Page 42 of A Drop of Corruption

His tapping slowed, then stopped.

Ana sat with her head cocked. “This work sounds very dangerous, then.”

“Again—very,” said Ghrelin.

“Do you recall any colleagues who disagreed with it?” asked Ana. “Or held grudges against you, or it?”

“Why?” said Ghrelin, suddenly irritated.

“It is as I said. I am wondering if one of your colleagues from this era of your service might be our culprit.”

Ghrelin suddenly burst out in a wild titter of laughter. The other Apoths appeared startled by it, or perhaps embarrassed. I began to sense there was something that marked Ghrelin as different from the rest of them, including Thelenai, but I could not yet divine what it was.

“You will have to forgive me, ma’am,” said Ghrelin, still smiling. “But I don’t think you work with Apoths of our sort.”

Ana grinned back and took another long draw from yet another hose. “What makes you say that?”

“Because we are asked to suffer most,” said Ghrelin, “to provide the most. The alterations we provide, they…they not only keep the Empire functioning, but they make it farbetter.Even here, in Yarrow. I mean…” He sat forward. “Do you know, Immunis Dolabra, how many Yarrow children survived past the age of five a century ago?”

The other Apoths exchanged an uncomfortable look.

“I’m afraid I do not!” said Ana cheerily.

“Two of seven,” Ghrelin said. “Onlytwo.Odds were that the other five perished before then. The families here had to have an enormous number of children just to sustain themselves. Now—can you guess how many of those mothers survived these births?”

Ana sucked at a hose again, wreathing herself in fumes. “Enlighten me, please.”

“A little less than two in three,” said Ghrelin. “Every pregnancy, every birth—for each one, the life of the mother amounted to little more than the roll of a die. Those children and mothers and fathers that lived went on to lead lives of starvation, and disease, and poverty, and violence. But today…” He put a finger in the middle of the table: a soletap.“Today,sixof seven children make it past the age of five. Today,fourof five mothers survive childbirth. Today, though starvation and disease remain present in Yarrow, they are mere ghosts. Because of Apoths like myself, and those I served with, who labored, suffered, and perished within the Shroud. Thus, I cannot imagine that one of my colleagues from these labors might be the perpetrator of these horrid crimes. It is impossible.”

Ana nodded, still grinning, still awash in smokes. “Fascinating. I have just one last thing to ask of you.”

“Yes?” said Ghrelin.

“What do you make of the phrase—For those who sip from the marrow?”

Ghrelin blinked very rapidly. “I b-beg your pardon?”

“Those words were written on a note the criminal left behind for us to discover. The full phrase was—For those who sip from the marrow, Te siz imperiya.Does this make any sense to you?”

I watched them all carefully. The Apoths beside Ghrelin had not moved much, but at this they became stiller than stone, their eyes fixed on indistinct points on the table, as if they’d just instructed their own bodies to go dormant. Ghrelin himself paused, a sheen of sweat now crawling across his brow. Then something steeled in his face, in his eyes, and when he spoke, his words were firm and controlled.

“No,” he said. “I am not familiar with that phrase.”

“And it does not seem to refer to anything you know?” asked Ana.

“Not at all.”

Ana nodded and shifted forward in her chair, mouth slightly open as if wondering how best to phrase what she had to say. She reached out, appearing to grasp another percolator hose—but then she raised her index and middle fingers and tapped very quickly on the table, a brief little tattoo:Tap-tap. Taptap-tap.

Ghrelin’s eyes shot wide. He stared at Ana’s hand, then up at her face, astonished. Ana appeared ignorant of his reaction, and instead grabbed the stimulant hose yet again and inhaled from it.

“There was a proposal about a decade back to find a way to do something with leviathan marrow, yes?” she asked.

Ghrelin was shaking very violently now. “I…I…I’m sorry?”

“A proposal, I said. About trying to take the marrow from a leviathan’s carcass. Does that sound familiar to you, Immunis?”

Ghrelin opened his mouth to speak, but Thelenai coolly said, “We cannot comment on any proposals or business concerning the Shroud, Dolabra. I have made that clear.”