Page 149 of A Drop of Corruption

We began to make ourselves ready to leave, and Pavitar walked to the open crate. Then he sat at its side, lifted out the body, and began to cradle it in his arms. “What did they do to you?” he whispered.

I looked back as we filed out, studying the soldiers and the money-counters and the servants, who all stared at Pavitar sitting among the piles of gold, rocking the dead body in his arms as he wept.

Chapter 53

Another ride back downthe hill paths to Yarrowdale, this one conducted in near silence. All of us were still in some state of shock, and exhausted yet again by the dwindling excitement in our blood. Even Ana sat leaning in the corner of the carriage, her head lolling as we bounced down.

“He cried at the end,” said Malo quietly. “I cannot ken that.”

Ana’s voice was raspy and deep: “Pavitar? Yes…Fascinating, isn’t it?” She took a rattling breath. “Both the kings and the thieves, the angels and the utter bastards, are all inevitably quite human. Though that should not let our hand be any softer when justice is delivered!”

“Yet Pavitar shall not see justice,” said Malo.

“Are you so sure?” She coughed. “The man cherishes his kingdom and ancestry above all. Yet what kingdom could survive this? The days of Yarrow shall dwindle ever faster now, I think…and he shall have to watch it, like a neutered steer watching all the cows run free.”

Ana gasped and sat back against her wooden seat. It was not until the carriage lantern swung about just so that I saw the pained expression on her face.

“Are you all right, ma’am?” I asked.

“No,” she snapped, “I am not! I…I have pushed myself too far, visited too many different environs. I must soon get to a medikker’s bay, and rest.”

“Shall we go there now?” I asked. “Or would yo—”

“I would rather have my guts pulled from my ass!” she hissed. “Ihave toiled and gnashed my teeth far too much to retreat to the comfort of a pillow now!No.I shall see this done.” Her blindfolded face turned to me. “And I wish to see you doing it.”

“Doing what, ma’am?”

She turned back to the window. “We must proceed to the Yarrowdale docks and see what headway Thelenai has made. By talon and chitin, I mean to bury this one, and bury it deep.”

—

We finally cameto the last pier of the docks, all creaking wood and lapping waters. Ana waved us on, coughing, and Malo and I exited and raced along down the pier toward a clutch of lights at the end of it.

The lights proved to be a circle of lanterns arranged on the wooden platform. The officers within the circle were all bound in warding suits and were gathered about an open box upon the dock. The scene seemed akin to a midnight ritual, rather than the work of Apoths.

I stopped one of the officers and asked, “How goes it?”

The officer waved a hand forward and said, “See for yourself.” Perhaps it was because of his helmet, but I could not tell if the comment came from relief or despair.

We pushed our way through until we came to the open box. A figure knelt before it, also bound in a warding suit, but their suit glimmered with the heralds of a commander-prificto. As I approached them, they turned their helmed head, and I saw green eyes within widen at the sight of me.

“Ah, Kol,” said Thelenai softly. “Excellent. Tell me…was it all as Dolabra foresaw? Was he there, upon the throne?”

“He was, ma’am,” I said.

“And?”

“He is dead, ma’am. Slain by another of the court.”

“Ah.” She paused. “How odd it is that this neither saddens nor gladdens me. Perhaps it is because I have already grieved him once this day. Or…”

She turned back to the open box. I saw hints of a familiar devicewithin it—the chimneyed glass dome, the intricate bit of wiring suspended in it that looked rather like a tea strainer, the brass tubes snaking about it—yet the thing was cocooned in moss, and vines, and flowering fungi I’d never seen before, a queer riot of textures and colors.

“By the titan’s taint,” muttered Malo. “What manner of madness is this?”

“We found it suspended perfectly in a cask of water, you know,” murmured Thelenai. “One of twenty that would be loaded into the hydricyst. It’s a very common procedure. Something simple, even thoughtless. And because of its suspension in water, the wardens could never catch a whiff of it! We’d never have found it at all, had Dolabra not told us to open up everything we found here. I cannot comprehend how Pyktis or his people managed it. Perhaps he put it here weeks ago, even before he kidnapped and killed Sujedo—the very first move he ever made.”

I gazed down at the tangle of growth within the box. “What has he done to it?”