The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War #2) - R. F. Kuang Page 0,93

dispatched one with his crossbow. Rin grappled with the other for a few minutes until at last she disarmed him and slammed her trident into his throat. She wrenched it back out and he dropped.

The doors stood wide open before them. Rin peered into the dark interior. The smell of rotting corpses hit her like a wall, so thick and sharp that her eyes watered. She covered her mouth with her sleeve. “You coming?”

Thud.

She turned. Kitay stood over the second guard, crossbow pointed down, wiping flecks of blood off his chin with the back of his hand. He caught her staring at him.

“Just making sure,” he said.

Inside they found a slaughterhouse.

Rin’s eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness. Then she saw pig carcasses everywhere she looked—tossed on the floor, piled up in the corners, splayed over tables, all sliced open with surgical precision.

“Tiger’s tits,” she muttered.

Someone had killed them all solely for their bladders. The sheer waste amazed her. So much rotting meat was piled on these floors, and refugees in the next province over were so thin their ribs pushed through their ragged garments.

“Found them,” Kitay said.

She followed his line of sight across the room. A dozen open barrels stood lined up against the wall. They contained the poison in liquid form—a noxious yellow concoction that sent toxic fumes spiraling lazily into the air above them. Above the barrels were shelves and shelves of metal canisters. More than Rin could count.

Rin had seen those canisters before, stacked neatly on shelves just like these. She’d stared up at them for hours while Mugenese scientists strapped her to a bed and forced opiates into her veins.

Kitay’s face had turned a greenish color. He knew that gas from Golyn Niis.

“I wouldn’t touch that.” A figure emerged from the stairwell opposite them. Kitay jerked his crossbow up. Rin crouched back, trident poised to throw as she squinted to make out the figure’s face in the darkness.

The figure stepped into the light. “Took you long enough.”

Kitay let his arms drop. “Niang?”

Rin wouldn’t have recognized her. War had transformed Niang. Even into their third year at Sinegard, Niang had always looked like a child—innocent, round-faced, and adorable. She’d never looked like she belonged at a military academy. Now she just looked like a soldier, scarred and hardened like the rest of them.

“Please tell me you’re not behind this,” said Kitay.

“What? The pods?” Niang traced her fingers over the edge of a barrel. Her hands were covered in angry red welts. “Clever design, wasn’t it? I was hoping someone might notice.”

As Niang moved farther into light, Rin saw that the welts hadn’t just formed on her hands. Her neck and face were mottled red, as if her skin had been scraped raw with the flat side of a blade.

“Those canisters,” Rin said. “They’re from the Federation.”

“Yes, they really saved us some labor, didn’t they?” Niang chuckled. “They produced thousands of barrels of that stuff. The Hare Warlord wanted to use it to invade Arlong, but I was smarter about it. Put it into the water, I said. Starve them out. The really hard part was converting it from a gas into a liquid. That took me weeks.”

Niang pulled a canister off the wall and weighed it in her hand, as if preparing to throw. “Think you could do better?”

Rin and Kitay flinched simultaneously.

Niang lowered her arm, snickering. “Kidding.”

“Put that down,” Kitay said quietly. His voice was taut, carefully controlled. “Let’s talk. Let’s just talk, Niang. I know someone put you up to this. You don’t have to do this.”

“I know that,” Niang said. “I volunteered. Or did you think I’d sit back and let traitors divide the Empire?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rin said.

“I know enough.” Niang lifted the canister higher. “I know you threatened to starve out the north so they’d bow to the Dragon Warlord. I know you’re going to invade our provinces if you don’t get your way.”

“So your solution is to poison the entire south?” Kitay asked.

“You’re one to talk,” Niang snarled. “You made us starve. You sold us that blighted grain. How does it feel getting a taste of your own medicine?”

“The embargo was just a threat,” Kitay said. “No one has to die.”

“People have died!” Niang pointed a finger at Rin. “How many did she kill on that island?”

Rin blinked. “Who gives a fuck about the Federation?”

“There were Militia troops there, too. Thousands of them.” Niang’s voice trembled. “The Federation took prisoners of war, shipped them