Page 66 of The Tainted Cup

“You know,” said Ana thoughtfully, “I am inclined to agree…”

“I still have trouble comprehending the why, ma’am,” I said. “Why kill so many Engineers in such a fashion?”

“Well, it was the Engineers and the Apoths who were supposed to stop the dappleglass outbreak in Oypat, yes?” said Ana. “And, no offense to our absent colleagues, but they didn’t do a very good job, being as the whole fucking canton’s dead now. Just as Nusis said, many Oypati hold a bitter grudge. It takes little effort to imagine what horrors a mad Apoth Oypati with a grudge might be capable of. I’m not quite sure what killing a bunch of junior officers might accomplish, but…she continues to be anexcellentsuspect, really.” Shecocked her head. “The only question is…why now?”

“What might you mean, ma’am?” said Strovi.

“She’s been serving as an Apoth for years. I wonder…What set her off? And where is she now?”

“The Legion moves swiftly,” said Strovi. “We watch all gates and roads. We shall find her soon enough, of that I am sure.”

“Perhaps,” said Ana. “But if she really is our killer, she’s clever, and skilled at evasion. She used dernpaste to hide her features, and knew how to move across country quickly. And we’ve no idea where she is now. But we now seem to really be getting somewhere, boys! We possibly have awho.Kind of think we have ahow—for, presumably, Jolgalgan came to one of these secret meetings of Engineers and poisoned them all there. And thanks to your and Miljin’s work yesterday, Din, we also have awhen—the Engineers were poisoned eight days before the breach, the date of their last meeting, the sixth of Kyuz. Now we just need thewhere.And Strovi here has already given us the materials we need to solve the rest!” She turned her blindfolded face to him. “These orders are from every fernpaper miller in the city, correct, Captain?”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Strovi. “All we could find.”

“And we’re looking forbigorders. All conducted on or about eight days before the breach—the day of the poisoning.” She pursed her mouth, chewing on an especially tough piece of gristle, then said, “There are, I think, four options.”

Strovi looked startled. “Y-you’ve already read them all, ma’am?”

“Our conversation was interesting, Captain,” she said. “But not so interesting as to occupy thewholeof my attention…” Still blindfolded, she snatched up four different papers, walked over on her knees, fumbled to find Strovi’s legs, and then stuffed the papers into his lap. Then she leaned forward to search the top one with her fingers until she pointed to a line. “This mill here—Ostrok’s? See it? Order for four panels, nine days before the breach.”

Strovi looked positively alarmed to have Ana invade his space sothoroughly, her head hovering over his knees as she pressed her index finger into the papers atop his crotch. “Ahh. Y-yes, ma’am,” he said. “I see it.”

“And then this one here.” She jabbed at the paper, hard. Strovi twitched. “Rakmon.Sixfernpaper panels, ordered five days before the breach.”

“Y-yes, an—”

“And thenthisone.” Another jab, this one very hard. Strovi yelped slightly.

“Ana!” I said.

“Mm?” she said. “What is it, Din?”

“I rather think he believes you. Yes, Captain?”

Strovi nodded vigorously. “Y-yes. Very much so. Totally do, ma’am.”

“Oh,” she said mildly. She slid out from his lap and waved the papers about, yawning. “Anyways. These are the first three options that fit the timeline that Din has so helpfully provided. But I don’t think any of them are the best candidates.”

“But…are you suggesting, ma’am,” said Strovi, still shaken, “that you can rememberallof the fernpaper orders I just gave to you? And you can just summon up any one of them in your memory as you please?”

Ana grinned. “I remember and analyze all thingsinteresting,Captain. And this has kept me interested. Thus far, at least.”

I smirked, for I was familiar with this line. But I wondered—was Ana actually an engraver? Was that her augmentation? Was she now mentally summoning all the words she’d read with her fingers as she’d lain on that floor? Yet that didn’t seem right. Though engravers like myself could instantly recall huge amounts of information, we couldn’t make the wild jumps of intuition that Ana seemed so proneto.

“I will say I am more interested in what’snoton these lists,” Ana continued, “than whatis.There are a few shops, Strovi, that did notrespond to your inquiries. Despite you sending some goddamn Legionnaires to their doorstep. Including this shop,” she said. A finger stabbed out, nearly piercing one parchment on the floor. “The fernpaper miller Yonas Suberek. This man didnotanswer your summons and was marked absent.”

Strovi looked bewildered. “Ah…I was not there for that inquiry, ma’am, so I will have to take your word for that. But all we can do is inquire. We can’t compel people to be present and answe—”

“And yet!” she said. She ripped another parchment out from the pile and slapped it with the back of her hand. “His neighbor wasanothermiller. Fellow by the name of Linz Kestip. Now,Kestipdutifully gave you all of his most recent fernpaper orders…including one order that actually came from his neighbor, this absent Suberek! A transfer of inventory, in a way, from Kestip to Suberek. For six fernpaper panels! That’squitea lot. This is the fourth order I mentioned. And this is our best candidate.”

Strovi, mystified by this rush of names and dates and numbers, looked to me for help.

I sighed and asked, “Ma’am…What’s the significance of all this?”

“The significance, Din, is thesizeof the order,” she said. “Kestip sold this now-missing Suberek a lot of fernpaper, and at a high price. Almost as if Suberek had gotten a very, very big order of his own, larger than his own inventory, that he was in a hurry to fill.” She turned to me, grinning. “And then there is the date. For this transaction took placeseven daysbefore the breach.”

Comprehension wriggled into my skull. “The day after we think the ten Engineers were poisoned…” I said.