Page 107 of A Drop of Corruption

We pulled the bookcase away and found a loose stone in the base of the floor just behind it; then, below that, a small parchment package tied up with twine. Malo’s knife was out in a flash, and she plucked out the package and slit it open, sending dozens of small gold coins spilling upon the floor.

“Perhaps it is,” I said. “An amateurish choice, really.”

Malo sighed. “She was no hard thing,” she said. “Perhaps we should not be so surprised.”

I quickly counted up the coins. “This comes to…three hundred talints? She betrayed the Empire and risked the noose for the price of a fine horse, and no more?”

Malo picked up a coin and eyed it. “That, or your immunis was right—once she’d made one deal, they had enough to blackmail her into more service. Which makes sense. They often favor threats above gifts.”

“They? Criminals, you mean?”

“No.” She handed the coin back to me. “Kings, and those who rule with them. But perhaps there is little difference between the natures of such men and criminals.”

We continued our search but found nothing to indicate who Pyktis’s agent at the High Court might be, nor where Pyktis himself was now, nor where the six crates of reagents might be stored. Perhaps it was the fatigue, but my heart grew heavier the more we searched, still finding nothing.

Finally an Apoth militis came to us with a message that Prificto Kardas was now awake, and he, Thelenai, and Ana awaited us in the medikker’s ward. Malo and I trooped back downstairs, both of us yawning and desperately tired, and wound our way back through the muddy streets of Yarrowdale.

—

When we arrivedat Kardas’s chambers we found that the prificto was, thankfully, no longer in the milky tides of a healing bath but was instead lying in his medikker’s cradle, chatting amiably with Ana, who sat beside him. Thelenai stood behind her own chair, apparently too anxious to sit. With her queenly bearing and long, red robes, she had in this place the look of a priestess of a flagellamer’s shrine, waiting to take confession before the penitent submitted to their pains.

Kardas looked up when we entered—his face still bore a few broken blood vessels, but other than that he seemed quite recovered—and, smiling, said, “Ah! Here are the brave signums! I suppose I owe you my life for rescuing me from the debacle in the High City, true?”

I looked to Ana, surprised by his good spirits. “He doesn’t know?”

“He does not,” said Ana. “I wished to wait for you.”

“Know?” said Kardas, puzzled. “Know…what?”

“Apparently anything,” muttered Malo as she sat along the edge of the wall.

“I take it from the melancholy timbre of your voices, children,” said Ana, “that you’ve found nothing?”

“No, ma’am,” I said. “Nothing of use.”

“Hm. As expected.”

“What do you mean, found nothing?” said Kardas. “What are you talking about?”

Ana then gave him the full report of the night in the High City, including Gorthaus’s death, of which he’d heard no news. Kardas reacted so violently that I worried for his health: the man’s face went perilously white, and his entire body began to tremble. When Ana finally revealed Gorthaus’s full betrayal, I feared he might collapse again.

“By hell…” said Kardas weakly at the end of it. “Oh, by Sanctum, my signum didall that?”

“If it’s any consolation, sir, she’d begun this evil service well before you were assigned here,” said Ana. “But yes, it is so. I grieve for her death—chiefly, I admit, because I wished to get more answers from her. And now, as Din here says, she left none behind.”

“This is horrifying news,” said Thelenai softly. “Another attack, another loss. How now can we stop Pyktis?”

“We still have options,” said Ana. “Before we explore some of the most radical choices, I wish to ask something of you, Prificto. I am convinced there is an agent at the court who was aiding Pyktis in all his evil—either one we know, or one still unseen. Is there anyone or any strangeness you can recall in all your exchanges with the Yarrow court that might suggest who this traitor is?”

Kardas shook his head, his long mustaches swishing about. “No, no. I cannot think of any such thing. My emitias abilities read much,but in such heightened, difficult circumstances, where many are filled with anger and distrust, it is a hard thing to spy any one moment worthy of suspicion.”

“And there is no person who spent anunusualamount of time with Gorthaus?”

“Not that I saw. Pavitar was ever present, for he distrusted all we did, and forced his way in to all our meetings. Darhi, of course, managed most of those same meetings for us. The king and his people and the prince were often about. But none of them stand out to me as a conspirator who could be aiding this creature.”

“Mm,” said Ana softly. “And you cannot conceive of how Pyktis was able to move about the court unseen, unnoticed, and kill not only Gorthaus but also the king, and nearly yourself?”

“That horrifies me most of all, for I cannot imagine how it was done.”