Page 58 of A Trade of Blood

Thinking, I turned to Seriv. “Jalin Burav,” I said to him. “Where did he reside? Do we know?”

“As the eldest son,” said Seriv uncertainly, “he lived in his own quarters on the estate. Why, sir?”

But Commander Tauri realized and nodded. “Jalin Burav did not obey the commands and perish,” he said to me, “because he didn’t have the web in him—because he didn’t drink enough from themain Burav well.”

“That’s my guess, sir,” I said. “Though I’m unsure if he was uninfected or simply unconditioned. We’ll have to send tests to the medikkers as they treat him. What shall we do with the others?”

“We’ll have to quarantine these infected folk. We shall treat and care for them, but we can’t let them circulate until we have a method of eliminating the fungus. It’ll create quite a stir, I’m sure. Peoplehere in the third ring aren’t accustomed to such treatment—and the presence of wealth has a way of convincing people they are immune to all earthly ailments. But we must keep this damn infestation from spreading!”

“It may be too late for that,” I said. “We suspect this is far from the only water source the killer’s infected.”

“And you’ve no sign of who the killer is yet?” said Tauri.

Seriv laughed unhappily. “We have lost all clues, signs, and witnesses, sir. It’ll take ages to account for how the fire even started.”

“It’s only by chance that we know it was the web at all, sir,” I said. “Without that one surviving witness who saw its effects, we’d have no confirmation. But we know these people were victims, just like Zansay and Castus. Yet did the killer start the blaze? Or someone conditioned to do it? We can’t say.”

Tauri was studying the mansion carefully. “You think if we understand the fire,” he said softly, “then we may be able to catch this killer of yours, and end this threat?”

“That is my hope, sir, though faint it may be.”

He kept staring at the blackened walls with his dark, sad eyes—yet now I noticed they were trembling slightly: the familiar signal when an Imperial Sublime was using their augmentations.

“I may be able to assist here,” Tauri said. “I and my people are spatiasts. Many of us came from the Engineering order. We have a…a facility with structure. And we know the tastes of many ashes and can identify their origins. That may be of aid here, too.”

Seriv pulled a face. “Taste?”

“If you wish to understand what happened here,” said Tauri tersely, “we shall have to.”

“How long will it take?” I asked.

“First you ask me to autopsy a girl, now you ask me to autopsy a burned building! These aren’t common tasks to the Imperial Orbiis, Signum. Our domain is usually blights of leaf or spoiled reagents. But I shall put myself to it personally. Yet before you go…” He pulled out a wheel of green parchment, tore off two strips, and handed one each to me and Seriv. “Best test yourselves, chaps.”

I stared at the little green parchment. The idea that I myself might be infected hadn’t occurred to me yet. For one, the events of the past few days had been so chaotic that I hadn’t had any mind for the thought; but for another, the alterations and immunities granted to me to serve in the wild Outer Rim of the Empire usually neutered nearly all environmental threats. I’d gone some years without worrying about any infection, from a cut on my hand to worms devouring my heart. Yet, as Ana had said, this fungus was different.

Seriv didn’t hesitate: he greedily snatched the paper, licked it once, and then squinted at it, his bushy eyebrows trembling. Then he sighed with relief. “It stays green! Praise Sanctum!”

I did the same, though my mouth felt thick and hot as I licked it. Mine, too, remained a soft green hue. “As is mine.”

“Fornow,chaps,” corrected Tauri. “It takes many sips of infected water, and days for the fungus to mature in you! We shall have to keep testing you—and everyone else.”

—

I returned tothe garden and found Ana still hunched among the flowers. She had somehow painted the digits of her fingers with pollen and then had, through means I could not possibly imagine, enticed several butterflies and bees to idly prowl over her fingertips, gobbling it up. She sat there as I approached, blindfolded and indifferent to the small herd of colorful insects cheerfully flitting about her extended hand. She waved them away as she turned to me and calmly said, “Vomit all out for me, boy. You’ve been gone a decent time.”

I did so yet again, sniffing my vial and regurgitating all my experiences.

“So it’s exactly what we expected,” she murmured when I finished. “It is the work of the web. Ironic! I first suspected Burav of being the architect of all this death. He fashioned the weapon, after all, and it had been employed against his greatest foes. Yet now his entire family is slain, save his son, who might still perish.Now,I’d normally be given to suspecthisenemies, the Armentas—except they’ve nearlybeen eliminated by the web, too! Or so we think! I can’t confirm, because people keep goddamn interrupting me with their dying!” She frowned. “Yet it vexes me, Din. I am irked, irritated. Riled to the core. Is this the work of the same person? Do they wish the end ofbothfamilies?”

“But to what end, ma’am?” I asked.

“I’ve no idea. But this is precisely what I feared! I think our killer grew worried when we did not swiftly condemn Castus. They felt driven to act. But imagine it! Imagine the care and dedication it took to manage this feat—to not only poison an entire household but to conditioneach person.This is not a project of days, or weeks, but months.” She rolled her head back and sniffed the stream of smoke above her. “And now we have this curious Tala burglar, skulking about the grounds and wandering on the lawns…Why was he there, I wonder? I rather doubt if he was our arsonist, after all.”

“You think he’s not connected, ma’am?”

“Connected, yes. Complicit, less likely. Remember, the Burav mansion was fireresistant.It would take an advanced compound to set it alight—and a lot of it, too. Being as the maid didn’t mention this bastard rolling a barrel along the path, I think we can count him out. But still, what was his business there? Unless…”

She went very still. Her eyebrows marched up her scalp. Then she sighed as if quite disappointed and stood. “Enough. While Tauri sieves through the ash, we must push the investigation forward through our own methods. Come. Let us see to young Jalin. I’ve questions for him. I pray the little fucker still has a tongue to answer!”