Page 31

“Maki is brilliant, but he keeps a comparatively small staff. Any one of these orders should last them for the season, if not nearly half the year,” Tallu said. “Was there any paperwork explaining why he needed that much?”

I stared down at the sheets, going through them chronologically. The fourth one had a handwritten note in the corner.

Previous supply runs rerouted to Forsaith.

“What’s in Forsaith?” I asked.

“Nothing.” Tallu looked out the window. Frowning, he stood, opening it. Terror flapped inside, circling the room.

The bird shrieked once before landing on top of a bedpost. Terror blinked down at me, and I rolled my eyes. I already knew what he was going to say before he opened his beak and shrieked again.

“Food?” Terror snapped his beak a few times.

“There aren’t any military contingents in Forsaith?” I asked. Standing, I walked over to the table where servants had left food, taking a small plate and filling it with delicacies before placing it next to me on the couch. Terror swooped down, consuming each bite neatly.

“No.” Tallu shook his head. “Bring us all of General Maki’s correspondence.”

Hipati’s eyes lit, finally realizing that she wasn’t just not in trouble but now was given leave to help investigate a mystery that likely bothered her more than it did Tallu or me. She pushed herself up, knees cracking, and left the room.

I frowned down, examining the other requisitions, still finding no hints. Beside me, Terror clucked low in his throat. “The doctor is too proud of himself. He grows lazy. The two women nearly met at his quarters.”

I frowned down at Terror. Glancing at Tallu, I almost said something but stopped when I remembered the Emperor’s Dogs could still hear us.

“They only didn’t because of the boy. The servant boy from your quarters. The one who brings fish. He stopped the woman with the red mouth and the lies. I didn’t hear what they said; they were whispering.” Terror cocked his head when I glared at him. “That deserves food, doesn’t it?”

Rapid footsteps in the hallway preceded Hipati. Sagam was behind her, moving slower, both of them with their arms full of papers.

She slumped onto one of the chairs, dropping her pile of paperwork onto a table. “General Maki’s secretary keeps copies of all of his letters!”

I examined the stacks of paperwork, the one Sagam carried reaching from his waist to his head. “How far back do these go?”

“Years.” Hipati grinned, delighted. “I should congratulate him. This is so meticulous!”

Taking the first sheet off the top of the stack that Sagam set down more delicately, I shooed Terror back to the windowsill.

Well, at least it seemed like the Minister of Medicine was going to be having an entertaining evening, even if mine was going to be the sort of torture I deserved for suggesting this in the first place.

Hours later, after another meal brought by silent servants, after Hipati had begun sorting the letters into piles based on whether they were directly related to Maki’s experiments on people, metal, war machines, or simply the logistics of running a portion of the military, I began to be numb to all the horror.

Mother had warned me. Yor?mu had warned me. Even Tallu, in his self-hatred, had warned me.

Still, reading General Maki’s request for more prisoners because the previous lot hadn’t lasted long enough during his experiments made my stomach churn, but I no longer half rose out of my seat, hands on my blades, ready to find his neck and introduce it to my years of assassin training.

It was also in General Maki’s letter that I found details about how Velethuil, a powerful air mage, had been tamed.

Based on the blood mage magic we saw in the war, I’ve been experimenting with the same principles.

In your previous letter, General Saxu, you mentioned that the focus of the blood mage practice that removed magic was on the brain.

Can you please offer more specifics, or even send one of the electro mages neutered by the blood mages?

I have a theory…

“Blood mages were able to take away magic?” I asked.

Lerolian wasn’t in the room with us, but Tallu looked up from his own examination of one of the letters. He nodded, turning to stare across the room at the dark window. Three ravens now sat on the windowsill, and a servant had, hesitatingly, brought enough raw fish for all three of them.

They had even been polite, waiting until the man stepped back before diving on their meal.

“Yes,” Tallu said finally. “We lost nearly an entire unit of electro mages. They would go unconscious, blood pouring from their noses, then… when they woke, no magic.”

“And General Maki figured out how to recreate it using electricity?” I glanced between him and Hipati, but the scribe looked just as confused as I felt.

“He did. I’m not sure on the details, but years ago, the military was able to recreate it. Not without losses. There is only a very slim survival rate. And there was some argument about the usefulness of such a technique.” Tallu’s lips pulled to the side.

Even without power, a mage might not be willing to betray their country. If my father lost the ability to speak to animals, there was no chance he would suddenly be willing to switch loyalty to the Imperium. Not after all they had done.

He would rather die.

I thought again of Velethuil, carrying secrets behind his lips, playing at being silly, playing at harmlessness. Narrowing my eyes, I went back to the letter.

General Maki refused to detail the technique, only making the announcement that he had perfected the ability to remove magic from those who had the use of it.

Whatever General Saxu said in response was lost to time, but Maki did send two of his men to the front lines in order to train General Kacha’s forces in the technique.

I spread the letters that had come before in front of me, examining them for any hint of detail. Maki spoke of the effect of electricity on the brain, of doing autopsies on mages and non-mages. He demanded more bodies, in better condition.

How do you expect me to do science on a man who has been pierced through, stabbed, and is missing half of his skull? The skull contains the brain . I believe the brain is how we control our magic.

I put the letters aside. If I wanted to know how it was done, either I would need to request more than just information about spending, or I would need to talk to General Maki himself.

Velethuil had said that when he woke up, it had been Kacha who was responsible for his loss of magic. General Kacha would know how the technique worked. I could see him stealing mages’ magic like a child gutting a live fish.

Blinking, I shook my head. “Where are the letters around the time of the lost shipments?”

“These are the ones you want, based on chronology,” Hipati said quickly. “Most are to other scientists in the Imperium. It appears that General Maki was working on a significant project at the time.”

I glanced over at Tallu, and he looked up from the letter in his hand, turning to me with eyebrows raised.

“What project?” I asked.

“Here, you can see for yourself.” Hipati had turned slightly green around the edges and took another drink from her now cold cup of coffee.

I took the stack of letters and started to read through them.

Having mastered the blood mages’ ability to remove magical control, I now turn to the other technique they were known for during the war. Without your support, it cannot be done. Without your support, I will turn to more distasteful ways of acquiring corpses.

“He wanted corpses from General Kacha,” I said slowly.

“And General Namati.” Tallu frowned. “Why wasn’t I informed of this?”

“Even among our own people, raising the dead was blasphemous,” Lerolian said. I jumped, jerking around to stare at him. The blood mage smiled at me, wan and unhappy. “You raise one dead body, and suddenly, the world knows you as a necromancer.”

Tallu took one of the letters from me, his eyes skimming it quickly.

In a voice like still arctic waters with a sea serpent lingering in the depths, Tallu said, “The blood mages raised the dead. Not just one body—full units of them. We had to kill our own men over and over until their bodies were in pieces. No one who saw the war would want to do the same.”

Hipati shifted uncomfortably. “Would you like me to find out more?”

“I know all I need to know. One of our own generals was breaking a law set in place after the war against the blood mages. It is information that will hang him.” Tallu looked at me with something close to hope. “Now we can stop him.”