Page 62 of The Tainted Cup

“How peculiar,” she whispered. “Do…do you know how difficult it is to pierce the human skull, Din?”

“I, ah, have never attempted it myself, ma’am.”

“It isquitedifficult. It takes abnormal strength and speed to do so. Especiallyspeed.The velocity required, and the proper tools…It’s all rather stunning, you see.”

There was another silence, like she’d fallen into a reverie.

“Have you seen deaths like this before, ma’am?” I asked slowly. “Or rather, murders?”

She did not answer for some time. When she spoke again, her voice was low and soft: “Here is what we shall do. First, you’re going to take this to Nusis tomorrow.” She held up the simple reagents key I’d found in Aristan’s safehouse.

I took it from her. “What will she want with this?”

“Well, while I have a good idea what the other key opens, I’ve no idea for this one at all. And Apoths have arts that can reverse engineer many reagents. We can’t learn which exact portal this key opens, but Nusis will be able to tell us whatkindof portal it opens. The make of the portal, the breed—that may help us narrow the search.”

“All right. And the money, ma’am?”

“The money and the wall pass we shall…use,” she said slowly. “We shall use it to determine if our colleagues on this investigation are true and faithful servants of the Empire. For I still worry, Din—why did they not look into Blas? Why did they not seek out Aristan? These are very common procedural tasks! Did someone on the teamknowAristan had been murdered? Did theyknowBlas was so wildly corrupt?” She cocked her head. “Could Kalista be false? She seems to have a taste for things rich and fine. Or perhaps it is Nusis? For she worked alongside Blas on the Preservationist Boards. Or is Uhad, so old and feeble, willing to be paid for some comfort in his later days? Or perhaps Miljin? Or is none of it malfeasance, and all of it is simple ineptitude? I do not know.”

A tense silence. I felt a terrible sense of dread brewing inme.

“And…how shall we use the money to answer any of those questions, ma’am?” I asked.

“Oh, well, Din.” She smiled wearily. “You’re going to take that money and that wall pass…and you’re going to stick it with Aristan’s corpse. Someplace where it is easily found. Then I shall ask Uhad to investigate…and we shall see how much of that money makes it back to us.”

I gaped at her in horror. “First you want me to run off on our own investigation—now you want me tofabricatea murder scene?”

“Oh, it’s not too much fabrication,” she said, waving a hand. “I’m not asking you to fucking kill someone, or something! Consider it simply a very unusual method of submitting evidence to the investigation.”

“But…I mean…we’ve barely been here a day, ma’am,” I protested. “And you’re already investigating the investigators?”

“Well, yes,” she snapped. “Becausewe’rethe fuckingIudex,Din! We’re the ones who watch the Empire onbehalfof the Empire! And something here feels dreadfully wrong! Perhaps it is the breach, perhaps it is incompetence, or…perhaps it is something else. But I must know, if we are to move forward.”

“And what am I doing for this performance, ma’am?” I asked. “Should I just accompany Miljin to Aristan’s house and act surprised at all we see?”

She thought about it. “Good point. You’re a bit of a shit liar, Din. Here—I shall tell them I’ve sent you to see Nusis, have them send Miljin to investigate, and I shall just personally stick close to Uhad and the others to see what happens. It’ll beverytaxing for me—all that small conversation—but this is rather important…”

“And if I get caught manipulating a crime scene?” I said angrily. “And am clapped in irons, and stripped of my rank and position?”

“Then I will speak to Vashta,” she said simply. “And make my position known.”

I stared at her, incredulous, but she seemed quite serious. “You’re going to, what, talk down the seneschal? Tell her your mind?”

Ana went very still then. She seemed to turn these words over within her mind, testing how they fit. Then she grinned horribly and leaned forward; and I saw a strange, unsettling light in her eyes that I had not seen before: one I did not wish to look at, let alone challenge.

“I would!” she said cheerily. “I would tell her all I knew. And she would come to agree with our deeds. For who would not, Din? We are here to review the foundations of the Empire’s defenses—and that, of course, begins with testing the resolve of its most important officers. Now go, boy, and sleep. If you can.”

CHAPTER 18

| | |

THE NEXT MORNING Iarose before dawn, dressed, picked up the bag containing the thousands of talints and the wall pass—it felt very heavy now—and went downstairs and slipped into the streets.

Once again, Talagray was rumbling to life with countless esteemed and veteran officers beginning their duty. I felt terribly self-conscious as I walked among them, trying to control my gait, my posture, my bearing. Was I walking too fast? Did anyone hear that softclinkfrom my bag? Yet no one had any mind for me at all. There were far more greater things to care about in this place thanI.

I’d left the back door to Aristan’s house unlocked, so it was a simple thing to open it and slip inside. Once again, I was battered with the awful reek of corpse-stink. I prowled through the house like a common burglar and found Aristan still in her bedroom, the toes of her bare feet still purple and curling.

I stared at her body, heart beating. Then I glanced around the room, wondering where to hide a fortune where Miljin and Uhad might find it. Yet I remembered: I’d seen Miljin search a room just the other day, hadn’t I? I knew his methods.