Page 154 of A Drop of Corruption

I visited the medikker’s bayeach morning tocheck on Ana. Each day, the medikkers told me she slept. Each day, I collected her post, and compiled it in her quarters. And each day, I began the long chain of answering endless questions: questions asked of me from high Apoth officers, and Treasury officers, and then—inevitably—a commander from the Legion.

They asked me again and again to recount all I’d experienced here in Yarrowdale: all the people I’d interviewed, every scrap of evidence, and every drop of blood I’d seen spilled. All seemed frustrated and furious by what I’d found; though, to my relief, none had much criticism for me, or Ana.

Though I myself did not venture west, I came to gather that the entire realm of Yarrow had splintered and dissolved after Pyktis’s death, with some heirs claiming the throne, and others fleeing the realm outright. I did not know what Pavitar attempted, but the stream ofnaukariflooding into Yarrowdale suggested he was not successful.

One afternoon I happened upon Prificto Kardas, sitting slumped in a sotbar, deep into his third pot. “We’ve no idea what to do with them all!” he sighed to me. “Perhaps not a full adoption of this nation, then, but a mass migration, with many wardens shepherding them out from their estates! It seems hardly better. The barges of the Apoths may soon be carrying families, as opposed to reagents.” He tossed back another sip of sot. “But I shall not touch it, no! That haslittle to do with the coin of the Empire. I shall not dip my toe back into these beshatted waters!”

I sought Malo in the city but could not find her. I guessed she had to be one of the shepherds Kardas had mentioned, leading thenaukarito freedom in the night as the realm crumbled. I invoked the blessing of Zynjir, deity of the free, and wished her well.

On the fourth day of Ana’s long sleep, I fetched her post and found one parchment for me. I squinted at it and saw to my horror that it was from the Usini Lending Group. Yet when I opened it, the notice did not concern my loans but rather read:NOTICE OF TEMPORARY SUSPENSION OF THE USINI LENDING GROUP DUE TO ONGOING IUDEX INVESTIGATION.

I read the letter carefully and felt an audacious hope flutter within me. It seemed that there had been accusations of corruption within the Usini Lending Group, and after an investigation had been announced, much of the company had collapsed, as the value of their debts had suddenly become very uncertain.

I looked back at the medikker’s bay and recalled my discussion with Ana:Even you cannot change my debts, ma’am.

To which she’d responded:How certain you seem!

I folded the parchment and put it in my pocket, thinking. It was her work behind this, surely, but why had she arranged this? Why impart to me her deadly secret, and then make it simpler and more enticing for me to leave her?

The answer was obvious, once I thought about it.

“Am I so simple to read?” I asked softly.

—

On the morningof the sixth day I found Malo waiting for me before the medikker’s bays, idly watching as one of the attendants swept the front porch. She looked thin and exhausted, and bore many scratches—perhaps injuries from delving deep into the woods of the Elder West—but there was an air of quiet triumph about her.

“I was told that the crazy Iudex woman was here,” Malo said, and then asked, “Is she well? Or have they shipped us a second one for our sins?”

“She has slept for a great while but is to wake today, I’ve been told.” I smiled at her. “But tell me, Malo…how many did you save?”

An innocent shrug. “I don’t know what you mean! I have been on leave and have not meddled in the affairs of the Elder West, which I have been strictly forbidden from doing. This order,” she said somberly, “I have carefully obeyed.” Then she grinned, popped a chunk of hina root into her mouth, and spat on the floor of the porch.

The attendant paused in her sweeping and looked up. “Please don’t do that.”

Malo narrowed her eyes at her. The woman scoffed, quietly shook her head, and continued sweeping.

I smiled wider. “And they have confirmed you’vestayedhere, on leave? You, who are so talented at disappearing?”

“They have had their eyes elsewhere, let us say. Who can say what they know? Nobody knows anything here, anymore.”

“But now your leave is over, yes? What shall you do?”

Her glow of triumph faded. “That is a good question, for it is another thing nobody knows. Thenaukariare flooding into the Empire, either by official means or otherwise. We wardens are kept here to keep the peace, but we know we cannot stay. Some seek another role in the Empire. But even if they take me, I am unsure what awaits me within the rings. I do not have a medikker’s eyes or nose, nor that of a reagent-brewer, an ascolytic. And I am most uncouth, I think, for even the Outer Rim and the third ring.”

“Having been to those places, I’m not so sure,” I said. “But things are changing, surely, and shall change yet more. They still plan to move the marrow by sea, true?”

“Yes, and sooner than you think!” Again, she spat a gob of black spittle onto the porch.

“Pleasedo not do that!” cried the attendant.

“Shut up!” snapped Malo.

The attendant, scandalized, shook her head, huffed, and continued sweeping.

Malo turned back to me. “That was what I came to tell you. The hydricyst is scheduled to sail into the baytoday.It shall be quite a sight! The fucking thing is practically the size of an island, they say! Will you watch it arrive with me?”

“That may offer little fun, since with your eyes, you’ll see it well before I do. But—certainly. Let me check on Ana first.”