I felt faint, my eyes shimmering as I recalled that day in the empty little house. The feel of the bronze disc, the slosh of the fluid in the vial—to imagine now that it had been the very substance that could have saved thousands of lives…
And yet, I knew the key had been stolen from us. What secret game was Ana playing at now?
She pivoted on her heel to turn to Fayazi, leaning her blindfolded face forward. “You didn’t know much of this, did you, madam,” she said. “You couldn’t have. This was all your father’s doing. His schemes, his plots. And you weren’t allowed knowledge of that. Why, you weren’t even allowed in his rookery.”
Fayazi’s axiom gripped her mistress’s arm again.
“I will say nothing to you,” said Fayazi quietly.
“But when your father died, you had to take over his duties here. You sent word to the other prime sons of the lineage, asking for guidance—and they told you to burn the body and the evidence and suppress all knowledge, fearing anything that might connect your father’s death to Commander Blas would reveal what they had done to Oypat. You did as they asked—and thus, you enabled the breach. And the deaths of all those soldiers and people now lie upon your head.”
“No,” whispered Fayazi.
“And then things got so much more dangerous…For then the clan sent their agent, didn’t they? Someone terrifying to do their dirty work and clean up all this mess you’d made?”
Fayazi trembled under her veil, yet said nothing.
“They sent their twitch, of course,” said Ana. “And all you could do was sit there. Sit there while the twitch went after Blas’s secretary. And then that poor miller you’d hired for all that fernpaper—they killed him and left him to rot in a basement. And then poor Nusis.”
“Dolabra!” said Vashta, alarmed. “What are you talking abou—”
“I wonder how many people your twitch has killed for your clan,” Ana said. “Dozens? Hundreds? But you knew when they came, Madam Haza, that you might be the next one they killed. For you’re distant from the elder sons. Vulnerable. Unimportant. The twitch was here to make sure you didn’t step out of line…and if all their plans here in Talagray fell to pieces, it was you they intended to blame for it all and leave for the loop. Another tidy ending to a horrid little story.”
Fayazi convulsed like she’d been slapped.
“Surely you’ve thought that,” whispered Ana. “Surely you’ve known that’s what they planned. But…why don’t you ask her? Why don’t you go ahead and ask your twitch right now?”
A loud, thundering silence.
“D-Dolabra?” said Vashta. “What are you…what…”
Ana turned her face to the axiom, who stared back at her with her cold, dark eyes.
“For it’s you, isn’t it?” said Ana. “You’re no axiom. You’re the twitch. And it is you who’s here to threaten Madam Haza’s life. And it’s you who killed Immunis Nusis just last night.”
* * *
—
ANOTHER STUNNED SILENCE.
The axiom smiled and laughed, a high, cold sound. “You’re mad. She’s mad. This woman is absolutely mad!”
“What’s the square root of 21,316?” demanded Ana.
“Wh-what?” said the axiom, startled. “Why are you—”
“The answer is 146,” said Ana. “What’s 98 to the power of four?”
The axiom was silent.
“The answer is 92,236,816,” said Ana. “What about 92,236,816 divided by 21,316? Can you do that?”
Silence.
“Can you?” demanded Vashta. “Can you not?” She looked to Fayazi. “Why can she not?”
Fayazi began to shake but did not answer. The axiom’s cold, dead stare grew even colder.
“I think the answer is a little over 4,327,” said Ana. “But don’t quote me.” She grinned. “You bear the heralds of an axiom—but you can’t do math at all, can you? You needed a reason to hang about Fayazi while Din talked to her, to make sure she said the right things. And what gentrywoman goes anywhere without their Sublimes? You couldn’t pose as an engraver—she already had one of those—but axiom, well…Why would anyone pose complex math problems to Fayazi Haza? I wouldn’t have thought twice on it—but then Din asked a few very simple mathematical questions, and you said nothing. Nothing at all. And that was curious to me.” Her smile faded. “It’s you. You killed Aristan. And Suberek. And Nusis. It was all you.”