“There was a fernpaper miller that fulfilled an order,” I said. “His name was Suberek. We have indication that he delivered this fernpaper order here.”
“We have no knowledge of this,” said the axiom.
I ignored her and looked to Fayazi. “It would be a very large order, ma’am. And being as this fernpaper work appears new, it makes me wonder.”
There was another awkward beat. Fayazi glanced at her axiom, then shrugged. “My house and staff are vast,” she said. “I do not know everything that occurs here. Perhaps an order was placed. If so, I do not know where it is now. Do you know all that the Iudex does, or all the Empire, Signum?”
“And you still deny that the ten dead Engineers were ever here at all,” I said.
“We do not invite junior officers to our events,” the axiom said simply. “Unless it is at special request.”
I gazed at the three of them: the gentrywoman, the axiom, and the engraver. Studying their faces was like trying to read emotion in a piece of polished glass. I thought myself contained and controlled, yet these were indisputably masters at it.
“Was the poison delivered here, Signum?” Fayazi asked.
“It was delivered here, yes,” I said. “But the agent of contagion isn’t here. Because the water isn’t heated here, is it?”
“No,” she said. “It is not.”
“Then take me there, please.”
* * *
—
I HAD TO climb a ladder onto the back roof of the halls to access the water tank. It was a huge contraption, bigger than a slothik or a crackler, and its bronzed surface shone like a miniature sun. Fayazi’s coterie watched from below as I aligned my eye with the length of its shootstraw pipe, which ran down to the roof of the bathing house.
“How does the water get up here?” I asked.
“The servants bring it up in buckets,” called Fayazi. “How else? Then they light the stonewood fires beneath and send it down to the baths.”
“And this is what happened after the party, ma’am?”
“Yes. Of course.”
I opened the top of the tank and peered in. It was wide and rounded with a small grate in the center.
And there, lying in the middle of the grate, was a small strip of something dark. Though it was hard to see in the shadows within the tank, I had no doubt what it was.
My eyes fluttered, and suddenly I was not leaning down into a water tank: I was back in Daretana, watching as Princeps Otirios held his hands up about eight smallspan apart.
A slender slip of grass…not big at all. Odd to think such a small thing could kill a man so horribly.
I swallowed as the memory released me. “That’s it,” I said hoarsely. “It’s still here.”
* * *
—
I RETURNED TO the coterie and informed them of what I’d found. “Don’t use or tamper with or touch any of the bathing mechanisms,” I told Fayazi. “I frankly shouldn’t have looked into the water tank. I’ll call the Apoths when I return, and they’ll dispose of the contagion accordingly.”
For the first time, Fayazi looked rattled. “But…but how did it get in there at all? We had guards at all the hallways, and…and for the love of Sanctum, we had telltales at the entries to the estate! We made all the attendees march past them as they entered! That’s how we keep contagion out!”
“Calm,” said the axiom quietly. “Calm yourself, mistress…” Again, her hand returned to Fayazi’s arm, gripping her tight.
I considered the situation. The estate was a giant place. And despite what Fayazi had just said, I knew such a giant place would offer many points of entry—but where to start?
I remembered what Ana had told me after catching Uxos: Projecting motives is a fool’s game. But how they do it—that’s a matter of matter, moving real things about in real space.
“How do the servants get up here?” I asked. “Do they take the same route we did?”
“They use the servants’ passages,” said the engraver. He pointed east along the walls. “The entrance is there, out of sight, but it is kept locked.”
I went to where he pointed and found a small, bland little door that had been built to blend in with the wall. I tried the knob, but it was locked tight.
“It was locked the day of the party?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“And it was only unlocked before Kaygi took his bath?”
“Correct.”
“Is this the only servants’ door to this part of the house?”