The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan, #1)(102)

“You’re saying…You’re truly saying the Hazas use some kind of immensely altered assassins?” I said. “All across the Empire?”

“It’s a rumor,” he said. “The Iudex could never find evidence of it. So a rumor it stayed.” He shot a glance at Ana. “But I also heard there was a series of killings in the Sazi lands a few months back. Folk found with holes drilled in their heads. Folk on the wrong end of the Hazas. No one could figure who could have done the deed and vanished in such a fashion…except, maybe, a twitch.”

I glanced at Ana as well. Her face stayed turned to the sky, and she said nothing.

“And…that’s what you wanted to train me for, ma’am?” I said. “In case I meet this twitch?”

“You meet a twitch, there’s no training I can offer that’d save you, even if we had months and years to do it,” said Miljin. “They were supposed to be unbeatable in combat—for about a minute a day, mind. After that, their muscles wore out and they had to recover.” He shrugged. “If you last that long, maybe you can stand a chance. But my best advice is stay the hell away from them—if a twitch really is here.”

“And I suspect one is,” said Ana. “For there are many people the Hazas would likely want dead here in Talagray. Namely, anyone who could link them with the deaths of Blas and the ten Engineers, and the breach.”

“Like Aristan,” I said. “But what about Suberek?”

“Well, there I have conjecture,” said Ana. “But pretty solid conjecture. My guess is—when Fayazi Haza took over after her father, she panicked. First thing she did was try to get rid of the evidence. That meant burning her father’s corpse—but also getting rid of all the stained fernpaper. She ordered new panels from Suberek, then replaced all the ones in the bath house. But then the prime sons of the clan sent in the heavy to take over and clean up—the twitch. The twitch identified Suberek as a link, so they promptly took care of him.”

I listened to this, thinking. “So…where is this twitch? And what does he look like?”

“No one knows,” said Miljin. “It could look like any regular fella. They don’t appear augmented at all, really.”

Then my skin went cold. “Wait. Could the twitch have been in the halls of the Hazas while I was there?”

Ana shrugged. “It’s entirely possible.”

“And…you knew, ma’am? You knew I was going to be in the company of an assassin? And you didn’t warn me?”

“If I’d warned you,” said Ana, “you’d have acted paranoid, like any reasonable soul would. And that could have put you in real peril—if the twitch was there. Which I am not yet convinced of.” She turned her face east. “They could be here, in Talagray, masquerading as an Iyalet officer. Or perhaps a simple miller, like Suberek. We do not yet know. I’d hoped to give you an advantage, Din, should you cross paths with such a being—but perhaps simply knowing what you can do can help.”



* * *



—

“AS LURID AS all this shit is,” said Miljin, “I’m most interested in one bit you mentioned, ma’am…namely, that we’re close to catching Jolgalgan. Which is, frankly, news to me.”

“Oh, but we are,” sighed Ana. She returned to parsing through the papers before her. “I just have one last bit of information to figure out…”

I eyed the papers. “And you’ll find it in lists of Legionnaires augmented for strength, ma’am?”

“Naturally. Have neither of you arrived at it? Captain Miljin here ought to know, at least,” she said, grinning. “Being as it was his damned interview that tipped me off. Don’t you recall?”

Miljin stared at her blankly. “No…?”

“When you went to the medikkers’ bay and did your interrogations,” she said, “you were told the dead Captain Kilem Terez had been worried someone very unusual had been following him.”

“Why…yes,” said Miljin, startled. “A…a crackler. That was what he’d said.”

“And you thought the idea mad at the time—but what if it wasn’t?” asked Ana.

My mouth opened in surprise—yet Miljin remained unmoved. “A man ten span tall was following this Engineer,” he said. “Around the streets of Talagray. We are to take this seriously?”

“It’s very simple,” said Ana. “Jolgalgan got onto the grounds, made a hole, and secreted herself away until the party. But how did she get past the walls? Well, Din’s reports, and our interviews with our witnesses, have forced me to conclude that the only way our poisoner got onto the estate grounds was through the sluice gates.”

I nodded as I began to understand. “But the sluice gates are heavy…”

“Right! Yet someone very, very strong might have lifted the sluice gate just enough to allow Jolgalgan inside. And, Miljin, you were told that Terez said he’d been seeing a rather suspicious crackler about—one with yellow hair. And who else has yellow hair?”

“Jolgalgan,” I said. “She has pale yellow hair…”

“She does!” said Ana. “Because she is from Oypat. As is, I think we can now assume, this mysterious crackler who helped her break in. Two Oypatis, taking apart the Empire from within Talagray…The theory that Jolgalgan is out for some kind of bloody revenge for the death of her canton grows ever stronger!” She turned a page. “And thus, I now look through the list of all the folk in Talagray augmented for strength. We find an Oypati crackler, then we find Jolgalgan.” She paused, very briefly. “Along with any other collaborator she might be working with. I just need a name. Just one name to hunt down…” She grimaced, and her stomach growled noisily. “By hell, what time is it? I’m so damned famished I can hardly think!”