Chapter 26
It was a tense ride back to Lacanthim. I left four custodi officers stationed outside the vault with strict orders not to let anyone approach—after Jalin’s escape, I was not about to let another slipup occur—but Tauri had insisted we return early.
“If you are to go with us after Jalin, Kol,” he said, “you’ll need your rest. Stimulatives and mood grafts are unwise in such a place. ”
“Why?” I asked warily. “Do they not work?”
“Oh, somewhat. But with all the trees shivering about you, and the statues emerging from the leaves—well, I frankly find myself feeling stark fucking mad even without a drop of anything touching my tongue.”
I considered that. “Is it dangerous in the wood?”
“It shouldn’t be. The main threat is the wood itself.
It is rare, but there have been occasions when Orbiis officers have wandered off the seams and never returned.
Yet no fear! I shall keep a firm hand on you.
” He smiled weakly as we pulled up to our tavern.
Then a look of anxiety stole over him. “I think I…spoke out of turn today, Kol.”
“Pardon, sir?”
“About the gentry, and the cattle here. I suppose I sounded as mad to you as Jalin did to his family. I should apologize.”
I thought about it. “No, sir,” I said.
“No?”
“You did not sound mad. I am much used to the weariness that our labors can put upon us. It can…curdle the spirit, in a way.”
He nodded, his eyes filled with sorrow. Then he turned to the window and murmured, “What cure is there, I wonder?”
I studied his veil of blond hair. The way he leaned his head against the carriage door, his sad eyes fixed on the misty lanes. The smell of apricots, and spice, and rich earth that always clung so close to him.
Why now? Why have this now?
“I suppose,” I said slowly, “the only cure to such weariness is to keep your own space within the Empire. A place where something decent can grow.”
“A little courtyard garden, perhaps,” he mused. “Wise words! But I confess, it’s been a rather long while since I’ve seen anything flower in my garden, Kol. This place is barren. You have seen what’s out there.”
“Perhaps you should look harder, then, sir.”
He met my eye. “Really? Perhaps I shall.”
The carriage came to a stop, and we climbed out. The night air was close and thick, heavy with mist and the scent of churned mud. Somewhere in Lacanthim I could hear drovers singing; it had a merry step to it.
“Strange to hear such merriment,” I said softly, “and knowing what is out there.”
“It’s my business to know many awful things that eat away at this earth of ours,” said Tauri, “so that is a familiar feeling. Easier to wish for ignorance than to burden yourself with the rot in all our hearts.” He gave me a sad smile.
“I shall return to the Orbiis offices and rest there, and find you in the morning, Signum Kol. Good evening.”
I watched him go, his gait dreamy and sad, his hair a bright, shimmering veil in the night. I caught a whiff of his scent, apricots and spice, and felt my pulse hot in my ears.
Then a voice from across the street: “Din! Din!”
I turned, flustered, and saw Fotia waving to me. She crossed the lane, her face pinkened and breathing hard. “By hell, I’ve looked all over for you! Where have you been? The proprietor at the Green Drover said he wasn’t even sure you stayed there anymore, you kept such odd hours!”
“Oh, that I feel,” I said, yawning tremendously. “What are you doing in town, Fo? I thought you’d be staying at Aimafall.”
“There? Absolutely not. Not after all the talk of murder and conspiracy and spirits! And worse, Madam Velona is in a…an awful mood. She’s taken to her quarters and refuses to even come out.”
“Castus?”
She nodded grimly. “I can’t imagine her grief. It must be crushing. I’ve talked to the custodi, and they say they’ll let me stay in the cells, with Ip. Keep him company. I’m there half the time anyway. But I did wish to update you—your advice to ask about the rope was a clever thing!”
“Was it?” I asked quickly. “Why?”
“Well, all the servants knew nothing, as they’ve changed over so much in the years since. But the drovers…they knew much. And they chatter. Especially to me.”
Despite everything, I scowled at that. My sister was a terribly beautiful girl by any measure, and I did not love hearing of any flirtatious favors from the cowhands.
“You won’t resent it when I tell you what they said!” Fotia said. “They told me that the rope that hanged Sagma was lost. Apparently it was ripped down immediately and disposed of—perhaps by the one who found her.”
“Really? Who was it?”
“Another drover, a young man named Arthinio. He was a stableboy back then but quit after finding Sagma’s body. He went to work for the Buravs, I’m told. They said he feared for his life—but they didn’t know why.”
“You think he found something. Saw something, when he came across Sagma hanging.”
“And what he saw terrified him. I’m looking for him now in the city. I’m sure I’ll find him—I just hope he’s willing to speak to someone so close to the Armentas.”
“Perhaps you shouldn’t,” I said. “Maybe wait and take the custodi with you.”
She stuck her nose up at that. “I can handle a few mutinous cowhands! I’ve done it since the day I first came here. Besides, I note you didn’t offer to come instead.”
“I didn’t,” I said slowly, “because I have a…task tomorrow.” I paused to collect my thoughts. “Let’s walk a moment. I’ve much to tell you.”
—
The muddy lanes of Lacanthim turned to shimmering rivers as the mai-lamps began to glow.
Cowhands and drovers and servants tottered back and forth over the plank walkways but more often than not simply strode through the mire, indifferent to the puddles.
Each new tread re-formed the pattern of lights about us, until all the streets were like the gleaming, pockmarked face of the full moon.
“Jalin,” said Fotia softly. “By hell, I can’t believe it, Din.”
“You can’t share this, of course,” I said. “Partially because it’s speculation. But more…”
“I’ve no wish to talk of this with anyone. It’s all so dreadful. And dreadfully familiar, now.”
I cocked an eyebrow at her.
“Ippeas is…in a bad state,” she explained. “His spirits are abysmal. His cousins are dead. Hell, some were turned to abominations. He asked me just today—what is the worth of all this suffering? Why toil for such luxuries if it does this to you?”
“He’s still not conditioned, true? Is his sleep interrupted?”
“He hasn’t slept at all since Castus. So we don’t know.
Yet what an awful thing it is to hear you speak of Jalin Burav and all his despair, and hear an echo of that in Ip.
” She turned about, gazing at the shopfronts.
“When I first came here, I thought I was escaping. Breaking out of how things used to be in Daretana. Finding a new, wondrous place to make my own. Yet it’s still all the same here, if not worse.
Families putting their children through such misery, and for what?
To wind up like Velona, locked up in Aimafall, alone and muttering? ”
“Do you wish to leave? To do something new?”
“How can I? And is escape even possible? I thought you were escaping, too, but…look at you.”
“I never felt like it was escape.”
“No?”
“No. To me, it was always…sacrifice. A calf, arrayed with herbs and sacred paints, and led to the dais.”
Fotia made a quiet, strangled sound of sorrow.
“A poor metaphor,” I said. “But I was wrong.” I tried to marshal my thoughts.
“It’s a strange thing to have a duty, Fo.
I see the drovers and think myself like them.
So much work, to fulfill a need—and blood spilled, and hard choices made.
But what I do isn’t the same. Perhaps it’s the difference between feeding and nourishing.
To try to better the hungry, and help them grow, as opposed to simply satisfy.
” I rubbed my temple. “Even if it has made me very different. So much so I feel I am a different breed of creature altogether.”
“This is what your Dolabra teaches you?”
“In a cruel, jaded way, yes.”
She was silent for a long while. Then she said, “Have you noticed, brother, that we both escaped home and Grandmother in our own ways, and found ourselves in service to new old women who are both more than a little mad and cruel?”
I stiffened, for I had not realized that at all.
“Yes,” said Fotia. “If you’d asked me yesterday, I’d have said I had found the better patron. Now, though, I don’t think that’s so.” She took my face then and kissed my brow. “You’ll be careful in the wood tomorrow, true? I can’t lose you now, brother. Not after you’ve just come back.”
“I’ll walk carefully. I’ll have the Orbiis with me, and Commander Tauri.”
“But I don’t much like him at all. He has no love for me.”
“For your trade, you mean.”
“Maybe.” She tweaked my ear. “For you, maybe otherwise. I saw how he looked at you, after all. I’m a fool for what I do, Din, but I’m not a blind one.”