Page 26

Chapter 26

It was evening when we made it back to Yarrowdale. Malo stopped the boat about five leagues from the riverfront and rummaged about in a cabinet until she found what appeared to be a large firework. “I hate lighting these fucking things,” she grumbled as she stuck it in the prow of the boat. Then she knelt and struck a flint and steel over the firework’s dark wick.

A hiss, a rush of stinking smoke, and a streak of red fire roared up and crossed the sky. The captured smugglers screamed in terror while the wardens watched, grim and implacable.

Then all dissolved to hell.

Barges of Apoths came pouring out of the city, and soon we were surrounded by people bound up in warding suits, not a smallspan of skin exposed. They bellowed questions at us as they loaded us off into their barges, waving telltale plants about us like thuribles at a blessing.

Once on board we were ordered to strip nude for inspection, to confirm that our bodies carried no visible blot of contamination. The wardens disrobed with blithe indifference—apparently this was a common occurrence for them—yet I protested, saying, “I am Iudex. Not Apoth.”

“That I can see,” said the Apoth officer inspecting me. “Yet you were amid all that shit back there, sir?”

“I was.”

“Then disrobe, sir. Quickly now!”

I reluctantly removed my clothing and tried to maintain my dignity as best I could. One warden woman turned and studied my naked form with an unabashedly interested eye, then tapped Sabudara on the shoulder and made some remark. Sabudara turned and looked me over, and gave a single satisfied nod, as if to say— As I said . I resolutely fixed my gaze on the back of the head of the man before me, and told myself this would all be over soon.

There I was wrong. Once we passed the first inspection, we were given blankets to veil our bodies—most of the wardens, including Malo, just folded them up and sat on them as cushions instead, perhaps out of protest—and we were shipped off to an Apoth holding facility, where we were each put into cells lined with telltale plants. One wall sported a soft moss pallet for sleep, the opposite one a large glass window. Every hour an Apoth arrived at the window to demand that I stand, drop my blanket, and allow him to inspect my naked body, along with my eyes, mouth, teeth, and undercarriage.

After four of these sessions I was instructed to stand in the center of the cell, and then warm, dripping, dark brown oil came pouring down from a pipe in the ceiling. I was told to rub the oil all upon my person, then sat to wait.

My skin began to tingle, then went numb. Then the man returned, told me to stand beneath the pipe again, and this time a hot, acrid fluid came down, cleansing my skin of the oil. When it was done, every rash, cut, bruise, and blemish upon me had vanished, and my gray skin seemed softer and firmer than ever. I half wondered if it was worth exposing myself to contagion to get such treatment.

A team of medikkers came, reviewed my body again—I was beginning to grow as indifferent to these exhibitions as the wardens—and told me I had passed all their tests, though they would need to keep me here for another twelve hours for observation. I asked them to notify Ana of my circumstances, and they agreed and slid a tray with beanbread and water through a slot in the bottom of the door.

I sat, ate, and drank. Another day in Ana’s employ, I thought, though this one was unusually humiliating. I attempted to calculate how many such days I’d have to tolerate until my father’s debts were paid, and quickly gave up.

Through noble vessels such as I, the emperor’s justice was made.

—

I slept for so long in my sunless little cell that I lost all track of time. I heard a rapping at my glass, and I cracked an eye to see an Apoth militis smiling hesitantly down at me from the other side of the window.

“I’ve your clothes, sir,” he said. “Would you kindly get dressed?”

I stood, still wrapped in my meager blanket. “Am I free to go?”

“Not quite, sir.” He slid my clothes through the slot in the wall. “There’s an investigation, you see, sir.”

“Has my immunis been notified?”

“I’m not informed of that, sir,” said the militis.

“If she isn’t included in whatever this is, there’ll be hell to pay,” I said. “This is not a threat, but just…physics. When defied, she breaks things.”

“I’m…not informed of that, sir,” said the militis again.

It was either the wrong thing for me to say, or I was talking to the wrong person. I let it lie.

Once I’d arranged myself, I was led through a hallway and out into the streets of Yarrowdale. I cringed at the daylight—the first sun I’d seen in hours—and climbed into a waiting cart. The militis and I rode together, but I did not bother to ask where we were going; I’d summoned up the map of the city in my mind and knew there was only one possible destination this way.

I eyed the outline of the advanced fermentation works as we pulled up. It looked much the same as the day Ana and I had come here to see Immunis Ghrelin, the fretvine orbs gleaming like fish eggs in the brittle afternoon sun. Yet as we climbed out, I sensed the entire attitude of the place had changed: all felt fraught and anxious, with Apoths darting about like panicked ants whose mound had been trodden on.

I was led through the front gates, then through yet another hallway, winding around until we came to a set of closed doors. The militis knocked, and the doors opened to reveal a meeting room much like the one with the percolator, the vine walls suffused with the watery gray light from the windows above; yet this room was far more crowded.

Malo, Tangis, Sabudara, and the other wardens were seated at one end of the table, properly dressed, their faces either frowning or stoic; on the other end sat Commander-Prificto Thelenai, green-eyed and green-lipped, still arrayed in brilliant robes of red and yellow. Beside her were her three frowning little ducklings, as I’d thought of them last: Commanders Biktas, Nepasiti, and Sizeides. Several other functionaries sat along the wall behind them, captains and signums and princeps I did not know. They mostly busied themselves with notes. I did not see Ghrelin anywhere.

Everyone looked up as I entered. Malo shot me a look as if to say— Get ready.

“Ah,” said Thelenai quietly. “Signum Kol. Thank you for joining us.”

I stepped in, stood at attention, and bowed. “Ma’am.”

“I apologize for your treatment, Kol,” Thelenai said. “Containment is always necessary after such exposures, however. We cannot risk some contagion taking hold here in the city.”

“Understood, ma’am.”

“And that, indeed, is why I’ve asked you here today. Your testimony as an engraver will be most valuable for our safety. Especially given that it shall likely not need extensive translation…”

A shadow of a scowl crossed Malo’s face.

Thelenai gestured to the far end of the table. “You may take a seat, please.”

I did so, sitting beside Malo. Thelenai’s green-tinged eyes studied me as I did so. With her bald pate and the light from above, I was reminded of a skull engraved upon a tomb’s door.

“Now…” Thelenai began. “You are aware that the phenomena you witnessed in the jungle were a symptom of profound transmutation, Kol?”

“I am, ma’am.” I considered saying that the cause was surely titan’s blood but sensed that this was a meeting where I was to give information that was asked, rather than volunteer my own.

“And you are aware that such phenomena are terrifically dangerous, and uncommon,” said Thelenai. “Thus, it is imperative we know everything about it.”

“Of course, ma’am.”

“Then please review the events you experienced on the canals—starting with the body that floated downstream. Leave nothing out.”

I hesitated. “I would, ma’am, but…”

A wrinkle emerged in the pale expanse of her brow. “Yes?”

“Being as my head was bound up in a warding helm for most of the events, I could not anchor what I witnessed with a scent. Thus, it may take some time for me to, ah, recount them. And what I recount may not be entirely comprehensible, ma’am.”

“We shall take what we can get. Proceed.”

I recounted the events exactly as they happened, but because of my lack of a scent, my testimony was stuttered and halting. I felt my eyes fluttering, my face twitching, and I listened to myself awkwardly belching out phrases like “Weather hot, very stilted. Six beads of water on Malo’s helmet. Warden beside her, right-handed,” regardless of whether this information was of use to anyone.

It took the better part of two hours, but I answered all their questions—especially when it came to the vine-people we discovered. Thelenai questioned me extensively on them, and on all the objects we found within their forms.

Finally we came to the wall of growth about the camp and the clearing.

“And what kinds of plants composed this growth?” Thelenai asked, her voice now faint.

I answered, rattling off all the shapes of the leaves and vines I’d witnessed. The room echoed with the sounds of scribblings as the many Apoths took down notes with their ashpens.

“And when you entered this…wall,” said Thelenai, “you saw much changed within. Yes?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

A long pause.

“But at the center was some…device,” Thelenai said. “An engineered system. That is what the others have told us—is that correct?”

“It is, ma’am. It was a thing of pots and pipes.”

Thelenai nodded slowly. I sensed that her next question was of tremendous importance.

“Now…retrieve that memory for me, please, Kol. Look at this thing carefully, in your mind. Do you have it?”

My eyes shimmered. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Good. Now, please…describe this system to m—”

Then came a sharp, ear-ringing knock at the doors.

Everyone in the room jumped, save Malo and her wardens, who’d apparently heard the person coming.

We all stared at one another, then Thelenai. No one moved.

Another sharp knock came, repeating five times now.

“I…I told them we weren’t to…” sputtered Thelenai. “Damn it, whoever that is, send them away!”

One of the Apoth militii sprang up, slipped through the doors, shut them behind him, and engaged whoever had knocked. I heard a voice respond, giving a sharp retort that quickly grew to thundering invective.

I quickly cleared my face of all emotion—for I recognized that voice.

“That…” muttered Malo next to me, “that is your immunis, Kol.”

“I am aware,” I hissed out the side of my mouth.

Thelenai stewed in her seat as the shouting outside continued, her icy poise melting away. Then the shouting abruptly stopped; there was a silence; and then came a smattering of gasps and chuckles from the wardens seated behind me.

Malo raised a hand, silencing them, and awkwardly cleared her throat. “Ah—Commander-Prificto?”

“Yes?” said Thelenai, irritated. “What is it? What is the matter with your people, Signum?”

“She has…told me to do something,” said Malo.

“She what? Who? Who do you mean?”

“I mean, the person out there…” She cleared her throat again. “She must have guessed I am in here, ma’am, and that I can hear her. So. She has told me to ask Din—I mean, Kol here—a question.”

Thelenai gaped. “She what ?”

“She has told me…” For a third time, Malo cleared her throat. “She said— Malo, ask Din if the instruments he saw in the jungle looked like a whole lot of pots stacked on top of one another, and if the one on top had a glass lid with a chimney, and a little wire fiddly bit inside it. ”

Now it was my mouth that fell open. I coughed, recovered, and said, “Ahh. Well. That is rather exactly what the device looked like, ma’am.” Then I added: “And, ah, here I am addressing you, Commander-Prificto.”

Thelenai stared at me, then Malo, then the closed doors. “How…how did she know that?” She looked to the wardens. “You didn’t tell anyone, did you? Did you tell anyone what you witnessed?”

The wardens shook their heads. Sabudara looked especially truculent.

“Didn’t have anyone to tell, ma’am,” said Malo. “We were naked in a box. Not the same box, mind…”

“And you?” said Thelenai, this time to her three commanders and the rest of her functionaries. All of them quickly shook their heads.

A lingering silence.

Then Ana’s voice at the door: “ Well? Shall you let me in or not? ”

“Oh, hell!” snapped Thelenai. “Get her in here and let us find out how she knew that!”

—

When Ana was finally admitted, the sheer amount of smugness radiating off her was so tremendous that it drew glares from nearly everyone. She entered blindfolded, bowing as she grasped the forearm of a terrified porter—the very same young man who had fretted over her mounds of oyster shells—and she bore a tremendous sack of papers over one shoulder. The porter led her to a chair, and she fumblingly sat and dismissed him with a flick of her fingers. The boy ran away like the building was on fire.

“Well!” said Ana cheerfully as she slid up to the table. “Good morning, all.”

Thelenai struggled to recover her chilly composure. “Is it?” she snapped. “Breaching an investigation of such an incident is a terrible offense, Dolabra. But before we even begin assessing that, I must demand…how did you know what Kol saw in that jungle? Who gave you this information?”

“Oh, of course,” said Ana. “I have two answers to that, ma’am—one indirect, and one direct. Shall that suffice?”

Thelenai regarded Ana like she was a clump of turd waiting to be scraped off her boot. “If you must.”

“For the indirect—I regret to inform you that much of the city is now at least vaguely aware of what has happened. Sending up a big red flare, and then a bunch of folk in warding suits rushing out to set fire to a chunk of the jungle…well, that does give one ideas. And it informed my conclusions about what Din might have encountered during his foray.” She reached into her satchel and pulled out a huge, messy mound of parchments. “But a more direct answer would be to say that you gave me the information, ma’am.”

“I?” said Thelenai, affronted. “ I did?”

“Indeed.” Ana hauled out yet another massive stack of parchments and slapped it down with an echoing thud. “I have been studying the records of all the thefts that have taken place on the canals over the past two years, you see,” she continued, blindly flipping through the parchments and sliding out a handful of documents. “The very ones you gave me, Commander-Prificto. It took me some time to find any pattern, but a pattern there was! For though the smugglers have tended to target the same precursors and shipments—valuable materials for healing grafts, and so on—there were a few anomalies spaced out over the months, thefts that made no sense at all…until I realized that for these, the smugglers weren’t stealing the reagents but rather the instruments shipped with them!” Grinning, she arranged the parchments in a sloppy grid before her. “The baker’s baskets as opposed to the flour, so to speak.”

“Smugglers would have no use for instruments, though,” said Thelenai. “Since they lack any knowledge of their construction and use.”

“So one might imagine,” said Ana. “Yet the facts say otherwise! The more I read about these components, the more I began to comprehend the limited combinations they could be used in. And then I began to realize what he was likely making…”

“What…who was making?” asked Thelenai faintly.

“Oh, our impostor, of course,” said Ana mildly. “I am no Apoth, of course, but I guessed he was constructing what is called a degradation diffuser, outfitted with a disperser. Looks like a stack of pots with a glass chimney on top and a bunch of pipes. My understanding is that the instrument takes stable reagents and runs them through a series of cycles until they separate into their original, reactive states. For most reagents, this wouldn’t be too dangerous, but…” She slid out yet another piece of parchment. “Some ten months ago, a shipment of highly advanced, altered fertilizer was stolen by smugglers! One intended for an Apoth orchard in the second ring. As such, it contained a high concentration of the base ingredient qudaydin kani. Or, in layman’s terms, the most potent of leviathan’s blood! Run that through a degradation diffuser too many times, and then feed it through a disperser so it sends a fine mist floating through the air, and, well…one shudders to imagine the consequences! But then, as I said, I am no Apoth. I could be wrong.”

There was a stunned silence.

Grinning wider, Ana looked around the room, still blindfolded. “ Am I wrong?”

Thelenai’s side of the room erupted into muttering. One of her commanders snatched the parchments from Ana and gave them to Thelenai, who studied them with a dazed expression.

“A…a degradation diffuser is an immensely complex instrument,” Thelenai said haltingly. “We have only three here in all of Yarrowdale. The idea that some smuggler could steal some spare parts and build one out in the jungle is…is…”

“Insane!” said Ana. “Utterly mad! I agree. But then, this man is an absolute genius, apparently. We should not underestimate him.” She extended a hand to Thelenai: an insufferably magnanimous gesture. “And, indeed, you did not, ma’am. Very wise of you. I commend you for your foresight.”

“What do you mean? I did not what?”

“Underestimate him,” said Ana smoothly. “That, I assume, is why you assigned him to work within the Shroud.”

The entire room seemed to slowly tense: save Ana, who simply slid yet another sheaf of parchment out of her stack and thoughtfully tapped it with one finger.

“Immunis!” said Thelenai sharply. “Are you suggesting that…that I have met this criminal?”

“I am, ma’am,” chirruped Ana.

“But…that would suggest that you know who this man is.”

“And I rather think I do, ma’am!”

“Then stop playing your goddamn games, woman!” snarled Thelenai. “Tell us your conclusions!”

“Oh, I will,” said Ana. “Under two conditions.”

Thelenai stared in naked outrage. “You are in no position to make demands! I am the ranking officer here, and this is an emergency!”

Ana shot forward. “And we are not formally in the Empire!” she said. “That’s been quite a useful loophole for you, hasn’t it, ma’am? Some rules can be obeyed, others less so. How shall it go when I try the same?” She sat back. “I want to talk to Din, alone. That is the first condition. And the second—I wish to talk to you, Commander-Prificto. Along with Immunis Ghrelin. For I feel the two of you shall have much to say to me shortly.”

Thelenai’s green-tinted eyes widened. I thought I saw a faint crinkle of terror within her gaze. She debated it silently.

Thelenai stood. “Everyone out of this room,” she said. “Except for the Iudexii.”

“Oh, and Malo, please,” said Ana. “I’d like her to stay.”

“What!” snapped Thelenai. “The warden? Why?”

Malo raised her hands like someone had pulled a blade on her. “I have no desire to get involved with this shit.”

“I suspect Malo’s knowledge of the region might be valuable!” said Ana, grinning. “It should take no longer than fifteen minutes, I expect—it’ll take that long to summon Ghrelin here, yes?”

Again, the mention of Ghrelin seemed to cow the commander-prificto. Thelenai shut her mouth and swept out of the room. The wardens did the same—Sabudara shot me a quick wink—Thelenai’s retinue followed, and then we were alone.

—

The second the door clicked shut, Ana swiveled to Malo. “Signum—keep your ears open,” she said, “and you tell me if there’s anyone at the door, as well as if someone else is approaching. Do you hear me?”

“ That is why you asked me to stay?” said Malo, offended. “To act as your guard dog?”

“I also assumed you’d like to be involved in this, too,” Ana said, “being as it’s also your job to catch this fucker!” Her head then turned to me. “Din—I’m going to need you to summarize all you saw out in the jungle there, and damned quickly, too.”

“But I have no scent to anchor it with, ma’am,” I protested. “I was in a warding helm all that time.”

“Given the way all the Apoths were reacting to your return, I’d guessed as much,” said Ana. “So I had them brew this up.”

She slipped a small vial out of her satchel and passed it to me. I uncorked it, gave it a sniff, and wrinkled my nose.

“Algaeoil,” I said. “Saliva. Mucus. And…sweat?”

“And also the aroma of the little glue they use for the helms’ eyepieces,” Ana said, pleased. “Figured you were sniffing that throughout your ordeal. Now you’ve a scent. So, talk, child! Talk, and talk quick!”

I sniffed at the vial. My eyes fluttered, and I rapidly gave her the full spill of it. Even though we were in the most bizarre of circumstances, it began to feel like every other report I’d ever given her: names, times, words spoken, and the number of the dead. When I finished, there was a tense silence as Ana absorbed it all.

“So,” Ana murmured. “Our man is not simply a thief, nor a murderer, but…something very, very different. A schemer and slaughterer on a level that even I struggle to comprehend. Sanctum knows how many he’s killed!”

“What is he doing, ma’am?” asked Malo. “It is all madness and horror to me.”

“It is as I told Din,” Ana said. “He is sending messages. Yet I am not sure who the intended recipient is. I am fairly sure it is not the Iudex, though.”

“Ghrelin and Thelenai,” I said. “That’s got to be who the code is for, yes?”

“Yes,” said Ana. “I think so. And before you ask, no, I am not familiar with this code, though if given time I might make headway. But it is the words our man left that trouble me greatly. I take it neither of you are familiar with them?”

Malo and I shook our heads.

“Fucking hell,” Ana snapped. “I assume you have both shaken your heads? Have you forgotten I am blindfolded? I cannot know everything !”

“We don’t know it, ma’am,” I said.

“Pity…” Ana said. “Few read the old imperial doctrines these days. The words are from a celebrated quote, from the letters of Emperor Daavir, sent to his captains during his long march to the sea along the Titan’s Path. The full passage is famous but rather lengthy. I believe it goes…” She cleared her throat. “ We fear the elements, and plague, and the wrath of the leviathans. Yet if we are to see clear-eyed, we would admit that the will of men is as unforgiving as these. How many chieftains and champions have wrought just as much sorrow as the wet seasons? We must govern thoughtfully, then, and manage such passions wisely—for if these folk have their way, we shall return to nature primordial, and be as beasts, and all the world a savage garden, mindless and raging. ” She sniffed. “Emperor Daavir really never was one for brevity in his youth.”

My skin crawled as I contemplated the quote. “Why would he leave such words for us?” I whispered.

“I am unsure, but a logic begins to emerge,” said Ana. “The first quote we found included an inversion of the imperial creed—I am the Empire —taken from a quote where the emperor worried his realm would grow selfish and unjust, and fall. And this one is an inversion of the emperor’s vision—for Daavir feared the will of cruel men making all the world a savage garden. And yet, what did you two witness out in that jungle?”

Malo and I exchanged a dread-filled glance.

“A piece of the world gone mad,” I said. “A savage garden.”

“Exactly,” Ana said. “My feeling is that this man suggests he has rather unpleasant feelings about the Empire’s presence here! He feels the Empire’s rule is selfish and unjust, and wishes to unravel it. And yet, if he does feel this way…why kill smugglers? Why kill Yarrow folk who are, if anything, fighting the Empire, in their own circumspect fashion? I confess, it makes no sense.”

“But you know who the killer is,” I said, leaning forward. “Or were you lying, ma’am?”

“I was not lying!” Ana said, stung. “Or, not this time, at least.”

“Well, surely his identity could reveal his intentions?”

“No,” said Ana. “Not yet. For though I have found his likely name, I still know very little about the man himself. I was rather hoping that your testimony could give me some insight into Thelenai and Ghrelin…for I am sure that this man is tied up with them somehow. They are doing something, something hidden, something they wish to protect…perhaps something concerning this marrow our killer mentioned in his first note.”

A sour pang of nausea rumbled through me. “The leviathan’s marrow,” I said quietly. “And the Shroud.”

Malo made a gesture, beseeching the aid of some spirit.

“We questioned Thelenai and her people on this the last time we spoke,” said Ana, “yet they did not react, because they expected us to mention it. That means something, but I do not know what. We have so little damned material to extrapolate from!”

Malo perked up. “I hear footsteps,” she said.

Ana’s blindfolded face snapped to me. “Din! The code you saw—did you describe it to Thelenai?”

“No, ma’am. We did not get to that.”

“So she doesn’t know about it yet. Can you copy it down?”

“It’s not letters, ma’am, but simple symbols,” I said. “So it should be easy for me to write.”

Malo frowned. “What would you writing letters have to do with anythi—”

“We don’t have time to fucking explain!” snapped Ana, waving frantically at her. “Get an ashpen from over there, boy, and copy it down as quick as you can!”

I snatched up one of her parchments, flipping it over and scrawling out the first twelve symbols I’d seen, carefully completing each stroke. Then Ana took it and stuffed it in her pocket.

“Good,” she muttered. “It is not much leverage, but it is better than none.”

“Do you understand what it means, ma’am?” I asked.

“I understand fuck-all about it!” she said. “But I suspect Ghrelin and Thelenai will not love that we have it! Perhaps enough to tell us the tru—”

“They are here,” said Malo.

The doors swung open.