Page 42 of A Trade of Blood

“But why would the great ancestors wish to take your children, madam?” asked Ana. “What could you have done to earn their ire?”

“I don’t know!” cried Velona. “This question afflicts me greatly. But Iknowmy sorrows are not natural! I know it—because of how it started with Lyimo.”

“Tell me, madam,” said Ana softly. “Please.”

Velona gazed at Ana as if reassessing her. I saw in an instant what she might perceive in my immunis: Ana looked very much like a witch in nearly any light, but especially in this dim, dismal place. Someonegiven to superstition might imagine unnatural wisdom in her pale figure.

“My beautiful boy, my eldest,” Velona began. “He was confident, assured. Not atalla creature of sorrow, nor given to tragedy or despair. All admired him! All looked forward to the day when he would inherit our spreads! He had turned his thoughts toward marriage, and many families of great worth had begun sending him entreaties for attention, and gifts. At first Lyimo delighted in this—yet then he grew distracted. It was as if he’d forgotten about marriage at all. Instead, he began…slipping away at night.”

“Slipping away?” asked Ana. “To where?”

“To the forest,” whispered Velona. “He would walk across our fields, until he came to the border of the forest. And there he would stand stock-still, like a statue, gazing in! Something hadseducedhim there. Called him.Sangto him, perhaps! And then they found him in the pond—yet where was this pond, of all places?”

“Near the forest,” murmured Ana, playing along. “Of course…”

“And what is in the forest?” said Velona, giddy to find a fellow conspirator. “The resting place of the ancients! There are countless shrines and statues within those trees, many that we cannot access! And there, at the center, their tomb, forbidden to all. It couldonlyhave been the work of the Daljen! Their song, from the deeps of the earth. I…I do not know what I have done to earn their wrath. Is it our wealth? Is fortune always to be followed by her trail of dead?” She shut her eyes. “How I dream of the feel of my children, the sight of them, the smell of them. Of…of beingoutof this tomb of a bedchamber. I dream of riding with them, of the great sky, of the chambers kept for us at the Prancing Calf in the city. How wondrous were our festivities at that fine place. So many toasts, and much boasting and tales and song.” She opened her eyes and demanded, “Where are you staying? Are you put anywhere decent?”

“We lodge at the Green Drover, ma’am.”

“Hm. A middling place. We often send our merchants there. It may be suitable for you. The Drover is for work, the Calf for play. My Lyimo knew that well.”

I recalled what Seriv had said of the Prancing Calf:they offer…differententertainments. And I don’t much enjoy the idea of one such entertainer wandering into your immunis’s rooms.When I took that into account—along with Lyimo’s rather smug grin on the painting outside—his fondness for the Prancing Calf made a terrific sense.

“We preserved Lyimo’s body and quickly sealed him,” continued Velona, “as is the custom of our folk. All know there shall come a day when the Empire’s arts catch up to our forebears, and we are again capable of suffusing life back into the dead. But then came Sagma and Gevma. And that is when I knew my persecution was divine in origin! For though my second son and daughter perished in very different manners soon after, they both experiencedhorrific dreamsin the weeks before they died!”

My eyes fluttered, and I recalled what Ippeas had told me of Gevma:he was deeply disturbed and saddened the weeks before. I know he was not sleeping. He tottered about the halls of Aimafall as if a ghost.

“Dreams,” said Ana softly. “What kind of dreams, madam?”

“Dreams of being lost in this house! Of being frozen in their chambers! Sagma dreamed of being unable to leave her room, unable to make anyone hear her, and was forced to dress herself before her mirror over and over again! And when she died, she was dressed as if she had just arrayed herself for the day, her dress and ribbons all done—as if she wished towake upfrom this never-ending nightmare.”

“I see,” said Ana softly. “And Gevma?”

“He dreamed of the same. Of being trapped in his chambers. Of standing in his room, unable to move. As if frozen in place!” She leaned forward. “Do you see my worry? Our souls may be sealed here! We may be damned to dwell within these walls, forever!”

“That makes a strange sense…” said Ana very seriously. “But did Lyimo complain of any dreams?”

“Lyimo? No. No, his acquaintances did not say so.”

“I see. And…you mentioned he was planning marriage, and many families were sending him gifts. What manner of gifts, might I ask?”

“Oh, many things. Treasures. Gold, and gems. Cakes. Chocolates from the far north. I recall he was enormously pleased after being sent a crate of prized sotwine…A Choros Ayak vintage, I believe.”

My heart flickered at that. A pot of wine that had been sent to Lyimo—claiming to be from a family abroad, perhaps—would have been a simple method of poisoning him. Yet how the other two might have been infected, let alone conditioned, I had no idea.

Velona mistook my consternation for confusion. “It’s a very famous winery. Always put a little stamp of a flower on the cork. Some high houses fashion displays of them, showing how many pots have been drunk at their tables. But we, of course, are not so vulgar.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” said Ana. “Do you recall which families might have sent these?”

“I do not. We disposed of it all some time ago. It had all rotted or turned to vinegar.”

“I see,” said Ana. “Lastly—do you see the hand of the Buravs in any of this? For many folk in the town say they are your enemy.

“Burav?” spat Velona. “Burilis Burav? No, by hell, no! The man is a schemer, a, a spider, true—but he cannot shape the fates of folk like this! These arts are beyond him. I am sure of it!” She sank back, defeated. “I…I can only see the hand of the divine in this. For do you not see the hell that has been made for me?” She gestured at her body. “It makes a terrible sense…”

“Yes,” said Ana softly. “Yes, I think so. You, who engineered so many great bloodlines…”

“I must now do the same to myself,” said Velona. “I must doctor my body just as I did my beauties. What a thing it is, to work with flesh! I once thought my mastery of the womb a wonder. Now, as my own arts are performed upon me, I feel it is a horror.” She shut her eyes, shuddered, and wearily said, “I…I am finished. There are no more words within me. Perhaps you can find some grain of truth in my sorrows to end the plight of my kin. For now, I am tired. I will indulge in what few delights I have.”