Page 106 of The Tainted Cup

Feeling both bewildered and ridiculous, I dipped my finger lightly in the inkpot, placed the nail to the parchment, shut my eyes, and smelled my vial of mint.

Memories unscrolled in my mind.

The rustlings of the birds. The smell of straw and the dappling of slanted light.

I felt my muscles move my arm, my hand, and my finger.

It was queerly like the fight outside Suberek’s mill: my body reacted with a will of its own, shifting about as it mimicked the memory. I felt like a man possessed from a fairy story; but rather than being possessed by a spirit, I was possessed by a split second of my own past.

I finished writing and opened my eyes. There upon the page was a very, very messy string of letters—but to my own surprise, they were very close to the string of Sazi text I’d seen below the first pair of scribe-hawk cubbies back at the rookery.

Ana leaned over my shoulder, peering at it. “Fascinating…”

“Can you read it, ma’am?” I asked.

“I think so…” she said. “It is quite outrageously sloppy, but it looks like it says—The Engineering Headquarters of the Mitral Canton.”

I stared at the page, then up at her. “Truly?”

“Truly! You have done your duty, Din. We just need to do a little more. Come now—summon up your other memories of the other plates and bits of text, and let us learn who else the Hazas communicated with after the death of Commander Blas.”

I did the others the same way, each time on a new piece of parchment, duplicating the remaining three locations of the sent messages. They were:

The Engineering Headquarters of the Bekinis Canton

The Apothetikal Headquarters of the Qabirga Canton

The Engineering Headquarters of the Juldiz Canton

Together we studied the names of the four places, slightly mystified. Yet then one canton name suddenly sounded very familiar tome.

I summoned up the memory, my eyes fluttering. “Bekinis…” I said softly. “And Juldiz.”

Ana grinned. “Yes, Din?”

“These…these are the cantons Blas’s secretary was visiting,” I said. “The ones noted in the wall pass I found in that empty house, with all that money.”

“Correct, Din! And isn’t thatfascinating?” Her grin grew wider. “It does make one think.”

“But what’s the connection, ma’am? Why would the Hazas send their letters there?”

“Oh, I have ideas. Many of them. And all of them will require further verification.”

There was a tense pause.

“Perhaps the location thatsenta message to Kaygi Haza will reveal more?” I said.

“Mm, I rather doubt it,” she said. “But we should look anyway.”

I did the trick again, writing with my finger with my eyes shut, then opening them.

“As I thought,” said Ana. She squinted at my writing, then read, “The Haza Prime Hall, First Ring, Sazi Lands.In other words, the Hazas’ home here in Talagray got a message from the elder brothers of the Haza family very soon after Kaygi Haza’s death. Meaning Fayazi’s Sublimeliedto you—they’ve probably gotten lots of letters from the senior lineage since the old bastard sloughed off his sandals. Not surprising.”

“So what does that mean?”

“Isn’t it obvious? It means whatever secret Kaygi was rushing tokeepsecret commanded the attention of the senior clan.” She grinned wickedly. “So it must be one hell of a big fucking secret, eh, Din?” Then she cocked her head. “Mitral, Bekinis, Qabirga, and Juldiz…I wonder what connects them to the Hazas? And Blas, and Oypat, and all those silver coins you found.”

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