Page 95 of A Drop of Corruption

She reached down and lifted her engraver’s satchel, and all its tiny glittering vials of scent. “They were.”

“Then your testimony will be quite valuable. Leave your prificto’s side, and come sit by the light of the window, and tell us all you know.”

—

Gorthaus slumped inher chair, head bowed, her elbows resting on her knees as the words poured forth. It felt terribly strange to reverse roles, with myself as the interrogator and she the engraver, regurgitating information as her eyes trembled and shimmered.

“It was just a tea,” Gorthaus began helplessly. “Like many teas we’ve had. I thought the events quite dull, and I hate the taste of saca so. There were nonaukarithere that night—do you know this word,naukari?”

A soft, contemptuous grunt from Malo.

“No servants, I mean,” said Gorthaus. “Just us, for we were to discuss high secrets.”

“Please proceed,” Ana said.

Gorthaus began, her eyes tremoring. I watched as she tried to navigate her memories. Like many engravers—myself included—she was a fastidiously arranged person, even now: her dark hair was pulled back in a tight bun, her eyebrows were trimmed and smooth, and her uniform was perfectly symmetrical, with every bend of cloth exactly where it ought to be.

This was how most engravers lived: we remembered, perfectly and forever, how all things should look, and if anything was ever askew, it bothered us immensely.

But Gorthaus seemed to take it further than most: even now, her hair remained waxed and carefully fixed; all her heralds still bore a few drops of polish on them, and each was pinned on her coat front in positions perfectly equidistant from the placket of her shirt.

The impression I got was a profound hunger for control. Perhaps that was what running about chasing Yarrow royalty did to a person.

She began to speak, regurgitating her experiences. Her engraved memories matched what the prince had told us: besides herself, there had been five men in the room—the king, the prince, Jari Pavitar, Satrap Darhi, and Prificto Kardas—and no one else. There had been the cauldron of tea, and the cups. Kardas had filled the king’s cup, brought it to him, and let him drink. “As he always did for the third cupful,” she said, “as a sign of deference.” Then the king had simply cried out and collapsed.

“The king’s cup,” Ana said. “Tell me its movementsexactly.”

Gorthaus’s eyes tremored, her pupils dancing like a beheaded snake. “First the prince served the king. The prince took the cup back when the king was done and placed it next to the cauldron. The prince did the same for the second cup, taking it back and forth, serving his father. Then…then the cup stayed there for some time, sitting by the cauldron.”

“Who else went there?” asked Ana. “Who else served themselves at the cauldron while the king’s cup sat in that spot?”

Gorthaus shrugged helplessly. “All of them.”

“All?”

“Pavitar, Darhi, Kardas, the prince. They all got up and went there and poured another cup for themselves, then sat back down.”

“Didyougo near the cup, Signum?”

“I did not, ma’am. I did not drink at all, for I don’t care for the taste of the tea, and they did not expect me to speak anyway.”

I grimaced as I absorbed this. If this was so, then any of the men could have slipped poison into the king’s cup. For having now read of kerel poisoning, I knew it acted terribly fast, inflaming the throat within seconds when consumed in high doses.

Gorthaus continued: “They took us to another room. They had us put under guard, with drawn swords. I mean—some of my people haven’t ever evenseena drawn sword, do you know this? They’re axioms, number-readers! They quaked like children awoken by an owl!”

“What happened next?” Ana asked.

“We waited, for what felt like hours. We heard shouting in the distant rooms, fighting. We were terrified, sure we were to be killed. But then the…the prince came. He was very calm, very lovely. He said we were not under threat tonight, for he would not allow us to be harmed.”

“Then what?” asked Ana.

“Then Kardas thanked the prince, and the prince departed, yet…yet just after that…the prificto started coughing as well. Then he collapsed, just like the king, and I was sure he was to die…”

“He showed symptomsjustafter the prince left?” asked Ana.

“Yes.”

“Had he drunk or eaten or tasted anything?”