face like that, or hair like that, but of course the face came with a name as well. “Yes, of course. Shall we go into my office instead?” He gestured down the hallway with his free hand, glad that he’d already mostly washed up.

The paladin looked at the gnole, who arched his whiskers forward. Interesting. Apparently the gnole was the one who had instigated this visit and Galen was deferring to him. He wondered if the gnole was uncomfortable coming by himself. Then again, there are still people, even in this day and age, who think gnoles are animals or devils or some other goddamn foolishness. I suppose I might want an escort to talk to someone I didn’t know, too.

“Good, good. Can you—um—look, wait there, I just have to finish washing up.” How much blood was there on his apron? And his mask? Oh dear…

Piper closed the door and hastily shucked out of his work clothes and into the clean set he kept on hand. There was a scrap of polished tin mirror over the sink, and he checked to make sure he hadn’t unthinkingly wiped his wrist across his forehead and left smears. Looks clear. All right. Stop panicking. This isn’t a date, no matter how pretty the paladin is. This is a meeting with a gnole. Probably about that dead body. Granted, Piper’s dating history was not particularly extensive and he had always been terrible at pursuing other men, but he was still pretty sure that the morgue wasn’t the place where you were supposed to start.

There were two chairs in his office, plus the one behind his desk. The gnole was sitting. The paladin stood behind him like an honor guard. Piper filed that away mentally with the deference the paladin had shown to the constable earlier. As he moved past Galen to take his seat at the desk, their eyes met briefly. Green eyes narrowed slightly, not unfriendly but definitely weighing. Wondering if I’m the appropriate person to be talking to? Wondering if I’ll help in this…whatever this is? Wondering if I usually run around waving bonesaws at people?

He sat down behind the table, and pushed a stack of papers aside. “I apologize. I don’t usually meet visitors with a bloody saw in hand.”

“A gnole has seen worse.”

“Of course. Being a constable, you would have.”

“Not then.” Earstripe gave him a drop-jawed gnole smile. “A gnole worked in a human burrow, before. Old human there used to walk always with hatchet with red paint. Old human said, ‘Any nasty buggers who want to rob an old lady will think twice when they see Betsy.’ Said it many times.”

Both humans in the room digested this. “She sounds very…impressive,” said Galen.

“A gnole does not think she was ever robbed.”

“I can see that.” Piper focused on Earstripe. “Right. Okay. How can I help you?”

The gnole arched his whiskers forward, then nodded human style. “A bone-doctor remembers a dead human on the riverbank?”

Bone-doctor. Well, it was better than a lot of things he’d been called. “Yes, of course, the one impaled on the wooden stake.”

The gnole tapped his clawtips together. Piper got the impression that he was choosing his words carefully. “Mallory-captain is not a bad human,” he said, sounding a bit defensive. “A gnole is not complaining.”

Piper had his own opinions about the city guard, but suspected this wasn’t the time. “I have always thought Captain Mallory was honest and did his best for the people he served.”

Earstripe relaxed slightly. “Yes. A gnole has been fortunate to serve under Mallory-captain. A gnole would wish to continue to serve. But a gnole has been thinking about the bodies at the riverbank. Can a bone-doctor find the other bodies? The ones with no head?”

Piper sat back, exhaling. “Oof. How long ago were they found?”

“Nine days. Seven days.”

Piper shook his head. “They’re in the pauper’s field by now, if no one claimed them. And I’m not sure how much I could tell from bodies that old, particularly ones soaked in the water. Anyway, the cause of death sounds like it was pretty clear in those cases, so they wouldn’t have brought the bodies to me.”

The gnole nodded again. “A gnole suspected as much.” He turned his head to look at Galen.

“You were right,” said the paladin. “I thought it was worth a try, though.”

“So you still think they’re linked to this third corpse?” said Piper. He was interested despite himself. It was a puzzle, and he’d never been able to resist a puzzle. It was what kept him rummaging around inside the bodies, trying to find answers.

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