It wasn’t an official distribution time, and nor would it have been when Tain had been here, but no one would have refused the Chancellor food. “Is that all right?” I asked her, exaggerating my stiff gait and approaching the table. “I’ve just been training—I know it’s too early for the next rations.”
“Yes, Credo, of course,” she said, opening the closest basket. “We haven’t received our next shift delivery yet, but there is bread and dried fruit here.” She pushed it toward me and I noticed the smallest two fingers missing from one hand. Inside the basket simple rounds of flat black bread nestled in piles between dark goa berries and peach slices. Where was the poisoned oku? I took a round of bread, sniffing and letting a hint of disappointment show through my smile. “Thank you. Much appreciate this—I’m starving.” The girl touched her companion’s arm, whispering. Both looked at my tattoos again, then the first gave me a wink. “We have some oku out the back,” she said. “If you want something a bit more substantial than fruit.…”
I nodded eagerly.
“Wait here, Credo.”
As she ducked behind the heavy curtain separating the front of the store from the back, I gave the baskets, table, and room behind a surreptitious examination. Nothing registered as suspicious. Other than bolts of cloth, the space was empty—no room for someone to hide. The bread was cool and hardening, but the smell made my stomach grumble just the same. Other than Tain’s tainted food, I hadn’t eaten anything since last night, and the kori sloshed about in my empty stomach.
“How long’ve you been here?” I asked the girl, trying to sound casual and sympathetic.
“All day, Credo.”
“I guess it’s pretty busy. And then people like me come in and make it even harder for you, right?”
A flicker of a smile. “The new Chancellor came in before,” she said proudly. “He’s nice.”
“I bet he brought a whole lot of extra people for you to feed.”
Another smile, this one wider. She looked up through her lashes. “He was by himself,” she said. “And he said thank you and he was sorry to put us out. It was no trouble. We usually get all kinds of people asking to be fed outside distribution times, but today it was just him.”
So no one else tracked in with him and poisoned the meal on the spot. “And at least you get to miss school and spend time with your mother, huh?”
Mischief dimpled her plump cheeks. “It’s better than school,” she agreed. Then her grin dropped off. “Uncle went off to the walls. I like seeing Mother, but I’d rather my Tashi be home.” I saw the accusation in her dark eyes, and couldn’t think of a thing to say to make it better. Unless things changed, many children would be left without their Tashien and mothers forever.
“Is this your family’s shop?” I asked. She nodded and I looked at the curtain separating the front of the shop from the back. Like most on this street, it was multistory; the family who ran the business probably lived upstairs, with one or more other families. Which meant it certainly had a back entrance for the occupants.
The girl’s mother pushed back through the curtain, wringing her hands. “Credo, I am so sorry. We had a little oku out back before, but it’s gone.” Her sweaty forehead and fidgety posture spoke of nerves, but from embarrassment or dishonesty?
“Credo Bradomir always says to keep a little extra aside for the Credolen,” she continued. “I haven’t been serving it to regular folk, I promise. The whole tray is just gone.” Her hands wrung together with apparent sincerity and she shook her head. “My deepest apologies, Credo.”
“It’s not your fault,” I said. “The bread is fine. You’ve got a back entrance, right?” She nodded, hesitant. “Keep it locked from now on. There are bound to be thieves as rations run shorter.”
Frustration boiled inside me as I left. I circled surreptitiously around the store; it opened into a back alley with no facing windows. Tain’s visit had been unplanned and our enemy couldn’t control every ration station. No one had come in before or after him via the front of the store. But a careful person, who knew stations were holding back particular food for Credolen, could have followed Tain and added the slumberweed oil to the reserved stocks. Tain’s heart would have failed and he’d have died, probably on the training fields or while otherwise exerting himself, without suspicion. We had come so close to disaster, it made me shiver.
* * *
I didn’t want to return to the Manor yet. Kalina would be there with Tain; she could look after him. Head churning, I thought instead of what my sister had learned. We could set others to combing the city for Batbayer, but that might alert him. Though I hated that she had taken such risks, Kalina’s strategy had been sound. If we carefully monitored the sewer site, we might catch the Doranite trying to make an exit.
I headed that way now, using the long walk north to think. The rain had stopped again, and my muscles enjoyed the calm repetition of walking. Deliberately, I went through poorer neighborhoods, often observing the silence and abandoned feeling Kalina had described. I walked quickly and kept to the sides of the roads. I felt like a target, walking alone, though I could not have articulated the danger.
At the sewer entrance I didn’t speak to the guard, just observed from the shadows at a distance. I also traced back along the minor sewer lines; their underground passage was marked by brighter grass poking out between the stones of the walkways. There were other small access points along the way, but only a child could have fit along those narrow routes.
Eventually I came to the north edge of the city. The wall rose above me on one side of the street, gray and marbled with lichen and insect trails. Though the air carried distant sounds of industry, no noise came from any of the nearby homes; perhaps they too were deserted, or all their occupants were on duty. A few birds chirped from a perch on the iron railing of someone’s balcony, and a muddy rain puddle by the wall rippled rhythmically. There was something almost hypnotic about it, the ebb and flow of the water, the reflection of the sky above it distorted into shards each time the water flexed.
I shook my head, forcing myself to move—I couldn’t avoid Tain forever. Heading back to the Manor, I had walked perhaps six paces before the oddity sank in. Rainwater rippling in a puddle. Except it wasn’t raining anymore, and hadn’t been for a while. So what’s causing the rippling?
As I crouched beside the puddle, concentric circles sped across it, small but clear. I pressed my hand into the mud below it.
Vibrations. I drew my hand back. The cold from the mud seemed to penetrate my whole body as I sat back on my heels, head reeling. The vibrations were too faint to feel through my shoes, but they weren’t imagined. Something was happening beneath the surface. I looked across the street. If any of those houses had basements or cellars under the buildings, getting below the surface to take a look would give us a much better idea of what was going on. I tapped on the nearest door.
No answer. A few weeks ago it would have horrified me to even contemplate, but now it seemed almost natural to glance around and then test the lock. I didn’t have much of a knack for fine motor tasks like lock-picking, but I did have a phial of Malek’s acid in my purse, a few squirts of which dissolved the lock with a faint hiss. The door opened without protest and I slipped inside.