Page 104 of A Trade of Blood

“I’m more worried about one misfiring and taking my head off my shoulders.”

“Well, wearespatiasts. That makes us pretty decent shots. But we likely won’t be using them at all, not if we find Jalin. Instead, we shall use these.” He pulled out another armament, one I’d never seen before. It resembled a fire poker, with a handle and long shaft, yet itended in a very small set of needles. “It’s called a lypi lance. Very new, mostly nonlethal. The needle at the end injects a toxin that causes overwhelming, paralyzing pain.”

“If it’s nonlethal, why isn’t it more used?”

“The axioms did their sums. In about ninety percent of its uses, there are no issues. Some ten percent, however, cause significant heart issues and seizures. These are much harder for the medikkers to swiftly treat—unlike, say, stab wounds and the like, which we are very accustomed to treating.”

“The Empire is so used to treating violence by sword that the blade is actuallylesslethal than your nonlethal toxin?”

“You have it exactly. Though, again, we might never see any need to use these horrible tools—not if your immunis never tells us how to find Jalin.”

—

When we arrivedat the vault, we discovered that Ana had set up something of a display for us, with six select parchments placed in a row before where she sat on the floor.

“I have been waiting,” she said tersely, “forhours.”

“It’s barely dawn, ma’am,” I said.

“And yet I deciphered the nature of Burav’s tomes well before midnight! Were it not for the fact that these histories areexceedinglyrare, anyone with a decent attention span and memory could have figured it all out!”

Tauri yawned hugely. “Then let’s hear it, please! I slept poorly, worried you’d send us to our deaths. Might as well confirm it now—it’d wake me up a little, I’m sure.”

Ana set out three stone figures, each one taken from Burav’s shelf, each one depicting a member of the Daljen. One held a staff; the next, a leaf; the third, a cup. “Burav’s little library is not actually terribly expansive! Instead, it focuses most keenly on these three specific Daljen figures. One is Qul, master of waters. Second comes Kurbanthik, the mistress of earth and soil. The last…” She touched the one bearing the cup. “…should come as no surprise…”

“Master Gaddar,” I said. “Lord of orchards.”

“Correct! He is undoubtedly the figure Burav wasmostobsessed with. Not just tall tales of his life but actual, tangibleplaceshe labored. And much of his work was here, apparently.” She gestured at the horizon, where the altered forest lay. “Much like Aimafall is the seat of the Armentas, that site was the seat of Gaddar’s power, some five centuries ago.”

There was a solemn silence as Tauri and I studied the tiny stone figure before her.

“And what place did Burav seek?” asked Tauri.

“There are two sites that Burav felt had significance,” she said airily. “The first is remarkably unclear—perhaps purposefully so. It is a grand place that is called atemplein one history. Then atombin another. In a third, it is referred to as thecup of heaven.And still in a fourth, it is calledMeris Chamhali Ayonias—or, ‘place of the angelic, eternal servants.’ It is all quite a mess! My conclusion here is that these histories, recorded years after the disappearance of the Daljen, could not find any firsthand evidence—because it wasgone.The Daavir and the other Khanum tribes hadcensoredit, removed it from all written text. They wished it wiped from the recorded memory of all intelligent peoples—and so it is.”

A cold sweat crawled up my back. “The Touched Site,” I said quietly. “That is what that is.”

“So I presume,” said Ana. “That temple, or tomb, or cup of heaven, whatever the terminology—that is the location that the Khanum sealed up and blockaded with a tremendous, altered forest. It is the site that you, Commander Tauri, have been to many a time.”

“I see…” he said gravely. “And what of the second place?”

“Oh, the second is mentioned much less often,” purred Ana. “Probably because it is less important! It is known aslittle blessingin some texts, orNaos-Minrain the old Tala tongue—literally, ‘smaller temple.’ My guess is that its purpose was similar to this mysterious cup of heaven, but it was a very minor version. However!” She raised a triumphant finger. “Because it was less important, the histories of this smaller temple are much less edited! And one thing thesehistories include is where the goddamned place is—for that, I suspect, is where Jalin Burav has gone!”

“So—we have a set of directions?” asked Tauri, astonished.

“That we do!” said Ana. “Thank fucking heaven that the rivers and creeks and hills of this place are generally still where they were a few centuries ago, for without them—and the map you made, sir—I’d have never found a thing!” She reached behind her and, with a flourish, pulled out Tauri’s map of the forest, though now it had been extensively annotated.

She stabbed down a finger and began drawing out a path. “You must enter here, at this site, where Jalin Burav entered. Though I do not know the paths of the seams, my good sir, you must come close tothissite—written asHand of Gaddarin the old tongues. It is, apparently, literally a big goddamned statue of a hand. You cannot mistake it for another. Then move northwest, toward another shrine, this one known asLoutri di Akantha Apalos,which translates as ‘cauldron of the soft spines’—don’t bother to ask me to explainthatone—and then head straight north. After a little more than two leagues, you shall come to the little temple that Burilis Burav sought so highly. I believe that is where you’ll likely find Jalin!”

Tauri stared at the map she’d made, his eyes shimmering and his lips working as he used his cerebral augmentations to embed it in his thoughts. My own eye lingered on the other sites she had outlined on the map: some two or three or even four dozen ancient places. Shrines, perhaps, or burial mounds, or statues or cenotaphs of some long-forgotten import. Our path came worryingly close to many of them.

“Done,” said Tauri, sighing. “I have your map, Dolabra. I hope it is all true—or as true as such ancient texts can offer. We shall depart quickly.”

“Please do so, sir,” said Ana. “Though I do request that Din here tarry a bit with me, yet again.”

—

I stood inthe vault, expecting Ana to deliver some other grave suspicion of Commander Tauri. Instead, she fumbled in her skirts, produced a small leather satchel, and opened it and dumped it into her hands.