Page 135 of A Drop of Corruption

—

The fight wentquickly after that, but to my battle-crazed mind every second was an hour. I raced to the litter and found one soldier standing at the back, unsure whether to fight or flee. When he realized I was running at him, he raised his sword and cried out, but I cuthim down easily, wounding him in the thigh, then the arm. He lay on the ground, screaming in pain, but I ignored him and focused on securing the litter.

The train of carts stretched before me. To my eye, most of its burden was the treasure of Yarrow, yet as I walked the litter, I spied a few boxes that looked unusual.

They were crates of an imperial make, for only imperial shipments used fretvine in such a way. I stepped closer, squinting in the dim light, and saw a symbol imprinted on the sides of them: the sigil of the Apoths, the drop of blood set in a hexagon.

I stared, nigh overcome. Then I stepped closer and took a mighty sniff. A powerful, acrid scent hit my nostrils: the unmistakable aroma of reagents.

These were reagent crates, almost assuredly robbed from the Apoth barges on the canals. I’d never expected to find them here among Darhi’s stolen treasure, but it did make a crude sense: reagents were some of the most valuable things in all the Empire, and a greedy soul like Darhi would ensure he got a price for them, wherever he might flee.

Yet were these the reagents Pyktis needed to make his weapon? Had Darhi been hiding them the entire time, here at his secret estate? I was no Apoth and could not tell. I returned to the front of the litter, to guard it and wait for the battle to end.

After what felt like an eternity, Sabudara emerged from the night and gave me the report: twenty-six Yarrow soldiers dead, with three wounded, unlikely to survive, including the one I had just cut down. All the wardens had survived, but fournaukarihad fallen as they’d fought against those who had enslaved them.

“And Darhi?” I asked.

Sabudara shook her head. “Of him, nothing.”

I cursed. “Tell Malo I need her!” I said. “Tell her I have found something important among the litter here, and to come when she can!”

Sabudara nodded, then vanished back into the darkness.

—

An hour laterI heard Malo calling my name. I ventured into the clutch of buildings and found her standing with her wardens over five bodies that had apparently been dragged from the houses.

She pointed at one. “Take a look.”

I did so and moaned in dismay. I did not need to consult my memories to recognize that green-painted face or those cold, cutting eyes, indifferent even in death. Satrap Darhi’s throat had been viciously slashed open, it seemed, and his chin and chest were soaked in blood.

“How did this happen?” I asked.

“One of thenaukaricut his throat,” said Malo. “And she got run through for trying. Poor girl is dead, and didn’t even see the age of fifteen, I wager. A cruel thing. I wish they had all waited. We would have gladly freed them!”

I fell to my knees, struggling with the weight of it. “So,” I said softly. “The one man who knew Pyktis most is now dead, and we shall get no help from him.”

Malo spat, and bitterly said, “So it seems. He cannot tell us where our foe hides now. A black fate, this is, and I curse it gladly. But…what is this important thing you wished me to see?”

I shot back up, remembering. “The reagents!”

“Reagents?”

“Yes! Darhi had many crates of stolen reagents on his litter—perhapsthestolen reagents!”

She stared. “Then not all is lost?”

“Perhaps! Let us go see!”

—

I helped Malo’swardens sort the reagents crates from all the chests of Yarrow treasure. Rather than open them one by one, Malo and Sabudara sniffed them, claiming that they knew well the aroma of the fertilizer they sought. “We have sniffed the jungle for it for weeks on end!” said Malo. “I smell it even in my sleep.”

At first, they frowned and grimaced as they crawled over the crates. Then their expressions brightened, and they became overcome with excitement.

“It’s here!” cried Malo. “By the titan’s taint, it’s here!”

I hauled the crates away from the litter, whispering “Thank Sanctum, thank Sanctum,” again and again, for I myself had never quite believed that Darhi had possessed it all.