And as he guided me through the movements, I began to see what they had been trying to show me: every gesture, every position, every shift, and every turn seemed to sink into my very bones, engraved in my body and flesh—but the knack was as limited as it was comprehensive, for I could only duplicate those exact movements. If the fight called for something I hadn’t memorized, then I was instantly vulnerable.
“Good,” said Miljin, sweating mightily after a few minutes of sparring. “But don’t let this swell your ego. None of these dirty tricks will do you any good against a twitch, or a crackler. Try and spar with him tomorrow and the fella will rip you apart. Now let us sup, and to bed. There are many ways to an early grave in this canton, and pairing a hungry belly with a tired mind is surely one of them.”
He walked me back to the Iudex tower entrance, the Fisher’s Hook twinkling and glimmering far above.
“Do you think she meant it, sir?” I said. “That someone will try to poison her?”
“At this point, if your immunis claimed all the world were an aplilot and a giant leviathan was about to take a bite out of it, I’d fucking believe her,” he said. He squinted up at the Iudex tower. “In fact, I wonder if she knows the truth of all that’s happened. Or if she even planned to be here.”
“What do you mean, sir?”
“An Iudex officer with such a history with the Hazas? Popping up right when Kaygi Haza gets murdered? She knows more than she’s telling. Question is when she tells us.”
“As well as if we survive,” I said. “That question bothers me a bit more now, sir.”
“True,” he said. “But that’s as Talagray is. The fields of these lands are wet with the blood of many officers. And though we keep hoping the Empire grows more civilized, somehow it finds clever new ways to stay savage. Yet you’ve an advantage, Kol.”
“Because of my knack?”
“No. Because Dolabra’s decided to look out for you. Though she’s mad, count yourself lucky to be in her shadow.”
“I’m in danger because I’m in her shadow, sir.”
He laughed. “Suppose that’s a good point!”
We walked on. It was a queer thing, to know I had this knack; but any excitement I had was drowned in dread of all the threats before us. It was all too easy to imagine some shadowy figure lifting a stiletto to my skull and drilling a hole behind my ear, leaving a tiny, trickling spring of dark blood.
Finally we came to the tower entrance.
“It’s a defect as much as it is an advantage, you know,” Miljin said, “or they used to say so.”
“Pardon, sir?”
“Memory in the muscles, I mean.” He squinted at me. “Apparently it only happens to engravers who have trouble engraving other shit—or so I’m told. The duelist I mentioned, he couldn’t remember songs at all. Not a bit of them. They were like a big blank space in his mind. Couldn’t whistle or tap his foot, neither. I guess it’s like everything else in the Empire—there’s always a trade-off.”
He waited for me to say something, but I did not speak.
“But you seem a keen sort,” he said. “Suppose you just got lucky, Kol.”
Then he told me good night, turned, and stomped off to his quarters.
CHAPTER 33
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THE NEXT MORNING MILJIN and I met the Apoths’ contagion crew at the Talagray stables. There were six of them—four women, two men—all wearing curious armor of leather and glue-like grass that appeared to seal off their whole beings from the air, except for the heads. The leader of the group, a tall woman with a steely gaze, shook Miljin’s hand and introduced herself. “Signum Kitlan. Told we’re here to deal with contagion, possibly out in the Plains of the Path—that right, sir?”
“That’s right, Signum,” Miljin said.
“Can you tell me more about this contagion?”
“It’s a plant being used by an Apoth and a crackler. A spore, I’m told. Breathable. Similar to dappleglass.”
None of them seemed surprised or even intimidated by this. They just nodded, eyes flinty. They were so altered their faces were more purple than gray, and some of them bore strange scars on their faces and necks, patches of puckered white from some injury or another. They were easily the hardest-looking officers I’d ever seen.
“Where are we starting, sir?” Kitlan asked Miljin.
Miljin waved to me. My eyes fluttered as I recalled Ana’s briefing from early this morning, her teeth gleaming in a grin as she’d pronounced: One! There is only one crackler in service to the Legion stationed here in Talagray who hails from Oypat. A Militis Drolis Ditelus, stationed at a forward outpost close to the walls. And he’s had quite a lot of demerits recently. Can you guess what for?