“I see…” said Ana softly. “Then what happened?”
“The process simply took too long. The dappleglass reached a critical point. It had devoured too much land. Too long a border for it to ever be properly neutralized. Like a tumor infecting the bone, or the tissue of the heart, it was too late. So we evacuated the canton, and then…then we applied a phalm oil burn.”
“Usually reserved for disposing of titans, yes?”
“For destroying their carcasses, correct,” said Nusis. “It burns hot enough to destroy anything organic. We burned everything within a half mile of the walls of the canton of Oypat. All the trees, fields, homes…everything. And…then we sealed it up. Like a tomb. And let it lie.” She swallowed. “And that was that. The Empire was saved. And the fertile fields and little towns of Oypat are no more.”
There was an awkward silence.
“It might have happened anyway,” admitted Nusis. “Years after Oypat, I personally led a team to retest the twenty little vials of cure we’d produced—just in case dappleglass ever infected another part of the Empire. Three of the vials had degraded until they were little more than water. So perhaps the cure might have been ultimately ineffective. We shall never know, unfortunately.”
Ana cocked her head. “Strange…Was Commander Blas ever involved in Oypat? Did he ever assist with containing the contagion there, or perhaps in his work with the Preservation Boards?”
“Blas?” said Nusis. She seemed surprised. “No. No, not that I was aware of. Why?”
“Just a question,” said Ana. She smiled wearily. “Yet there is one more thing I’m curious about…You mentioned that several cantons had curiously prepared protests about the dappleglass cure.”
“Yes?” said Nusis.
“Might you recall which ones those were?”
“Oh! Hm. Off the top of my head…” Nusis thought about it. “The Juldiz, Bekinis, Qabirga, and Mitral cantons, I believe.”
There was a long silence.
“You’re sure,” said Ana. “You’re sure it was those four?”
“I believe so, yes.”
“I see,” said Ana softly. “Then you may go, Immunis Nusis. Do keep me updated on that reagents key.”
* * *
—
I WAITED FOR the door to shut.
“Those cantons,” I said. “Those same four cantons again.”
“Yes,” said Ana quietly.
“The ones Blas’s secretary was traveling to, with the money. And the ones Kaygi Haza sent his scribe-hawks to.”
“Yes.”
“But…what’s it all mean, ma’am?”
“I am not yet entirely certain, Din,” said Ana. She smiled dreamily. “But it’s very interesting, isn’t it? Very interesting indeed.”
CHAPTER 32
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AS AFTERNOON TURNED TO evening, Ana, Captain Miljin, and I lounged in the courtyard of the Iudex tower, sipping clar-tea and listening to the troops filing in and out of the city. Miljin had brought Ana her list of Legionnaires altered for strength, and while she read I related the interviews to him, one after another.
He shook his head when I finished. “Poor old Uhad…They should have transferred him out of here years ago. Can’t take too many wet seasons, the engravers. They don’t age well. But I can’t find nary a thing in what you’ve told me that helps me make sense of what’s going on.”
“It’s all very tangled, yes,” said Ana quietly. She sat back and lifted her face to the cloudy skies. “There are, I think, three different crimes we are now investigating.” She raised a finger. “There are the poisonings—Blas, Kaygi Haza, and the ten Engineers. For this, we have a likely candidate—Jolgalgan—and though she may have involved more accomplices in her works, it is she that we are the closest to catching now.”
“We are?” I said, surprised.
Her finger swiveled to me. “Wait! Wait. I am not done yet.” She extended a second finger. “Then there is Kaygi Haza. He has committed some foul deed, something to do with Blas and Oypat. But I can’t yet see the shape or the why of it. Regarding this, all I have are suspicions, and very little proof at all. We are not helped that these events took place over a decade ago.”
“We don’t think the Hazas…well…introduced the contagion to Oypat, do we?” I asked. “That they poisoned the canton like one might a person?”