The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan, #1)(122)

“We must go up!” said Vashta. “We must go up and catch her!”

“No,” said Ana. “She will come down, and soon. And then she will perish. Let us go the atrium to meet her. For though we might not survive the day, let us at least take comfort that the evil folk among us will not, either.”

We exited the adjudication room in a dazed stagger, the bells ringing in our ears, Miljin leading the way with his sword drawn. Fayazi Haza began bawling that she wanted to go home, to go home, but Vashta told the Legionnaire to clap a hand on her arm and not let her go.

Then we heard a scream from high above us, and the slam of a door bursting open.

We looked up. A figure was staggering down the stairway, sobbing with rage.

“What…” choked the twitch’s voice. “What have you done to me?”

Vashta drew her own blade and stood beside Miljin and the Legionnaires, waiting. I stood before Ana, my sword held high. Then another volley of flares rose, and the tower was filled with green light, and we saw her.

The twitch was descending, her nose and mouth pouring blood. She coughed, and yet more blood came, sloshing down her front.

“What did you do to me?” she spat. “What did you…what did you…”

Yet I recognized what I was now seeing. I had seen such a transmutation before, when Miljin and I had found Ditelus on the Plains of the Path.

“Dappleglass,” I said softly.

“Yes,” said Ana quietly. “I told you I was worried someone might try to poison me, Din. I took three of your hairs and stuck them to the lid of my teapot, just in case. Yesterday evening, while you were at the banquet, I found them gone—and a tiny leaf stuck to the interior of the teapot with resin. Dappleglass, of course.”

The twitch stumbled down the last length of stairway, her eyes now leaking blood.

“Last night I lined my chest with leather, creating a seal,” said Ana. “And then, this morning, I snipped off the tiniest bit of the leaf, placed it in my teapot, and started it boiling at a low heat in my chest, and shut it. Not much—but then, twitches don’t need much. They’re very vulnerable to contagion…”

The twitch staggered down the last span of steps, blood pouring from her face, her long, stiletto sword still raised.

“But she is not dead yet,” Ana said, “and is still dangerous…”

“I tried to kill you before, you…you bitch,” the twitch said savagely. Flecks of blood danced in the air with each word. “Got…got your little helper instead.”

“So you think,” said Ana with a sniff. “But then, you and your masters always were fools.”

Her dark eyes glinted. “I’ll kill you and…and your child now…” she spat. “Even…even if I should die doing it…”

Miljin and the Legionnaires made a line before us, swords raised in a wall of sharp steel. “Try it,” he hissed at her. “Try it, and let me take vengeance for Nusi—”

Then the twitch leapt.

I had thought she’d been incapacitated by the dappleglass, but it seemed this was not so; for she managed to vault clear over Miljin and the Legionnaires, landed behind them, and sped straight for Ana and me.

I shoved Ana backward, putting myself in between her and the twitch. The twitch sped in at me, her eyes and nose and mouth now pouring blood.

Yet I noticed—my eyes could perceive her movements now.

She was moving slow. Too much movement, I guessed, for much too long.

I stepped forward, reading her stance, the angle of her shoulders, the bend of her wrist. She went in for the thrust, intending to spear me in my belly—yet I had expected this, for a thrust was all she could do with such a weapon.

My eyes fluttered. My muscles awoke and moved me, dancing me through one particular move…

The trick Miljin had taught me in the Iudex courtyard. His ugly little secret.

I angled my blade along her stiletto; then caught it, trapping it in my crossguard and shoving its point away, while keeping my own sword pointed at the twitch.

I saw her face change, shifting from savage joy to alarm. She was moving too fast. She could not change direction now.

My arm shook as her shoulder met the tip of my sword. She screamed, and I shoved forward, driving my blade through the flesh below her collarbone, severing the ligaments, rendering her left arm all but useless.

Her stiletto fell to the floor. She screamed aloud, shrieking, “You little son of a bitch! You little son of a bi—”

My body moved me again.

I pulled my sword from her shoulder, then raised it and hacked down at her.

My blow was clumsy. The edge did not slash open her throat as I’d intended, but instead smashed into the side of her skull, beside her temple and eye. Her bloody face changed to one of dull shock, the sword penetrating her eye socket and biting through the orb. I watched, mutely horrified, as her eye turned gelatinous and began to dribble down her cheek. She blinked once with her remaining eye, then tumbled forward, ripping my sword from my hand as she did so.

Fayazi started shrieking again, wild, hysterical screams. The tocsins rang and rang, screaming their warnings to us, to flee, to run, to panic, to pray. Vashta was shouting something, but I had no mind for it.

Then Ana’s voice: “It’s not done! Damn it, Din, the bloom’s not done! Get away, get away!”