“No, sir.”
“And you have seen no one hanging about your immunis lately? Watchful or paying undue attention?”
He glanced off into the shadows, eyes narrow.
I looked down. His hand was resting close to his sword.
I took a breath, and my eyes fluttered as I summoned up my memories. “I have seen twenty-seven people come near the path to my immunis’s house, sir,” I said. “Some came several times—nineteen total unique visitors, I should say—but none seemed unusual or malicious.”
The captain looked startled. Then he laughed—a rich, merry sound. “Ah! An engraver, of course. I’d forgotten. Very good, then. Thank you.” We continued walking, and when we reached the porch he removed his helmet and shook out a startlingly lustrous mane of curly brown hair. As light spilled across his fair face I saw he was not much older than I was.
He gave me a careless grin. “Apologies for all this skullduggery, Signum. I’ve no talent for it. But perhaps you, in your line of work, are more accustomed.”
I had no idea what to say to such a thing, so I bowed.
“Come, then,” he said. His smile faded, but he seemed the sort who could never banish all the mirth from his face. “Let us catch up to them.”
* * *
—
I OPENED THE door to find Ana had rearranged her quarters into the same manner as when she’d interrogated Gennadios, but with two chairs before her desk rather than three. Ana herself was standing behind the desk, blindfolded as always, and was saying, “…hope the journey was well.”
“As well as it could be, Immunis.” The commander-prificto seemed unsurprised by the blindfold. “Thank you for meeting with me. It’s unfortunate that we have to do so under these circumstances. Please sit.”
Ana did so, and I took my place behind her. Ana cocked her head, listening to my footsteps, then said, “This is Signum Dinios Kol, ma’am, my engraver. Din, this is Commander-Prificto Desmi Vashta, of the Tala Army of the Imperial Legion.”
I bowed again to her. Vashta nodded, sat, and removed her black helmet, revealing hair that was thick, dark, and short. She gestured to the captain beside her. “This is Captain Kepheus Strovi, my second.”
The smiling young captain bowed his head to Ana.
“Normally I would inquire about your assignment here, Immunis,” said Vashta. “But etiquette is often one of the first casualties during an emergency, so I will cut to it.”
“I understand entirely,” said Ana.
“You wrote a letter recently to the Iudex office in the Tala canton. About a murder that took place here.”
“Yes. Commander Taqtasa Blas.”
“You mentioned the nature of the incident. But…I was hoping you could summarize it in more depth for me, before we talk further.”
“Certainly,” said Ana. She gestured to me. “Din can take care of that, naturally.”
I blinked, surprised, and looked at her.
She gave me a small, wry smile. “You are my engraver, after all,” she said.
“Oh. Yes, ma’am.” Then I stepped forward and slid out my vial of lye-scent that I’d used the day of the investigation. I sniffed it, focused, and let the queer, tickling sensation flood into the backs of my eyes. Then I started talking.
I kept it short: I listed the dates, the locations, the names of everyone involved, and the nature of the case. Then I detailed Ana’s investigation and conclusions, as well as our latest efforts to learn more about Blas and why he might have been targeted for assassination. I was aware as I did so that I couldn’t help mimicking Ana’s accent and cadence—but that was the nature of engraving someone’s speech. You couldn’t quite help what you picked up.
I spoke for nearly three quarters of an hour, and when I finished the two Legion officers simply sat there, faces bleak yet unreadable.
“I assume, Immunis,” Vashta said finally, “that you are aware of the breach.”
“I know a leviathan broke through the walls,” said Ana, “but that is the extent of my knowledge.”
Vashta was silent, as if debating how best to articulate a question.
“I have speculated that Commander Blas’s murder might have weakened our defenses,” said Ana. “Or that someone else might have been targeted in the same way. Might that be the case?”
Vashta stared into the distance for a long time. “What I am about to say to you, Immunis,” she said slowly, “is a very great secret. One we are still trying to understand ourselves.”
“All right, ma’am.”
“You and your engraver cannot repeat it to anyone,” she said. “For if you did, it could very easily cause a panic. And a panic is not what we need right now.”
“That is understood, ma’am,” said Ana.
Vashta glanced at Strovi, then said, “The leviathan did not single-handedly cause the breach. Rather, the walls were destabilized from within. This severely weakened their foundation, leading to a small, contained collapse. This all took place well before the leviathan approached. However, it was this collapse, and this weakening, that the leviathan took advantage of.”
“We think it sensed the collapse in the waters, ma’am,” said Strovi. “Heard it while it was rising through the sea floor, so it knew where to target.”
“We had to remove our bombards from that segment of the walls, fearing further collapse,” said Vashta. “As such, the wall was not only weak when the leviathan came, but it had much reduced defenses. It was the perfect circumstances for a breach.”
Ana shot forward like a mudsnake striking. “A destabilization from within,” she said. “I see!”
Vashta paused, puzzled. “See…what, precisely?”
“That it was likely not one person who was poisoned,” said Ana, “but several, if not many.”
I couldn’t make any sense of what she’d said, but Vashta and Strovi exchanged another look, this one terribly alarmed.
“What do you mean?” demanded Vashta.
Ana’s fingers danced on the edge of the table. “Allow me to make a conjecture, Commander-Prificto,” she said.
“Do so.”
“Did the destabilization within the walls occur because multiple people within the fortifications—how shall I put this delicately—spontaneously sprouted trees from their bodies, damaging the walls?”
Vashta stared at Ana, astonished. “That is so,” she said softly. “Yes, that is so.”
“I see,” said Ana. She nodded, satisfied. Then she sat back in her chair, sniffed, and said, “Well. Fuck.”
CHAPTER 9
| | |
“IS THIS SOMETHING YOU expected, Immunis?” demanded Vashta. “Or predicted?”
“Not at all,” Ana said. “If I had, I’d have notified you all immediately.”
“Then how did you conclude this?”
“Well, I assumed that if you were coming to me, ma’am, then you were here about Blas. And since I’d suspected that Blas’s killer was in Talagray, that meant they could kill again with the dappleglass—and thus, I presumed you were here because they had done so. Yet then you said this was about the breach and mentioned something breaking the walls from within. If that was the case, then I presumed—accurately, it seems—that it was not one person who underwent such a contagion, but many. Enough to bring the walls down.” She leaned forward. I could see it was taking all of her effort not to start grinning like a loon. “Tell me everything about what happened.”
“W-we’re still trying to collect reports,” said Vashta, shaken. “We do not have many witnesses. But we are told that the direct cause of the collapse was two senior Engineers working on a critical part of the fortifications.”
“A support,” said Strovi. “A strut carrying an immense load, as several others had been weakened due to the quakes.”
“And when the two Engineers, ah, sprouted, let’s say,” said Ana, “the trees damaged the support, causing the collapse.”
Vashta nodded.
“Were they the only ones who died in such a fashion?” she asked.
Again, the two Legionnaires exchanged a glance.
“They were not,” said Vashta.