“This is the place. You can see the wreckage of the wagon down there,” Trill said pointing across the field towards the road. “The place where Rori fought the Azirites is just up there in the woods.”

  “We can go into the woods later,” said Nolan. “There’s likely nothing there to see.”

  Nolan, Trill and Brand started across the field towards the large burnt area. The other places the lightning had hit were easy to spot, but it was the bigger area surrounding the wagon they were interested in. Nolan stood on the edge and surveyed the damage.

  “It’s lucky the whole field didn’t burn up,” he said.

  “It would have,” said Trill, “but an unanticipated rainstorm dampened things enough to prevent it from spreading.”

  Nolan looked towards the druid with one eyebrow raised.

  “There was no reason to let the whole of this beautiful meadow burn away,” said Trill. “Besides, I had the spell memorized. So why not use it.”

  “I said nothing,” Nolan said in mock defense.

  “Speaking nothing is different than saying nothing,” said Trill.

  “I like that. I’ll have to remember that one,” Nolan said as he began circling the remains of the wagon without going into the area of burnt debris.

  “Shouldn’t we just move over to the wagon and start looking?” asked Brand.

  “We could, but I’m hoping to avoid it. Based on Rori’s story, I think the dart that missed him should be over that way,” said Nolan pointing. “Let’s give that a try first. If it flew far enough that dart will be in better shape. We just need to hope it cleared the zone of destruction.

  “Are we going to be at it long?” asked Trill.

  “You have somewhere else to be?” asked Nolan in return.

  “No, but if we are going to spend the time, I could cast a spell that should tell us exactly where the dart is.”

  “Please, be my guest,” said Nolan.

  “How long does it take to cast?” asked Brand. “And is it expensive to cast? Not that I care, I just want to know how much Ian is going to moan when I tell him.”

  “It costs nothing and takes no time to cast,” said Trill. “The delay comes from the fact that I don’t have it memorized. So, I’m going to have to sit for a while and meditate in order to change to the new spell.”

  “Will it work for sure, or should we try and find the dart while you’re meditating?” asked Nolan.

  “I’m going to talk to the plants. Grass isn’t very bright, but they normally can immediately identify anything that ‘isn’t nature’ in the area. If the dart is in the unburnt grass, we should find it without problem.”

  “Wait,” said Brand, “you don’t bother to keep a spell that would let you talk to any plants memorized, but you do keep memorized one that makes it rain?”

  “I like the rain,” said Trill as if that explained it all.

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  “Brand and I will walk up to the woods and look at the area where the fight took place,” said Nolan, “while you do your thing down here.”

  “Sounds fine,” Trill replied, after which he walked a dozen steps into the midst of the tall grass and promptly laid down on his back staring up at the sky.

  Brand shook his head in disbelief and turned to follow Nolan up into the woods.

  “Looks pretty much exactly as Rori described,” Nolan said as he knelt examining the tracks in the area the combat took place.

  “I’ll take your word for it,” said Brand. “Tracking is not my forte. It’s been several days; how much can you tell at this point anyway?”

  “It’s obvious there was a fight,” said Nolan. “Anyone with a little training would be able to tell you that. But I will admit that it is quite a bit easier to see everything clearly because I already know who was involved and how the fight progressed. If I didn’t it might be a bit hard to piece together. Part of the problem is Rori’s style of combat. It means his tracks tend to start from nowhere and stop with no warning. Also, the dire boar’s rampage has obscured a lot of it.”

  “Do you think there really was a wild dire boar or do you think Trill is pulling everyone’s leg and it was him all along?”

  “I don’t know. I hate to admit it, but Trill isn’t so easy to read. But then again maybe it’s because he never lies and thus there is nothing to compare against.”

  “I understand how people are good at tracking,” said Brand. “You compare the size of the prints, the relative depths and how they turn and move. But I’ve never studied anything about detecting lies. How do you do it?”

  “Part of it is simple body cues. People tend to do similar sorts of things when they lie. Things like avoiding eye contact, repetition of details, lack of detail, moving too much or not at all, changes in breathing, shuffling their feet, covering their mouth, and the list goes on.”

  “How do you watch for all of that at once?”

  “You don’t have to look for all of it. Nobody does all of it, you just look for the things that they are doing. Without training in being deceitful, most people naturally have things that unintentionally give away that they are lying.”

  “Makes sense. But you seem to be much better than that. How do you catch the people who do have that kind of training?”

  “Part of it is practice. And then more practice. I used to go sit at the courts and listen to people testifying. It’s pretty easy to start being able to recognize when the common street thugs are lying. Continue practicing and eventually you start realizing when the hard criminals and thieves are lying too. Then you keep going until you get to the next level.”

  “Which is what?”

  “When you can tell that the lawyers and politicians are lying,” Nolan said with a grin.

  “You said part of it is practice. What’s the other part?”

  “I’m not sure. Maybe it’s natural talent. Maybe I’ve just been doing it for so long that I can no longer see how it is that I do it,” Nolan said, then after a moment he added, “Now that’s interesting.”

  “What’s that?” asked Brand.

  “See these tracks right here,” said Nolan pointing at the ground on the far side of the open area the fight had occurred in.

  “Actually, no.”

  “Well trust me they are there. And they don’t belong to Azirites, Rori or a dire boar.”

  “Trill and the Cunāe came up here after the fight to clean up and move the bodies. Is it not from one of them?”

  “Could be,” said Nolan, “but most of their tracks move right over to the Azirites’ bodies and away. These tracks don’t connect to those, and they aren’t made by Cunāe boots. These are soft soled shoes. The kind favored by Umidorians and often worn by assassins.

  “Are they hers?”

  “No real way to tell. If Trill finds the dart, then they probably are. If he doesn’t, we can only guess. Speaking of guesses and knowing, how about you come clean.”

  “On what?” said Brand defensively.

  “’The question was ‘why us? The answer is ‘simply that Rori is special . . . that Rori is somehow significant,’” said Nolan quoting Brand from the last meeting. “You weren’t lying, and you were confident of those statements. And you avoided saying anything when I asked why you thought that. Now it’s just the two of us. Let’s hear it.”

  Brand moved over to the nearby thicket and pulled a chunk of fallen tree limb out of the tangle and threw it into the woods. The sound of it crashing quickly faded and silence once again reclaimed the trees.

  Nolan looked over at Brand and waited.

  Eventually Brand said, “As I said in the past, my father owns a lot of books. He collects them to make himself seem well read, but I don’t think he’s read more than ten of them. I, however, took advantage of their presence. Most were nothing too unusual. Stuff you could get anywhere. But he did have a few rare things. In particular he had three books of a much larger set.”

  “I think I know that set,” Nolan said. “Which three did he have?”