Daphne found the next one at dusk.
The scouts hadn't returned. Renn was becoming less conversational by the minute. He didn't pace, which would have been too obvious; he simply spent more and more time near the courtyard gates.
Dinner came and went without news, and afterwards the five of us ended up walking the western hall together, because apparently none of us had anything better to do. That wasn't true. I had several better things to do, all of them horizontal.
Daphne stopped. One step, and then nothing. Sophie nearly walked into her.
"What?"
Daphne was looking down the north corridor, and her face hadn't changed. "Blood."
James straightened at once. "Where?"
She lifted one hand a little. "That way."
I smelled nothing. Sophie breathed in and shook her head.
"How do you know?" said Elizabeth.
"Blood attribute. Spilled blood. It's close enough."
I sometimes forgot that other people's abilities were inconveniently useful.
"Human?" I asked.
"Can't tell."
"How fresh?"
