I squatted to look, my eyes shivering as I summoned up my memories of the last time I’d glimpsed inside this safe. I saw the boxes of grafts, a handful of papers I had seen before; and there, in the corner, the reagents key I’d brought to her, the vial set in a little bronze disc. Everything was all still here—or so it seemed.
“The key, Din,” said Ana. “Is the key there?”
I peered at the reagents key, then gestured to the tracker to hold the mai-lantern close.
“Well?” demanded Ana.
“There’s…a key, ma’am,” I said slowly.
“But?”
I peered closer at it. “But…it’s not the key I got from Aristan’s safe house, I think.”
A thunderstruck silence.
“What?” said Ana.
I turned to the tracker. “Can I pick it up, you think?”
The tracker leaned forward and sniffed the safe. “Not catching scent of any graft trips…though the scent of blood and alcohol is much stronger in here.”
“The killer cleaned the interior of the safe, you mean?” said Ana.
“Seems likely, ma’am. But it should be safe to review.”
I lifted the reagents key, held it up next to the lantern, and studied it. I shook my head. “I’m sure, ma’am. It’s not the same key. The bronze of the disc is discolored in the wrong places. And it’s missing a few dents. There were four total, one big, three small. And the weight is wrong.”
“You remember all that?” asked the tracker, surprised.
Kitlan snorted. “Boy’s an engraver. That’s what he’s here for.”
“You’re sure about all this, Din?” asked Ana.
I felt the tickling in my eyes as I recalled it. “I’m sure of it, ma’am. This key is similar—but it’s definitely different.”
“Can we figure out what this new key is, then?” she asked.
The tracker took the key from me and sniffed it. “Well, it’s…it’s a reagents key, ma’am. I can smell it. Smelled ’em before. Dunno what kind, though, or what portal it opens, but…I do note it smells very, very strongly of blood as well, though it’s also been cleaned.”
“But you’re sure it’s a reagents key?” asked Ana. “An ordinary one? Nothing special about it?”
“Nothing that I can tell. A reagents key, ordinary enough.”
Ana was silent for a long time.
“What’s going on, ma’am?” I asked. “Why kill Nusis?”
She said softly, “Take me back to the Iudex tower, Din. Now. Quickly.”
* * *
—
WE CROSSED THE city together, the moon pale and sickly above us, the city full dark except for the lamp of the Legionnaire accompanying us several span ahead.
“What do you think happened back there, ma’am?” I asked.
“Evil,” whispered Ana, “and trickery. I think the twitch came looking to steal the reagents key you found in Aristan’s safe house. Yet they were in for a surprise…for after killing Nusis, they found that the key had already been stolen, with another key left behind—a fake. The one you just handled.”
“What?” I said, stunned. “You think tha—”
“Keep your voice down!” she hissed. “It’s now clear that there are many spies among the Iyalets here! I cannot give the game away just yet.”
I whispered, “Do…do you really think so, ma’am? That there’s a…what, a thief about?”
“I do. Someone must have learned what Nusis had in her safe, snuck in, opened her safe, and took it, leaving another key in its place. Then the twitch came, forced Nusis to open her safe, then killed her…yet when they seized their treasure, they realized it wasn’t the right key. Someone had beaten them to it. The twitch then understood they were in a tricky spot—robbed of their prize, and now fearful we might now realize the true nature of the thing they sought. So they carefully shut the door and wiped it with alcohol, removing any blood, hoping we might not deduce what could have been worth murdering and robbing poor Nusis over.”
I tried to think through this, my mind spinning. “What makes you so sure the twitch themselves didn’t leave that key as a fake?”
“Because they went to the trouble of cleaning both the exterior and interior of the safe after they killed Nusis. The twitch is methodical, and careful—they don’t normally make mistakes that require cleaning. So…why would someone so careful manipulate and clean a safe after they’ve already robbed it? Why create this mess for themselves? The easiest answer is that they did not get what they sought and wished to hide that they’d ever sought it at all.”