Page 18

Chapter 18

“Well. That was fucking odd as hell, wasn’t it, Din?” asked Ana as we rode back to our lodgings.

I was not sure which oddness she meant, as the meeting had seemed to offer no end of it, so I simply said, “I would agree, ma’am.”

“Why don’t you go ahead and give me the rundown? Describe all you saw—every movement, every twitch.”

I did so, sniffing my vials and reporting all the movements I’d seen, and occasionally echoing the voices of the people we’d interviewed. “I am hesitant to make quick judgments,” I said at the end, “but from my tell of it, it seems Immunis Ghrelin is a very passionate man.”

“Yes, he has all the zeal of a true fanatic,” she said. “But the idea that a veteran of the abattoir of the leviathans would leave that and go into curing coughs…It’s ridiculous. Ridiculous! What else did you see?”

I told her of Thelenai’s eyes and lips, and how they were stained green much like Malo’s and the other Pithian and Yarrow folk I’d seen about.

“Yes…” said Ana. “It’s an algae, actually. Grows on the waters about these hills. It acts like a beneficial parasite, infesting parts of the body, but granting you slightly heightened immunities…I’m told people grow the green if they reside here for, oh, more than a decade or so, though some lakes in the Elder West can taint your eyes in a matter of days. This means Thelenai has been here for some time…Interesting. And interesting that she hasn’t had it fixed.”

“Fixed?”

“Yes, the stain can be reversed, of course, by a sultur graft applied to the eyes. Little drops you can pop in that eat the green. Not too painful…I wonder why she hasn’t bothered! But regardless, now for the last bit—how did they react when I brought up the marrow ?”

“They did not react at all, ma’am. Which I found very curious. In fact, I almost felt like their reaction was…”

“Rehearsed?” she proposed.

“Exactly so.”

“Then they knew the question was coming. I dislike that immensely, Din.” A mad grin crossed her face. “But! At least now we know that Ghrelin and the Apoths here are pursuing a rather conventional brand of obstruction.”

“As…opposed to an un conventional brand, ma’am?”

“Oh, indeed,” she said coyly. “At first I wondered if Ghrelin couldn’t tell us. As in, he was literally incapable of doing so. For did you know, boy, that the Empire has methods of rendering certain secrets unmentionable? Grafts and arts that, when suffused into the body and mind, alter a person in such a way that they are physically incapable of divulging a specific piece of information?”

“I…had heard rumors of such a practice, ma’am, from time to time. But I thought them only rumor. It seemed far too ghastly an idea for the Empire to ever put into use.”

“Oh, no,” she said, laughing lightly. “It exists but is exceptionally uncommon! The process of achieving this effect is so complex that it can only be done with the subject’s consent. They must agree to this methodology. A strange thing, yes? For…what manner of secret could ever require such measures?”

“Yet…you do not think Ghrelin or the others have undergone such a treatment?”

“No, I do not,” she said rather sharply.

“What makes you so sure?”

“I have witnessed folk altered in such a fashion. Merely nearing the unmentionable subject causes them significant pain. I did not note such pain in Ghrelin.” She flicked a hand, dismissing the subject. “It was a random aside. Ignore it for now—but do remember it, Din.”

I blinked, thoroughly bewildered by this, for I always engraved all she ever said. I wondered why she’d said it at all, but then, Ana often said many mad things.