“Certainly,” said Ana.
“Good. And there’s nothing else you haven’t told me yet, is there?” asked Vashta. “You don’t have some other magic reagents key that might open…hell, I don’t know, the emperor’s undergarment drawer?”
There was an awkward silence. I glanced back at Miljin, who looked on, uncomprehending.
“Well…” said Ana.
“You don’t,” Vashta said flatly.
“I’m afraid we do, ma’am,” said Ana. “We have found a second key.”
“I was joking!” cried Vashta. “I’ll joke no more, if the gods shall hear them as wishes and make them true! Where did you find it?”
Ana then explained all I’d found in Rona Aristan’s safehouse. Vashta grew more and more agog with every word, and Miljin looked first outraged and then resigned to hear that we’d all got to it first.
“I always did hear,” he muttered as he shook his head, “that working with Dolabra will drive a man mad…”
“Do we have any idea how Blas came into all that money?” demanded Vashta. “And how does that relate to his murder, and the murder of all the other Engineers?”
“We don’t yet know, ma’am.”
“And you’re certain this malign influence doesn’t spread to any of the other investigators?”
“At the moment, all their involvement seems ill-advised but coincidental, ma’am.”
“And what in hell does this new reagents key open?”
“We don’t yet know that either, ma’am,” said Ana. “It appears far plainer than the Haza key, so I doubt if it shall open anything quite so controversial, but…we have given it to Nusis to analyze. I have not yet heard if she has had time to work on it.”
Again, Vashta glowered at us. “Get an update from her when you interrogate her next. We must uncover as much as we can about all of this as quickly as possible.”
“Understood, ma’am,” said Ana. “But…first, of course…”
“The Hazas,” sighed the commander-prificto. “You would like to go to their home, I assume.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And inspect the residence.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And get lists of all their guests and relations present.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And, surely, talk to all their servants and advisers. Like they were simple country folk.”
“That would be most preferable, ma’am.”
I almost scoffed. Ana could be quite unctuous when attempting humility.
“I have fought back leviathans for five wet seasons,” said Vashta quietly. “But at least the titans are straightforward. Yet the gentry…That is another matter.” She fixed Ana again in a cold, steely gaze. “I will do what I can. But I wish you to know this.”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“I am seneschal—but only of this canton. The Hazas own some of the most verdant, potent lands in all the Empire, in many cantons. Without the reagents grown on their properties, defense of the Empire would be impossible. We would have no grafts for stonewood, for slothiks, for cracklers. For healing grafts, for mending pastes, for any of it. Hell, a full twenty percent of all our fretvine grafts come from the Haza lands! So I will consent to this—but you must, and I mean must, step carefully.”
“Of course, ma’am.”
“Particularly if you happen to actually find yourself in the presence of a member of the family! I think it quite unlikely—the Hazas remain very cloistered, especially here on the Outer Rim, where there is so much contagion—but if by chance you happen to meet one of them, I must insist you be polite, thoughtful, obedient, an—”
Then came a hard knock at the chamber door.
Vashta’s rage boiled over. “Damn it all!” she bellowed. “I said we were not to be disturbed! Who the hell is it?”
The door opened, and Strovi poked his head in. His boyish face looked anxious—but I could tell Vashta’s anger wasn’t the cause of it.
“Strovi?” shouted Vashta. “What in hell?”
“Th-there’s someone here to see you, ma’am,” he said.
“I told you, Captain, we were to be left alone!”
“I know, ma’am. But I knew you would wish to see this person, ma’am.”
“Then who is it? The damned emperor?”
“Ah, no. It is Fayazi Haza, ma’am.”