Baru knelt to be closer. “What do you know about Farrier?”

“I know that he was once a good man,” Tau-indi said, still shivering, “and that he now seeks a single treasure in his wars and expeditions—”

“A secret that will turn you against each other in civil war.”

“Yes.” A little clever gleam in Tau’s eyes. “You are his agent, as was rumored.”

“I pretend to be,” Baru said, with every scrap of belief she could scrounge. “And Tain Shir?”

“Tain Shir led his atrocities. The Invijay were not all warlike, before she led one of their nations to victory over the others. The Invijay horsefighters called her ahuihane, the Bane of Wives, because she would take husbands as her prizes. On their jungle patrols the Jackal soldiers were so afraid of her that they would whisper,” Tau swallowed, and went on, bravely but with profound fear, “a ut li-hen, a ut li-hen, ayamma, ayamma.…”

Baru knew the Invijay, distantly: Tain Hu spoke of them with contempt. Distant Tu Maia cousins from failed invasions of Oriati Mbo, diminished into nomadic tribes. But she didn’t know those words, a ut li-hen, ayamma.…

“It means,” Tau-indi husked, “it grows in her, the cancer grows. The Jackals were afraid that she had the old power.”

Baru hesitated, caught between the desire to ask—do you mean the Cancrioth?—and Execarne’s warning. She didn’t believe Tau would lie about such things. But then again, Tain Hu probably hadn’t believed Baru would lie about the freedom of her nation.…

She tried a little quip. “Shall I befriend her, then? As you befriended me?”

“No.” Tau-indi turned away, quickly, too quickly for their wound; she saw them crease up around the pain of the glass-cut down their back. “She cannot be reached. Death would be a mercy for her. Murder would be justified. Ayamma. The cancer grows.”

“You’re hurt, Your Highness.”

“You cannot help that,” Tau said, with terrible dignity. And they left in a rush of bright khanga, without saying good-bye.

Yawa picked her delicate way across coils of rope and canvas to Baru. “You should be careful,” she said, “consorting with royalty like that.”

“You seem to like Heingyl Ri well enough,” Baru said.

“She is aristocracy, and a virtuous young woman besides.”

“Do you think the Cancrioth’s just a Morrow Ministry mirage?”

“No,” Yawa said, instantly. “No, Hesychast’s shown me things … they’re real.”

“I think Tau just told me how to find them.”

“Did they,” Yawa said, with sudden interest.

“I think Tain Shir met the Cancrioth.”

Yawa hissed and pulled Baru into the shadow of a canvas tarp. “What did you say?”

“Tau just told me that Shir led an expedition into the deep jungle. In search of the ‘old science.’ Apparitor said the same thing. That she never came back.”