Page 43 of A Drop of Corruption

My eyes stayed fixed on her face. Did I now see a worm of terror to the commander-prificto’s gaze?

Ana cocked her head, savoring the statement like one might a bite of a fine meal. “Fascinating,” she said. “Then I believe we are done. Thank you all for speaking to us. It has been most educational for me.”

—

After the interviewwas finished, Thelenai remained behind to speak with us.

“You will have to forgive Ghrelin’s passions,” said Thelenai quietly. “He is an ardent servant of the Empire, and he is still coming to terms with this crime.”

“I understand, ma’am,” said Ana. “The Empire’s servants are dedicated folk, in every Iyalet. Yet still I worry that Ghrelin has met our murderer sometime in his past. Would it be possible for you to send me his service record?”

Thelenai studied Ana for a moment. This close, her eyes seemed even greener than Malo’s. “Of course,” she said. “But you do not suspect Ghrelin of any misdeed, do you?”

“Not yet, no.”

“You should not. It’s very rare to have someone survive the Shroud and return to labor among us. Most go to live on the lands they are awarded for their service there. As such, Ghrelin is terribly valuable. I would not deny the emperor’s justice if he were to be suspected, yet…I feel he must be innocent in all this.”

“Let us hope so. Yet I have two more questions for you, Commander-Prificto, if you are willing,” said Ana.

“Certainly.”

“Why are there no engravers in this building?”

Thelenai’s eyes widened ever so slightly. “Ah. You have noticed. Yes—we bar all engravers from accessing the inner reaches of the fermentation works. Likewise, we permit no warden, nor anyone else with hearing augmentations, to draw near. The reason is that much of what we do here is experimental, and untested. Anything we make will take a long while to be approved for use.”

“And you worry about having an engraver walk your halls,” said Ana, “and memorizing every formula they see, and then secreting out something unstable to some illegal brewery?”

“Exactly.”

“Then,” said Ana, grinning, “canItour the fermentation works, even if Din cannot? I would be most eager to see how advanced they truly are, for I am no engraver.”

Thelenai paused. “Well. To begin with, Immunis, you are wearing a blindfold. While this is not terribly unusual to me, given all the stimulative afflictions of altered folk, I am not sure what value a tour could offer you…”

“It is no issue! I am happy to walk and listen. And smell! That can tell me many things.”

“Yes. But.” Thelenai’s eyes flicked down to Ana’s scattered heralds and back. “The issue is, I am not sure howyouare altered, Immunis. For though you seem no Sublime, Dolabra, I cannot help but suspect you have alterations of your own. Ones that are unmarked upon you. And that I find very strange.”

There was a tense silence. Ana’s predatorial grin did not waver at all.

“I cannot risk it,” said Thelenai. “Thus, I am afraid I will have to turn you down. Now. If you will excuse me, we have much to do in the wake of the robbery.”

Chapter 18

“Well. That was fucking oddas hell, wasn’t it,Din?” asked Ana as we rode back to our lodgings.

I was not sure which oddness she meant, as the meeting had seemed to offer no end of it, so I simply said, “I would agree, ma’am.”

“Why don’t you go ahead and give me the rundown? Describe all you saw—every movement, every twitch.”

I did so, sniffing my vials and reporting all the movements I’d seen, and occasionally echoing the voices of the people we’d interviewed. “I am hesitant to make quick judgments,” I said at the end, “but from my tell of it, it seems Immunis Ghrelin is a very passionate man.”

“Yes, he has all the zeal of a true fanatic,” she said. “But the idea that a veteran of the abattoir of the leviathans would leave that and go into curing coughs…It’s ridiculous. Ridiculous! What else did you see?”

I told her of Thelenai’s eyes and lips, and how they were stained green much like Malo’s and the other Pithian and Yarrow folk I’d seen about.

“Yes…” said Ana. “It’s an algae, actually. Grows on the waters about these hills. It acts like a beneficial parasite, infesting parts of the body, but granting you slightly heightened immunities…I’m told people grow the green if they reside here for, oh, more than a decade or so, though some lakes in the Elder West can taint your eyes in a matter of days. This means Thelenai has been here for some time…Interesting. And interesting that she hasn’t had it fixed.”

“Fixed?”