Not a member of Pastebin yet?
Sign Up,
it unlocks many cool features!
- “The Hazas sent you here to clean up,” she said. “But the real mission
- was to get back that damn reagents key—the one filled with the cure for
- dappleglass. You learned from one of Kaygi’s many dirty sources that Nusis
- just happened to have a reagents key that had been recovered from Rona
- Aristan. You knew right away what it was. And with the leviathan
- approaching, there was no time. You got desperate. You went to her office,
- forced her to open the safe, and killed her—unaware that she and I had
- already swapped out the keys, and I had the real one in the chest in my
- rooms. Right upstairs, right now.”
- - The Tainted Cup, Chapter 37 pg. 339
- ---
- “What in hell?” said Miljin. “She vanished?”
- “No,” said Ana, standing slowly. “She did not run away, I believe. She
- went up, rather, climbing the tower.”
- “Up?” said Vashta. “What the hell did she climb the tower for?”
- “To get into my rooms,” said Ana. “The twitch is here for the reagents
- key, after all. I said just now that it was in my chest, in my rooms—but this
- was a lie. What the twitch will instead find there should be greatly
- surprising to her.”
- “We must go up!” said Vashta. “We must go up and catch her!”
- “No,” said Ana. “She will come down, and soon. And then she will
- perish. Let us go the atrium to meet her. For though we might not survive
- the day, let us at least take comfort that the evil folk among us will not,
- either.”
- We exited the adjudication room in a dazed stagger, the bells ringing in
- our ears, Miljin leading the way with his sword drawn. Fayazi Haza began
- bawling that she wanted to go home, to go home, but Vashta told the
- Legionnaire to clap a hand on her arm and not let her go.
- Then we heard a scream from high above us, and the slam of a door
- bursting open.
- We looked up. A figure was staggering down the stairway, sobbing with
- rage.
- “What…” choked the twitch’s voice. “What have you done to me?”
- Vashta drew her own blade and stood beside Miljin and the
- Legionnaires, waiting. I stood before Ana, my sword held high. Then
- another volley of flares rose, and the tower was filled with green light, and
- we saw her.
- The twitch was descending, her nose and mouth pouring blood. She
- coughed, and yet more blood came, sloshing down her front.
- “What did you do to me?” she spat. “What did you… what did you…”
- Yet I recognized what I was now seeing. I had seen such a
- transmutation before, when Miljin and I had found Ditelus on the Plains of
- the Path.
- “Dappleglass,” I said softly.
- “Yes,” said Ana quietly. “I told you I was worried someone might try to
- poison me, Din. I took three of your hairs and stuck them to the lid of my
- teapot, just in case. Yesterday evening, while you were at the banquet, I
- found them gone—and a tiny leaf stuck to the interior of the teapot with
- resin. Dappleglass, of course.”
- The twitch stumbled down the last length of stairway, her eyes now
- leaking blood.
- “Last night I lined my chest with leather, creating a seal,” said Ana.
- “And then, this morning, I snipped off the tiniest bit of the leaf, placed it in
- my teapot, and started it boiling at a low heat in my chest, and shut it. Not
- much---but then, twitches don’t need much. They’re very vulnerable to
- contagion…”
- - The Tainted Cup, Chapter 38 pgs. 343-344
Advertisement
Add Comment
Please, Sign In to add comment