Page 124 of A Trade of Blood

“Wh-what?” spat Trikao.

“Ippeas will sell it all. He intends to sell it and leave this place. He will not sell it to one buyer, either. He intends to sell it to many different holders. Many families, many drovers, many operations. He shall split it all up into dozens if not hundreds of little farms and put an end to the house of Armenta.”

A weak, unhappy wheezing came creaking out of Trikao’s mouth. “But…no. No, I…I did it for him. Doesn’t he see that? I, I did it for him…”

“So you say,” I said. “But he wished me to tell you—I never asked for it.”

—

I limped backto the Green Drover, Ana gripping my arm tight.

“How did he take it?” she purred.

I shrugged.

“That bad, then? My, my. A black day, eh, Din?”

“Very.” I grunted as my pulled muscles complained. Navigating the leaning wooden walkways of muddy Lacanthim felt impossible after such strains. “I feel it’s a poor thing to leave my sister and Ippeas alone, even for a moment. They’ve had so much ill fate fall upon them, all at once.”

“Yes, yes,” said Ana. “But they shall recover quickly. The boy made a wise choice, and she embraced him when he made it. A good match, I think. They are in love, and to be loved is a great warding against many ills.”

I puzzled at that, as Ana almost never grew so sentimental: but then, the manner in which she spoke of it was as if she was clinically describing some biological process, like newts secreting poison through their glands.

I whimpered again as some obscure muscle in my back yowled in pain. “A question, ma’am,” I said.

“Ohh. Another? I feel I have answered enough today.”

“How is it you weren’t conditioned by Trikao?” I asked. “I’m sure you were in the tavern when he conditioned me. You would have heard the same tones, had the fungus awaken in you just as all the others.”

“Hm, yes,” said Ana quietly. “That is a sticky bit, isn’t it?”

A glint of gold hair glimmered on the porch of the Green Drover. Through all the pale blue cloaks of the milling custodi, I saw Tauri, standing on his tiptoes to peer over and see us coming.

“Tauri awaits us, ma’am,” I said.

“I figured he’d be here soon,” she sighed. “For he shall demand answers of his own. Here. Let us get a story together, Din. Perhaps, let’s say, I predicted that the killer would try to condition me, and took the effort of plugging my ears with wax at night, much like Trikao did. How does that sound?”

“That…is, of course, a lie, ma’am.”

“Is it?” she snapped. “Why not try it on and walk about with it for a spell, and see how it fits?”

“Did you know it hadn’t worked on you, ma’am? Or…that itcouldn’t?”

“Din, I say this to you very rarely,” she said. “So please mark that when I do, I mean it. But—shut up.”

We came to the porch. Tauri regarded us with cautious optimism. “So! I, ah, understand your plan worked rather perfectly, Dolabra?”

“Not quite perfectly. I was beset by some slight idiocies, but I managed to overcome it.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I see,” said Tauri. “And…are all answers accounted for?”

“Since your domain is the environment, Commander,” said Ana, “I presume you mean, did Trikao Armenta tell us where the hell the damned web actually came from? And why, of course, does it work upon humans in such a strange fashion? If that is your question, then the answer is no. We do not know.”

“No?”

“No. Trikao got the web from Jalin. Even if he could speak more, he wouldn’t know its origins any more than we do now.” She turned her face to the sun above. “Burilis Burav found some form of the web in the ruins in the forest. He altered it to work upon the field cats. Jalin traced his father’s footsteps and found this mysterious web again, somewhere. But whether he engineered it to work upon human beings—or if italwaysdid so—Ihave no evidence either way.”