Page 111 of A Trade of Blood

I filled him in on Ana’s response, though I skipped her more dreadful utterings.

He nodded grimly. “I worried that would be the case. We have caught up to Burilis Burav—save, of course, for where he originally found the web. It is the other killer who’s still ahead of us.” He sighed. “How miserable it is to do so much, and discover all, and yet have nowhere to go! Is this common to your line of work, Kol?”

I conceded that it was sometimesso.

“How dreadful. And if they never strike again?”

A strange look crept into his eyes: something between hunger and terror. It gave me pause, yet I also found it strangely compelling.

“Why, sir?”

“Well. What’s the procedure if they can’t be caught?”

“We’ll conduct inquiries until the Iudex is satisfied. At this point we’ll compile a report and issue it to the canton custodi.”

“So,” said Tauri softly. “You will be here for some time, then.”

“Yes, sir. I suppose so.”

He wiped at his eyes, which suddenly shone with tears. “The decontaminants. Damned things. Bother me for hours after.”

“Are you all right, sir?”

“Yes. No. I am unsure. I suppose nothing will change, then. I will keep surveying these lands. I will keep recording all the flux and shift of all the rot and death from this industry. And some other familyshall take up the cause.”

“You wanted it to change.”

“Doesn’t everyone wish for change? But that’s the nature of the Empire, isn’t it. It’s so big and has so much momentum. Very difficult for it to shift. I would have thought dozens of deaths would do so. But perhaps not.” He began the laborious process of tying his hair back in a sloppy bun. He gazed at me, his eyes still bright with tears—yet I glimpsed a new, strange desperation in them now. “Do you know what, Kol? I feel that I deserve a soaking.”

“Pardon?”

“A bath, I mean. Something to get all those damned reagents off me. They have a good bathhouse here, of course, for the drovers.”

I met his eyes.

“That’s good to know, sir,” I said.

“If ever I am owed a bath, it is today. Perhaps I shall see you there—should nothing intervene. Yes?”

I watched him go, thinking, my pulse suddenly hot in my ears. Why, I wondered, did such a beautiful thing have to suffer so?

Ana had told me, very explicitly, not to do this. Much too important, and much too smart.

I swallowed, turned, and walked away.

—

I sought mysister at the canton jailhouse, but Seriv confessed she hadn’t been by. “Said she was chasing some Burav drover,” he told me. “Believed he lived south of here now. She had a great fire in her to do so. But she’s not been back yet.”

“I see,” I said.

“What happened today, sir? Did you find anything in the wood? Anything that could give some succor to young Ippeas, specifically? He’s in a low state, I find.”

The sight of Jalin Burav sitting slumped and bleeding on the fountain wall flashed in my mind.

“No,” I said quietly. “Nothing that could help him. And it seemswe found nothing of use, Seriv.”

“A tough toss, sir. What will you do now?”