Page 34 of A Trade of Blood

“Yes,” said Fotia quietly. “Like a person worn so thin you could see right through him.”

I frowned as I pondered this. There seemed to be no commonality between them all: for the first death, it had been a suicide with no melancholy; the second, a melancholic suicide; and the third, a similar melancholy, but an accidental death.

Perhaps Ana was right: this could be the work of the web, for only it could explain why so many different deaths had come to find such different people so rapidly. I reckoned it would be an easy thing to condition a person to simply walk forward into a pond, and it would be even easier to condition any action that would get someone killed while riding a destrier.

The second, though: how would someone condition a girl into hanging herself? The act of making the knot, looping the rope just so, setting up a chair to be kicked out from beneath you was no simple thing. And, after all, a person could only do this act once. How could they condition her to performit?

“You see?” murmured Fotia to Ippeas. “There it is. He believes us. He knows Castus is innocent.”

I glared at her. “I’ll need more than this.”

“Then what will you need?” asked Fotia.

“I need to hear from Velona Armenta herself.”

Ippeas pulled a face like he’d just bitten into a turned scallop. “Ohh…I wish you’d not ask that of me. Madam Velona is…not well.”

“What isnot well?” I asked.

He grumbled for a moment. “Velona is…struggling with the loss of her children.”

“That’s understandable. But I sense there’s more.”

Ippeas glanced at Fotia. “This isn’t something we discuss much outside Aimafall. In fact, it’s somewhat forbidden for us to speak of outside the family seat.”

“By who?”

He pulled another face.

“Your father?” I suggested.

“Yes. He is seneschal. He protects the interests of our house, so…” He sighed. “Madam Velona thinks very hard about inheritance these days. She isconvincedthat some…some force in the world, perhaps the ancient Daljeni spirits themselves, are plaguing her for some past misdeed.”

“And her lack of wellness has something to do with…warding against these spirits?” I asked, still puzzled.

Ippeas glowered into the table and said nothing. Finally, Fotia said, “No. Madam Velona is attempting to produce more heirs to her line.”

I stared at them. There was a very long silence.

“F…fertility treatments?” I ventured.

“Yes,” said Ippeas reluctantly.

“I…see,” I said. “And—how old is Madam Velona?”

“A little over sixty,” said Fotia.

“And the treatments areverydifficult,” said Ippeas. “Very bad for her body, mind, and spirit. Yet she persists.”

I considered that, slightly aghast. Despite all the arts of the Apoths when it came to stem and leaf and shaping flesh, managing fertility and reproduction was devilishly difficult. It was one thing to change a being’s nature, but manipulating the miracle of gestatingnewlife was simply too sensitive, too unpredictable—and too damaging to both mother and child. Only the very, very wealthy could afford it, and it still only offered dismal success rates, and a high chance of pain, afflictions, and death.

Ippeas raised a hand. “I don’t wish to speak on this anymore. I know little of my aunt’s state now. I am…not as favored by her as others.” A shadow flitted over his face at that. I made note of it. “But Fotia is. If you truly think speaking to her would help, she might be able to assist.”

“Icould,yes,” said Fotia grimly. “I’d tell her my own brother is investigating her son’s case. That may make her willing to speak to you.Ifyou think such a thing could aid Castus, of course.”

How strange it was, to hear that my sister was so esteemed in so powerful a house. “I do think so. If you can do that, I would be grateful, sister.”

“I can guarantee nothing,” she said. “She’s got a fondness for me, but that’s not the same as influence. I’m but a drover still.”