Page 75 of A Drop of Corruption

At that, Ana gave a great, exasperated sigh and said, “Including this Pyktis, then?”

Thelenai’s green eyes glimmered like she was close to tears. Then she whispered, “We are a different character of Apoths here. Higher, stronger, nobler. They had to pass many tests. And…and they only participated if they wished to. We did not force anyone’s consent. They could have stopped any time.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sakes,” snarled Ana. “Forfuck’ssakes! You have damned us all with your high-minded hypocrisy, woman! Do you comprehend that?”

“Wh-what?” I said, startled. “What do you mean?”

“Is it not obvious, Din?” Ana snapped. “Thelenai has been operating her own little trial run of an enormously advanced, unapproved graft that augments axioms until they can predict almost anything.That’sthe secret they’ve been hiding from us! She’s done a very good job of keeping it off the books—until now, because one of her altered axioms has apparently gone stark raving mad! And now we have a preposterously brilliant madman skulking about the jungle—and he is using those powers of prediction for slaughter and sabotage. That is how he’s done all this—andthatis why we cannot catch him!” She sat back, furious and fuming. “Well.Well!This is going to be a fucking tricky one, and no mistake!”

Chapter 29

“Tell me about this Sunus Pyktis,”demanded Ana. “Hold nothing back! The more I know, the faster we can respond.”

“I can tell you little!” sighed Thelenai. “He was one augur of many. The only significant thing about him to me was his death—for he died in a disaster on the Shroud, or so we thought.”

“A mishandling of the blood,” said Ghrelin quietly. “Two other augurs died as well. Such were the…the warpings that no bodies could be recovered.”

“I assume neither of you witnessed this disaster,” said Ana acidly, “otherwise you’d both be dead, too?”

“True enough,” murmured Thelenai.

Ana crossed her arms. “Hmph! I want all records of this Sunus, and all records of this disaster.Nothingomitted, either! There is a time for secrecy, and it is not now.”

“I shall make it so,” said Thelenai. “You will have them in hours.”

“Good,” said Ana. “But is thereanythingof use you can give me now? What are these augurs like? What do they desire? This man is an utter mystery to us. Surely you can help describe their nature!”

“What you ask is difficult to provide,” said Thelenai, cringing.

“Damn it,why?” demanded Ana.

Ghrelin swallowed and said, “Augurs cannot converse like normal people. It is terribly difficult to know any one of them intimately when they are elevated to such a state.”

Malo squinted at him. “Eh? What do you mean, they did notconverselike normal people?”

I glanced at Ana, who was by now practically vibrating with impatience. “Or did they not talk at all?” I asked. “Did theytapinstead?”

Ghrelin’s eyes widened in surprise. Then he nodded. “Y-yes. You already know, then. Of course you do…”

“Yes!” snapped Ana. “Of course!”

Malo looked around at us, bewildered. “What is this? What the hell do you mean, they tap?”

Ana extended a hand to the two Apoths—Go ahead.

Ghrelin swallowed again. “The…the augury affects the mind so greatly that normal conversation is exceedingly difficult, especially when conveying large amounts of information. The augurs read things into the slightest inflection, or word choice, or hesitation. So, on the Shroud…they do not speak aloud, but rathertapto communicate, in a very old code. This method is much less affected by nuance.”

“I go to the Shroud very rarely,” said Thelenai quietly. “But when I would visit the augurs, they…they’d sit in a circle, their fingers drumming on little boards about their necks. It would seem to make no sense at all, just noise and tapping, but then…they would take their ashpens, and all together, they would draw up diagrams and figures and calculations so brilliant and so accurate, they would take your breath away.”

“And that is who this Pyktis was,” said Ana. “One of these silent, dreamy drummers.”

Thelenai nodded. “Yes.”

“How long do the effects of this augury last?”

“A decent dose can elevate them for up to three to four months,” said Ghrelin. “We cycle the doses up and down throughout the year, to avoid excessive cerebral damage.”

“But being as Pyktis has been missing for two years,” said Ana sourly, “I’m guessing you have discovered some dosesmissingin the time since?”