“If we had,” said Fayazi, “then that would have surely broken our containment—correct? The breath of the words that carry a message might also carry death.”
“Then how did you become aware that your father’s death might have been malicious?” asked Ana.
“We lifted containment after seven days, for we had experienced no other incidents,” said Fayazi, “though we continued trying to discover the nature of my father’s death, of course. Just early this morn we received news from…” She turned to her engraver. The man’s eyes quivered, and he leaned over to whisper in her ear. “From Commander Hovanes,” she continued, “that there had been other outbreaks like this—ones kept secret from the citizens of the Empire. Yet we had no idea.” Though her voice was still breathy and childlike, her last words carried a sharp edge to them.
Vashta narrowed her eyes. “We do as we must, to prevent panic,” she said. “For if there’s a panic, madam, we will not survive the wet season.”
Fayazi nodded, her sheet of silver hair tilting back and forth. “Much may be excused,” she conceded, “when we all live under such threats.”
Yet I noted this was not precisely an agreement.
“You lifted this containment a week after your father’s death,” said Ana, “but that would have been nearly a week ago now. So…you still did not notify the Apoths of this contagion during all this time?”
“No,” said Fayazi. “For just after we lifted our containment, the breach occurred. We prepared to evacuate immediately, rather than venture into the city to notify the Iyalets. It was a moment of tremendous confusion and emergency. We simply watched the skies of the east for the flares. I feared for the life of myself and my staff.”
Vashta looked somewhat satisfied by this, but Ana was chewing her lip, head bowed.
“Your father’s death,” Ana said, “however, would have occurred seven days after the death of Commander Blas, in Daretana.”
The axiom’s skeletal gaze was now fixed on Ana. I began to wonder if the woman was even capable of blinking.
Fayazi appeared puzzled. “Commander Blas? Why is that of importance?”
“Are you not aware,” Ana asked, “that Commander Blas died in the same way as your father?”
“I was told that Commander Blas fell to contagion,” said Fayazi, shocked. “This was as it was reported to me. The manner of contagion was not mentioned.”
“You were not informed by your own housekeeper, Madam Gennadios,” Ana said, “that the groundskeeper at the property had collaborated with an assassin to kill the commander?”
Fayazi’s face was the picture of vapid astonishment. “This information would have been referred to my father,” she said, “but not to me. I do not even know who this Gennadios is.”
“And no one in your household, and none of your clan administrators, informed you that your father and Blas died in the exact same fashion?”
“We were in containment,” she said. “And I was deep in grief. I did not have the knowledge or the resources to respond, perhaps, as I should have.”
I glanced down. Ana’s knuckles were white, her fingernails digging into her palms.
She nodded curtly. “Mm-hm. And what is the current state of your father’s body?”
“He was cremated, as is our custom,” Fayazi said. “His ashes wait in our hall to be returned to our ancestral home, in the first ring. I intend to accompany its return for the funerary rites within a week.”
“You burned him. Immediately.”
“Of course,” she said, blinking sorrowfully. “That is my prerogative as his issue.”
Ana’s fists were trembling now. “You are now aware, I take it, that several Engineers have perished to this same contagion?”
“I believe,” said Fayazi sadly, “that Commander Hovanes suggested such…”
“Are you aware that we have evidence suggesting these Engineers were poisoned at your estate? Likely on the same night as your father? Presumably, now, poisoned at the same time?”
“We…we had a social event on that evening,” said Fayazi, shocked. “Many people attended. But I have heard nothing indicating our guests suffered any sign of contagion. And I had no idea that there had been any other poisonings.” She gestured at Vashta. “This was, apparently, kept secret to preserve order.”
“Would those guests have included a Signum Misik Jilki?” asked Ana. “Or a Signum Ginklas Loveh?”
Again, the engraver whispered in Fayazi’s ear.
“We are unfamiliar with these names,” Fayazi said.
Ana listed the rest of the dead Engineers. Fayazi’s engraver shook his head to each one—including Jolgalgan’s.
“Then perhaps you can tell me, madam,” said Ana, “why several of those Engineers possessed reagents keys to your gates?”
Fayazi was appalled. “I’ve no idea! I…I would assume they were stolen. Have you investigated these Engineers? Is it possible it was they who snuck in during the night, and killed my father?”
A long silence stretched on, Ana’s blindfolded face fixed in an expression of grim frustration, while Fayazi insipidly stared back.
“So,” said Ana. “Just to summarize, here—your position is that you were utterly ignorant of Commander Blas’s death at one of your properties, so when your father also died of this horrifying contagion, you had no idea that this was the second murder of this sort. You then burned his body and put the whole of your estate into containment, and due to this and the chaos of the breach, you abstained from notifying any imperial officials of your father’s suspicious death—until now. Nor do you know anything about the Engineers who were likely poisoned at your estate on that very same night, or how they happened to come into possession of reagents keys allowing them access to your properties. Is that the sum of it?”
The two Sublimes stared at Ana coldly. Fayazi’s face worked as she tried to process all this. “I…believe that is all correct.”
“I see!” said Ana, nodding. “I just have one more question.”
“Of course.”
“What color was the clay?”
Fayazi blinked, confused. “Clay? What clay?”
“The clay you must have stuck in your eyes and ears,” said Ana, grinning, “to remain so amazingly fucking ignorant of everything about you.”
Fayazi’s eyes widened very slightly, but otherwise she did not react.
Vashta jumped to her feet. “Immunis!” she bellowed.
“Yes, ma’am?” said Ana politely.
“In there!” snapped Vashta. She pointed at the door to the arbiter’s chambers. “Now!”
“Of course, ma’am.”
She gripped my arm, and we stood.
* * *
—
ONCE THE DOOR was shut, Vashta let Ana have it. Her lungs were in fine form, and she seemed to have both an enthusiasm and talent for bellowing. I had no doubt that one reason she was being so loud was that she wanted Fayazi to hear the dressing-down that Ana was getting.
Finally, she began to finish: “Was I not clear, Immunis, that all of Talagray depends upon those people?” she said. “That we need them about as much as they need us?”
“You were,” said Ana. “But she is lying, ma’am. Obviously so. Blatantly so. Preposterously so! And when someone lies to the Iudex, they get looked at.”
Vashta fumed for a moment, thinking about this. “Do you believe, Immunis, that Fayazi Haza killed her father, and Blas, and those Engineers?”
“I…think that unlikely, ma’am,” admitted Ana.
“And you still think this Jolgalgan is the more likely perpetrator?”
“At the moment, yes, ma’am.”
“But to prove any of this, we would need to gain access to the Haza estate to see if Jolgalgan has been present, and in hopes that there is something there that could indicate her current whereabouts. Yes?”
Ana said nothing.
“I do not know why Fayazi is lying,” said Vashta. “I do not know her business whatsoever. But I do know that there is someone out there who has killed many Engineers and imperiled all of Talagray, and they could do more damage yet. Finding them is the priority. Not digging up any of your grudges with old enemies!”
Still Ana said nothing.
“You both stay here,” said Vashta, “while I try to salvage the situation out there, and engineer a way for you to continue your investigation!”