Behind the girl, Ronan had slipped through a window into the bedchamber. Now he stopped, his forehead creasing, perhaps wondering why she'd ask such a question. This was hardly the time for an interrogation.
The girl didn't seem to think the question odd, though. She said, "They came as black smoke and possessed the men, who turned on the women. During the slaughter, the mercenaries took the children. The shadow stalkers did not seem to bother them--the mercenaries or the children."
"And your family?"
"My father was possessed like the other men. He killed my mother and my older sister."
"I am sorry for your loss."
A pause. Then panic lit the girl's eyes as she must have realized how dispassionate her account sounded. Her town had been massacred. Her mother and sister were murdered by her father. Yet she recited the events as if they were facts in a history book.
"The shock," the girl murmured, gaze dropping. "It has been great."
"I'm sure it has. But we'll need you to help us identify the dead. You can do that, I presume?"
"Yes, my lady, I will--"
She broke off midsentence and ran for the front door. Daigo lunged through. She didn't shriek or fall back but only cursed and started to veer. Ronan was already in flight, grabbing her by the shoulders and taking her down. He pinned her to the floor.
"Possessed," he said to Moria. "Like Wenda."
"Hmm."
Wenda had been a girl from Edgewood, one of the survivors who'd accompanied Ronan and Ashyn across the Wastes. In Fairview, Ashyn had learned that the girl they knew as Wenda was long gone, her body possessed by a spirit tasked with bringing the Seeker.
This could be the same situation. And yet . . . Moria finally recognized the sensation she'd felt earlier. It was similar to the one she'd noted near the resurrected mummies. A sense of disturbance, which Ashyn had not noticed with Wenda.
Tyrus stepped into the room, having caught enough of the conversation to know the girl was possessed. He studied her briefly before walking to Moria.
"Can you trap the spirit in there?" he whispered. "I know you can command it out . . ."
If she could trap the spirit, they could question the girl. But that was not something she'd ever covered in her studies, there being no scenario where one should need to do so.
The world is changing. My role in it is changing, and I hadn't even mastered the old one.
"I don't know," she whispered back. Then she turned to Ronan. "Can you fetch Ashyn?"
He nodded, and Tyrus took his place, standing at the girl's back with his sword tip on her neck.
"Do you know who I am, spirit?" he asked.
"Tyrus, son of Emperor Tatsu and his first concubine. I am well versed in the affairs of the empire, your highness. I have a name, too. It is Guin."
Moria crouched in front of the girl as Daigo took his place beside her.
"You stole a body and a name?" Moria said.
She had expected the girl to put on a performance when Ronan jumped her. To cry and sniffle that they were making a dreadful mistake. To babble and protest when they spoke of possession. Now, as Moria asked the question, the girl merely raised her dark eyes to hers.
"I stole neither. Guin is my name, and I found this body spirit-abandoned."
"Spirit-abandoned?" Moria said. "Is that like finding an empty wagon by the roadside?"
Tyrus snorted a laugh, but Guin only held Moria's gaze. "You mock, but that is exactly what it is like. I found it without an owner, with no owner likely to return, and so, being in need of conveyance, I took it. You won't need magics to keep me in here. I've no intention of leaving."
"And the spirit who owns that body?"
"Gone."