I did so, taking a station behind Ana and hoping I did not stink too heavily of horse.
“I suppose we ought to catch you up on what has happened, Signum,” said Vashta. “But being as events are still happening, that may prove difficult. Scribe-hawks have been sent out across Khanum, reporting on both our victory over the leviathan and the sealing of the breach—and your investigation.”
“The holdings of the Haza family have been seized in the third ring,” Uhad explained to me. He was positively beaming. It was the first time I’d ever seen him smile so. “And work has begun on seizing their holdings in the second. I have delayed my retirement in order to assist in these noble labors.”
“But this will take time, and will involve many legal and political battles,” sighed Vashta. “But for now, it is very possible that all the elder sons of the Haza clan may find themselves dispossessed…and in reward for her cooperation, Fayazi Haza might take their place.”
“Fayazi?” I said, surprised. “She’ll be taking over for the Hazas?”
Vashta shrugged grimly. “She has given us all the communications her elders sent her, proving their guilt. And the Haza lands are invaluable. Someone must manage them. It might as well be someone we own. Time shall tell how all this goes. Needless to say, our victory at the breach has now changed to a much more protracted affair. A pity that we never found out who stole the real dappleglass cure. With it as proof, we could bring our enemies down all the faster. We shall look for it, but I am not optimistic.”
“Yet there are rumblings from the emperor’s Sanctum,” said Uhad. “Signs he shall revoke some of the blessings and privileges bestowed to the Hazas—as well as possibly all the gentry.”
I glanced at Ana. I noticed she had not spoken yet, but sat crooked in her chair, head bowed, face inscrutable.
“The institution of patronage shall be tricky to kill,” said Vashta, “but kill it we shall, I think. There may be many more officers like Blas among us. As a sign of the emperor’s devotion, I’m told an Iudexii conzulate will arrive in the canton shortly. It is the first time such a being has blessed the canton in nearly half a century. He has issued no orders yet, but the suggestion is that he intends to discover exactly how entrenched the Hazas were in the Iyalets.”
I could not hide my surprise. Conzulates were akin to gods in the Empire: as Fayazi had said to me, they never aged, but kept growing, until many were almost the size of giants, though their size made them incapable of movement. Some were hundreds of years old. The idea that one might be nearby was stupefying to me.
“You have done great works for the Empire, Kol,” said Vashta. “As such, I declare your apprenticeship over. You may now formally consider yourself Assistant Investigator. You may bear your blade and heralds proudly, and your dispensation will be altered accordingly. Congratulations.”
The enormity of it all was almost too much. I wondered how to react and settled on a bow. “Thank you, ma’am.”
Vashta sighed. “Yes. Though I am unsure when you’ll be able to return to your home, Signum, given that your immunis thinks there is still some third poisoner about. Unless you’ve changed your mind about that, Dolabra?”
“I have not, ma’am,” said Ana.
“And I don’t suppose you’ve had any revelations during all that chaos that could help us rest easier.”
“Well…” Ana grinned. “Not during. But, rather, slightly before, ma’am.”
There was a confused beat.
“What do you mean?” demanded Vashta.
“I have known the true identity of the dappleglass poisoner since Nusis’s murder,” said Ana mildly. “I know who it truly was who plotted and planned all the horrors of the past weeks.”
“You…you aren’t proposing that it was not Jolgalgan?” asked Vashta.
“Oh, Jolgalgan was guilty as sin, but she did not act alone,” said Ana. “That’s been obvious from the start. To begin with, she possessed an awareness of Commander Blas’s movements that far surpassed anything a captain in the Apoths should have had. And then there is the more logistical issue of the blackperch mushrooms. Which I have already shared with you, ma’am.”
“Yes…” said Vashta. “You told me you thought there had been another person at the Hazas’ party—someone who had tossed the mushrooms into the fire, causing a distraction.”
“Correct,” said Ana. “I have felt for some time that there was a third person involved. But as the investigation has continued, I’ve begun to feel that this third person possessed a startling insight into Iyalet information. Then an attempt was made on my own life, in my own rooms, and I realized the third person had to be someone here in the Trifecta. A senior Iyalet officer.”