But Tain answered his own question. “The missing street people,” he said suddenly. “There’s a streetwoman who’s been trying to see me for weeks, claiming that Order Guards or dark spirits have stolen her child away. I’ve been getting letters. She said five men disappeared off the street in the night.” I remembered, too; my sister had been accosted by the old woman on the same day as the secret burial. I had assumed the men she spoke of were just assigned duties on the walls, being relatively healthy and young. “Do you think he did … did that to them, just to fool us?”
“Who’d miss someone off the streets, especially now?” I muttered, extra guilt sinking in. “He probably figured we’d ignore it as unimportant, and he was right.”
Honor-down, we had thought an impassioned army murdering messengers in such a horrific way was barbarous. How much worse that Marco could have done such a thing to five innocent strangers just to use their heads as convenient props in his gruesome play.
“How are we going to stop him?”
“I can’t risk confiding in any Order Guards. They could all be working with him, for all we know. What if his allies volunteered to be the ones who stayed behind?”
Tain paused so long I thought for a moment he’d fallen asleep again. But eventually he said, “What about one of your concoctions? Could you knock him out?”
I nodded, thoughtful. “I don’t want to risk any kind of altercation with him, but if I could dose his food or tea we could drag him to jail and we wouldn’t need an Order Guard to watch him. Being a poisoner himself he’s probably pretty careful, but if I choose something I’m immune to I can eat from it, too.”
“Do it,” Tain said. “I’m no use to you, weak like this. And Marco’s a dangerous man. We need every advantage we can take.”
I agreed, though fear chilled my veins. As Hadrea had been so quick to point out, I was no soldier. I wouldn’t pit myself against her, a farmer, and Marco was a lifelong professional. What if I couldn’t fool Marco? Would my fear and judgment show? I’d spent my lifetime hiding my role as a proofer. We would all just have to hope I could hide myself as a poisoner just as effectively.
* * *
The remainder of the day was spent in an endless game of dodging Councilors and searching for an opportunity to get Marco alone. I felt like a Muse piece, considering my every move to best avoid the most dangerous other pieces. I barely missed Bradomir, who was storming through the Manor gardens, prepping his excellent baritone for some shouting at Argo, and avoided too both Budua and Marjeta since I wished neither to reveal to nor conceal from them the truth about Marco. But as if he were playing the same game, Marco gave me no chance to talk to him in private, either. One minor crisis or another always interrupted us whenever I thought there was a chance. At least he was given no opportunity to cause mischief that I could see, since he was in full preparation mode for the inevitable attack on the bridge, managing the trenches and defense plans and conducting our last training of the people who would soon be our front lines. Eliska warned us grimly to get some sleep, because the rebels would not need much longer to prepare to take the bridge. It could be any time now.
I was meeting with the guards at the Finger, almost unrecognizable now with its additional fortifications, and the scouts on the southern wall when Nara and Lazar cornered me, both smelling suspiciously like kori. I told them Tain wanted a full Council meeting first thing in the morning. This time, I wasn’t even lying.
“I was beginning to think he’d decided he didn’t need a Council anymore,” Nara told me, her peevish face even more pinched than usual. “Or he’d found a secret way out of the city and just left us here to burn.”
Honor-down, sometimes I fantasized about slapping that expression off her face. “The Chancellor’s working hard, Credola. He’s done his best to keep the city running and he needs all of you to be pulling your weight, as well. What he doesn’t need is his own Council spreading rumors like that to damage the morale of our people.”
Lazar looked away, and the embarrassment on his face suggested he hadn’t been keeping that particular suspicion to himself. I gritted my teeth. Nara lifted her chin a little more, looking me in the eye. “People are getting close to starving, Credo Jovan,” she said. “Their Chancellor’s lack of caring is the least of their worries.”
I hadn’t been to the stores in two days. I’d also barely eaten anything aside from portions of Tain’s food. A sick knot twisted in my stomach. “What level are our supplies at?”
“We’re out of oats and beans,” Nara said, smug. The slapping itch in my hand returned. “There’s enough rice for one serving a day at the ration stations, for perhaps another few days. Even with the nets out every day, there can’t be enough fish for all of us. Fighting’s breaking out. Are you blind, boy?”
I scanned the faces of the men and women loitering around the square. Listless, despondent. Thin. We had already cannibalized anything we could use for food; all the edible plants had long been stripped out of the gardens and used as extra fiber in the rations, and we’d eaten some dubious animals over the past few weeks, leaving only the ones that could supply milk. The rebels didn’t even need to take the rest of the city by force. We’d all starve to death just as easily.
“They’ll be eating each other soon enough,” Nara said, voice dripping with scorn. “Little better than animals.”
I did a much worse job of containing my anger this time; Lazar stepped back a little as my head snapped around. “You know, I’ve had about—”
But Nara had never been easily intimidated. She stepped up close enough to smell her sour breath. “About enough of these animals? Me, too. Perhaps you’d like to tell us what you know about my great-nephew? You know, I’m only an old woman, but I hear rumors, too.”
Blood rushed to my face and I looked away from her accusatory eyes. Did she know what had happened to Edric, or merely suspect? “Tomorrow, at dawn, in the Council room,” I muttered, and didn’t bother with a farewell.
Since it was becoming increasingly clear I would not be able to separate Marco from his possible co-conspirators among the Guards tonight, the Council meeting it would have to be. The other Councilors might not believe that the Warrior-Guilder had merely fainted, but if all went according to plan, we would have the traitor incapacitated and we would no longer need to worry about their loose tongues. I returned to the Manor to prepare the teacups, nerves building. Would he suspect me? I tried to shut down the part of my brain that pictured all the ways it could play out if he did, because none of those outcomes looked positive for me. I just had to stay calm.
Fortunately, my exhaustion was greater than my anxiety this time, and it seemed like I had barely settled into my pallet in Tain’s room when I was jolting awake again.
And then the city’s alarm bells rang.
Darpar
DESCRIPTION: Dark brown crystal, hard but brittle, often found in conjunction with opal.
SYMPTOMS: Short-term, sudden increase in energy and strength, bad breath, developing into muscle tremors; longer-term weakness, memory loss, mental deterioration.
PROOFING CUES: Sweet, metallic taste and sickly smell on breath.