Page 68 of A Trade of Blood

The voices rose in the chamber beyond again, but they’d changed in tone. Then came Fotia’s voice bellowing: “What do you mean, you went ahead and walked over to their house?”

“Ah,” said Castus. “I suspect they’ve gotten to the part about Ippeas’s midnight adventures. Perhaps you’d better intervene?”

I affixed my cloak about my shoulders and wiped the sleep from my eyes. “I think you’re right.”

“Good.” He smiled weakly. “Try to protect the two of them, at least, yes? Keep that aloft, in memory of me.”

I paused and glanced at him. I knew that Seriv had been giving him the proper medications to withhold the fungus, so his infection shouldn’t have been lethal.

“You are not lost yet, sir,” I said.

He laughed miserably and said no more.

—

As I enteredthe processing chamber, it took no time at all to see that Fotia and Ippeas’s discussion had tipped over into a full-blown row. Fotia was practically climbing over the table at him, snarling, “Youtrustedthis goddamn mysterious note, Ip? You went trotting over to theBuravs’after this oh-so-strangely-perfect noteliterallydropped in your lap?”

“I was trying to help Castus!” Ippeas cried, hands raised. “I thought I could—”

“Could what? Let’s say this secret servant was true, and they gave you evidence to clear Castus. What then? You’d dance over to Din’s mad immunis, hoist it onto her, and you thought she’dbelieveyou? Even though you’d have every incentive to lie, and your story was…was perfectlyridiculous?”

“W-well,” said Ippeas, flustered. “Yes?”

Fotia turned to me. “Let us ask our criminal expert here! Din—wouldyoube inclined to believe such a tale?”

I cleared my throat. “Ippeas’s experience at the Buravs has actually been quite helpful tou—”

“Not what I asked! Again—wouldyou believe such a story?”

Ippeas studiously avoided my glance.

“I…would have thought it very suspicious, true,” I said, sighing.

“Suspicious!” she cried. “If not outright stupid! For now, Ip, you’ve no note, no evidence! Just clothes that reek of fire, and a lot of people claiming you were the one who set it!”

“I didn’t, though,” said Ippeas helpfully.

“Iknowyou didn’t, Ip!” Fotia bellowed. “Would I still be here if I thought you had?”

“Fo,” I said. “This is not helping.”

She then turned her wrath on me. “How do you know what’s helping and what isn’t? You only popped up a day ago! You don’t know a damn thing about us!”

There was an awkward silence. Fotia sank into the chair, sighing miserably, and her eyes suddenly shone with tears. “People say you’re a killer, Ip,” she said. “They say you went mad and burned down the whole house. They want to see you hanged! Your father is running about trying to reassure all your family allies of your innocence.”

“But Iaminnocent!” said Ippeas desperately. “I did no such thing!”

“Yes, but people are fools! They’re like our damned herds, they shall follow the back end of the fool in front of them if it appears to move with confidence! How will we get you out of this one? Along with the entire name of your family. For that’s being cursed, too.”

“I don’t care about their name,” said Ippeas to her. “I’ve been clear to you about that. Especially since I’ll get none of its benefit.”

“You’ve alreadygottenits protection, though, you dotard,” she said. “And now you’ll have none at all! Save what Din and Seriv can grant you out of charity.”

Another silence fell upon the room. Ippeas sat there, his face bleak, his hands on the table, his eyes staring into the wall. Fotia had her face turned away, perhaps out of anger, or perhaps to hide her tears—yet then, still without looking, she extended her left hand to him. He took it, and then they sat together hand in hand, suffocated by the misery of their circumstances.

“What can we do,” said Fotia, “to escape this?”

I stepped forward. “You know some of these murders,” I said. “But not all. If I tell you more, perhaps you can help me—and yourselves.”