Page 45 of The Tainted Cup

“Friends, sir?”

“Yes. It’s all politics. Ancient rules and rites. To be eligible for a seat in the Senate of the Sanctum, you’ve got to serve at least two terms on watch at the sea walls. Can’t manage the Empire if you’ve never faced what it exists to fight.” He waved a hand at the motley throngs of soldiers. “Somewhere among these miserable bastards are future governors and senators and Sanctum knows what else. Tax assessors. Some bullshit like that.”

“And the gentryfolk…”

“Want to get inearly.Distribute favor and patronage, spy rising stars and ply them with treats. Better lodgings, armor, horses, food. Maybe the odd suffusion. This neighborhood isn’t even the fanciest bit, they got estates west of the city where thetrulynice houses are, owned by the Mishtas, the Kurafs, the Hazas…”

My pace slowed slightly as I heard that last name.

Miljin shot a glare at one of the gentryfolk above. “It’s like a horse race, boy. They’re all here to make their bets. And if they bet right, they can win a lifetime of fortune. Sounds unfair, maybe, but I’m not so sure.” He snorted and spat. “Might be the only way the gentry learns what fear is, to live in the shadow of the sea walls.”

—

WE RODE EASTas the sun fought to clear the horizon, wearing straw cone hats to protect us from the sun and rain. The road was rumbling with wagons and carts and cohorts of soldiers all moving out to take their stations in the fortifications. I eyed the fields about me, the legendary Plains of the Titan’s Path, aware we now crossedland that was both sacred and profane: for here countless generations of imperials had fought and bled and died to hold back the titans; including the first imperial race, the blessed Khanum, before they had died out.

The way ahead was shrouded with fog, but I kept my sight fixed on the east as we trotted along the muddy path. I wondered what I might spy there, or what I would do if the horizon suddenly lit up with yellow or red flares, warning us of a coming titan. My gaze was only broken when Miljin laughed and swatted my arm.

“You won’t be able to see it, lad,” he said, chidingme.

“See what, sir?” I asked.

“Anything,” he said. “The walls, the dead leviathan. The mist will cling until midmorn. The walls trap it. Sun has to get high for it to burn off. The most dangerous things out here, why…” He nodded toward a ditch. “They’ll be skulking alongside the roads.”

He watched, pleased, as I puzzled over this, before finally explaining, “Mutineers.Deserters. Imperials shook by the breach, who wantout.To them, the sight of a young thing like you atop a healthy horse…Well. There’s a reason why we still carry these.” He patted his mechanical sword hilt. “A sword don’t do shit against a titan. But for those who make it harder tofightthe titans, why, a blade has many uses.”

We trotted along in silence after that, my own sword feeling heavier at my side—largely because I did not wish to tell the captain my blade was wood and lead.

—

ON HORSEBACK WEgot to the Forward Engineering Quarters within two hours. It was perhaps the ugliest place I’d seen since Daretana, all cranes and ropes and muddy construction yards, or foundries belching vast rivers of smoke into the sky.

Miljin pulled a face as the air filled up with stinking fumes. “Fuck’s sakes,” he growled. “Makes you wonder why the leviathans even want to come ashore here anymore…” He nodded ahead. “There’s the medikkers’ wing. How many are we here to question?”

I’d told him this already, of course, but it seemed wise not to mention that. “Eleven people, sir,” I said.

“Eleven…And they’re all, ah,intimateswith the dead?”

“Most are. Or were. Or rather, my master suspects they were, sir.”

“And we’re to wring all the stories out of these folk, and try to line them all up to figure out where the hell our ten dead Engineers went that got their guts all full of dappleglass.”

“Seems to be the shape of it, sir.”

“Best to divvy it up, then. I’ll take the last five, you take the top six. Then we compare notes.”

After we stabled our horses and entered the medikkers’ wing, I gave Miljin his five people to question. He squinted in the light of the lantern at the door, scribbling down the names on a strip of parchment with a length of ashpen. He had me repeat them a few times, then repeat which of the dead people they were associated with. I had never worked directly alongside someone in an investigation before, and Miljin certainly seemed to have a hefty reputation, but the sight of him muttering and shuffling through his papers filled me with unease.

“Are you sure you want to split up the list, sir?” I asked. “Would it be wiser to work together, maybe?”

“I know what I’m doing!” he snapped. Yet another sheaf of parchment slipped out of his hands, and he stooped to grab it. “Or are you suggesting I don’t?”

I watched as he shook the mud off his dropped parchment. “ ’Course not, sir.”

“Then let’s get this over with.”

—

MY FIRST INTERVIEWwas Princeps Anath Topirak, a medikker with the Apoth Iyalet. I stopped an attendant and asked about her whereabouts and the state of her injuries.