City of Lies: A Poison War Novel (The Poison Wars) by Sam Hawke

Author:Sam Hawke [Hawke, Sam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780765396891
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2018-07-02T21:00:00+00:00

Eel brain

DESCRIPTION: Brain of common river eel, ordinarily removed during cooking (although toxicity greatly reduced after exposure to heat).

SYMPTOMS: Vomiting, diarrhea, excessive salivation and perspiration, dehydration, loss of appetite, death.

PROOFING CUES: Taste in toxic raw form is mild but has an intense, greasy mouthfeel and thickens liquids noticeably.

14

Kalina

The first pink rays of sunlight warmed the pale stone beneath my fingers. I stretched out my stiff back, moving my aching joints through a greater range of motion, and squinted out at the army, which was stirring to life like some great beast coming out of hibernation.

For the first time in my life, I understood my brother’s desire for routine and repetition. Everything had fallen to pieces, but there was some semblance of comfort in a routine; get up, go to our sector, walk the length of the wall, meet with Chen and our other leaders for an update.

Armored poppets stood at intervals around our stretch of the wall with only a skeleton crew of real people patrolling. The rest of the Oromani section was assisting with moving key supplies from the other side of the lake. We prepared for evacuation in earnest now. Daily our watchers in the towers reported additional functional-looking contraptions rising from the army outside. The rebels had been working on some kind of tower, adding height each day—my eyes found it now, rising in the midst of their forces, menacing and silent. Eliska speculated when finished it would be the height of our walls, and would be wheeled over to allow them to cross without the vulnerability of ladders.

Chen drew my attention now to the configuration forming. “Do you see the machines there, and there? They’re moving them together. They’ll be aiming at the damaged wall.”

One of the engineers had tried to explain to me how they expected the weapons to work. I hadn’t been able to feign understanding of the mechanics of it. The tower would assist the rebels to reach the top of the wall, and the engineers suspected it would also house other weaponry at the lower levels; perhaps a suspended ram. There could be other surprises out there, waiting. But we wouldn’t be waiting much longer.

I left Chen after the report and returned to the main streets, which teemed with traffic. People carried litters or pulled small carts full of supplies, transported from the lower city. We were attempting to move not just people and possessions but also our industry facilities; all our metalworking, leather, cane, and textile works were currently in the lower city, and we needed to retain the ability to make weapons and armor if we were forced to defend from the upper city. People were being forced to work long hours in physical jobs to which they were not accustomed. Everywhere the darkened mood of the city showed itself in scowls and bickering and microaggressions.

Discontent wasn’t confined to the common man, either. Last night I’d heard Credola Nara arguing with her nephew Pedrag, the Craft-Guilder, outside their apartments; a rare sight for family members to allow such a display in public.

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