A Drop of Corruption

Din laments the oppressive heat as he waits at the Yarrowdale waterfront. He is surprised to see so many “Apothetikal” soldiers, as Apoths, or those augmented with superior senses, typically concern themselves with scientific pursuits. He eventually meets Signum Tira Malo, an Apoth of Yarrow descent. She notes that Yarrow’s location on the periphery of Khanum separates it from “the true Empire” (9). Malo uses her extremely acute sense of smell to determine that Din has eaten spoiled fish, and she warns him that their grisly work to begin solving a murder may make him more ill. Din insists he is fine; Malo takes him to the “ossuary.”

Din is surprised when Malo leads him through the foul-smelling ossuary to a small box; he expected a full body. She reveals a block of strange moss that preserves remains. When Malo rubs it with a special oil, the “ossuary moss” begins to slowly dissolve. While they wait, Malo explains that the remains belong to Immunis Mineti Sujedo, an Imperial Treasury officer who came to Yarrowdale to speak with the King of Yarrow. (Din later learns that Sujedo never made it to Yarrowdale; he was kidnaped by Sunus Pyktis before reaching the city. Pyktis then impersonated Sujedo.) Malo explains that because Sujedo came to discuss unpopular taxes, he was heavily guarded. After arriving, Sujedo/Pyktis went to the local Treasury bank, then returned to his rooms, citing an upset stomach. Though his guarded door was never opened, Sujedo/Pyktis had vanished by morning, leaving only blood behind in his room. The windows were locked from inside. With her augmented sense of smell, Malo determined that nobody but Sujedo had been in the rooms. Parts of his body were discovered many leagues away.

The dissolved moss reveals three body parts: a hand, part of a torso, and a jawbone. The sight and the stench of the moss make Din vomit.

Din uses scent to orient his engraved memories; his augmentations mean that he will recall all details perfectly forever. Malo suggests that someone tried to dispose of Sujedo’s body by feeding him to the carnivorous turtles that live in Yarrowdale’s canals, as cuts in the bones suggest Sujedo was dismembered by a human. Rope marks indicate that Sujedo was bound before dying. A strange mark on Sujedo’s torso suggests that an identifying mark was cut away, though Malo contends that all Treasury officers are easily identified by their “augmented blood,” which allows them to open designated safes and lockboxes. (This mark, later revealed to be a blotley worm welt, teaches Din and Ana that Pyktis stole Sujedo’s blood to impersonate him.) The blood in the recovered remains identified them as belonging to a Treasury officer who was presumed to be Sujedo, as no other Treasury officer is missing. The Treasury locks will not respond to “dead blood,” making the rest of Sujedo’s body useless to would-be thieves. Din, puzzled by the lack of clues, asks to see Sujedo’s lodgings.

Din recalls the history of Yarrowdale, a port city whose canals connect via water to the wealthy inner rings of Khanum. The city is divided into three parts: New Town, where the Imperial agents work; Old Town, where Yarrow kings previously lived; and the High City, where the present Yarrow king lives. Din, recalling events in which he witnessed leviathans in The Tainted Cup, feels uncomfortable this close to the sea, though Malo reassures him that a living leviathan has not been seen in Yarrow in generations.

Din and Malo walk to Old Town, where the buildings lean as their porous stone rots. The native Yarrow folk were abandoned in Old Town by their king after the Empire paid the Yarrow crown for use of land, which gave the past king enough money to build the High City. The Yarrow king forces “tax men” to stay in Old Town, hoping the unimpressive accommodations will urge them to leave more quickly.

Malo takes Din to Sujedo’s room on the highest floor of one leaning tower. Din notes the uneven floors and the large bloodstain on the bed. The clothing has all been covered by a strong citrus scent to mask the actions of the killer. (This prevents the Apoths from detecting clues via scent.) A small piece of plain iron rests near the window, though it is not part of the window casing. (Ana later reveals that this is a small magnet, used to open and close the window locks from the outside.) Din looks out the window and examines the distant High City and mysterious “Shroud,” where Apoths do dangerous experiments with leviathans’ bodies.

Din interviews the staff, who describe Sujedo as short and handsome, though they had only brief interactions with him. The staff speaks reservedly about the imminent adoption of Yarrow as a formal state of the Empire, according to a deal made generations ago. The workers confirm that Sujedo didn’t eat his food and had a tremor in his hand. (Ana later reveals that this is the “tapping” performed by augurs, which helps her ultimately identify Pyktis.) They don’t recognize the iron. A guard reports that Sujedo only spent a few minutes in the Treasury vault, during which he deposited something. (Pyktis deposited the head of a dead Apoth as part of his elaborate plan to spread chaos and eventually destroy the titan’s marrow.) The guard notes that Sujedo was uncommonly socially competent for an axiom—someone mentally augmented to have skill with numbers. Sujedo kept tapping out a rhythm, he reports. Din finds nothing of note in the moldy, empty room adjacent to Sujedo’s chamber.

On the way back to New Town, a creditor stops Din, who has been paying back an enormous healthcare loan his father took out before dying. She tells him that because his job is dangerous, he must now pay back the loan at a faster rate than he previously did. Din bitterly reflects that his father’s profligacy has, both before and after his death, kept Din from his goal of moving his remaining family members to the Inner Empire, which is safer from leviathan attacks. The sum he owes also prevents him achieving his secret dream of joining another Iyalet (or department in Khanum’s military structure) instead of working for the Iudex.

Over dinner, Din and Malo consult a map to understand Sujedo’s movements relative to where his body was found. The remains, Malo explains, are near a smugglers’ camp; smuggling is common near Yarrowdale, as the Empire sends many valuable “reagents, grafts and cures” along the canals toward the Inner Empire (41). The smugglers have historically not been violent, though they have become more so in recent years. Because Yarrow is not technically the Empire, Imperial forces do not intervene. Malo expresses ambivalence about the Empire formally taking over Yarrow. Din explains his role in the Iudex “Special Division,” which handles “unusual” cases (43). He suspects that Ana will solve the case quickly, despite the lack of clues.

As Din returns to his rooms, a porter stops him to complain about the strong smell from Ana’s meal, which consists of hundreds of oysters, some of which are beginning to spoil. Ana recognizes Din’s approach immediately, despite wearing a heavy blindfold, as is her custom. She explains that she is comparing the taste of each different oyster, which she contends holds hints of its origins. Din is accustomed to her strange habits, which often lead her to solve perplexing mysteries in unconventional ways. Though Din is irritable over the lack of information about Sujedo’s death, Ana is delighted that this promises an exciting, complex puzzle.

Din repeats every detail of what he observed that day to Ana. Ana contends that Sujedo was definitely murdered and that the complexity of the killing must hold clues, as it is easy to surreptitiously kill someone in dangerous Yarrowdale. She quizzes him about the missing patch of skin on Sujedo’s back, his uncommon social graces, and his proclivity for tapping his fingers. She finds it strange that Sujedo didn’t speak to any colleagues during his visit, even though they were housed in nearby rooms. (Ana later learns that this is because Pyktis didn’t want to be revealed as the false Sujedo by encountering someone who knew the true Sujedo.)

Ana and Din discuss Yarrow’s status as a “tribute state,” which is under Imperial influence but not part of the Empire. Yarrow also provides “the most valuable reagents in all the Empire” (51). She asks Din to describe the Shroud; she finds the Shroud fascinating, whereas Din finds it horrid.

Ana reports Yarrow’s history. Ninety-two years prior, the Emperor of Khanum bargained with Yarrow to use their water access to the inner Empire in exchange for enormous monetary sums. The previous Yarrow king agreed that, one hundred years later, Yarrow would become part of Khanum. In the intervening years, the Empire has profited so massively from Yarrow that the present king seeks greater recompense and ways to renege on the deal that will force him to turn over Yarrow to the Empire in less than a decade. The Empire negotiates with the king to avoid the expense of a battle; though the king would lose, he could potentially do great damage to the highly expensive infrastructure that the Empire has spent the past century building up in Yarrow. Fearing that Sujedo’s murder will disrupt negotiations, Ana urges speed in solving the case.

Ana discovers that the mysterious iron is a lodestone (or magnet), though she does not yet know how this helped the murderer gain access to Sujedo’s rooms. (She later learns that nobody was killed in Sujedo’s room; rather, Pyktis, posing as Sujedo, escaped through the window using the magnets.) She orders Din to focus the next day’s investigation on Sujedo’s physical traits. She commands him to rest that evening, noting his pallor. Din leaves, relieved Ana suspects nothing of his financial woes. (She later reveals that she does know about his debts and helps him fight back against the predatory lenders.)

That evening, Din retrieves Ana’s mail and reads the new terms given to him by Madam Poskit, the creditor. Between the amount due and the amount Din sends to his family, he will have little to survive on. He muses over his plan to apply for a transfer to the Legion, the Iyalet that directly fights leviathans, when he reaches his two-year mark of service in a few months. These new debt terms mean he will be unable to even apply to serve in the far more dangerous Legion. He thinks of Captain Kephus Strovi (his love interest in The Tainted Cup), a Legionnaire he admires, feeling tortured by memories of their brief time together.

Despite Ana’s command that he rest, Din goes out to a bar. There, he finds a Yarrow woman with whom he has a casual sexual encounter despite lacking a shared language. He hopes that sex will exhaust him enough to get a peaceful sleep, but he does not get much rest.

Din returns to his rooms early the next morning. Malo is already awaiting him; she teases him about his encounter. They travel to the Treasury bank, where they meet with Tufwa, the officer who met Sujedo. Tufwa, an engraver like Din, summons every detail of Sujedo’s visit. He reports that Sujedo successfully passed the blood test confirming his status as a Treasury officer. When Tufwa checked Sujedo’s deposit box after his disappearance, he found documents related to Yarrow taxes and dealings with the king. The box is undamaged, though Tufwa has not yet been given permission to ascertain whether Sujedo touched any of the other boxes, something possible only under emergency protocols. Tufwa recounts Sujedo’s appearance, including his height.

Malo chides Din for summoning her so early to ask such banal questions. Din insists that the questions must be important but denies knowing why they are important, arguing that he merely does as Ana demands. When they meet Ana, Malo is bemused by Ana’s strange habits, including a request to find her a second lyre so that she can play traditional local duets by herself. Ana asks only if Sujedo was ever alone in the bank. When Din confirms that he was, Ana contends that “many crimes” have occurred but does not explain herself further.

Ana, Din, and Malo return to Old Town, where they meet Prificto Umerus Kardas, who heads the Imperial Treasury delegation to Yarrow, and his assistant, Signum Gorthaus. Kardas happily greets Din and Ana. Ana indicates that he is “an emits,” a rare form of Sublime (or mentally augmented person) who specializes in social proficiency. She notes that this would make him an especially shrewd negotiator against the king of Yarrow.

Kardas explains that the argument with the king concerns taxes. Kardas notes that the king may have been involved in killing Sujedo, though killing Kardas himself would be more effective in stalling negotiations.

Kardas reports never having seen Sujedo in Yarrowdale, though he has met the man before. Ana asks Gorthaus, an engraver, to describe Sujedo, whom she met years prior. Gorthaus describes him as several inches shorter than the man Tufwa described. Kardas also recalls Sujedo as lacking social competence. Ana concludes that the “Sujedo” who appeared in Yarrow was not the true Sujedo.

Ana explains her theory. The real Sujedo was kidnapped en route to Yarrow, then bound in the canals. The imposter stole Sujedo’s clothes and samples of his blood and urine, disguising himself as Sujedo. He used lime to disguise his scent. The imposter accessed the Treasury bank using Sujedo’s credentials, then feigned illness to avoid being seen by anyone who knew the real Sujedo. Then he used the lodestone to lock the window behind him after he escaped through it. He climbed down one story, then escaped through the empty room below Sujedo’s room. The real Sujedo, his blood no longer needed, was killed and fed to the turtles in the canal.

Admitting that she lacks evidence, Ana leads the group to the room below Sujedo’s to seek proof. The lock in that room is damaged, and disturbances in the mold indicate that someone recently walked there. The damaged mold leads them to a loose brick, behind which they find clothing that has been treated with a reagent to dissolve it, along with a Treasury herald that belonged to the real Sujedo. Ana opines that whatever the imposter did in the Treasury vault—which she does not yet know—was the entire reason for the ruse. (Pyktis, they later discover, stole the method for transporting the marrow from the vault so that the Apoths could not recreate it after he destroyed their one sample.)

While Kardas and Malo sprint off to investigate this new lead, Din questions Ana about her theory. She contends that, in order to obscure his true crime, the imposter returned and continued to play Sujedo even after executing his theft. Indeed, the Apoths of Yarrow have spent the previous weeks looking for Sujedo, not investigating the bank. She remains uncertain how the imposter used Sujedo’s blood, which had to be attached to a living person to open the vault. She admits to being suspicious of Kardas, whom she believes “knows too much” (88).

Din finds the Treasury bank in chaos, as Kardas and Tufwa frantically check to see if any of the other deposit boxes have been disturbed. Malo is agog when the changed box belongs to the Apoths and is heavier than previously recorded, not lighter. She explains that Apoth boxes are keyed to specific Apoths, and that to open the box, one must provide a saliva and urine sample. Kardas is baffled that one person could have privileges of a Treasury officer and an Apoth. Malo sends for Immunis Rava Ghrelin, the owner of the box.

Tufwa confirms that only Ghrelin’s box has changed. Ghrelin arrives. Din suspects that Ghrelin already knows what happened to his deposit box. (Ghrelin later admits to this.) He taps erratically with his fingers. (This, it is later revealed, shows that Ghrelin was an augur like Pyktis.) He explains that the box contained papers and “healing grafts” that were being developed to treat respiratory illnesses, but which were not yet completed. (This is untrue; the vault contained the method for transporting the marrow.)

Ghrelin opens his box. Inside, to his surprise, is a preserved human head. Between the head’s lips is a paper that reads, “For those who sip from the marrow/Te siz imperiya” (97). (This refers to Pyktis’s goal of making himself king; “Te siz imperiya” means “I am the Empire,” indicating Pyktis’s goal of becoming an autocratic ruler.) Malo urges everyone to leave so she can follow Apoth protocols for “when an organic substance is used as a tool of sabotage or tampering” (97). Ghrelin is hysterical that all his “materials” are gone.

Din waits outside the bank until an irate Malo emerges. She reports that the head was uncontaminated by any contagion. The head belonged to Princeps Traukta Kaukole, an Apoth who died two years prior. Kaukole disappeared into the canals and was presumed killed by smugglers. Din reflects that the note’s comment “Te siz imperiya” is an alteration of the common Imperial motto “Sen sez imperiya,” which means “You are the Empire,” referencing how each member of the Empire shapes the whole. The amended translation means “I am the Empire” (101). The pair lament the extremely confusing set of crimes before them.