Page 42 of The Well of Ascension

“What is this about?” Elend asked.

The guard turned back toward the king. “The corpse in Lady Vin’s room.”

The “corpse” was actually a skeleton. One completely picked clean, without a hint of blood—or even tissue—marring its shiny white surfaces. A good number of the bones were broken, however.

“I’m sorry, Mistress,” OreSeur said, speaking low enough that only she could hear. “I assumed that you were going to dispose of these.”

Vin nodded. The skeleton was, of course, the one OreSeur had been using before she gave him the animal body. Finding the door unlocked—Vin’s usual sign that she wanted a room cleaned—the maids had entered. Vin had stashed the bones in a basket, intending to deal with them later. Apparently, the maids had decided to check and see what was in the basket, and been somewhat surprised.

“It’s all right, Captain,” Elend said to the young guard—Captain Demoux, second-in-command of the palace guard. Despite the fact that Ham shunned uniforms, this man seemed to take great pride in keeping his own uniform very neat and smart.

“You did well by keeping this quiet,” Elend said. “We knew about these bones already. They aren’t a reason for concern.”

Demoux nodded. “We figured it was something intentional.” He didn’t look at Vin as he spoke.

Intentional,Vin thought.Great. I wonder what this man thinks I did.Few skaa knew what kandra were, and Demoux wouldn’t know what to make of remains like these.

“Could you dispose of these quietly for me, Captain?” Elend asked, nodding to the bones.

“Of course, Your Majesty,” the guard said.

He probably assumes I ate the person or something,Vin thought with a sigh.Sucked the flesh right off his bones.

Which, actually, wasn’t that far from the truth.

“Your Majesty,” Demoux said. “Would you like us to dispose of the other body as well?”

Vin froze.

“Other one?” Elend asked slowly.

The guard nodded. “When we found this skeleton, we brought in some dogs to sniff about. The dogs didn’t turn up any killers, but they did find another body. Just like this one—a set of bones, completely cleaned of flesh.”

Vin and Elend shared a look. “Show us,” Elend said.

Demoux nodded, and led them out of the room, giving a few whispered orders to one of his men. The four of them—three humans and one kandra—traveled a short distance down the palace hallway, toward a less used section of visitors’ chambers. Demoux dismissed a soldier standing at a particular door, then led them inside.

“This body wasn’t in a basket, Your Majesty,” Demoux said. “It was stuffed in a back closet. We’d probably never have found it without the dogs—they picked up the scent pretty easily, though I can’t see how. These corpses are completely clean of flesh.”

And there it was. Another skeleton, like the first, sitting piled beside a bureau. Elend glanced at Vin, then turned to Demoux. “Would you excuse us, Captain?”

The young guard nodded, walking from the room and closing the door.

“Well?” Elend said, turning to OreSeur.

“I do not know where this came from,” the kandra said.

“But it is another kandra-eaten corpse,” Vin said.

“Undoubtedly, Mistress,” OreSeur said. “The dogs found it because of the particular scent our digestive juices leave on recently excreted bones.”

Elend and Vin shared a look.

“However,” OreSeur said, “it is probably not what you think. This man was probably killed far from here.”

“What do you mean?”

“They are discarded bones, Your Majesty,” OreSeur said. “The bones a kandra leaves behind…”

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