There was sufficient iron in Dema’s voice; the arurim left at a trot. Before he could open the door to the outside, a man and a woman in the white robes of priests emerged from a room next to the door. The arurim halted and raised his arms as the man surrounded him with incense smoke from a censer, and the woman rattled off the prayers for cleansing. Tris gritted her teeth. They all would have to undergo this nonsense when they tried to leave.
Demi turned to her. “What?” he demanded.
Tris shook off her thoughts about cleansing. “That was badly done, in there,” she said, pointing to the room where Yali lay. “Springing it on us like that. You could have warned us.”
“I didn’t know,” Dema retorted. “Wouldn’t it be just as cruel for me to say I think it’s a woman I’ve only seen for thirty minutes in my life, and have it turn out not to be so? There are two other yaskedasi at Ferouze’s, remember. And I have other things on my mind.”
Tris folded her arms over her chest. “Such as?”
“We have to shut down Khapik, forbid the yaskedasi to work. We need to put extra arurimi on this, as many as can be spared. I don’t want any more dead women. They have to listen to me this time,” Dema insisted, trembling with urgency. “He’s moving closer to Assembly Square. He’s taunting us — it can’t be allowed to go on, and it won’t!”
“Well, while you’re enraged over being taunted, Keth just lost somebody he cared for,” Tris said coldly. “I wish you had thought better, Dema.”
He took a step back, startled to be addressed in that tone. “I’m trying to save lives, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“So in your rush to save lives you don’t care if you shatter one or two? And they tell me I’m not kind,” Tris said flatly. “Her name was Yali. She was a friend to Iralima, and she was taking care of Iralima’s daughter.”
“You don’t understand,” Dema said wearily, rubbing his forehead.
“I don’t want to,” Tris replied.
The door to the room where Yali lay opened. Keth emerged. His eyes were red and puffy with weeping. Chime stood on his shoulder, steadying herself by gripping his hair in her forepaws. She looked at Dema and hissed, spraying him with tiny glass pellets.
“I agree,” Tris said, glaring at Dema.
Keth ignored her. To Dema he said harshly, “You have to close Khapik. Before he kills anyone else. How does he come and go unseen, even in Achaya Square? I know the amrim patrol up there.”
“I’m going to see the Keepers of the Public Good today, to petition them to shut Khapik,” replied Dema, leaning against the wall. He looked exhausted. “As for how…” He grimaced. “There are service and sewage tunnels throughout the city.”
“Wonderful,” Keth said sarcastically. “Let me guess. Nobody wants to see the prathmuni and servants at work.”
Dema nodded. “This entire city is a giant sieve. It can’t be guarded well, though I’ll bet the Assembly authorizes the money for more guards. They’ll have to pay a lot to get them into the sewers, and they’ll have to have priests to cleanse them, or no one will do it. Even the arurim prathmuni refuse sewer duty.” His voice, cracking with exhaustion, softened. “Keth, I’m sorry. My mind was going in six different directions… You were close?”
Keth nodded. “I have to go home,” he said. “I want them hearing it from me.”
“Did she work last night?” asked Dema.
“Yes,” Tris replied softly.
“You know how it is for most of the street yaskedasi,” explained Keth. “If they don’t work, they don’t eat, they risk losing their lodgings… And Yali was clever. She wouldn’t take risks.” He looked at Tris. “I can’t go back to Touchstone — ”
She shook her head. “I’ll go to Ferouze’s with you,” she said, thinking, Maybe I can do him some good.
After a moment’s hesitation, Keth nodded.
“Let’s get cleansed, then,” said Dema, leading them to the priests. “Keth, take your horses with you. Just have someone return them to Elya Street.”
Tris endured it as the priests worked their cleansing with incense and prayers, her mind racing furiously. As they mounted their horses, she asked Dema, “Do you think your Keepers will listen?”
“They must.” Dema gathered the reins and urged his horse to a trot down Noskemiou Way.
As Dema trotted through Achaya Square, he saw that the priests of the All-Seeing had already erected