Kalista laughed dully, her new clay pipe pinched in her fingers before her mouth. Again, I was reminded of a plump little purple courtesan dove, this one perhaps attempting to smooth its feathers after a fright.
“Well, it’s not like I’m a close friend of Fayazi or some such,” Kalista said. “Not like we have tea and gossip over which Legionnaire has the shapeliest thighs.” Her smile dimmed. “Certainly wouldn’t expect them to talk to me during…Well. All that’s happened.”
I glanced at Ana, who did not react. Word of Kaygi Haza’s murder had spread quickly throughout the city. It was no surprise that Kalista had caught wind of it.
“But you did mention it to someone,” said Ana, in tones of tremendous sympathy. “Perhaps there was someone else at the party you wished to contact…just to confirm their well-being.”
A quiver to Kalista’s oysterdusted eyelids. “Well,” she said grudgingly. “I was concerned about Commander Hovanes. Of the Apoths.”
Ana waited patiently. I stood behind her, hands behind my back, listening and watching.
“He was my…companion for that evening,” Kalista admitted. “And he is a friend. I did wish to notify him that…that we had discovered a potential threat to his health.”
“And is he,” asked Ana, “acquainted with the Hazas?”
“I was his guest,” said Kalista. “He was the one invited to the affair. So, yes. I would say so. More than I, at least.”
Ana nodded, plainly pleased to have determined the source that had tipped off the Hazas to all our discoveries. “I see. Now! Why don’t you describe the party, Kalista?” Ana said. “Your movements, who you saw, and when you saw them.”
Kalista began to speak. I listened, sniffing the vial scented of mint, engraving every word.
She arrived at midday, she said, and had been searched at the gates by the guards and exposed to the estate’s many telltale plants. Having proven unarmed and untouched by all contagion, she and Commander Hovanes had been permitted to enter the grounds, pass through the winding walkway between the white trees and the bird-perch gate, and approach the party.
“Yet to call it a party,” Kalista said, smiling, “is to call a war a spat!” This hadn’t been a convivial gathering over wine and mussels, she told us: it was akin to a high imperial ceremony, an almost celestial orchestration of art, food, music, and company, like something out of the ancient days.
Pipers placed at the front steps, their music low and sultry. Banners and ribbons waving at the doorways. Fires of green and silver flickering in every hearth. “And then there was the food,” she sighed. “And the wine. And the air…For some chambers held moodblooms. Just tarrying in the smokes of those plants for a moment made the very feeling of time change…If the Khanum still walked these lands, they’d have expected to be greeted similarly.”
“Very nice,” said Ana dryly. “But the people, Kalista. Did you see many people?”
“Oh, of course!”
She gave us the names of the people she saw. Most of her testimony consisted of gossip she’d heard; a parade of half-remembered, half-sotted conversations that had been half drowned out by the pipers. She only saw Nusis and Uhad fleetingly.
“Uhad, being insufferably supercilious,” Kalista said, “was there but a moment. Stayed long enough to be polite, and no longer. Nusis attended with some of the Apoth folk. If I recall, several of the younger, rather sotted men tried to chat with her—it was quite late in the day by then—but she dissuaded them all, claiming she was bound to another.” A rather cruel smirk. “First I’ve heard of that.”
“You didn’t see anyone who didn’t seem to belong there? Perhaps a tall, stern woman with pale yellow hair?” asked Ana.
“You mean Jolgalgan? No, I saw no one resembling her.”
“Nor anyone looking, say, slightly dirty?” asked Ana. “No one with a bit of soil on their sleeve?”
“Dirty?” echoed Kalista. “I…No, not that I recall.”
“Did anything of note happen?” asked Ana, growing impatient.
“I did hear a commotion before I left. There had been a fire in the second-floor hall. A small one. Some spark had escaped its hearth and alighted on a rug. I didn’t see it, but I passed by the area, and saw nothing awry. There was a smell in the air, though.”
“Describe it, please.”
“Oh, well…I’m not sure how.” She wrinkled her nose. “Smelled like goat’s piss, if you ask me. A powerful aroma. Thought it odd. Though…” A nervous smile. “Though I’m not the sort of person to often handle goats, of course.”
“I’d never dare suggest so,” said Ana, grinning. “Did you see anyone about this fireplace beforehand?”
“No. As I said, I didn’t see it.”
“And you didn’t see anyone unusual entering the party from the gardens?”
Kalista stared at Ana placidly and blinked. “I’m afraid,” she said, “I’d had a bit too much fumes and wine by that point to be, ah, reliable.”
“You mean you were sotted enough to piss your trousers,” said Ana, “and never know it.”
“Well,” said Kalista, scandalized, “I…I wouldn’t quite say tha—”
“You know now of Kaygi’s death, yes?” demanded Ana.
Kalista stopped and nodded nervously.
“And you likely know of the nature of the death.”
“Dappleglass. Again. Yes.”
“Do you know of any connection between Kaygi Haza and Commander Blas?”
“I know they were friendly,” said Kalista. “But Blas was known by man—”
“By many people, yes, yes, yes,” said Ana. “But you are not aware of any special relationship between the two?”
“No. I am not privy to such things, of course.”
Ana nodded slowly. “And are you aware of any connection between Commander Blas, and Kaygi Haza, and the canton of Oypat?”
There was a long silence.
“Beyond…” Kalista said slowly. “Beyond that all three were apparently killed by the same contagion?”
“Yes. Is there anything else that could connect the three?”
“No. But why should there be? As far as I am aware, Blas has never served in Oypat.”
Ana nodded, her smile retracting very slightly. “I see…Then thank you, Immunis Kalista. I believe that is all we need from you.”
* * *
—
NEXT CAME IMMUNIS Uhad, entering slowly in his storklike gait, his blue Iudex cloak swirling about him. He looked exhausted and beleaguered as usual, like a piece of vellum worn so thin you could see the cloudy sun through it. He sat down in the chair, his fingers threaded together, and sighed and said, “So…Kaygi Haza is dead.”
“Correct!” said Ana.
“In fact,” he said balefully, “the man has been dead for over two weeks.”
“So it seems.”
A taut silence.
“They’re going to come at you, you know, Ana,” said Uhad.
“I beg your pardon?” she said.
“I’ve worked as Iudex investigator here for too long to think otherwise. The Hazas will find a way to attack you. You might think this is their key play—coming in and announcing this hidden murder, starting off this bit from the negotiator’s chair—but they will have other designs, surely.”
“Do you really need to tell me, Uhad,” said Ana, “of all people, that the Hazas are prone to schemes and plots?”
“A fair point. Now. Do you want the…how did you put it for young Kol here…the full vomit? I did not anchor the experience with an aroma, so what I offer may seem disjointed.”
“Whatever you give us would be lovely.”
“Fine.”
He sniffed. Sat up. Then his face trembled, and he began talking.