“Oh!” said Ana, interested. “What happened to the horse?”
Strovi coughed. “It, ah, died, ma’am,” he said.
“Ohh. Hm.” She nodded, a little disappointed, as if she’d expected something more entertaining. “Were there any commonalities to the ten deaths? Did they all use the same bathing facilities? Or visit any site that featured a large amount of steam?”
“They did not,” said Vashta. “We’ve treated this as a contagion so far, reviewing their movements to see what event might have spread this to them all. But so far we can’t find any moment when they were even in the same room together in the past month, let alone all inhaling the same steam.”
“The only commonality, ma’am,” said Strovi, “is that they were all part of the Engineering Iyalet.”
“Engineering…” said Ana quietly.
“Yes,” said Vashta. “The worry is that someone is targeting Engineers for assassination. Perhaps as sabotage. We do not yet know.”
“But to do so during the wet season…” Strovi shook his head.
“You think,” said Ana, “that someone wants to set the titans loose within all of Khanum.”
“It would be madness to imagine it,” said Vashta. “But these days have been nothing if not mad.”
Ana fell silent, her head bowed in thought.
“We need to know how this happened, Dolabra,” said Vashta. “To find out who did this and capture them—before any other calamities occur. Hundreds if not thousands of people are maimed or dead. The entire canton is at risk, if not the Empire. We cannot repair the breach or battle the titans with confidence until we are sure the threat is resolved. And you are the only person I am aware of, Immunis, who has encountered this phenomenon previously, and it is my understanding that you accurately identified it, and responded to it, within a day. We need all the help we can get right now—but I have surmised that we especially need your help.”
Ana’s fingers were drumming wildly on the tabletop now, a frenetic tatter-tat. “I can’t help you from here, ma’am. I rely a lot on Din for these investigations, but, well, the commute from here to Talagray would be a bit much.”
“We had anticipated that,” said Vashta. “I have ordered a carriage sent here straightaway, on the hopes that you would consent. It should arrive by morning.”
“There are likely some issues of procedure and jurisdiction—yes?” Ana asked. “I am not an Iudex Investigator of that canton. Din is an apprentice, and I believe isn’t allowed to leave Daretana until his formal assignment.”
“A state of emergency has been declared for the entire Outer Rim,” said Vashta. “Policies are being suspended left and right. We can suspend any statute stopping you as well, and the Iudex Investigator of Talagray is all too happy for the help. The only concern anyone has now is to make it through the wet season.”
“And…what are the prospects of that?” asked Ana.
A bleak smile. “The prospects of that,” Vashta said, “are evolving. And will likely depend in no small part on your work in Talagray.”
“In that case,” said Ana, “how could I possibly say no? Right, Din?”
I said nothing. For there is nothing worth saying when you are being forced into a pit of horrors.
CHAPTER 10
| | |
I HAD ONCE THOUGHT transport by carriage to be the domain of princes and the gentry. But as I sat in that dank little box for the sixth hour, clutching my seat while the walls and floors bucked and heaved about me, I felt it was the most awful damned punishment I could imagine.
The air was hot and stagnant. There was little to see out the windows except the close, dark, steaming jungle and the occasional flash of a mika lark. Though we traveled along imperial roads, which were bricked and well maintained, the carriage still bumped and banged every few seconds, making sleep or reflection impossible. And Ana, of course, was horrid company, sitting there blindfolded and chattering ceaselessly.
“That bump there!” she’d say to me, excited. “Right there! That bump occurs every seventeen seconds when we are on the southern side of the road, and every nineteen seconds when we are on the northern side of the road! This indicates to me that it is not a flaw in a wheel of our carriage, but is instead some quirk in the process the Engineers used to build this road, segment by segment! Or perhaps…perhaps an issue with the land or an effect of the humidity on the stone…”