Page 95 of A Trade of Blood

“We’ve news,” he sighed. “But not good news. Two guesses where Jalin has gone!”

Ana responded immediately: “The forest.”

“Right in one. Jalin fled directly to where one of the many seams within the trees offers entry. How he managed it, I can’t comprehend—the boy was in terrible pain, and he would have needed Orbiis thuribles and reagents to part the seam. If he truly is our killer, I suppose he must have hidden another stockpile away somewhere, much as he had in the path beside the shrine. We’re preparing the resources necessary to follow. But as I warned you, we’ll have no way to track him once we’re in those trees. The forest drowns out any scent we could follow. The search will be blind—and thus, long and arduous.”

Ana went very still at that. She was silent for so long that Tauri and the other Orbiis began to glance among themselves.

“Ahh,” said Tauri, “I do have one piece of news from the Armenta lands…”

“Yes?” said Ana curtly.

“My people have finished their work testing the waters and the folk there. All the wells of the estate are now confirmed to be clean of fungus,” said Tauri. “And all the staff and servants are cleared as well. The family, however…”

“Which ones?”

“Velona and Trikao Armenta. Both are infected. Neither claims tohave experienced the dreams, however—so there is a reasonable chance they’ve not yet been conditioned.”

The expression on Ana’s face now grew so furious I wondered if she intended to burn a hole in the vault door just by looking at it. “Then that means Velona, Trikao, and Ippeas Armenta are all infected,” she hissed softly. “Yet somehow Din’s sister Fotia isnot? Nor areanyof their servants?”

“So it seems,” said Tauri. “I’ve taken the safety measure ofalsotesting all of Seriv’s custodi. Thus far, all the peacekeepers appear uninfected! My folk then moved on and began to test the wells of Lacanthim. Carefully, of course, as we can’t afford a panic! We’ve focused on all wells near any major water sources, to ensure that wherever it is, it can’t infect the rivers. So far, they’ve found nothing. Yet Lacanthim has many wells, and many more remain. How these folk are being poisoned so selectively is beyond me, I must admit.”

“What amessthis is,” Ana hissed. “I will find these squirrelly bastards and see them rotting in the ground! AndstillI cannot see the goal of it, beyond the annihilation of these two families!” She let out a tiny sigh. “Let us see if there is a clue within. Lead me to the door, Din.”

I helped her totter toward the vault door, and she began inspecting it with her long, pale fingers, tapping at the boundaries of its plating, gently caressing each rivet and bolt with her index.

“I can’t recall the exact number of potential permutations you mentioned, Immunis,” said Tauri. “But I believe it was on the biggish end…”

“810,000,” said Ana.

“Yes,” said Tauri. “So. Very much biggish. How did you come upon this combination that you believe is correct? Is it some wordplay, a clever riposte to the claim thatbrilliance is forever fecund?”

“No,” said Ana. “The answer is actually very stupid. That is because most riddles are very stupid. It is damned impossible to predict all the ways people will miscommunicate their intents when giving you clues. Yet I spy Burilis’s intent now—as well as his intent tomisdirectus.” She touched one of the tumblers. “Having been giventhis prompting, the mind would ordinarily leap to a word, or a number. Is he referencing the name of a family member? An acronym? The date of his mother’s birth, or death? An endless number of solutions present themselves.”

“Yes,” said Tauri. “And?”

“And the only solution is to disregard this impulse!” said Ana. “Because the solution isn’t a word at all. Nor is it a number. It is asymbol.One we’ve all seen—but one we wouldnotexpect from Burilis Burav.”

She swiftly turned the tumblers about in their sockets, clicking and clattering. As she did so, she quoted aloud: “…and he came upon the Vashem folk, who lived in the country of Alimar at this time. They had forgotten his edicts, and his decrees and proscriptions, and they lived wildly and wickedly, taking of his fruits and soiling his orchards. ‘We have made ourselves sacrosanct and inviolate,’ they said to him. ‘For we have swallowed your nectars and tasted of your drupe. Our ears are deaf to your words now.’ He wept to see their baseness, and he opened his mouth and sang to them from his deepest depths. All were overcome with his song, and a new fate was woven about their eyes. In this they found their penitence.”

Then she stopped and stepped back.

On the left point of the diamond, she had selected anO.The same on the right. But on the remaining two tumblers—the top and bottom points of the diamond—she had turned them both to1s.

Yet I recalled: the1s on these tumblers were different, she’d said. They did not look like the common digit1. They were completely unadorned and resembled a simple stroke:|.

I realized instantly what she had made: the two spheres, separated by a vertical line—though in this case, the line was split in two.

My memories shook within me, and my eyes quaked and I found myself echoing Velona Armenta’s words: “It is the sign of Master Gaddar! The tree bearing fruit, for he was lord of all orchards!”

“Correct, Din,” said Ana. “The very same. It occurred to me as I read those dreadful religious tomes just this morning, full of the Daljen punishing the wickedness of man. Master Gaddar is quite heralded and admired in those ancient tales…” She caressed thesteel face of the door. “It’s very unusual, isn’t it? Why would Burav, who did not keep to that pantheon, pick such a thing? But it is not thefirsttime we’ve seen a Burav reference the symbol, true? You, Din, found a drawing of Jalin Burav’s that had been set aside in his cottage. It bore this same symbol in the corner. Yet why would Jalin also show a predilection for this symbol? Unless, of course, he knew it held a special meaning in his household, and it weighed heavily upon his thoughts…”

She grasped the handle and twisted it. With a loudclunk,it turned.

“…and that is why I know Jalin Burav is one of our killers,” she continued. “He came to this place once. He opened the vault and found something. Something that led him to the forest, and a great secret—one that enabled him to kill without blade or blood.” She stepped back. “I shall permit you two to do the honors…”

I looked to Tauri, who nodded, shaken. I took the handle of the vault, and with a great heave, I pulled the door open and peered inside.

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