Cast In Flight. Michelle Sagara

He’d sold fish predominantly to the poorer citizens of Elantra, and on occasion, those citizens had vanished.

      Parts of their bodies had been discovered in the fish, later. The Fishmonger had probably known more ways to kill a man than Red, the coroner, did.

      There were still a few cookies left in the tin, but Kaylin put the lid firmly back in place, appetite completely absent. “Why are you bringing him up now?”

      “Because he was human. We’re human. We’re not the Fishmonger. He didn’t require magic. He didn’t require power—elemental or Shadow or other. He did what he did with what he was born to. The Wolves were hunting him,” Severn added quietly. “We had a different view, but we were looking at the same thing: the damage done, the victims.

      “Gilbert is, in theory, of Shadow. You felt it the first time you met him. You knew it. But he’s Shadow the way you and I are human. The Fishmonger was Shadow the way the creatures that come out of Ravellon are.”

      Kaylin nodded, frowning. “Do you think that Ravellon was like one big holding cell for the criminally insane? I mean, the Shadows? I hadn’t really thought of it before now, but maybe it makes sense. Gilbert wasn’t what any of us were expecting. I think that hit Bellusdeo hardest. But is it really smart to look at Shadow as if it were fire or water, elementally speaking?”

      Severn hesitated. “When elementals are summoned—”

      “They’re sentient, if they’re of any size.” Kaylin struggled to catch the rest of the thought. “Shadow might be sentient the same way. But—fire wants to burn things. At any size. The trick to the summoning is controlling or denying that impulse.”

      “Water wants to drown or crush things, Air wants to throw things into other things. Earth wants to crush or smother things.”

      “And you think Shadow is somehow like the elements?” Kaylin asked Severn. Her first instinct was to deny it. So was her second. “Life needs the four elements. If the elements desire destruction when they’re summoned, that’s sort of understandable. No one likes to be practically enslaved. But what do we need Shadow for?”