Copyright

HarperVoyager

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2015

Copyright © Peter V. Brett 2015

Ward artwork designed by Lauren K. Cannon, copyright © Peter V. Brett

Map by Andrew Ashton

Jacket layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015

Jacket illustration by Larry Rostant

Peter V. Brett asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007425686

Ebook Edition © April 2015 ISBN: 9780007425709

Version: 2018-02-16

Dedication

For Lauren

Map

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Map

Prologue: No Victor

Chapter 1: The Hunt

Chapter 2: Vacuum

Chapter 3: Ashia

Chapter 4: Sharum Blood

Chapter 5: Kajivah

Chapter 6: A Man Is Nothing

Chapter 7: More Sack Than Sense

Chapter 8: The True Warrior

Chapter 9: Anoch Sun

Chapter 10: The Chin Rebellion

Chapter 11: Docktown

Chapter 12: Filling the Hollow

Chapter 13: Foul Meat

Chapter 14: The Prisoner

Chapter 15: The Painted Children

Chapter 16: Demon’s Heir

Chapter 17: Goldentone

Chapter 18: A Whisper of Night

Chapter 19: Tea Politics

Chapter 20: Sibling Rivalry

Chapter 21: The Weed Gatherer

Chapter 22: Bachelor’s Ball

Chapter 23: Inquisition

Chapter 24: Briar

Chapter 25: The Spy

Chapter 26: First Strike

Chapter 27: Dama in the Dark

Chapter 28: Shar’Dama

Chapter 29: Dama Gorja

Chapter 30: The Princess’ Guard

Chapter 31: Whistler

Chapter 32: The Night of Hora

Chapter 33: A Voice in the Dark

Jardir Family Tree

Krasian Dictionary

Acknowledgements

About the Author

By the Same Author

About the Publisher

PROLOGUE
No Victor
333 AR Autumn

‘No!’ Inevera reached out, clutching empty air as the Par’chin pitched himself and her husband over the cliff.

Taking with them all the hope of the human race.

On the opposite side of the circle of combat, Leesha Paper let out a similar cry. The strict ritual laws of Domin Sharum were forgotten as witnesses from both sides rushed to the precipice, crowding together to peer into the darkness that had swallowed the combatants.

In Everam’s light, Inevera could see as clearly in darkness as brightest day, the world defined by magic’s glow. But magic was drawn to life, and there was little below save barren rock and dirt. The two men, glowing as fiercely as the sun a moment ago, had vanished into the dull gloom of ambient magic as it vented to the surface.

Inevera twisted her earring, the hora stone within attuned to its mate on her husband’s ear, but she heard nothing. It could be out of range, or broken in the fall.

Or there might be nothing to hear. She suppressed a shiver as a chill mountain wind blew over her.

She glanced at the others clustered at the edge, reading their expressions, searching for a hint of betrayal, a sign one of them had known this was coming. She read the magic that emanated from them, as well. The circlet of warded electrum coins she wore did not let her read spirits as fluidly as her husband did with the Crown of Kaji, but she was getting more and more skilled at reading emotions. Shock was clear throughout the group. There were variations from one to another, but this was not the outcome any of them had expected.

Even Abban, the smug liar, always hiding something, stood horrified. He and Inevera had been bitter rivals, each attempting to undo the other, but he loved Ahmann as much as an honourless khaffit could, and stood to lose more than any, should he prove dead.

I should have poisoned the Par’chin’s tea, Inevera thought, remembering the guileless face of the Par’chin the night he appeared from the desert with the Spear of Kaji. Pricked him with a venom-dipped needle. Put an asp in his pillows as he dozed before alagai’sharak. Even claimed offence and killed him with my bare hands. Anything but leave it to Ahmann. His heart was too true for murder and betrayal, even with the fate of Ala in the balance.

Was. Already she used the past tense, though he had been gone only seconds.

‘We must find them.’ Jayan’s voice sounded miles away, though her eldest son stood right beside her.

‘Yes,’ Inevera agreed, thoughts still spinning, ‘though it will be difficult in the darkness.’ Already, the cries of wind demons echoed off the cliffs, along with the deep rumble of the mountain stone demons. ‘I will cast the hora to guide us.’

‘Core with waitin’ on that,’ the Par’chin’s Jiwah Ka said, shouldering Rojer and Gared aside as she dropped to her belly and swung her legs over the edge of the cliff.

‘Renna!’ Leesha grabbed for her wrist, but Renna was too fast, dropping quickly out of reach. The young woman glowed brightly with magic. Not so brightly as the Par’chin, but brighter than any other she had ever seen. Her fingers and toes drove into the cliff face like a demon’s talons, cracking stone to create her holds.

Inevera turned to Shanjat. ‘Follow her. Mark your trail.’

To his credit, Shanjat showed none of the fear that ran through his aura as he looked at the cliff. ‘Yes, Damajah.’ He punched a fist to his chest and slung his spear and shield over his back, dropping to his belly and swinging over the edge, picking his way carefully down.

Inevera wondered if the task might be beyond him. Shanjat was as strong as any man, but he had killed no demons this night, and did not possess the inhuman strength that allowed Renna am’Bales to claw her own path.

But the kai’Sharum surprised her, and perhaps himself, using many of the fissures the Par’chin’s wife made for his own holds. Soon he, too, vanished into the gloom.

‘If you’re going to throw your bones, do it now, so we can begin the search,’ Leesha Paper said.

Inevera looked at the greenland whore, suppressing the snarl that threatened her serene expression. Of course she wanted to see Inevera cast the dice. No doubt she was desperate to learn the wards of prophecy. As if she had not stolen enough from Inevera.

None of the others knew, but the dice had told her Leesha carried Ahmann’s child in her belly, threatening everything Inevera had built. She fought the urge to draw her knife and cut the babe free now, ending the trouble before it began. They would not be able to stop her. The greenlanders were formidable, but no match for her sons and two Damaji sharusahk masters.

She breathed, finding her centre. Inevera wanted to heap all her anger and fear upon the woman, but it was not Leesha Paper’s fault that men were proud fools. No doubt she’d attempted to dissuade the Par’chin from issuing his challenge, much as Inevera had tried to dissuade Ahmann from accepting it.

Perhaps their battle had been inevitable. Perhaps Ala could not suffer two Deliverers. But now there was none, and that was worse by far.

Without Ahmann, the Krasian alliance would crumble, the Damaji devolving into bickering warlords. They would kill Ahmann’s dama sons, then turn on one another, and to the abyss with Sharak Ka.

Inevera looked to Damaji Aleverak of the Majah, who had proven the greatest obstacle to Ahmann’s ascension, and one of his most valuable advisors. His loyalty to Shar’Dama Ka was without question, but that would not stop him from killing Maji, Ahmann’s Majah son, that he never supplant the Aleverak’s son Aleveran.

An heir could still unite the tribes, perhaps, but who? Neither of her sons was ready for the task, her dice said, but they would not see it that way, nor give up interim power once granted. Jayan and Asome had always been rivals, and powerful allies would flock to them both. If the Damaji did not tear her people apart, her sons might do it for them.

Inevera moved wordlessly into the ring where the two would-be Deliverers had fought mere moments before. Both men had left blood on the ground, and she knelt, pressing her hands where it had fallen, wetting them as she took the dice in hand and shook. The Krasians formed a ring about her, keeping the greenlanders at bay.

Carved from the bones of a demon prince and coated in electrum, Inevera’s dice were the most powerful set any dama’ting had carried since the time of the first Damajah. They throbbed with power, glowing fiercely in the darkness. She threw and the wards of foretelling flared, pulling the dice to a stop in that unnatural way they had, forming a pattern of symbols for her to read. It would have been meaningless to most. Even dama’ting argued over the interpretations of a throw, but Inevera could read them as easily as words on parchment. They had guided her through decades of tumult and upheaval, but as was often the case, the answer they gave was vague, and brought little relief.

—There is no victor—

What did it mean? Had the fall killed them both? Did the battle still rage below? A thousand questions roiled within her and she threw again, but the resulting pattern was unchanged, as she had known it would be.

‘Well?’ the Northern whore asked. ‘What do they say?’

Inevera bit back a sharp retort, knowing her next words were crucial. In the end, she decided the truth – or most of it – was as good an answer as any to hold the plotting of the ambitious minds around her at bay.

‘There is no victor,’ she said. ‘The battle continues below, and only Everam knows how it will end. We must find them, and quickly.’

It took hours to descend the mountain. The darkness did not slow them – all of this elite group could see by magic’s glow – but rock and stone demons haunted the trail now, blending in perfectly with the mountainside. Wind demons shrieked in the sky, circling.

Rojer took up his instrument, coaxing the mournful sounds of the Song of Waning from its strings, keeping the alagai at bay. Amanvah lifted her voice to accompany him, their music enhanced by hora magic to fill the night. Even amidst the despairing wind that threatened to bend the palm of her centre to breaking, Inevera found pride in her daughter’s skills.

Wrapped in the protections of the son of Jessum’s strange magic, they were safe from the alagai, but it was slow going. Inevera’s fingers itched to take the electrum wand from her belt, blasting demons from her path as she raced to her husband’s side, but she did not wish to reveal its power to the Northerners, and it would only attract more alagai in any event. Instead, she was forced to keep the steady pace Rojer set, even as Ahmann and the Par’chin likely bled to death in some forgotten valley.

She shook the thought away. Ahmann was the chosen of Everam. She must trust that He granted His Shar’Dama Ka some miracle in his time of greatest need.

He was alive. He had to be.

Leesha rode in silence, and even Thamos was not fool enough to disturb her. The count might share her bed more oft than not, but she did not love him as she had Arlen … or Ahmann. Her heart had torn watching them fight.

It seemed Arlen held every advantage going in, and if she’d had to choose, she would not have had it another way. But Arlen’s tormented soul had found a kind of peace in recent days, and she’d hoped he could force a submission from Ahmann and end the battle without death.

She’d cried out when Ahmann stabbed Arlen with the Spear of Kaji – perhaps the only weapon in the world that could harm him. The battle had turned in that moment, and for the first time her anger at Ahmann had threatened to become hate.

But when Arlen pitched them both over the cliff rather than lose, her stomach had wrenched as Ahmann dropped from sight. The child in her belly was less than eight weeks formed, but she could have sworn it kicked as its father fell into darkness.

Arlen’s powers had been growing ever stronger in the year since she met him. Sometimes it seemed there was nothing he could not do, and even Leesha wondered if he might be the Deliverer. He could dissolve and protect himself from the impact. Ahmann could not.

But even Arlen had his limits, and Ahmann had tested them in ways no one had expected. Leesha remembered vividly the fall, mere weeks past, that had left Arlen a broken spatter on the cobblestones of the Hollow, his skull cracked like a boiled egg struck against the table.

If only Renna had not rushed after them. The woman knew something of Arlen’s plans. More than she was telling.

They doubled back long before reaching the mountain’s base, avoiding the pass watched by scouts from both their armies. Perhaps war was inevitable, but neither side wished for it to begin tonight.

The mountain paths wound and split. More than once, Inevera had to consult the dice to choose their path, kneeling on the ground to cast while the rest of them waited impatiently. Leesha longed to know what the woman saw in that jumble of symbols, but she knew enough not to doubt there was real power in the foretellings.

It was nearing dawn when they found the first of Shanjat’s markers. Inevera picked up her pace and the others followed, racing along the trail as the horizon began to take on a purplish tinge.

They had not been noticed by the Watchers stationed at the base of the mountain, but Inevera’s bodyguards Ashia and Shanvah had crept unseen up the slope and silently fell in with them. The greenland prince glanced at them but shook his head dismissively when he noticed they were women.

At last they came upon Renna and Shanjat, the two watching each other warily as they waited. Shanjat moved quickly to stand before Inevera, punching his chest with a bow. ‘The trail ends here, Damajah.’

They dismounted and followed the warrior to a spot not far off where a man-sized depression lay, dirt and shattered stone telling of a great impact. Blood spattered the ground, but there were footprints, as well – signs of continued struggle.

‘You’ve followed the trail?’ Inevera asked.

Shanjat nodded. ‘It vanishes not far from here. I thought it best to await further instruction before ranging too far.’

‘Renna?’ Leesha asked.

The Par’chin’s Jiwah Ka was staring at the bloody crater with a glazed look in her eyes, her powerful aura unreadable. She nodded numbly. ‘We’ve been circling the area for hours. It’s like they grew wings.’

‘Carried off by a wind demon?’ Wonda ventured.

Renna shrugged. ‘Reckon it’s possible, but hard to believe.’

Inevera nodded. ‘No demon could ever touch my sacred husband, but that he willed it.’

‘What of the spear?’ Jayan asked. Inevera looked at him sadly. It came as no great surprise that her eldest son cared more for the sacred weapon than his own father, but it saddened her nonetheless. Asome, at least, had the courtesy to keep such thoughts to himself.

Shanjat shook his head. ‘There has been no sign of the holy weapon, Sharum Ka.’

‘There is fresh blood,’ Inevera said, looking at the horizon. Dawn was minutes away, but she might manage one last foretelling. She reached into her hora pouch, gripping her dice so tightly the edges dug painfully into her hand as she went to kneel by the crater.

Normally she would not have dared to expose the sensitive dice to even predawn light. Direct sunlight would destroy demon bone, and even indirect light could cause permanent damage. But the electrum she had coated them in protected them even in brightest sun. Like the Spear of Kaji, their power would deplete rapidly in the light, but they could be charged again when night fell.

Her hand shook as she reached out. She needed to breathe for several seconds to find her centre before she could continue, touching the blood of her husband for the second time this night and using it to seek his fate.

‘Blessed Everam, Creator of all things, give me knowledge of the combatants, Ahmann asu Hoshkamin am’Jardir am’Kaji, and Arlen asu Jeph am’Bales am’Brook. I beseech you, tell me of the fate that has befallen them, and the fates yet to come.’

The power throbbed in her fingers and she threw, staring hard at the pattern.

When questioned on things that were, or had been, the dice spoke with cold – if often cryptic – assurance. But the future was always shifting, its sands blowing with every choice made. The dice gave hints, like signposts in the desert, but the farther one looked, the more the paths diverged, until one became lost in the dunes.

Ahmann’s future had always been filled with divergences. Futures where he carried the fate of humanity, and ones where he died in shame. Death on alagai talon was the most common, but there were knives at his back always, and spears pointed at his heart. Those that would give their lives for his, and those waiting to betray.

Many of those paths were closed now. Whatever happened, Ahmann would not return soon, and likely not at all. The thought set a cold fear writhing through Inevera’s gut.

The others held their collective breath, waiting on her words, and Inevera knew the fate of her people lay upon them. She remembered the words of the dice so many years ago:

—The Deliverer is not born. He is made.—

If Ahmann did not return to her, she would make another.

She looked at the myriad dooms that awaited her love, and plucked one from the rest. The only fate that would let her hold power until a suitable heir could be found.

‘The Deliverer has passed beyond our reach,’ Inevera said at last. ‘He follows a demon to the abyss itself.’

‘So the Par’chin is a demon after all,’ Ashan said.

The dice said no such thing, but Inevera nodded. ‘It would appear so.’

Gared spat on the ground. ‘Said “Deliverer”. Din’t say “Shar’Dama Ka”.’

The Damaji turned to him, regarding him the way a man might look at an insect, wondering if it was worth the effort to crush. ‘They are one and the same.’

This time it was Wonda who spat. ‘Core they are.’

Jayan stepped in, balling a fist as if to strike her, but Renna Tanner moved to interpose herself. The wards on her skin flared, and even Inevera’s impulsive eldest son thought better of challenging her. It would not do to be beaten down by a woman before the very men he must convince to let him take the throne.

Jayan turned back to his mother. ‘And the spear?’ he demanded.

‘Lost,’ Inevera said. ‘It will be found again when Everam wills it, and not before.’

‘So we are to simply give up?’ Asome asked. ‘Leave Father to his fate?’

‘Of course not.’ Inevera turned to Shanjat. ‘Find the trail again and hunt. Follow every bent blade of grass and loose pebble. Do not return without the Deliverer or reliable news of his fate, even if it takes a thousand years.’

‘Yes, Damajah.’ Shanjat punched his chest.

Inevera turned to Shanvah. ‘Go with your father. Obey and protect him on his journey. His goal is your goal.’

The young woman bowed silently. Ashia squeezed her shoulder and their eyes met, then father and daughter were off.

Leesha turned to Wonda. ‘You have a look as well, but be back in an hour.’

Wonda grinned, showing a confidence that filled Inevera with envy. ‘Wan’t planning to hunt till my hair turns grey. Deliverer comes and goes, but he’ll be back, you’ll see.’ A moment later she, too, was gone.

‘Goin’ too,’ Renna said, but Leesha caught her arm.

The woman glared at her. Leesha quickly let go but did not back down. ‘Stay a moment, please.’

Even the Northerners are afraid of the Par’chin and his woman, Inevera noted, filing the information away as the two women moved off to speak in private.

‘Ashan, walk with me,’ she said, looking to the Damaji. The two of them stepped away as the others remained dumbstruck.

‘I cannot believe he is gone,’ Ashan said, his voice hollow. He and Ahmann had been as brothers for over twenty years. He had been the first dama to support Ahmann’s rise to Shar’Dama Ka, and believed in his divinity without question. ‘It seems like a dream.’

Inevera did not preamble. ‘You must take the Skull Throne as Andrah. You are the only one who can do it without inciting a war and hold it against my husband’s return.’

Ashan shook his head. ‘You are mistaken if you think that, Damajah.’

‘It was the Shar’Dama Ka’s wish,’ Inevera reminded him. ‘You swore an oath before him, and me.’

‘That was if he were to fall in battle at Waning, with all to see,’ Ashan said, ‘not killed by a greenlander on some forgotten mountainside. The throne should go to Jayan or Asome.’

‘He told you his sons were not ready for that burden,’ Inevera said. ‘Do you think that has changed in the last fortnight? My sons are cunning, but they are not yet wise. The dice foretell they will tear Everam’s Bounty asunder vying for the throne, and should one climb to the top of the bloodied steps and sit, he will not rise on his father’s return.’

‘If he returns,’ Ashan noted.

‘He will,’ Inevera said. ‘Likely with all the Core behind him. When he does, he will need all the armies of Ala to answer his call, and have neither time nor desire to kill his son to regain control.’

‘I don’t like it,’ Ashan said. ‘I have never coveted power.’

‘It is inevera,’ she told him. ‘Your likes are irrelevant, and your humility before Everam is why it must be you.’

‘Be quick,’ Renna said, as Leesha led her aside. ‘Wasted enough time already waitin’ on you lot. Arlen’s out there somewhere and I need to find him.’

‘Demonshit,’ Leesha snapped. ‘I don’t know you that well, Renna Bales, but well enough to know you wouldn’t have waited ten seconds on me if your husband was still unaccounted for. You and Arlen planned this. Where has he gone? What’s he done with Ahmann?’

‘Callin’ me a liar?’ Renna growled. Her brows tightened, fingers curling into fists.

For some reason, the bluster only made Leesha all the more sure of her guess. She doubted the woman would really strike her, but she held a pinch of blinding powder and would use it if need be.

‘Please,’ she said, keeping her voice calm. ‘If you know something, tell me. I swear to the Creator you can trust me.’

Renna seemed to calm a bit at that, relaxing her hands, but she held them palms up. ‘Search my pockets, you’ll find no answers.’

‘Renna,’ Leesha struggled to maintain her composure, ‘I know we had an ill start. You’ve little reason to like me, but this isn’t a game. You’re putting everyone at risk by keeping secrets.’

Renna barked a laugh. ‘If that ent the night callin’ it dark.’ She poked Leesha in the chest, hard enough to knock her back a step. ‘You’re the one got the demon of the desert’s baby in your belly. You think that ent puttin’ folk at risk?’

Leesha felt her face go cold, but she bulled forward, lest her silence confirm the guess. She lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. ‘Who told you that nonsense?’

‘You did,’ Renna said. ‘I can hear a butterfly flap its wings across a cornfield. Arlen, too. We both heard what you said to Jardir. You’re carrying his child, and setting the count up to take the blame.’

It was true enough. A ridiculous plot of her mother’s that Leesha had foolishly brought to fruition. It was doubtful the deception would last past the child’s birth, but that was seven months to prepare – or run and hide – before the Krasians came for her child.

‘All the more reason I find out what happened to Ahmann,’ Leesha said, hating the pleading tone that had slipped into her voice.

‘Ent got a notion,’ Renna said. ‘Wastin’ time should be spent lookin’.’

Leesha nodded, knowing when she was beaten. ‘Please don’t tell Thamos,’ she said. ‘I’ll tell him in time, honest word. But not now, with half the Krasian army just a few miles off.’

Renna snorted. ‘Ent stupid. How’d a Gatherer like you get pregnant, anyway? Even a dumb Tanner knows to pull out.’

Leesha dropped her eyes, unable to keep contact with Renna’s intense gaze. ‘Asked myself that same question.’ She shrugged. ‘History’s full of folk whose parents knew better.’

‘Din’t ask about history,’ Renna said. ‘Asked why the smartest woman in the Hollow’s got wood for brains. No one ever tell you how babes are made?’

Leesha bared her teeth at that. The woman had a point, but she’d no right to judge. ‘If you won’t tell me your secrets, I’ve no reason to trust you with mine.’ She swept a hand out at the valley. ‘Go. Pretend to look for Arlen till we’re out of sight, then go and meet him. I won’t stop you.’

Renna smiled. ‘As if you could.’ She blurred and was gone.

Why did I let her get to me? Leesha wondered, but her fingers slipped to her belly, and she knew full well.

Because she was right.

Leesha had been drunk on couzi the first time she’d kissed Ahmann. She hadn’t planned to stick him that first afternoon, but neither had she resisted when he moved to take her. She’d foolishly assumed he wouldn’t spend in her before marriage, but Krasians considered it a sin for a man to waste his seed. She’d felt him increase his pace, beginning to grunt, and could have pulled away. But a part of her had wanted it, too. To feel a man pulse and jerk within her, and corespawn the risk. It was a thrill she’d ridden to her own crescendo.

She’d meant to brew pomm tea that night, but instead found herself kidnapped by Inevera’s Watchers, ending the night battling a mind demon by the Damajah’s side. Leesha took a double dose the next day, and every time they had lain together since, but as her mentor Bruna said, ‘Sometimes a strong child finds a way, no matter what you do.’

Inevera eyed Thamos, the greenland princeling, as he stood before Ashan. He was a big man, tall and muscular but not without a share of grace. He moved like a warrior.

‘I expect you’ll want your men to search the valley,’ he said.

Ashan nodded. ‘And you, yours.’

Thamos gave a nod in return. ‘A hundred men each?’

‘Five hundred,’ Ashan said, ‘with the truce of Domin Sharum upon them.’ Inevera saw the princeling’s jaw tighten. Five hundred men was nothing to the Krasians, the tiniest fraction of the Deliverer’s army. But it was more men than Thamos wished to spare.

Still, the princeling had little choice but to agree, and he gave his assent. ‘How do I know your warriors will keep the peace? The last thing we need is for this valley to turn into a war zone.’

‘My warriors will keep their veils up, even in the day,’ Ashan said. ‘They would not dare disobey. It’s your men I worry over. I would hate to see them hurt in a misunderstanding.’

The princeling showed his teeth at that. ‘I think there’d be hurt enough to go around. How is hiding their faces supposed to guarantee peace? A man with his face hidden fears no reprisal.’

Ashan shook his head. ‘It’s a wonder you savages have survived the night so long. Men remember the faces of those who have wronged them, and those enmities are hard to put aside. We wear veils in the night, so that all may fight as brothers, their blood feuds forgotten. If your men cover their faces, there will be no further blood spilled in this Everam-cursed valley.’

‘Fine,’ the princeling said. ‘Done.’ He gave a short, shallow bow, the barest respect to a man who was a dozen times his better, and turned, striding away. The other greenlanders followed.

‘The Northerners will pay for their disrespect,’ Jayan said.

‘Perhaps,’ Inevera said, ‘but not today. We must return to Everam’s Bounty, and quickly.’

1
The Hunt
333 AR Autumn

Jardir woke at sunset, his mind thick with fog. He was lying in a Northern bed – one giant pillow instead of many. The bedcloth was rough, nothing like the silk to which he had become accustomed. The room was circular, with warded glass windows all around. A tower of some sort. Untamed land spread into the twilight, but he recognized none of it.

Where in Ala am I?

Pain lanced through him as he stirred, but pain was an old companion, embraced and forgotten. He pulled himself into a sitting position, rigid legs scraping against each other. He pulled the blanket aside. Plaster casts running thigh-to-foot. His toes, swollen in red, purple, and yellow, peeked from the far ends, close, yet utterly out of reach. He flexed them experimentally, ignoring the pain, and was satisfied with the slight twitch that rewarded him.

It harkened back to the broken arm he’d suffered as a child, and the helplessness of his weeks of healing.

He reached immediately to the nightstand for the crown. Even in day, there was magic enough stored within to heal a few broken bones, especially ones already set.

His hands met empty air. Jardir turned and stared a long moment before the situation registered. It had been years since he had let himself be out of arm’s reach of his crown and spear, but both were missing.

Memories came back to him in a rush. The fight atop the mountain with the Par’chin. How the son of Jeph had collapsed into smoke as Jardir struck, only to solidify an instant later, grabbing the spear shaft with inhuman strength and twisting it from his grasp.

And then the Par’chin turned and threw it from the cliff as if it were nothing more than a gnawed melon rind.

Jardir licked cracked lips. His mouth was dry and his bladder full, but both needs had been provided for. The water at his bedside was sweet, and with some effort he managed use of the chamber pot his searching fingers found on the floor just underneath the bed.

His chest was bound tightly, ribs grinding as he shifted. Over the bandages he was clad in a thin robe – tan, he noted. The Par’chin’s idea of a joke, perhaps.

There was no door, simply a stair leading up into the room – as good as prison bars in his current state. There were no other exits, nor did the steps continue on. He was at the top of the tower. The room was sparsely furnished. A small table by the bedside. A single chair.

There was a sound in the stairwell. Jardir froze, listening. He might be bereft of his crown and spear, but years of absorbing magic through them had remade his body as close to Everam’s image as a mortal form could be. He had the eyes of a hawk, the nose of a wolf, and the ears of a bat.

‘Sure you can handle him?’ the Par’chin’s First Wife said. ‘Thought he was going to kill you out on that cliff.’

‘No worries, Ren,’ the Par’chin said. ‘He can’t hurt me without the spear.’

‘Can in daylight,’ Renna said.

‘Not with two broken legs,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Got this, Ren. Honest word.’

We shall see, Par’chin.

There was a smacking of lips as the son of Jeph kissed his jiwah’s remaining protests away. ‘Need you back in the Hollow keepin’ an eye on things. Now, ’fore they get suspicious.’

‘Leesha Paper’s already suspicious,’ Renna said. ‘Her guesses ent far from the mark.’

‘Don’t matter, long as they stay guesses,’ the Par’chin said. ‘You just keep playin’ dim, no matter what she says or does.’

Renna gave a stunted laugh. ‘Ay, that won’t be a problem. Like makin’ her want to spit.’

‘Don’t waste too much time on it,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Need you to protect the Hollow, but keep a low profile. Strengthen the folk, but let them carry the weight. I’ll skate in when I can, but only to see you. No one else can know I’m alive.’

‘Don’t like it,’ Renna said. ‘Man and wife shouldn’t be apart like this.’

The Par’chin sighed. ‘Ent nothin’ for it, Ren. Bettin’ the farm on this throw. Can’t afford to lose. I’ll see you soon enough.’

‘Ay,’ Renna said. ‘Love you, Arlen Bales.’

‘Love you, Renna Bales,’ the Par’chin said. They kissed again, and Jardir heard rapid footsteps as she descended the tower. The Par’chin, however, began to climb.

For a moment Jardir thought to feign sleep. Perhaps he might learn something; gain the element of surprise.

He shook his head. I am Shar’Dama Ka. It is beneath me to hide. I will meet the Par’chin’s eyes and see what remains of the man I knew.

He propped himself up, embracing the roar of pain in his legs. His face was serene as the Par’chin entered. He wore plain clothes, much as he had when they first met, a cotton shirt of faded white and worn denim trousers with a leather Messenger satchel slung over one shoulder. His feet were bare, pant and shirt cuffs rolled to show the wards he had inked into his skin. His sand-coloured hair was shaved away, and the face Jardir remembered was barely recognizable under all the markings.

Even without his crown, Jardir could sense the power of those symbols, but the strength came with a heavy price. The Par’chin looked more like a page from one of the holy scrolls of warding than a man.

‘What have you done to yourself, old friend?’ He had not meant to speak the words aloud, but something pushed him.

‘Got a lot of nerve callin’ me that, after what you did,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Din’t do this to myself. You did this to me.’

‘I?’ Jardir asked. ‘I took ink and profaned your body with it?’

The Par’chin shook his head. ‘You left me to die in the desert, without weapon or succour, and knew I’d be corespawned before I let the alagai have me. My body was the only thing you left me to ward.’

With those words, all Jardir’s questions about how the Par’chin had survived were answered. In his mind’s eye he saw his friend alone in the desert, parched and bloodied as he beat alagai to death with his bare hands.

It was glorious.

The Evejah forbade the tattooing of flesh, but it forbade many things Jardir had since permitted for the sake of Sharak Ka. He wanted to condemn the Par’chin, but his throat tightened at the truth of the man’s words.

Jardir shivered as a chill of doubt touched his centre. No thing happened, but that Everam willed it. It was inevera that the Par’chin should live to meet him again. The dice said each of them might be the Deliverer. Jardir had dedicated his life to being worthy of that title. He was proud of his accomplishments, but could not deny that his ajin’pal, the brave outsider, might have greater honour in Everam’s eyes.

‘You play at rituals you do not understand, Par’chin,’ he said. ‘Domin Sharum is to the death, and victory was yours. Why did you not take it and claim your place at the lead of the First War?’

The Par’chin sighed. ‘There’s no victory in your death, Ahmann.’

‘Then you admit I am the Deliverer?’ Jardir asked. ‘If that is so, then return my spear and crown to me, put your head to the floor, and have done. All will be forgiven, and we can face Nie side by side once more.’

The Par’chin snorted. He set his satchel on the table, reaching inside. The Crown of Kaji gleamed even in the growing darkness, its nine gems glittering. Jardir could not deny the desire the item stirred in him. If he’d had legs to stand, he would have leapt for it.

‘Crown’s right here.’ The Par’chin spun the pointed circlet on a finger like a child’s hoop toy. ‘But the spear ent yours. Least, not ’less I decide to give it to you. Hidden where you can never get it, even if your legs wern’t casted.’

‘The holy items belong together,’ Jardir said.

The Par’chin sighed again. ‘Nothing’s holy, Ahmann. Told you once before Heaven was a lie. You threatened to kill me over the words, but that doesn’t make ’em any less true.’

Jardir opened his mouth to reply, angry words forming on his lips, but the Par’chin cut him off, catching the spinning crown in a firm grip and holding it up. As he did, the wards on his skin throbbed briefly with light, and those on the crown began to glow.

‘This,’ the Par’chin said of the crown, ‘is a thin band of mind demon skull and nine horns, coated in a warded alloy of silver and gold, focused by gemstones. It is a masterwork of wardcraft, but nothing more.’

He smiled. ‘Much as your earring was.’

Jardir started, raising his hand to touch the bare lobe his wedding ring had once pierced. ‘Do you mean to steal my First Wife, as well as my throne?’

The Par’chin laughed, a genuine sound Jardir had not heard in years. A sound he could not deny he had missed.

‘Not sure which would be the greater burden,’ the Par’chin said. ‘I want neither. I have a wife, and among my people one is more’n enough.’

Jardir felt a smile tug at his lips, and he let it show. ‘A worthy Jiwah Ka is both support and burden, Par’chin. They challenge us to be better men, and that is ever a struggle.’

The Par’chin nodded. ‘Honest word.’

‘Then why have you stolen my ring?’ Jardir demanded.

‘Just holding on to it while you’re under my roof,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Can’t have you calling for help.’

‘Eh?’ Jardir said.

The Par’chin tilted his head at him, and Jardir could feel the son of Jeph’s gaze reaching into his soul, much as Jardir did when he had the gift of crownsight. How did the Par’chin do it without the crown at his brow?

‘You don’t know,’ the Par’chin said after a moment. He barked a laugh. ‘Giving me marriage advice while your own wife spies on you!’

The derision in his tone angered Jardir, and his brows drew tight despite his desire to keep his face calm. ‘What is that supposed to mean?’

The Par’chin reached into his pocket, producing the earring. It was a simple hoop of gold with a delicate warded ball hanging from it. ‘There’s a broken piece of demon bone in here, with its opposite half in your wife’s ear. Lets her hear everything you do.’

Suddenly so many mysteries became clear to Jardir. How his wife seemed to know his every plan and secret. Much of her information came from the dice, but the alagai hora spoke in riddles as oft as not. He should have known cunning Inevera would not rely on her castings alone.

‘So she knows you’ve kidnapped me?’ Jardir asked.

The Par’chin shook his head. ‘Blocked its power. She won’t be able to find you before we’re finished here.’

Jardir crossed his arms. ‘Finished with what? You will not follow me, and I will not follow you. We stand at the same impasse we found five years ago in the Maze.’

The Par’chin nodded. ‘You couldn’t bring yourself to kill me then, and it forced me to change how I see the world. Offering you the same.’ With that, he tossed the crown across the room.

Instinctively, Jardir caught it. ‘Why return it to me? Won’t this heal my wounds? You may have difficulty holding me without them.’

The Par’chin shrugged. ‘Don’t think you’ll leave without the spear, but I’ve drained the crown in any event. Not a lot of magic venting from the Core makes it this high,’ he waved his hand at the windows circling the room on all sides, ‘and the sun cleans out this room each morning. It’ll give you crownsight, but not much else until it’s recharged.’

‘So why return it to me?’ Jardir asked again.

‘Thought we might have a talk,’ the Par’chin said. ‘And I want you to see my aura while we do. Want you see the truth of my words, the strength of my convictions, written on my very soul. Perhaps then, you’ll come to see.’

‘Come to see what?’ Jardir asked. ‘That Heaven is a lie? Nothing written on your soul can do that, Par’chin.’ Nevertheless, he slipped the crown onto his head. Immediately the darkened room came alive with crownsight, and Jardir breathed deep in relief, like the blind man in the Evejah, given his sight back by Kaji.

Through the windows, land that had been nothing but shadows and vague shapes a moment ago became sharply defined, lit with the magic that vented from Ala. All living things held a spark of power at their core, and Jardir could see strength glowing in the trunks of trees, the moss that clung to them, and every animal that lived within their branches and bark. It ran through the grasses of the plains and, most of all, in the demons that stalked the land and rode the winds. The alagai shone like beacons, waking a primal desire in him to hunt and kill.

As the Par’chin had warned, his cell was dimmer. Small tendrils of power drifted up the tower walls, Drawn to the wards etched into the glass windows. They flickered to life, a shield against the alagai.

But though the room was dim, the Par’chin shone brighter than a demon. So bright it should be difficult to look at him. But it was not. Quite the contrary, the magic was glorious to behold, rich and tempting. Jardir reached out through the crown, attempting to Draw a touch of it to himself. Not so much the Par’chin might sense the drain, but perhaps enough to speed his healing. A wisp of power snaked through the air towards him like incense smoke.

The Par’chin had shaved his brows, but the wards above his left eye lifted in an unmistakable expression. His aura shifted, showing more bemusement than offence. ‘Ah-ah. Get your own.’ Abruptly, the magic reversed its flow and was Drawn back into him.

Jardir kept his face calm, though he doubted it made a difference. The Par’chin was right. He could read the man’s aura, seeing his every feeling, and had no doubt his old friend could do the same. The Par’chin was calm, centred, and meant Jardir no harm. There was no deception in him. Only weariness, and fear Jardir would be too rigid to give his words fair consideration.

‘Tell me again why I am here, Par’chin,’ Jardir said. ‘If your goal is truly as you have always said, to rid the world of alagai, then why do you oppose me? I am close to fulfilling your dream.’

‘Not as close as you think,’ the Par’chin said. ‘And the way you’re doing it disgusts me. You choke and threaten humanity to its own salvation, not caring the cost. Know you Krasians like to dress in black and white, but the world ent so simple. There’s colour, and more than a fair share of grey.’

‘I am not a fool, Par’chin,’ Jardir said.

‘Sometimes I wonder,’ the Par’chin said, and his aura agreed. It was a bitter tea that his old friend, whom he had taught so much and always respected, should think so little of him.

‘Then why did you not kill me and take the spear and crown for your own?’ Jardir demanded. ‘The witnesses were honour-bound. My people would have accepted you as Deliverer and followed you to Sharak Ka.’

Irritation ran like wildfire across the Par’chin’s calm aura. ‘You still don’t get it,’ he snapped. ‘I’m not the ripping Deliverer! Neither are you! The Deliverer is all humanity as one, not one as humanity. Everam is just a name we gave to the idea, not some giant in the sky, fighting back the blackness of space.’

Jardir pressed his lips together, knowing the Par’chin was seeing a flare across his aura at the blasphemy. Years ago he had promised to kill the Par’chin should he ever speak such words again. The Par’chin’s aura dared him to try it now.

Jardir was sorely tempted. He had not truly tested the crown’s power against the Par’chin, and with it at his brow, he was no longer as helpless as he seemed.

But there was something else in his ajin’pal’s aura that checked him. He was ready for an attack, and would meet it head-on, but an image loomed over him, alagai dancing as the world burned.

What he feared would come to pass, if they did not find accord.

Jardir drew a deep breath, embracing his anger and letting it go with his exhalation. Across the room, the Par’chin had not moved, but his aura eased back like a Sharum lowering his spear.

‘What does it matter,’ Jardir said at last, ‘if Everam be a giant in the sky, or a name we have given to the honour and courage that let us stand fast in the night? If humanity is to act as one, there must be a leader.’

‘Like a mind demon leads drones?’ the Par’chin asked, hoping to snare Jardir in a logic trap.

‘Just so,’ Jardir said. ‘The world of the alagai has ever been a shadow of our own.’

The Par’chin nodded. ‘Ay, a war needs its generals, but they should serve the people, and not the other way ’round.’

Now it was Jardir who raised an eyebrow. ‘You think I do not serve my people, Par’chin? I am not the Andrah, sitting fat on my throne while my subjects bleed and starve. There is no hunger in my lands. No crime. And I personally go into the night to keep them safe.’

The Par’chin laughed, a harsh mocking sound. Jardir would have taken offence, but the incredulity in the Par’chin’s aura checked him.

‘This is why it matters,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Because you actually believe that load of demonshit! You came to lands that were not yours, murdered thousands of men, raped their women, enslaved their children, and think your soul is clean because their holy book’s a little different from yours! You keep the demons from them, ay, but chickens on the chopping block don’t call the butcher Deliverer for keeping the fox at bay.’

‘Sharak Ka is coming, Par’chin,’ Jardir said. ‘I have made those chickens into falcons. The men of Everam’s Bounty protect their own women and children now.’

‘As do the Hollowers,’ the Par’chin said. ‘But they did it without killing one another. Not a woman raped. Not a child torn from its mother’s arms. We did not become demons in order to fight them.’

‘And that is what you think me?’ Jardir asked. ‘A demon?’

The Par’chin smiled. ‘Do you know what my people call you?’

The demon of the desert. Jardir had heard the name many times, though only in the Hollow did any dare speak it openly. He nodded.

‘Your people are fools, Par’chin, as are you if you think me the same as the alagai. You may not murder and you may not rape, but neither have you forged unity. Your Northern dukes bicker and vie for power even as the abyss opens up before them, ready to spew forth Nie’s legions. Nie does not care about your morals. She does not care who is innocent and who is corrupt. She does not even care for Her alagai. Her goal is to wipe the slate clean.

‘Your people live on borrowed time, Par’chin. Loaned to you against the day of Sharak Ka, when your weakness will leave them meat for the Core. Then you will have wished for a thousand murders, a thousand thousand, if that’s what it took to prepare you for the fight.’

The Par’chin shook his head sadly. ‘You’re like a horse with blinkers on, Ahmann. You see what supports your beliefs, and ignore the rest. Nie doesn’t care because She doesn’t ripping exist.’

‘Words do not make a thing so, Par’chin,’ Jardir said. ‘Words cannot kill alagai or make Everam cease to be. Words alone cannot unite us all for Sharak Ka before it is too late.’

‘You talk of unity, but you don’t understand the meaning of the word,’ the Par’chin said. ‘What you call unity I call domination. Slavery.’

‘Unity of purpose, Par’chin,’ Jardir said. ‘All working toward one goal. Ridding the Ala of demonkind.’

‘There is no unity, if it depends on one man alone to hold it,’ the Par’chin said. ‘We are all mortal.’

‘The unity I have brought will not be so easily cast aside,’ Jardir said.

‘No?’ Arlen asked. ‘I learned much during my visit to Everam’s Bounty, Ahmann. The Northern dukes have nothing on your people. Your dama will not follow Jayan. Your Sharum will not follow Asome. None of the men will follow Inevera, and your Damaji would as soon kill one another as eat at the same table. There is no one who can sit the throne without civil war. Your precious unity is about to crumble away like a palace made of sand.’

Jardir felt his jaw tighten. His teeth whined as he ground them. The Par’chin was correct, of course. Inevera was clever and could hold things together for a time, but he could not afford to be gone for long, or his hard-forged army would turn on itself with Sharak Ka only just begun.

‘I am not dead yet,’ Jardir said.

‘No, but you won’t be returning any time soon,’ the Par’chin said.

‘We shall see, Par’chin.’ Without warning, Jardir reached out through the crown, Drawing hard on the Par’chin’s magic. Caught off guard, the Par’chin’s aura exploded in shock, then distorted as Jardir hauled in the prize.

Power rushed through Jardir’s body, knitting muscle and bone, making him strong. With a flex, the bandages around his chest ripped and the plaster about his legs shattered. He sprang from the bed, crossing the room in an instant.

The Par’chin managed to get his guard up in time, but it was a Sharum’s guard, for he had not been trained in Sharik Hora. Jardir easily slipped around it and caught him in a submission hold. The Par’chin’s face reddened as he struggled for air.

But then he collapsed into mist, as he had in their battle on the cliff. Jardir overbalanced when the resistance ended, but the Par’chin reformed before he hit the floor, grabbing Jardir’s right arm and leg, throwing him across the room. He struck the window so hard even his magic-strengthened bones snapped, but the warded glass did not so much as crack.

There was a thin flow of magic on the surface of the wards, and Jardir instinctively Drew on it, using the power to mend his bones even before the pain set in.

The Par’chin vanished from across the room, appearing in close, but Jardir was wise to the trick. Even as the mist began to reform he was moving, dodging the Par’chin’s attempted hold and striking two hard blows before he could melt away again.

They struggled thus for several seconds, the Par’chin disappearing and reforming before Jardir could do any real damage, but unable to strike in turn.

‘Corespawn it, Ahmann,’ he cried. ‘Ent got time for this!’

‘In this, we agree,’ Jardir said, having positioned himself correctly. He threw the room’s single chair at the Par’chin, and predictably, the man misted when he could as easily have dodged.

Your powers are making you lax, Par’chin, he thought as he sprang the open distance to the stairwell.

‘You ent goin’ anywhere!’ the Par’chin growled as he reformed, drawing a ward in the air. Jardir saw the magic gather, hurtling at him, a blast that would knock him away from the stairs like a giant hammer. With no time to dodge, he embraced the blow, going limp to absorb as much of the shock as possible.

But the blow never came. The Crown of Kaji warmed and flared with light, absorbing the power. Without thinking, Jardir drew a ward in the air himself, turning the power into a bolt of raw heat. Enough to turn a dozen wood demons to cinders.

The Par’chin held up a hand, Drawing the magic back into himself. Jardir, dizzied by the sudden drain, stared at him.

‘We can do this all night, Ahmann,’ the Par’chin said, melting away and reappearing between Jardir and the stairwell. ‘It won’t get you out of this tower.’

Jardir crossed his arms. ‘Even you cannot hold me forever. The sun will come, and your demon tricks and hora magic will fail you.’

The Par’chin spread his hands. ‘I don’t have to. By dawn, you’ll stay willingly.’

Jardir almost laughed, but again the Par’chin’s aura checked him. He believed it. He believed his next words would sway Jardir, or nothing would.

‘Why have you brought me here, Par’chin?’ he asked a final time.

‘To remind you of the real enemy,’ the Par’chin said. ‘And to ask your help.’

‘Why should I help you?’ Jardir asked.

‘Because,’ the Par’chin said, ‘we’re going to capture a mind demon and make it take us to the Core.

‘It’s time we brought the fight to the alagai.’

2
Vacuum
333 AR Autumn

Inevera wasted no time when they returned to the Krasian camp. Even as Ashan quietly selected warriors to begin the search and ordered others to break camp, she summoned Abban to her private audience chamber in the pavilion of the Shar’Dama Ka.

Already the Sharum were questioning why the Deliverer had not returned to them. There had been no formal announcement, either of the battle itself or of its sudden end. Yet soon word would spread, and the ambitious would seek to exploit her husband’s absence. The cunning had plotted for this day, and would be quick to act once it was clear the search was in vain. The rash might be quicker still.

It was clear Abban knew this, approaching the pavilion surrounded by his kha’Sharum warriors. The dal’Sharum still sneered at warriors in tan, but the eunuch spies Inevera had sent to Abban’s compound had been found dead, and that spoke volumes for the khaffit warriors’ skill. She had seen, too, the glow of power in their weapons and equipment, carefully disguised with worn leather and paint to hide their fine quality. Not even the elite Spears of the Deliverer, with their shields and spearheads of warded glass, were equipped better.

You have grown formidable, khaffit. The thought did not please her, but neither did it worry her as it once had. She had not understood weeks ago when the dice told her Abban’s fate was intertwined with her own, but it was clear now. They were Ahmann’s closest, most trusted advisors and, up until a few hours ago, had been untouchable with vast discretionary powers. But with her husband gone, much of that power would evaporate. Inevera would have to work quickly and carefully to install Ashan, but once the reins were passed it would still be his voice, not hers, that led their people. Ashan was not as wise – or as pliable – as Ahmann.

Abban was in an even worse position. Formidable though his kha’Sharum were, the crippled merchant would be lucky to live another day once his enemies ceased to fear Ahmann’s wrath should he be harmed. Not long ago the thought of his death would have pleased her greatly. Now she needed him. The khaffit knew every last draki in the Deliverer’s treasury, every debt of the throne, every grain in his silos. More, Ahmann trusted him with schemes and secrets he did not even share with the Damaji. Troop movements. Battle plans. Targets.

The fat khaffit’s smile as he limped into her audience chamber showed he knew her need, Everam damn him.

At Abban’s back was the giant kha’Sharum bodyguard that had become his shadow in recent weeks. The deaf man who had been one of the first to answer the Deliverer’s call. He had given up his weapons to enter, but seemed no less formidable as he loomed over the khaffit’s shoulder. Abban was not a short man, even stooping to lean on his crutch, but his bodyguard stood head and shoulders above him.

‘I commanded we meet in private, khaffit,’ Inevera said.

Abban bowed as deeply as his camel-topped crutch allowed. ‘Apologies, Damajah, but the dal’Sharum no longer have Ahmann to hold their leash. Surely you will not deny me a modicum of security? Earless is deaf as a stone, and will hear nothing of our words.’

‘Even a deaf man may hear,’ Inevera said, ‘if he has eyes to watch a speaker’s mouth.’

Abban bowed again. ‘This is so, though of course the Damajah’s veil prevents this, even if my humble servant had learned the art, which I swear by Everam he has not.’

Inevera believed him – a rare occurrence. Her own eunuch guards had given up their tongues to protect her secrets, and she knew Abban would value a man who could not overhear and be made to betray his many intrigues. Still, it was best not to yield too much.

‘He may guard the door,’ Inevera said, turning to saunter to the pillows on the far side of the chamber with a swing to her hips. Abban had never dared ogle her before, but she wondered if he might now, with Ahmann gone. That would be something she could use. She glanced over her shoulder, but Abban was not looking. He made a few quick gestures to the giant, who moved with a silent grace that belied his great size to stand by the door.

Abban limped over, easing himself carefully down onto the pillows across from her. He kept his inviting smile in place, but a flick of his eyes at his bodyguard betrayed his fears. He knew Inevera could kill him long before the giant could cross the room, and even Earless would fear to strike the Damajah. She could kill the kha’Sharum as well, in any of a hundred ways – not the least of which was a whisk of her fingers to her own bodyguards, Ashia, Micha, and Jarvah, hidden just out of sight.

There was a silver tea service between them, the pot still steaming. At a nod from her, the khaffit poured and served.

‘You honour me with your summons, Damajah.’ Abban sat back with his cup. ‘May I ask the reason why?’

‘To offer you protection, of course,’ Inevera said.

Abban looked sincerely surprised, though of course it was an act. ‘Since when does the Damajah place such value upon poor, honourless Abban?’

‘My husband values you,’ Inevera said, ‘and will be wroth if you are dead upon his return. You would be wise to accept my help. The dice tell me your life will be short indeed without it. My sons hate you even more than the Damaji, and that is a very great deal. And do not think Hasik has forgotten who cut his manhood away.’

Inevera had expected the words to rattle the khaffit. She had seen his cowardice reveal itself in the face of danger before. But this was the bargaining table, and Abban knew it.

He has a coward’s heart, Ahmann once told her, but there is steel in Abban to put Sharum to shame, when the haggling has begun.

Abban smiled and nodded. ‘It is so, Damajah. But things are no less dire for you. How long will the Damaji let you sit atop the seven steps without your husband? A woman sitting above them is an insult they have never borne well.’

Inevera felt her jaw begin to tighten. How long since any save her husband had dared speak to her thus? And from a khaffit. She wanted to break his other leg.

But for all the audacity, his words were true enough, so Inevera let them pass over her like wind.

‘All the more reason we must ally,’ she said. ‘We must find a way to trust, as Ahmann commanded, or both of us may walk the lonely path before long.’

‘What are you asking?’ Abban said.

‘You will report to me as you did to my husband,’ Inevera said. ‘Bring your tallies and schemes to me before they are presented to the council of Damaji.’

Abban raised an eyebrow. ‘And in return?’

Inevera smiled, visible through the gossamer lavender veil she wore. ‘As I said, protection.’

Abban chuckled. ‘You’ll forgive me, Damajah, but you have fewer warriors at your command than I, and still not enough to protect me should one of the Damaji or your sons decide to be rid of me at last.’

‘I have fear,’ Inevera said. ‘My sons fear me. The Damaji fear me.’

‘They feared you, yes,’ Abban agreed, ‘but how much of that fear will last when a new backside sits the Skull Throne? Absolute power has a way of emboldening a man.’

‘No power is absolute save that of Everam.’ Inevera held up her dice. ‘With Ahmann gone, I am His voice on Ala.’

‘That, and three draki, will buy you a basket,’ Abban said.

The phrase was a common one in Krasia, but it put Inevera on edge nevertheless. Her mother was a basket weaver with a successful business in the bazaar. No doubt Abban – who controlled half the commerce in Everam’s Bounty – had dealings with her, but Inevera had worked tirelessly to ensure her family remained safely anonymous, out of the politics and intrigues that ruled her world.

Were they just words, or a subtle threat? Useful or not, Inevera would not hesitate to kill Abban to protect her family.

Again, Inevera wished she could see into the hearts of men and women as her husband did. The thick canvas walls of the pavilion let her see the khaffit’s aura, albeit dimly, but the subtle variations and patterns of shifting colour that Ahmann read as easily as words on a page were a mystery to her.

‘I think you’ll find my words carry more weight than you think,’ Inevera said.

‘If you secure your position,’ Abban agreed. ‘We are discussing why I should help you do that. Not every man in the Deliverer’s court is a complete fool, Damajah. I may never enjoy the power I did with Ahmann, but I could still find protection and profit if I side with another.’

‘I will grant you a permanent position at court,’ Inevera said. ‘To witness firsthand every dealing you can twist into a way to fill your greedy pockets.’

‘Better,’ Abban said, ‘but I have spies throughout the Deliverer’s court. More than even you can root out.’

‘Do not be so sure,’ Inevera said. ‘But very well. I will offer something even you cannot refuse.’

‘Oh?’ Abban seemed amused at the thought. ‘In the bazaar, those words are a threat, but I think you will find I am not so easily bullied as I may appear.’

‘No threats,’ Inevera said. ‘No bullying.’ She smiled. ‘At least not for coercion. They will be a promise, should you break our pact.’

Abban grinned. ‘You have my fullest attention. What does the Damajah think my heart desires above all?’

‘Your leg,’ Inevera said.

‘Eh?’ Abban started.

‘I can heal your leg,’ Inevera said. ‘Right now, if you wish. A simple matter. You could throw your crutch on the fire and walk out on two firm feet.’ She winked at him. ‘Though if I know sly Abban, you would limp out the way you came, and never let any know until there was profit in doing so.’

A doubtful look crossed the khaffit’s face. ‘If it’s such a simple matter, why didn’t the dama’ting heal me when it was first shattered? Why cost the Kaji a warrior by leaving me lame?’

‘Because healing is the costliest of hora magics,’ Inevera said. ‘At the time we did not have warded weapons to bring us an endless supply of alagai bones to power our spells. Even now, they must be rendered and treated, a difficult process.’ She circled a finger around her teacup. ‘We cast the dice for you, all those years ago, to see if it was worth the price. Do you know what they said?’

Abban sighed. ‘That I was no warrior, and would provide little return on the investment.’

Inevera nodded.

Abban shook his head, disappointed but unsurprised. ‘It is true you have found something I want. I do not deny this is something my heart has longed for.’

‘Then you accept?’ Inevera asked.

Abban drew a deep breath as if to speak, but held it instead. After a moment, he blew it out, seeming to deflate as he did. ‘My father used to say, Love nothing so much you cannot leave it at the bargaining table. I know enough of the ancient tales to know that magic always has its price, and that price is ever higher than it appears. I have leaned on my crutch for twenty-five years. It is a part of me. Thank you for your offer, but I fear I must refuse.’

Inevera was becoming vexed and saw no reason to hide it. ‘You try my patience, khaffit. If there is something you want, be out with it.’

The triumphant smile that came over Abban’s face made it clear this was the moment he had been waiting for. ‘A few simple things only, Damajah.’

Inevera chuckled. ‘I have learned nothing is simple where you are concerned.’

Abban inclined his head. ‘From you, that means everything. First, the protection you offer must extend to my agents, as well.’

Inevera nodded. ‘Of course. So long as they are not working counter to my interests, or caught in an unforgivable crime against Everam.’

‘And it must include protection from you,’ Abban went on.

‘I am to protect you from myself?’ Inevera asked.

‘If we are to work together,’ Inevera noticed he did not say that he would work for her, ‘then I must be free to speak my mind without fearing for my life. Even when it is not things you wish to hear. Especially then.’

She will tell you truths you do not wish to hear, the dice had once told Inevera of her mother. There was value in an advisor like that. In truth, there was little value in any other kind.

‘Done,’ she said, ‘but if I choose not to act on your advice, you will support my decisions in any event.’

‘The Damajah is wise,’ Abban said. ‘I trust she would not act wastefully once I have given her the costs.’

‘Is that all?’ Inevera asked, knowing it was not.

Abban chuckled again, refilling their teacups. He took a flask from the inner pocket of his vest and added a splash of couzi to the drink. It was a test, Inevera knew, for the drink was forbidden by the Evejah. She ignored the move. She hated couzi, thought it made men weak and foolhardy, but thousands of her people smuggled the tiny bottles under their robes.

Abban sipped at his drink. ‘At times I may have questions.’ His eyes flicked to the hora pouch at her waist. ‘Questions only your dice can answer.’

Inevera clutched the pouch protectively. ‘The alagai hora are not for the questions of men, khaffit.’

‘Did not Ahmann pose questions to them daily?’ Abban asked.

‘Ahmann was the Deliverer …’ Inevera caught herself, ‘… is the Deliverer. The dice are not toys to fill your pockets with gold.’

Abban bowed. ‘I am aware of that, Damajah, and assure you I will not call upon you to throw them frivolously. But if you want my loyalty, that is my price.’

Inevera sat back, considering. ‘You said yourself magic always comes with a price. The dice, too, can speak truths we do not wish to hear.’

‘What other truth has value?’ Abban asked.

‘One question,’ Inevera said.

‘Ten, at least,’ Abban said.

Inevera shook her head. ‘Ten is more than a Damaji has in a year, khaffit. Two.’

‘Two isn’t enough for what you ask of me, Damajah,’ Abban said. ‘I could perhaps manage with half a dozen …’

‘Four,’ Inevera said. ‘But I will hold you to your word not to use this gift frivolously. Waste the wisdom of Everam with petty greed and rivalries, and every answer will cost you a finger.’

‘Oh, Damajah,’ Abban said, ‘my greed is never petty.’

‘Is that all?’ Inevera asked.

Abban shook his head. ‘No, Damajah, there is one more thing.’

Inevera brought the scowl back to her face. It was art, but easy enough. The khaffit could try even her temper. ‘This bargain is beginning to outgrow your worth, Abban. Spit it out and have done.’

Abban bowed. ‘My sons. I want them stripped of the black.’

There was commotion in the Krasian camp when Abban limped away from the audience. Inevera caught sight of Ashan striding towards her rapidly.

‘What has happened?’ Inevera asked.

Ashan bowed. ‘Your son, Damajah. Jayan has told the warriors his father has disappeared. The Sharum Ka acts as if it is a foregone conclusion that he will sit the Skull Throne on our return.’

Inevera breathed, finding her centre. This was expected, though she had hoped for more time.

‘Bid the Sharum Ka to lead the search for his lost father personally, and leave a handful of warriors to maintain a camp. The rest of us must ride for Everam’s Bounty with all haste. Leave behind anything that may slow us.’

They pressed for home as fast as the animals would allow. Inevera sent Sharum to kill alagai as soon as the sun set and used their power-rich ichor to paint wards of stamina on the horses and camels to strengthen them enough to continue on in the night.

It was a risk, using hora magic so openly. The quick-minded might glean some of the mysteries the dama’ting had guarded for centuries, but it could not be helped. The dice advised she return as quickly as possible – and warned it might not be fast enough.

There were countless divergences over the coming days, a struggle that threatened to rend the fragile peace Ahmann had forged among the tribes and cast them back into chaos. How many feuds had been set aside on the Deliverer’s order, but still nursed in the hearts of families that had stolen wells and blooded one another for generations?

Despite her precautions, Jayan and the Spears of the Deliverer reached Everam’s Bounty before them. The fool boy must have given up the search early and ridden cross-country with his warriors, pushing their powerful mustang to their limits and beyond. Her trick with the ichor to strengthen the animals could be replicated by warriors who killed demons in the night, the wards on their spears and the steel-shod hooves of their mounts absorbing power even as they turned the alagai’s strength back on them.

‘Mother!’ Jayan cried in shock, turning to see Inevera, Ashan, Aleverak, and Asome storm into the throne room where he had gathered the remaining Damaji and his most trusted lieutenants.

Inevera’s group was followed by the twelve Damaji’ting, Qeva of the Kaji and Ahmann’s eleven wives from the other tribes. All were loyal to Inevera and her alone. Ashan was shadowed by his powerful lieutenants, Damas Halvan and Shevali, all three of whom had studied with the Deliverer in Sharik Hora. Ashan’s son Asukaji, speaking for the Kaji in his absence, waited with the other Damaji.

Abban limped into the throne room as fast as his crutch would allow, practically unnoticed in the commotion. He slipped quietly into a dark alcove with his bodyguard to observe.

It was good that she had pushed her entourage. Jayan had clearly expected more time to rally the Damaji to his favour. He had barely been in the Bounty a few hours, and had not yet had the audacity to climb the seven steps to sit the Skull Throne.

It would not have been claim enough if he had, with the Deliverer’s inner council and the most powerful Damaji absent, but he would have been far more difficult to unseat without open violence. Inevera loved her son for all his faults, but she would not have hesitated to kill him if he’d dared such a blatant grab at power. Ahmann had curtained off the great windows of the throne room that he might use his crownsight and give Inevera access to her hora magic in the day. The electrum-coated forearm of a mind demon hung from her belt, warm with pent energy.

‘Thank you for gathering the Damaji for me, my son,’ Inevera said, striding right past his gaping face to ascend the steps and take her customary place on the bed of pillows beside the Skull Throne. Even from a few feet away, the great chair throbbed – perhaps the most powerful magic item in existence. Below, the holy men and women assembled as they had for centuries, the Damaji to the right of the throne, and the Damaji’ting to the left. She breathed a bit of relief that they had arrived in time, though she knew the coming struggle was far from over.

‘Honoured Damaji,’ she said, drawing a touch of power from a piece of warded jewellery to carry her voice through the room like the word of Everam. ‘No doubt my son has informed you that my divine husband, Shar’Dama Ka and Everam’s Deliverer, has disappeared.’

There was a buzz of conversation at the confirmation of Jayan’s tale. Ashan and Aleverak were nodding, though they were not foolish enough to give any detail until they learned what exactly Jayan had said.

‘I have cast the alagai hora,’ Inevera said after a moment, her enhanced voice cutting through the chatter without being raised. She held up the dice and called upon them to glow brightly with power. ‘The dice have informed me the Deliverer pursues a demon to the very edge of Nie’s abyss. He will return, and his coming shall herald the beginning of Sharak Ka.’

Another rash of conversation broke out at this, and Inevera gave it just a moment to build before pressing on. ‘Per Ahmann’s own instructions, his brother-in-law Ashan will sit the Skull Throne in his absence, as Andrah. Asukaji will become Damaji of the Kaji. Upon the Shar’Dama Ka’s return, Ashan will greet him from the base of the dais, but retain his title. A new throne will be built for him.’

There was a collective gasp, but only one voice cried out in shock.

‘What?!’ Jayan shouted. Even without Ahmann’s talent for reading auras, the anger radiating from him was unmistakable.

Inevera glanced to Asome, standing quietly beside Ashan, and saw simmering rage at the injustice in his aura as well, though her second son was wise enough not to show it. Asome had ever been groomed for the role of Andrah, and had chafed since his brother took the Spear Throne, seeking the white turban more than once.

‘This is ridiculous,’ Jayan shouted. ‘I am the eldest son. The throne should fall to me!’ Several of Damaji murmured their agreement, though the strongest wisely kept silent. Aleverak’s dislike of the boy was well known, and Damaji Enkaji of the Mehnding, the third most powerful tribe, was known to never publicly take sides.

‘The Skull Throne is not some bauble, my son, to be passed without a thought,’ Inevera said. ‘It is the hope and salvation of our people, and you are but nineteen, and have yet to prove worthy of it. If you do not hold your tongue, I despair you never will.’

‘How are we to know it was the Deliverer’s wish that his own son be passed over?’ Damaji Ichach of the Khanjin tribe demanded. Ichach was ever a thorn in the council’s ass, but there were nods from many of the other Damaji, including Aleverak.

‘A fair question,’ the aged cleric said, turning to address those gathered, though his words were no doubt meant for Inevera. With Ashan’s claim for the throne announced, he had relinquished control of the council of Damaji, and none dared challenge venerable Aleverak as he assumed the role. ‘The Shar’Dama Ka did not speak them openly, nor even in private that we know of.’

‘He spoke them to me,’ Ashan said, stepping forward. ‘On the first night of Waning, as the Damaji filed from the throne room, my brother bade me take the throne, if he should fall against Alagai Ka. I swore by Everam’s name, lest the Deliverer punish me in the afterlife.’

‘Lies!’ Jayan said. ‘My father would never say such a thing, and you have no proof. You betray his memory for your own ambition.’

Ashan’s eyes darkened at that. He had known the boy since birth, but never before had Jayan dared speak to him so disrespectfully. ‘Say that again, boy, and I will kill you, blood of the Deliverer or no. I argued in your favour when Ahmann made his request, but I see now he was right. The dais of the Spear Throne has but four steps, and you have yet to adjust to the view. The dais of the Skull Throne has seven, and will dizzy you.’

Jayan gave a growl and lowered his spear, charging for Ashan with murder in his heart. The Damaji watched with cool detachment, ready to react when Jayan closed in.

Inevera cursed under her breath. Regardless of who won the fight, they would both lose, and her people with them.

‘Enough!’ she boomed. She raised her hora wand and manipulated its wards with nimble fingers, calling upon a blast of magic that leapt forth, shattering the marble floor between the men.

Both Jayan and Ashan were knocked from their feet by the shock wave, along with several of the Damaji. As the dust settled, there was an awed silence, save for the sound of debris falling back to the floor.

Inevera rose to her feet, straightening her robes with a deliberate snap. All eyes were upon her now. The Damaji’ting, schooled in the secrets of hora magic, retained their serenity, though the display was one none of them could match. A scorched crater now stood in the centre of the thick marble floor, big enough to swallow a man.

The men stared wide-eyed and openmouthed. Only Ahmann himself had ever displayed such might, and no doubt they had thought they could quickly erode Inevera’s power with him gone.

They would be rethinking that assessment now. Only Asome kept his composure, having witnessed his mother’s power on the wall at Waning. He, too, watched her, eyes cold, aura unreadable.

‘I am Inevera,’ she said, her enhanced voice echoing throughout the room. The name was pregnant with meaning, literally translating as ‘Everam’s will’. ‘Bride of Everam and Jiwah Ka to Ahmann asu Hoshkamin am’Jardir am’Kaji. I am the Damajah, something you seem to have forgotten in my husband’s absence. I, too, witnessed Ahmann’s command to Damaji Ashan.’

She raised her hora wand high, again manipulating the wards etched in the electrum, this time to produce a harmless flare of light. ‘If there are any here who would challenge my command that Ashan take the throne, let them step forward. The rest will be forgiven your insolence if you touch your foreheads to the floor.’

All around the room, men dropped to their knees, wisely pressing their foreheads to the floor. No doubt they were still scheming, grating at the indignity of kneeling before a woman, but none, even Jayan, were fool enough to challenge her after such a display.

None save ancient Aleverak. As the others fell to the floor, the ancient Damaji strode to the centre of the room, his back straight. Inevera sighed inwardly, though she gave no outward sign. She had no wish to kill the Damaji, but Ahmann should have killed him years ago. Perhaps it was time to correct that mistake and end the threat to Belina’s eldest son, Maji.

The submission of the other tribes had been total. Only Aleverak had fought Ahmann and lived to tell the tale. The old man had earned so much honour in the battle that Ahmann had foolishly granted him a concession denied the others.

Upon the hour of his death, Aleverak’s heir had the right to challenge Ahmann’s Majah son to single combat for control of the Majah tribe.

Ahmann no doubt thought Maji would grow into a great warrior and win out, but the boy was only fifteen. Any of Aleverak’s sons could kill him with ease.

Aleverak bowed so deeply his beard came within an inch of the floor. Such grace for a man in his eighties was impressive. It was said he had been Ahmann’s greatest challenge as he battled to the steps of the Skull Throne. Ahmann had torn the Damaji’s arm off, but it had done nothing to strike fear into his heart. It was not surprising her blast of magic similarly failed to deter him.

‘Holy Damajah,’ Aleverak began, ‘please accept my apologies for doubting your words, and those of Damaji Ashan, who has led the Kaji people, and the council of Damaji, with honour and distinction.’ He glanced to Ashan, still standing at the base of the dais, who nodded.

‘But no Andrah has been appointed since the position was first created,’ Aleverak went on. ‘It runs counter to all our sacred texts and traditions. Those who wish to wear the jewelled turban must face the challenges of the other Damaji, all of whom have a claim to the throne. I knew well the son of Hoshkamin, and I do not believe he would have forgotten this.’

Ashan bowed in return. ‘The honoured Damaji is correct. The Shar’Dama Ka instructed me to announce my claim without hesitation, and kill any who stand in my path to the throne before any of the Damaji dare murder his dama sons.’

Aleverak nodded, turning to look Inevera in the eye. Even he had lost a moment’s composure at her show of power, but his control was back, his aura flat and even. ‘I do not challenge your words, Damajah, or the Deliverer’s command, but our traditions must be respected if the tribes are to accept a new Andrah.’

Inevera opened her mouth to speak, but Ashan spoke first. ‘Of course, Damaji.’ He bowed, turning to the other Damaji. Tradition dictated that they could each challenge him in turn, starting with the leader of the smallest tribe.

Inevera wanted to stop it. Wanted to force her will on the men and make them see she could not be denied. But the pride of men could only be pushed so far. Ashan was the youngest Damaji by a score of years, and a sharusahk master in his own right. She would have to trust in him to make good his claim, as Ahmann had.

She cared nothing for the Damaji – not a one of them worth the trouble they caused. She would as soon be rid of the lot of them and let her sister-wives take direct control of the tribes through Ahmann’s dama sons.

Aleverak was the only one that worried her, but hora magic could ensure that Maji win out against the ancient Damaji’s heirs.

‘Damaji Kevera of the Sharach,’ Ashan called. ‘Do you wish to challenge me for the jewelled turban?’

Kevera, still on his knees with his hands on the floor, sat back on his ankles to look Ashan in the eyes. The Damaji was in his sixties, but still robust. A true warrior-cleric.

‘No, Damaji,’ Kevera said. ‘The Sharach are loyal to the Deliverer, and if it was his wish that you take the jewelled turban, we do not stand in your way.’

Ashan nodded and called upon the next Damaji, but the answer was the same. Many of them had grown lax since taking the black turbans, no match for Ashan, and others were still loyal to Ahmann, or at least afraid of his return. Each man had his own reasons, but as Ashan went up through the tribes, none chose to face him.

Until Aleverak. The one-armed old cleric stepped forward immediately, barring Ashan’s path to the steps of the dais and assuming a sharusahk stance. His knees were bent, one foot pointed towards Ashan, and the other perpendicular, a step behind. His single arm was extended forward, palm up and stiffened fingers aimed at Ashan’s heart.

‘Apologies, Damaji,’ he said to Ashan, ‘but only the strongest may sit the Skull Throne.’

Ashan bowed deeply, assuming a stance of his own. ‘Of course, Damaji. You honour me with your challenge.’ Then, without hesitation, he charged.

Ashan stopped short when he came in range, giving Aleverak a minimum of momentum to turn against him. His punches and kicks were incredibly fast, but Aleverak’s one hand moved so quickly it seemed to be two, batting them aside. He tried to latch on, turning the energy of the blows into a throw, but Ashan was wise to the move and could not be caught.

Inevera had never thought much of dama sharusahk, having learned a higher form among the dama’ting, but she grudgingly admitted to herself that the men were impressive. They might as well have been relaxing in a hot bath for all their auras told.

Aleverak moved like a viper, ducking and dodging Ashan’s kicks. He spun around a leg sweep and came out of it with a kick straight into the air that was impressive even for a dama’ting. Ashan tried to pull back out of range, but the blow was so unexpected he was clipped on the chin and knocked back a step, out of balance.

Inevera breathed out the tension as the ancient Damaji moved to take advantage of Ashan’s momentary imbalance. His fingers were like a speartip as he thrust his hand at Ashan’s throat.

Ashan caught the blow just in time, twisting Aleverak into a throw that would break the old man’s arm if he resisted.

But Aleverak did not resist. Indeed, it became clear he was counting on the move, using Ashan’s own strength to aid his leap as he scissored his legs into the air, hooking them around Ashan’s neck. He twisted in midair, throwing his weight into the move, and Ashan had no choice but to go limp and let himself be thrown to the floor, lest Aleverak break his neck.

But Ashan was not finished. As he rebounded off the floor with Aleverak above him, he used the energy to punch straight up. Even wooden Aleverak could not instantly embrace such a blow, and Ashan tucked his legs in, kicking himself upright and whirling to face the Damaji on even footing once more.

Aleverak was angry now. Inevera could see it, a thin red film crackling on the surface of his aura. But the emotion did not claim him. His energy was centred, channelled into his movements, giving him terrifying strength and speed. He wielded his one hand like a knife, showing surprising knowledge of the pressure points dama’ting used in their own sharusahk. Ashan took a blow to the shoulder that would leave his right arm numb for a minute, at the least. Not long in Everam’s great scheme, but a lifetime in battle.

Inevera began to wonder how much control she could keep if Aleverak ascended to the throne.

But again Ashan surprised her, taking a similar stance to Aleverak and focusing his efforts on defence. His feet beat rapidly on the marble floor, back and forth, keeping Aleverak dancing but always stopping short of full attacks that might give the aged Damaji free energy to turn against him. Again and again Aleverak struck at him, but Ashan batted his hand aside every time, keeping up the dance. Aleverak’s kicks were dodged, or blocked smoothly with thighs, shins, and forearms.

He kept it up, his aura calm, until, at last, Aleverak began to tire. Whatever reserves of energy the ancient Damaji had called upon depleted, and his moves began to slow.

When he next stepped forward, he was not quick enough to stop Ashan from stomping on his foot, pinning it. Aleverak stabbed his right hand in, but Ashan caught the wrist, holding it as he snapped his hips around to add torque to a devastating punch to the chest with his now recovered right arm.

Aleverak gasped and stumbled, but Ashan locked his arm and added several more punches before his opponent could recover, driving sharp knuckles into the shoulder joint of the Damaji’s one arm. He swept Aleverak’s feet from him and put him down hard on his back. The retort as he struck the marble echoed throughout the chamber.

Aleverak looked up at Ashan, his eyes hard. ‘Well done, Andrah. Finish me with honour and take your place atop the steps.’

Ashan looked at the ancient Damaji sadly. ‘It was an honour to face you, Damaji. Your fame among the masters of sharusahk is well earned. But tradition does not demand I kill you. Only that I clear you from my path.’

He began to turn away, but Aleverak’s aura flared, as close to a loss of control as Inevera had ever seen. He clutched the hem of Ashan’s robe with quivering fingers.

‘Maji is still in his bido!’ Aleverak coughed. ‘Kill me and let Aleveran have the black turban. No harm will come to the Deliverer’s son.’

Ashan glanced up to Inevera at this. It was a tempting offer. Maji would be safe from the foolish vow Ahmann had made, but in exchange the Majah would have a younger Damaji who might rule for decades to come. She gave a slight shake of her head.

‘Apologies, Damaji,’ Ashan said, pulling his robe free of the old man’s grasp, ‘but the Deliverer still has need of you in this world. It is not yet your time to walk the lonely path. And should any harm come to the Deliverer’s Majah son apart from an open challenge in court on the hour of your natural death, my respect for you will not stop me from having your entire male line killed.’ He turned again, striding for the seven steps leading to the Skull Throne.

Asome met him there, blocking the path.

Inevera hissed. What was the fool boy doing?

‘Apologies, Uncle.’ Asome gave a formal sharusahk bow. ‘I trust you understand this is not personal. You have been as a father to me, but I am the eldest dama son of the Deliverer, and have as much right as any assembled to challenge you.’

Ashan seemed genuinely taken aback, but he did not dispute the claim. He bowed in return. ‘Of course, nephew. Your honour is boundless. But I would not leave my daughter a widow, nor my grandson without his father. I ask this once that you step aside.’

Asome shook his head sadly. ‘Nor would I leave my cousin and wife without a father. My aunt without a husband. Renounce your claim and allow me to ascend.’

Jayan leapt to his feet. ‘What is this?! I demand …!’

‘Silence!’ Inevera shouted. There was no need to enhance her voice this time, the sound echoing around the room. ‘Asome, attend me!’

Asome turned, climbing the steps swiftly to stand before Inevera’s bed of pillows. There was a flare in his aura as he passed by the throne. Was it covetousness? Inevera filed the information away in her mind as she manipulated polished stones on a small pedestal beside her, covering some wards and uncovering others. She could use the stones to control a number of effects, powered by hora placed around the room, and now placed a wall of silence around her pillows, that none save her son should hear her words.

‘You must give up this foolish claim, my son,’ Inevera said. ‘Ashan will kill you.’ Having seen Asome’s sharusahk, she wasn’t certain this was true, but now was not the time to flatter the young man.

‘Have faith, Mother,’ Asome said. ‘I have waited my entire life for this day, and I will prevail.’

‘You will not,’ Inevera said. ‘Because you will not continue your challenge. This is not what Everam wants. Or your father. Or I.’

‘If Everam does not wish me to take the throne, I will not,’ Asome said. ‘And if He does, then it should be Father’s and your wish as well.’

‘Wait, my son,’ Inevera said. ‘I beg you. We have always meant the jewelled turban for you, but it is too soon. Jayan will drive the Sharum into revolt if you take it now.’

‘Then I will kill him, too,’ Asome said.

‘And rule over a civil war with Sharak Ka on our heels,’ Inevera said. ‘No. I will not allow you to kill your brother. If you persist, I will cast you down myself. Recant, and you will have the succession on Ashan’s death. I swear it.’

‘Announce it now,’ Asome said. ‘Before all assembled, or cast me down as you say. My honour will be appeased with nothing else.’

Inevera drew a deep breath, letting it fill her, and flow back out, taking her emotions with it. She nodded, sliding the stones on her pedestal to remove the veil of silence.

‘Upon Ashan’s death, Asome will have the right to challenge the Damaji for the jewelled turban.’

Jayan’s aura swirled with emotion. The anger was still present, but he seemed mollified for the moment. There was no telling what he would have done if his younger brother had been given the chance to fight for a throne that sat higher than his. But seeing Asome thwarted had always brought Jayan pleasure. Ashan was not yet forty, and would stand between Asome and ascension long enough for Jayan to claim his father’s crown.

He stamped his spear loudly on the marble, and turned without leave to exit the throne room. His kai’Sharum followed obediently behind, and Inevera could see in them, and many of the Damaji, a belief that the Deliverer’s eldest son had been robbed of his birthright. The Sharum worshipped Jayan, and they outnumbered the dama greatly. He would be a growing danger.

But for the moment he was dealt with, and Inevera felt the wind ease as Ashan at last climbed the dais to sit the Skull Throne. He looked out at the assembled advisors and said the words Inevera had instructed, though she could tell they were sour on his lips.

‘It is an honour to hold the throne for the Shar’Dama Ka, blessings be upon his name. I will keep the Deliverer’s court much as he left it, with Damaji Aleverak speaking for the council, and Abban the khaffit retaining his position as court scribe and master of logistics. As before, any that dare hinder or harm him or his interests will find no mercy from the Skull Throne.’

Inevera twitched a finger to Belina, and the Majah Damaji’ting stepped forward with hora to heal Aleverak. Soon the Damaji was rising shakily back to his feet. The disorientation would soon pass, leaving him even stronger than before. His first act was a bow of submission to the Skull Throne.

Satisfying as that submission was, it was nothing compared to the flick of Ashan’s eyes to her, obviously asking if this scene was at its end. She gave a subtle nod and Ashan dismissed the Damaji and moved to meet with Asukaji and Asome, as well as his advisors, Halvan and Shevali.

‘Little sisters,’ Inevera said, and the Damaji’ting remained as the men filtered out, clustering at the base of the dais to take private audience with her.

‘You did not tell all, Damajah. My dice foretell that Ahmann may never return.’ Belina kept her voice steady, but her aura was like a raw nerve. Most of the Damaji’ting appeared the same. They had lost not only a leader, but a husband as well.

‘What has happened? Truly?’ Qasha asked. Less disciplined than Belina, the Sharach Damaji’ting could not keep her voice steady. The last word cracked with a whine like a flaw forming in glass.

‘Ahmann spared the Par’chin in secret after claiming the spear,’ Inevera said, disapproval in her tone. ‘The man survived and challenged him to Domin Sharum.’

The women began to chatter at this. Domin Sharum literally meant ‘two warriors’, the name given to the ritual duel first fought by Kaji himself against his murderous half brother Majah three thousand years ago. It was said they battled for seven days and nights atop Nie’s Breast, the tallest of the southern mountains.

‘Surely there is more to the tale than that,’ Damaji’ting Qeva said. ‘I have trouble believing any man could defeat the Shar’Dama Ka in fair combat.’

The other women voiced their assent. No man nor demon they could imagine could stand against Ahmann, especially with the Spear of Kaji in his hands.

‘The Par’chin has covered his skin in inked wards,’ Inevera said. ‘I do not understand it fully, but the symbols have given him terrifying powers, not unlike a demon himself. Ahmann held sway in battle and would have won, but as the sun set the Par’chin began misting like an alagai rising from the abyss, and the Shar’Dama Ka’s blows could not touch him. The Par’chin cast them both from the cliff, and their bodies were never found.’

Qasha gave out a wail at that. Damaji’ting Justya of the Shunjin moved to comfort her, but she, too, had begun to sob. All around the semicircle of women, there was weeping.

‘Silence!’ Inevera hissed, her enhanced voice cutting through the sobs like a lash. ‘You are Damaji’ting, not some pathetic dal’ting jiwah, weeping tear bottles over dead Sharum. Krasia depends on us. We must trust that Ahmann will return, and keep his empire intact until he can reclaim it.’

‘And if he does not?’ Damaji’ting Qeva asked, her words a calm breeze. She alone of the Damaji’ting had not lost a husband.

‘Then we hold our people together until a suitable heir can be found,’ Inevera said. ‘It makes no difference in what we must do here and now.’

She looked out over the women. ‘With Ahmann missing, the clerics will try to leach our power. You saw the magic I displayed to the Damaji. Each of you has combat hora you have been husbanding against need. You and your most powerful dama’ting must find excuse for displays of your own. The time to hide our strength is over.’

She looked around the semicircle of women, seeing determined faces where a moment ago there had been tears. ‘Every nie’dama’ting must be put to preparing new hora for spells, and all should be embroidering their robes with the Northlander’s wards of unsight. Abban will have spools of gold thread sent to every dama’ting palace for the task. Any attempts to prevent us walking in the night should be ignored. If men dare hinder you, break them. Publicly. Kill alagai. Heal warriors near death. We must show the men of Krasia we are a force to be feared by man and demon alike, and not afraid to dirty our nails.’

3
Ashia
333 AR Autumn

Ashia stiffened as her husband challenged her father for the Skull Throne. It was unthinkable that she should interfere, but she could not deny the outcome would greatly affect her, whomever the victor.

She breathed, finding her centre once more. It was inevera.

Shifting slightly, she relaxed some muscles as she tensed others to maintain the pose that held her suspended over the alcove to the left of the Skull dais, braced against the arched ceiling with toes and fingers. In this way she could hold the position indefinitely, even sleeping without losing her perch.

Across the room, her spear sister Micha mirrored her in the opposite alcove, silently watching through a tiny pinhole in the ornate carving above the archway. Jarvah was positioned behind the pillar just past the Skull Throne, where none save the Deliverer and Damajah could tread without invitation.

Cloaked in shadow, the kai’Sharum’ting were imperceptible even to those stepping into the alcoves. But should the Damajah be threatened they could appear in an instant, launching a spray of sharpened, warded glass. Two breaths later, they could interpose themselves between her and any danger, spears and shields at the ready.

The kai’Sharum’ting and their growing number of spear sisters guarded the Damajah openly when she was on the move, but Inevera preferred them to keep to the shadows whenever possible.

At last the court was adjourned and the Damajah was left alone with her two most trusted advisors, Damaji’ting Qeva and her daughter, nie’Damaji’ting Melan.

The Damajah gave a slight flick of her fingers, and Ashia and Micha dropped silently from their perches. Jarvah appeared from behind the pillars, all three moving as escort to the Damajah’s personal chambers.

The Deliverer’s dal’ting wives, Thalaja and Everalia, were waiting with refreshment. Their eyes drifted to their daughters, Micha and Jarvah, but they knew better than to speak to the kai’Sharum’ting while they guarded the Damajah. There was little to say, in any event.

‘A bath has been prepared for you, Damajah,’ Thalaja said.

‘And fresh silks laid,’ Everalia added.

Ashia still could not believe these meek, obsequious women were wives of the Deliverer, though her holy uncle had taken them many years before coming to power. She had once thought the women hid their skills and power, much as she herself had been taught.

Over the years, Ashia had come to see the truth. Thalaja and Everalia were wives in name only now that the usefulness of their wombs had faded. Mere servants to the Deliverer’s wives in white.

But for inevera, Ashia thought, that could have been me.

‘I will need new silks,’ Inevera said. ‘The Deliverer is … travelling. Until his return, I will wear only opaque colours.’ The women nodded, moving hurriedly to comply.

‘There is more news.’ Inevera turned back, first meeting the eyes of Qeva and Melan, then letting her gaze drift to rest on Ashia and her spear sisters.

‘Enkido is dead.’

Ashia pictured the palm, and bent before the wind that rushed over her. She bowed to the Damajah. A step behind, Micha and Jarvah mirrored her. ‘Thank you for telling us, Damajah.’ Her voice was steady and even, eyes carefully on the floor, seeing all in periphery. ‘I will not ask if he died with his honour intact, for it could be no other way.’

Inevera nodded. ‘Enkido’s honour was boundless even before he severed his tongue and tree to serve my predecessor and learn the secrets of dama’ting sharusahk.’

Melan stiffened slightly at the mention of Inevera’s predecessor, Qeva’s mother and Melan’s grandmother, Damaji’ting Kenevah. It was said the Damajah choked the old woman to death to wrest control of the tribe’s women from her. Qeva gave no reaction.

‘Enkido was killed by an alagai changeling, bodyguard to one of Nie’s princelings,’ Inevera went on. ‘These mimic demons can take on any form, real or imagined. I watched the Deliverer himself in pitched battle with one. Enkido died doing his duty, protecting Amanvah, Sikvah, and their honoured husband, the son of Jessum. Your cousins live because of his sacrifice.’

Ashia nodded, bending her centre to accept the news. ‘Does this … changeling still live?’ If so, she would find a way to track and kill it, even if she had to follow it all the way to Nie’s abyss.

Inevera shook her head. ‘Amanvah and the son of Jessum weakened the creature, but it was the Par’chin’s Jiwah Ka who at last took its unholy life.’

‘She must be formidable indeed to succeed where our honoured master failed,’ Ashia said.

‘Beware that one, should your paths ever cross,’ the Damajah agreed. ‘She is nearly as powerful as her husband, but both, I fear, have drunk too deeply of alagai magic, and made the madness that comes with it a part of them.’

Ashia put her hands together, eyes still on the floor. ‘My spear sisters and I beg the Damajah’s leave to go into the night and kill seven alagai each in his honour, one for each pillar of Heaven, to guide our lost master on the lonely road.’

The Damajah whisked her fingers. ‘Of course. Assist the Sharum.’

Ashia’s hand worked with precision, painting wards on her nails. They were not long in the fashionable way of pampered wives and some dama’ting. Enkido’s students kept a warrior’s cut, barely past the nub, the better to handle weapons.

But Ashia had no need to claw at the alagai. A knife or speartip served best for that. She had other intentions.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she watched her spear sisters, silent save for the sounds of oil and leather, stitching and polishing as they readied weapons for the coming night.

The Damajah had given her kai’Sharum’ting spears and shields of warded glass, much like the Spears of the Deliverer. The blades needed no sharpening, but the grips and harnesses were just as important, and Enkido had inspected all their equipment regularly, never satisfied. A single crooked stitch on a shield strap, barely visible and irrelevant to performance, and he would rip out the thick leather with his bare hands, forcing the owner to replace it entirely.

Other infractions were treated less gently.

There were three kai’Sharum’ting remaining in Everam’s Bounty. Ashia, Micha, and Jarvah. Micha and Jarvah were full daughters of the Deliverer, but born to his dal’ting wives, Thalaja and Everalia. They, too, had been refused the white.

Their blood might have ranked them above the Deliverer’s nieces, but Ashia was four years older than Micha, and six older than Jarvah. The girls walked in women’s bodies thanks to the magic they absorbed each night, but they still looked to Ashia to guide them.

More women were becoming Sharum’ting every day, but only they were blood of the Deliverer. Only they wore the white veils.

Only they had been trained by Enkido.

That dusk, the gates of the city opened to release the Sharum into the vast territory they dubbed the New Maze. Two hours later, when full night had fallen, the three kai’Sharum’ting and half a dozen of their new spear sisters slipped quietly over the wall.

The Damajah’s command to ‘assist’ the Sharum was very clear. They would hunt the outer edges of the New Maze, where demons were thickest, and patrol for foolhardy Sharum, so drunk on magic and eager for carnage they let themselves be surrounded.

Ashia and her spear sisters would then step in to rescue the men. It was meant to create blood ties with as many Sharum as possible, but being saved by women stung the warriors’ pride. This, too, was part of the Damajah’s plan, for they were to invite challenges from the men, killing or crippling enough to send clear examples to the others.

Miles melted away under their fleet steps. Their black robes were embroidered with wards of unsight to render them invisible to the alagai, their veils with wards of sight to let them see as clearly in night as in day.

It wasn’t long before they found four overeager Majah dal’Sharum who had ranged too far from their unit and been caught by a reap of field demons. Three of the demons were down, but so was one of the Sharum, clutching a bloodied leg. His fellows ignored him – and their training – fighting as individuals when a formation might yet save them.

Drunk on alagai magic, Ashia signed to her sisters. The madness of magic’s grip was known to them, but it was easily ignored by a warrior who kept her centre. We must save them from themselves.

Ashia herself speared the field demon that would have killed the abandoned Sharum as Micha, Jarvah, and the others waded into the dozen remaining demons in the reap.

The jolt of magic as she speared the demon thrummed through her. In Everam’s light, she could see the magic running like fire along the lines of power in her aura. The same lines drawn in the Evejah’ting, and tattooed on her master’s body. The Riddle of Enkido.

Ashia felt the surge of strength and speed, understanding how easily one could get drunk upon it. She felt invincible. Aggression tugged at her centre. She bent her spirit as the palm in the wind and let it pass over her.

Ashia examined the deep wound in the Sharum’s leg. Already it was closing as the alagai magic he had absorbed turned its workings inward to repair. ‘Next time, angle your shield properly.’

‘What would a woman know of such things?’ the warrior demanded.

Ashia stood. ‘This woman saved your life, Sharum.’

A demon leapt at her, but she bashed it aside with her shield, sending it sprawling near one of the other dal’Sharum, who speared it viciously. It was a killing stroke, but the man tore free his spear and stabbed again and again, roaring in incoherent fury.

Another demon leapt for his back, and Ashia had to shove the warrior aside to stab at it. She struck a glancing blow, but the angle was poor, and the force of the alagai’s leap knocked the weapon from her grasp.

Ashia gave ground for two steps, batting aside flashing paws with her shield. The demon tried to snap at her, and she shoved the edge of the shield into its jaws, lifting to bare its vulnerable underbelly. A kick put it onto its back, and before it could recover its feet she fell on it, pinning its limbs as she stuck her knife into its throat.

She was getting to her feet when something struck her across the back of the head. She rolled with the blow, coming up to face the Sharum she had just rescued. His eyes were wild, and there was no mistaking the aggression in his stance.

‘You dare lay hands on me, woman?’ he demanded.

Ashia cast her eyes about the battlefield. The last of the demons was down, her Sharum’ting unscathed and standing in a tight unit. They watched the Sharum with cold eyes. The injured one was still on the ground, but the others were moving to surround her.

Do nothing, Ashia’s fingers told them. I will handle this.

‘Find your centre!’ she shouted to the man as he advanced on her again. ‘You owe me your life!’

The Sharum spat. ‘I would have killed that alagai as easily as I did the other.’

‘The other I knocked senseless at your feet?’ Ashia asked. ‘As my sisters slew the reap that would have killed you all?’

The man’s answer was a swing of his spear, meant to knock her across the face. Ashia caught the spear shaft and twisted until she felt the warrior’s wrist break.

The others were coming in hard now, the magic thrumming in them multiplying their natural aggression and misogyny. To fail in battle and need to be saved was shame enough. To be saved by women …

Ashia spun behind the warrior, rolling across his back to kick the next man in the face. He fell away as she charged the third, slapping his spearpoint aside and striking her open palm against his forehead. Stunned, he stumbled until Ashia caught him in a throw that sent him tumbling into the other two, struggling back to their feet.

When the men recovered, they found themselves surrounded by Sharum’ting, spearpoints levelled at them.

‘Pathetic.’ Ashia lifted her veil to spit at the men’s feet. ‘Your sharusahk is as weak as your control, allowing yourself to become drunk on alagai magic. Pick up your fellow and return to your unit before I lose all patience with you.’

She did not wait for a reply, whisking off into the night with her spear sisters in tow.

Our spear brothers would as soon strike us as accept our aid, Jarvah signed as they ran.

For now, Ashia signed. They will learn to respect the Sharum’ting. We are blood of the Deliverer, who will remake this rabble before Sharak Ka.

And if my holy father does not return? Jarvah signed. What state will the Armies of Everam be in without him?

He will, Ashia signed. He is the Deliverer. In his absence, we must set an example to all. Come. We have killed not half the alagai needed to ease our master’s passage into Heaven.

They ranged farther, but most Sharum respected the night – and their own limitations – and they found nothing else needing attention. Deeper they went, leaving the dal’Sharum patrols behind as they passed from the Maze into what Northerners called the naked night.

Ashia found the tracks of a large passing reap, and the others followed silently as she tracked them. They fell upon nearly thirty alagai unawares, cutting into the centre of the reap and forming a ring of shields. Ashia trusted her sisters to either side to keep her safe, and they she. Free from fear of counterattack, they began to stab at the demons with calm efficiency, like snuffing candles, one by one. Each kill sent a jolt of magic through the group, making them stronger. The power pushed against their control, but it was only a gentle breeze to the centred women.

Half the reap was dead before the demons got it in their heads to flee. By then Ashia and her sisters had coaxed them into a narrow ravine with steep sides not suited for their loping strides. At a signal from Ashia, her sisters broke into smaller formations, each cornering several demons.

Ashia let a group of alagai cut her off from her sisters, baiting them to surround her and draw close. She could see the lines of power that ran through their limbs, and closed her eyes, breathing deeply.

In your honour, master. Her spear and shield fell from limp fingers as she opened her eyes, dropping into a sharusahk stance.

The demons shrieked and launched themselves at her, but Ashia could see the strikes before they came, written clearly in the lines of their auras. Stolen magic gave her speed as she bent and turned a half circle, slapping the jaw of the quickest to redirect the full force of its attack into the path of two others. She sidestepped the jumble, stabbing stiffened fingers into one demon’s belly to knock it aside.

The wards on her fingernails flared with power, and the magical feedback that came from direct contact was a hundred times stronger than that which filtered through the wood of her spear. The field demon was thrown back, rib cage scorched and flattened, and struggled to rise. Ashia kicked the strength from another demon’s leg just as it was about to spring, sending it sprawling. The next she chopped to the temple, blinding it.

How dare that man strike her from behind? She should have killed him as an example to the others.

The alagai slashed wildly at her, but two simple blocks diverted sharp talons, walking her to her next strike. Inside the creature’s guard, she stabbed her fingers into its throat. The skin stretched and tore, as much from the strength of the blow as the searing magic that accompanied it.

Ashia shoved her entire forearm into the demon’s chest. Inside, the creatures were as vulnerable as any surface animal. She caught a grip where she could and yanked free a fistful of gore. The magic was thunder in her soul now.

The Deliverer gone. The Damajah living on a knife’s edge. Enkido dead. And her own spear brothers would as soon kill her for emasculating them as accept her aid. It was too much to bear.

She grew more aggressive, leaving her neutral stance to pursue retreating demons instead of lulling them in. She had scolded the dal’Sharum for this very thing, but she was blood of the Deliverer. She was in control.

She caught the next demon to leap at her by the head, turning a circle to use its own strength to break its neck.

Ashia took another pass, kicking, punching, and positioning herself for deadly strikes of her fingernails to the alagai lines of power.

Her vision grew red around the edges, and all she could see was the next demon. She did not even look at their bodies, only their true forms, the lines of power in their auras. It was these alone she saw, these alone she struck.

Suddenly her vision went dark, and she stumbled in her next strike. Another target appeared and she struck hard, but it rebounded off a shield of warded glass.

‘Sister!’ Micha cried. ‘Find your centre!’

Ashia came to her senses. She was covered in ichor, and all around her lay dead alagai. Seven of them. The ravine was cleared, and Micha, Jarvah, and the others were staring at her.

Micha caught her elbow. ‘What was that?’

‘What?’ Ashia said. ‘I was honouring our master with sharusahk.’

Micha’s brows tightened as she lowered her voice to a harsh whisper the others could not hear. ‘You know what, sister. You lost control. You seek to honour our master, but Enkido would be ashamed of you for such a display, especially in front of our little sisters. You are lucky the Sharum did not see as well.’

Ashia had been struck many times over the years, but no blow had ever hit as hard as those words. Ashia wanted to deny them, but as her full senses returned she saw the truth.

‘Everam forgive me,’ she whispered.

Micha gave her elbow a comforting squeeze. ‘I understand, sister. I feel it too, when the magic is high. But it has always been you we look to for example. With our master dead, there is only you.’

Ashia took Micha’s hands in hers, squeezing tightly. ‘No, beloved sister. There is only us. With Shanvah gone, the Sharum’ting will look to you and Jarvah as well. You must be strong for them as you have been for me, this night.’

Ashia’s robes were still wet with demon gore as she made her way back to the palace chambers she shared with Asome and their infant son, Kaji.

Normally she would change from her Sharum robes to proper women’s blacks before returning, that she might not further the rift with her husband. Asome had never approved of her taking the spear, but it was not his decision to make. Both had petitioned the Deliverer to divorce them when he named her Sharum’ting, but her uncle had refused the request, his wisdom a mystery.

Ashia was tired of hiding, though, tired of pretending to be a helpless jiwah in her chambers even as she broke men and bled alagai in the night. All to protect the honour of a man who cared nothing for her.

Enkido would be ashamed of you. Micha’s words echoed in her mind. What was her husband’s displeasure compared to that?

She was silent as a spirit, but there was no sign of Asome – her husband likely sleeping in Asukaji’s embrace in the new Damaji’s palace. The only one present was Ashia’s grandmother Kajivah, asleep on a divan outside the nursery. Her first great-grandchild, the Holy Mother doted on the boy, refusing a proper nurse.

‘Who could love the boy better than his own grandmother?’ she would always say. Implicit in that statement, of course, was her belief that Ashia herself was unsuitable, now that she had taken up the spear.

Ashia slipped by without disturbing her, closing the nursery door behind her as she looked down upon her sleeping son.

She had not wanted the child. She had feared what bearing would do to her warrior’s body, and there was no love lost between her and Asome. Her brother’s need to have his own sister bear his lover’s child had seemed an abomination.

But Kaji, that perfect, beautiful child, was no abomination. Having spent months with him suckling at her breast, sleeping in her arms, reaching his tiny hands up to touch her face, Ashia could not bring herself to wish any change upon her life that might undo him. His existence was inevera.

Enkido would be ashamed of you.

There was a creak, and the edge of the crib broke off in her hands with a loud crack. Kaji opened his eyes and let out a shriek.

Ashia tossed the broken wood aside, reaching for the boy. Always his mother’s touch could calm him, but this time Kaji thrashed in her arms, struggling wildly. She tried to still him, but he screamed louder at her clutch, and she saw his skin bruising at her touch.

The night strength was still upon her.

Quickly, Ashia laid her son back in his pillows, seeing in horror his soft, smooth skin bruised and stained with the demon ichor that still clung to her. The stink of it was thick in the air.

The door slammed open, and Kajivah stormed into the room. ‘What are you doing, disturbing the child at this hour?!’

Then she saw the child, bruised and covered in ichor, and let out a wail. She turned to Ashia, enraged. ‘Get out! Get out! You should be ashamed of yourself!’

She shoved hard, and Ashia, fearing her own strength, allowed herself to be driven from the room. Kajivah took the child in her arms, kicking the door shut behind her.

For the second time that night, Ashia lost her centre. Her legs turned to water as she stumbled to her room, slamming the door and slumping to the floor in darkness.

Perhaps the abomination is me.

For the first time in years, Ashia put her hand to her face and wept. She wanted nothing more than the comforting presence of her master.

But Enkido was on the lonely path, and like her grandmother, he would be ashamed of her.

4
Sharum Blood
327–332 AR

‘Sit up straight,’ Kajivah snapped. ‘You’re a princess of the Kaji, not some kha’ting wretch! I despair of ever finding you a husband worthy of your blood who will take you.’

‘Yes, Tikka.’ Ashia shivered, though the palace baths were warm and steamy. She was but thirteen, and in no rush to marry, but Kajivah had seen the reddened wadding and seized upon it. Nevertheless, she straightened as her mother, Imisandre, scrubbed her back.

‘Nonsense, Mother,’ Imisandre said. ‘Thirteen and beautiful, eldest daughter of the Damaji of Krasia’s greatest tribe, and niece to the Deliverer himself? Ashia is the most desirable bride in all the world.’

Ashia shivered again. Her mother had meant the words to calm her, but they did the opposite.

Kajivah was apt to be vexed when her daughters disagreed with her, but she only smiled patiently, signalling her daughter-in-law Thalaja to add more hot stones to the water. She always held court thus, from the nursery to the kitchen to the baths.

Her subjects were her five dal’ting daughters – Imisandre, Hoshvah, Hanya, Thalaja, and Everalia – and granddaughters Ashia, Shanvah, Sikvah, Micha, and Jarvah.

‘It appears Dama Baden agrees,’ Kajivah said.

Every head turned sharply to look at her. ‘His grandson Raji?’ Imisandre asked.

A wide grin broke across Kajivah’s face now that the secret was out. ‘They say no man has ever offered such wealth for a single bride.’

Ashia couldn’t breathe. A moment ago she would have put this moment off for years, but … Prince Raji? The boy was handsome and strong, heir to the white and a fortune that dwarfed even the Andrah’s. What more could she want?

‘He is not worthy of you, sister.’

All eyes turned to Ashia’s brother Asukaji, standing in the doorway with his back to the women. It was not an uncommon sight. No man would have been allowed entry to the women’s bath, but Asukaji was but twelve and still in his bido. More, he was push’ting, and all the women knew it, more interested in the gossip in a woman’s head than what was under her robes.

All the women of the family adored Asukaji. Even Kajivah did not mind that he preferred men, so long as he did his duty and took wives to provide her with grandchildren.

‘Beloved nephew,’ Kajivah said. ‘What brings you here?’

‘My last visit to the women’s bath, I am afraid,’ the boy said, to a chorus of disappointment. ‘I was called to Hannu Pash this morning. I will be taking the white.’

Kajivah led the cheers. ‘That’s wonderful! Of course we all knew it would be so. You are the Deliverer’s nephew.’

Asukaji gave a shrug. ‘Are you not the Deliverer’s mother? His wives and sisters, his nieces? Why is it none of you is in white, yet I should be?’

‘You are a man,’ Kajivah said, as if it were obvious.

‘What does that matter?’ Asukaji said. ‘You ask whom Ashia should be worthy of, but the true question is what man is worthy of her?’

‘Who in the Kaji is higher than Dama Baden’s heir?’ Ashia asked. ‘Father wouldn’t marry me into another tribe … would he?’

‘Don’t be an idiot,’ Kajivah snapped. ‘The very notion is absurd.’

But there was doubt on her face as she looked to her grandson. ‘Who is worthy, then?’

‘Asome, of course,’ Asukaji said. The two boys were nearly inseparable.

‘He is our cousin!’ Ashia said, shocked.

Asukaji shrugged. ‘What of it? The Evejah speaks of many such unions in the time of Kaji. Asome is the son of the Shar’Dama Ka, beautiful, rich, and powerful. More, he can cement the ties between my father and the house of Jardir.’

‘I am of house Jardir,’ Kajivah said, her voice strengthening. ‘Your father is his brother-in-law, and I, his mother. What further tie is required?’

‘A direct one,’ Asukaji said. ‘From the Deliverer and father to a single son.’ He dared to look into the room for a moment, meeting Ashia’s eyes. ‘Your son.’

‘You have a direct one,’ Kajivah said. ‘I am the Holy Mother. You are all blood of the Deliverer.’

Asukaji turned back away and bowed. ‘I mean no disrespect, Tikka. Holy Mother is a fine title, but it has not turned your black robes white. Nor my blessed sister’s.’

Kajivah fell silent at that, and Ashia began to consider. Marrying a first cousin was not unheard of in powerful families, and Asome was beautiful, as Asukaji said. He had taken after his mother in appearance, and the Damajah’s beauty was without equal. Asome had her face and slender build, and he wore them well.

‘Why not Jayan?’ she asked.

‘What?’ Asukaji said.

‘If I should marry a cousin as you say, why not the Deliverer’s firstborn?’ Ashia asked. ‘Unless he weds his sister, who is more worthy than I, Shar’Dama Ka’s eldest niece?’

Unlike slender Asome, Jayan took after the Deliverer in form – broader and thick with muscle. He was not kind, but Jayan radiated power enough to make even Ashia flush.

Asukaji spat. ‘Sharum dog. They are animals bred for the Maze, sister. I would as soon let you marry a jackal.’

‘That is enough!’ Kajivah snapped. ‘You forget yourself, boy. The Deliverer himself is Sharum.’

‘Was Sharum,’ Asukaji said. ‘Now he wears the white.’

That very day, Kajivah set a fire under Ashan and dragged Ashia, Shanvah, and Sikvah before the Shar’Dama Ka, demanding they be made dama’ting.

But one did not make demands of the Deliverer and Damajah. Kajivah and her daughters were given white veils. Ashia and her cousins were sent to the Dama’ting Palace.

‘It is good, sister,’ Asukaji said, as the girls were pushed towards the waiting Damajah. ‘There is no reason why our father or the Deliverer should refuse your match to Asome now.’

Kajivah did not seem satisfied, but Ashia could not see why. The Deliverer had named them his blood and heaped honour upon them. Ashia had no wish to be dama’ting, but who knew what mysteries she might learn in their palace?

Kai’ting. She liked the sound. It was powerful. Regal. Shanvah and Sikvah were afraid, but Ashia went gladly.

The Damajah escorted the girls out of the great chamber through her own personal entrance. An honour in itself. There waited Qeva, Damaji’ting of the Kaji, and her daughter and heir, Melan, along with one of the Damajah’s mute eunuch guards.

‘The girls will be taught letters, singing, and pillow dancing for four hours each day,’ the Damajah told Damaji’ting Qeva. ‘The other twenty, they belong to Enkido.’

She nodded to the eunuch, and Ashia gasped. Shanvah clutched at her. Sikvah began to cry.

The Damajah ignored them, turning to the eunuch. ‘Make something worthy out of them.’

Nie’Damaji’ting Melan led them through the Dama’ting Underpalace. It was said the dama’ting could heal any wound with their hora magic, but the woman’s hand and forearm were horrifically scarred, twisted into a frightening claw not unlike those in the paintings Ashia had seen of alagai.

Sikvah was still weeping. Shanvah had her arms around her, her own eyes wet with tears.

You are an example to every other young woman in the tribe, her father told her once. And so I shall be harsher with you than any other, lest you ever shame our family.

And so Ashia had learned to hide fear and keep tears at bay. She was as terrified as her cousins, but she was eldest, and they had always looked to her. She kept her back arched proudly as they were brought to a small door. Enkido put his back to the wall beside the portal as Melan led through to a large tiled chamber. The walls were lined with pegs holding white robes and long strips of white silk.

‘Remove your robes,’ Melan said as the door closed.

Her cousins gasped and hesitated, but Ashia knew it was foolish – and useless – to argue with a Bride of Everam. Keeping her dignity intact, she removed her hood and pulled her fine black silk robe over her head. Beneath, a wide strip of silk around her chest flattened the beginnings of her woman’s shape. Her bido, too, was fine black silk, wrapped in a loose, simple weave for ease and comfort.

‘Everything,’ Melan said. Her eyes flicked to Shanvah and Sikvah, still hesitating, and her voice became a lash. ‘Now!’

A moment later, all three girls stood naked, and they were taken out the far side of the room into the baths, a great natural cavern lit by wardlights in the stone far above. The floor was tiled marble, deep with water. Ornate fountains kept the water moving, and the air was hot and thick with steam. It put even Kajivah’s baths to shame.

There were dozens of girls in the water, ages ranging from children to just shy of a woman grown. All stood washing in the stone bath, or lounged on the slick stone steps at its edges, shaving and paring nails. As one, they looked up to regard the new girls.

Ashia and the others were no strangers to bathing alongside other girls, but there was a frightening difference between these baths and those in the women’s wing of her father’s palace – here every girl’s head was shaved bald.

Ashia reached up, touching the lush, oiled hair she had cultivated for a lifetime, in hope of pleasing her future husband.

Melan caught the look. ‘Enjoy the touch, girl. It will be your last for some time.’

Her cousins gasped, and Shanvah put her hands to her head protectively.

Ashia forced herself to let go, dropping her hands to her sides, drawing a calming breath. ‘It is only hair. It will grow back.’ Out of the corner of her eyes, she watched her cousins calm as well.

‘Amanvah!’ Melan called, and a girl Sikvah’s age came forward. She was too young for a woman’s curves, but her eyes and face were much as the Damajah’s.

Ashia felt a wave of relief. Holy Amanvah was their cousin, firstborn daughter of the Deliverer and Damajah. Once, they had been as close as Asome and Asukaji.

‘Cousin!’ Ashia greeted her warmly, holding her arms out. It had been years since she had last played with Amanvah, but it did not matter. She was their blood, and would help them in this strange and unfamiliar place.

Amanvah ignored her, refusing to meet Ashia’s eyes. She was years younger and inches shorter than Ashia, but her bearing made it clear she considered her cousins beneath her now. She moved with liquid grace, stepping around the girls to face Melan, meeting the nie’Damaji’ting’s eyes boldly for a Betrothed.

‘Here to study pillow dancing?’ she smirked. It was common for young women, mostly from poor families, to be taken into the palace for pillow dancing lessons before they were sold to the great harem. Some were returned to their fathers, brides that could bring a fortune in dowry.

Melan nodded. ‘An hour each day. And an hour of singing. Another at writing, and a fourth to bathe.’

‘And the other twenty?’ Amanvah asked. ‘You cannot mean they will be granted the Chamber of Shadows.’ Ashia’s skin goosebumped at the name, and she struggled not to shiver despite the hot air.

But Melan shook her head. ‘The other twenty, they will study sharusahk. They belong to Enkido.’

There were gasps from some of the other girls, and even Amanvah’s face lost its smug look.

Ashia suppressed a snarl. She was blood of the Deliverer. Enkido was but half a man. She might have to obey his instruction, but Nie take her before she think herself his property.

‘Shave them, and teach them the bido weave,’ Melan said.

Amanvah bowed. ‘Yes, Nie’Damaji’ting.’

‘Thank you, cous …’ Ashia began, but as soon as Melan left, Amanvah turned away. She snapped her fingers, pointing to three of the older girls, who immediately went over to Ashia and the others, leading them to the water.

Amanvah went back to a group of other girls, resuming an idle conversation and totally ignoring Ashia, Shanvah, and Sikvah as the nie’dama’ting cut away their beautiful hair and shaved their heads. Ashia stared forward, willing herself not to feel the loss as her heavy locks fell away.

The nie’dama’ting came at her with a cake of soap and a razor next. Ashia froze as the girl lathered her scalp, wielding the blade with expert strokes.

Amanvah returned when they were finished. Kept her gaze above their heads, letting none meet her eyes. ‘Dry off.’ She pointed to a pile of pristinely white, freshly folded drying cloths. ‘Then follow.’

Again she turned away, as Ashia and the others dried off and followed their haughty cousin back to the dressing area. Behind trailed the same three girls who had cut their hair.

Amanvah walked past the many rolls of white bido silk to a lacquered box at the far end of the chamber. ‘You are not dama’ting.’ She threw them each a roll of the black silk from the box. ‘Unworthy to wear the white.’

‘Unworthy,’ the older girls echoed at their backs. Ashia swallowed at that. Betrothed or not, they were blood of the Deliverer, not some common dal’ting.

Enkido was waiting for them when they emerged from the baths with thin, black silk scarves and robes over their bidos. Shanvah and Sikvah had stopped weeping, but still they clutched at each other, eyes on the floor.

Ashia boldly raised her gaze to meet the eunuch’s eyes. She was blood of the Deliverer. Her father would cut off more than this man’s cock if he dared lay a hand on her. She would not be afraid.

She would not.

The eunuch paid her no mind, staring instead at Sikvah, who shook like a hare before the wolf. He made a sharp, dismissive gesture. Sikvah only stared, uncomprehending, beginning to weep once more.

Enkido raised a finger sharply in Sikvah’s face, causing the girl to gasp and stand up straight. Her eyes, wide with fear, crossed as they watched the finger.

Again, Enkido made the dismissive gesture. As if his finger in the air alone had been supporting her, Sikvah bent again, sobbing harder. This put Shanvah over the edge as well, the two of them clutching each other as they shook.

‘She doesn’t understand what you want!’ Ashia cried. She couldn’t tell if the eunuch was deaf as well as mute, for he did not look at her.

Instead, Enkido’s hand whipped out, slapping Sikvah’s cheek so hard her head struck Shanvah’s and they were both driven hard into the wall.

Ashia was moving before she knew it, interposing herself between the eunuch and the other girls. ‘How dare you?!’ she cried. ‘We are princesses of the Kaji, blood of the Deliverer, not camels in the bazaar! The Shar’Dama Ka will see you lose that hand.’

Enkido regarded her a moment. Then his hand seemed to flicker, and she was launched backward, an odd tingling in her jaw. She heard more than felt the rebound of the rock wall as she struck it. The sound echoed in her head as she struck the floor, and she knew pain would soon follow.

But Shanvah and Sikvah needed her. She put her hands under her, struggling to rise. She was the eldest. It was her duty to …

Her vision blurred at the edges, then darkened into black.

Enkido, Shanvah, and Sikvah were in the same positions when she woke. It seemed a mere eyeblink, but the dried blood caking her cheek to the marble floor told another story. The girls had stopped crying, standing with their backs straight. They watched her with terrified eyes.

Ashia managed to push herself up to her knees, then rose shakily to her feet. Her face throbbed with more pain than she had ever known. Rather than terrify her, the feeling made her angry. Perhaps he might strike them, but the half-man would not dare kill them. He was just trying to make them afraid.

She set her feet, daring once more to raise her gaze to Enkido. She would not be so easily cowed.

But the eunuch did not acknowledge her at all, simply turning away and walking down the hall, beckoning them with a wave.

Wordlessly, the girls followed.

Enkido stood before the three frightened girls in a large circular chamber lit only by dim wardlight. Like the rest of the underpalace, the floor and walls were stone, cut with wards and worn to a smooth polish by generations of use. The wards on the floor were arranged in concentric circles, like a marksman’s target.

There were no furnishings save myriad weapons hanging from the walls. Spears and shields, bows and arrows, alagai-catchers and short melee knives, throwing blades and batons, weighted chains and other weapons Ashia could not even put a name to.

They had been forced to remove their robes again, placing them on hooks by the door, standing in only their bido weaves.

Enkido, too, wore only his bido. It was barely a strip of silk, for of course he had no manhood to cover. His muscular body was shaved smooth, covered in hundreds of tattooed lines and dots. It was a chaotic design, but Ashia sensed a pattern that was just beyond her ability to discern.

There was a riddle in them. The Riddle of Enkido. Ashia had always been skilled at riddling games. Riddles were taught to girls at a young age, that they might keep their husbands entertained.

The mute Sharum took a sharusahk pose. The girls looked at him blankly for a moment, but as his eyes darkened, Ashia took his meaning and assumed the same pose. Sharusahk was forbidden to dal’ting, but Ashia and her cousins had been taught dance as well as riddling. This was not so different.

‘Follow him,’ she told the others.

Shanvah and Sikvah complied, and Enkido circled them, inspecting. He grabbed Ashia’s wrist hard, pulling her arm straight as he roughly kicked her legs farther apart. She could feel his grip long after he let go and turned to Shanvah.

Shanvah cried out and hopped from the loud smack to the meat of her thigh, and then Enkido took the stance again. No fool, Shanvah was quick to resume her imitation. She was closer this time, but Enkido kicked her legs out from under her, dropping her to the floor. Sikvah jumped back at that, and even Ashia let her pose slip, turning to face them.

Enkido pointed at her, and that simple gesture made her heart stop. Ashia resumed her pose as Sikvah continued to back away. Eventually she fetched up against the wall and did her very best to sink into it like a spirit.

Once again Enkido took the pose, and Shanvah was quick to scramble to her feet and mimic him. Her feet were set correctly this time, but her back was not straight. Enkido grabbed the strands of bido silk that connected the weave around her shaved head to that covering her nethers. He pulled hard, pressing a thumb into Shanvah’s spine. She cried out in pain, but was helpless to resist as he pulled her back straight.

Enkido let go and turned towards Sikvah. The girl was backed against the wall in terror, hands covering her nose and mouth, eyes wide and tearing. The eunuch flowed smoothly into the pose again.

‘Pose, you little fool!’ Ashia snapped when the girl did not respond. But Sikvah only shook her head, mewling as she tried to shrink away farther into an unyielding wall.

Enkido moved faster than Ashia could have thought possible. Sikvah tried to run as he came for her, but he was on her in an instant, yanking her arm to turn the momentum of her attempt to flee into a throw. She cried out as she tumbled across the floor to the centre of the room.

Enkido was there in an eyeblink, kicking her in the stomach. Sikvah was thrown over onto her back and hit the ground hard. There was blood on her face and she groaned, limbs limp as fronds of palm.

‘For Everam’s sake, get up!’ Ashia cried, but Sikvah didn’t – or couldn’t – comply. Enkido kicked her again. And again. She wailed, but she might have been crying to a statue of stone for all the eunuch took heed. Perhaps he truly was deaf.

He didn’t appear to be trying to maim or kill her, but neither was there any hint of mercy, or sign that the onslaught would end if she did not rise and take the pose. He paused after each strike, giving her the chance to rise, but Sikvah was beyond comprehension, crippled with fear.

The blows began to accumulate. There was blood running from Sikvah’s nose and mouth, and another cut at her temple. One of her eyes was already beginning to swell. Ashia began to think Enkido truly might kill her. She glanced to Shanvah, but the other girl stood frozen, staring helplessly at the scene.

So fixed was the eunuch on Sikvah, he did not notice as Ashia dropped her pose, sliding silently to the wall. Sacred law forbade her or any woman to touch a spear, so she selected a short, heavy baton, banded with steel. It felt good in her hand. Right.

Years of dance told in the grace of her swift and silent approach, as she carefully kept unseen at Enkido’s back. When she was close enough she didn’t hesitate, swinging the baton hard enough to shatter the eunuch’s skull.

Enkido seemed not to have noticed her, but at the last moment he twisted, putting his littlest finger against her wrist. Ashia barely felt the feather-touch, but her swing missed Enkido’s head by a wide margin. His calm eyes met hers, and Ashia knew then he had been waiting, baiting her to see if she would defend her cousin.

Sikvah lay forgotten, a quivering mass of blood and bruise.

He would have killed her, Ashia thought, just to test me. She bared her teeth, pulling back and swinging again at his head, arcing her blow in from another angle.

It was a feint, and she spun before Enkido could react, moving to smash his kneecap.

But the mute eunuch was unsurprised, again sending her blow out wide with only the barest touch. Again and again Ashia swung the baton at him, but Enkido blocked her effortlessly. She felt a mounting fear at what he might do when he decided the lesson was over and struck back.

A moment later she learned, as he caught her wrist with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, twisting. The hold was delicate, but Ashia’s arm might have been set in stone for all she could move it. Enkido’s other hand wove around her arm, a single hard finger poking her shoulder joint.

Immediately Ashia’s arm went numb, falling loosely to her side as Enkido released it. What had he done? She did not feel her fingers lose their grip on the baton, but heard it clatter to the floor. She looked down, willing her fingers to clench, her arm to rise, but it was futile. She cursed the limb for its betrayal.

Enkido lunged at her, and she instinctively raised her other arm to shield herself. He jabbed a finger, and that arm, too, fell to her side. She tried to back away, but he struck again. Just a tap, and her legs would no longer bear her weight. She collapsed in a heap on the floor, head rebounding off the stone like the clapper of a bell.

With an effort she rolled onto her back, her vision spinning as she watched Enkido stalk over to her. She held her breath, determined not to cry out as the final blow came.

But Enkido squatted at her side, reaching gently to take her face in his hands, as comforting as a mother’s touch.

His fingers found her temples and pressed hard. The pain was beyond anything Ashia could have imagined, but she bit her lip till she tasted blood, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing her scream.

The fingers tightened. Ashia’s vision narrowed, then began to blacken at the edges. A moment later, sight vanished entirely. For a few moments, there was a swirl of colour, then that, too, fell away, leaving her in darkness.

Enkido let go the hold and rose, moving away towards her cousins.

She knew not how long she lay there, limp, listening to their cries. But then the shrieks and whimpers fell away. Ashia wondered if she had passed out, or the others had. She strained her ears, hearing gentle sighs, steady breathing, and a soft rustling.

A golden pall came over her vision like a sandstorm, and she began to make out vague shapes. However the eunuch had blinded her, it seemed not to be permanent.

Experimentally, she tried to clutch her numbed fingers. The jolt through her arm had little effect, but already it was a far cry from the seeming death of the limb minutes ago.

She could see the vague shape of the eunuch carrying one of her cousins off. Another was still lying nearby. Shanvah, she realized when her sight began to sharpen. The eunuch returned and carried her off as well. Ashia was left alone in the centre of the room, twitching and struggling to control her slowly wakening limbs. Every thrash was agony, but so was her feeling of helplessness. And that, she would fight to the death.

The eunuch returned to her, a large blur of dark against the field of gold. She felt him lay his hand flat upon her bare chest, and held her breath.

Enkido pressed hard, compressing her lungs to force that breath free. When Ashia tried to take another breath, she found herself unable. He held her that way for a long time. She jerked and thrashed, trying to get her limbs to obey, to strike at him.

Still he held, and at last Ashia had not the strength or control even to thrash. Her slowly returning vision began to darken again.

Back to sleep, she thought, almost with relief.

But then the eunuch eased his hand slightly. Ashia tried to take a breath, and choked. Her lungs still could not expand fully. But she could take a short breath, and did. It was sweeter than any breath she had ever taken, but it was not enough, and so she took another. And another.

She found a steady rhythm in the short breaths, and again her vision began to return, her limbs to reawaken. But she did not thrash, focused solely on those fluttering, life-giving breaths.

And then Enkido eased his hand once more. She was allowed a half breath, and accepted it greedily, again finding a steady rhythm to compensate for the missing half.

He raised his hand again, laying it gently on her breast. Ashia took a full breath, and knew it was his gift to her. No pleasure of her life could match the perfection of that single breath.

Then he pushed slowly down again. Ashia went limp, letting him force the air from her lungs. He raised his hand a moment later, and Ashia breathed again. For several minutes, she let him guide her breaths. After struggling so mightily for air, this was complete rest, letting Enkido breathe for her.

She thought that she might fall asleep to that soothing feeling, But he took his hand away, and began massaging her temples, tending the very spot he had brought such agony upon.

Ashia’s return to sight increased rapidly now, the haze before her focusing into the eunuch’s muscular form. Ashia had never before seen a man without his robes and knew she should lower her eyes, but the tattoos on his body called to her once more. The Riddle of Enkido.

The eunuch’s skilful fingers moved from her temples to her still-numb arm. There was a tugging feeling as he worked, but she could not feel his touch on her skin. But then there was a stab of pain that made Ashia jerk. She whipped her head around, seeing Enkido massaging a tiny bruise on her shoulder. An almost perfect circle of purple flesh where his fingertip had struck.

The pain faded quickly, spreading out into a gentle feeling of pins and needles as Ashia’s limb came fully alive once more.

He turned slightly, and Ashia caught sight of a tattoo almost identical to her bruise on the eunuch’s shoulder.

There were others on his temples, right where he had squeezed Ashia. Her eyes flickered over his body, following the lines that connected the points. There were many convergences, some great and some small. Enkido next moved to a bruise on her lower back. She twisted to better see, but she had already seen its tattooed mate on Enkido’s back.

She knew even before the eunuch began to work that her legs would soon be full of pins and needles as well.

He’s teaching, she realized. The very lines on his body are the sacred text.

She looked up at Enkido, and his face as he massaged her injury seemed almost one of kindness. She reached out, tentatively touching the convergence point on Enkido’s back. ‘I see it now. I understand, and will tell the others … master.’

Enkido bent towards her. For a moment she thought she was imagining it. But no. He held it too long.

Enkido bowed to her, as a teacher to a pupil, before scooping her up in his arms and carrying her, gentle as a babe, to the warm mass where her cousins slept. He laid her there, and brushed gentle fingertips over her eyelids, closing them for her.

Ashia did not resist, putting her arms protectively about her cousins and falling into a deep sleep.

They woke with a start. Enkido might be mute, but he could still bring thunder from the polished ram’s horn at his lips. It felt like the very walls were shaking. The girls shrieked and covered their ears, but the noise did not cease until they were on their feet. Ashia had no idea what time it was, but they must have slept for hours. She felt refreshed, if still sore.

The eunuch replaced the horn on the wall and handed them each a towel, silently leading the way from his training room to the bath. They walked in a line, but Ashia stole glances back at her cousins. Shanvah’s face was frozen, thoughts far away. Sikvah walked with a limp, drawing sharp breaths as they went down a series of steps.

As before, Enkido waited outside as they entered the dressing chamber. They could hear the trickle of the fountains while they unwove their bidos, but it was otherwise quiet. Indeed, they found the bath empty.

Shanvah and Sikvah looked about nervously, dwarfed by the great chamber. Ashia clapped her hands, drawing their attention. ‘Nie’Damaji’ting Melan said we were to have an hour a day in the bath. Let us not waste it.’ She waded out into the water, leading them to the largest, most central fountain. There were benches of smooth stone at the base where bathers could lie, immersing themselves in the hot flow.

Sikvah groaned as she lay in the steaming water. ‘There, sister,’ Ashia said, coming to her side to inspect the bruise on her thigh, gently massaging as Enkido had done. ‘The bruise is not great. Let the hot water soak the pain, and it will heal quickly.’

‘There will be others,’ Shanvah said, her voice flat and lifeless. ‘He will never stop.’ Sikvah shuddered, her skin pimpling even in the warm air.

‘He will,’ Ashia said, ‘when we solve the riddle.’

‘Riddle?’ Shanvah asked.

Ashia pointed to the bruise on her shoulder. Shanvah had a matching one, as did Sikvah. ‘There is a mark just like this on the master’s flesh. When struck, the arm dies for a time.’

Sikvah began to cry again.

‘But what does it mean?’ Shanvah asked.

‘A dama’ting mystery,’ Ashia said. ‘Melan said we were to learn sharusahk. The Riddle of Enkido is a part of it, I’m sure.’

‘Then why give us a teacher who cannot speak?’ Sikvah demanded. ‘One who … who …’ She sobbed again.

Ashia squeezed her thigh reassuringly. ‘Fear not, cousin. Perhaps this is simply the way. Our brothers all came back from sharaj with sharusahk bruises. Why should we be different?’

‘Because we’re not boys!’ Shanvah shouted.

Just then, the doors opened and the three girls froze. A group of Betrothed entered, led by Amanvah.

‘Perhaps not,’ Ashia said, drawing the other girls’ eyes back to her. ‘But we are blood of the Deliverer, and there is nothing common boys can endure that we cannot.’

‘You’re using our fountain,’ Amanvah called as she and the others strode over. She pointed to a small fountain at the far end of the pool. ‘Black bidos wash over there.’

The other nie’dama’ting laughed at that, squawking like trained birds. Amanvah was only eleven, but girls years her senior, some close to taking the white veil themselves, deferred to her, eager to curry favour.

Sikvah’s leg had gone tense, and Ashia could sense Shanvah, too, was ready to bolt like a hare.

‘Pay the chatter no mind, little cousins,’ Ashia said. ‘But come.’ She took each of them by an arm, pulling them gently to their feet and ushering them away while she glared at Amanvah. ‘A smaller fountain and the laughter of girls is a cheap price for our hour of peace.’

‘Not girls,’ Amanvah said, grabbing Ashia’s arm. ‘Nie’dama’ting. Your betters. Something you’d best learn.’

‘Why are you doing this?’ Ashia demanded. ‘We are cousins. Our blood is your blood. Blood of the Deliverer.’

Amanvah pulled at Ashia’s shoulder, at the same time sliding a leg behind hers. Ashia was thrown into her cousins, the three of them falling to the water with a splash.

‘You are nothing,’ Amanvah said when they came sputtering out of the water. ‘The Deliverer has spoken, sending you here in black. You are the products of his useless, dal’ting sisters, fit for breeding wolves to run the Maze and nothing else. Your blood is not holy, and you are no cousin of mine.’

Ashia felt her sense of calm slip away. She was two years older than Amanvah, bigger and stronger, and she would not be bullied by her younger cousin.

She struck the water, sending a splash that Amanvah instinctively threw a hand up to shield from her face. Quick as an asp, Ashia darted in and struck, fingers bunched and stiffened, for the point on her shoulder where Enkido’s tattoo had been. The place she and all her cousins carried bruises.

Amanvah gave a shrill, satisfying cry as she fell onto her backside in the water. The other girls froze, no one sure how to react.

Amanvah’s eyes were wide as she stared at her numb, lifeless arm. Then she scowled, rubbing at the spot until the numbness faded. She flexed her arm experimentally, and it responded, if slowly.

‘So Enkido has managed to teach you something of sharusahk already,’ Amanvah said, getting to her feet and taking the same stance Enkido had demonstrated the day before. She smiled. ‘Come, then. Show me what you have learned.’

Ashia already knew what was coming, and steeled herself. If the Sharum can endure this, then I can as well.

The thought calmed her a bit, but did nothing to shield her from the pain as Amanvah administered the beating. She flowed around Ashia’s punches as if she were standing still, and her own strikes were quick and precise, twisting and jabbing points meant to deliver maximum pain. When she tired of the game, she easily grappled Ashia to the pool floor, twisting her arm so far Ashia feared she might break it off. She struggled to keep her head above water, and knew, to her shame, that if the younger girl wished to drown her, there was nothing she could do to stop her.

But Amanvah was content with pain, pulling at Ashia’s arm until she had screamed herself hoarse.

At last Amanvah let her go, dropping her with a splash. She pointed to the small fountain. Her eyes taking in all three of her cousins.

‘To your kennel, nie’Sharum’ting dogs.’

The horn sounded, and Ashia was on her feet before her mind was fully awake. She crouched in a defensive stance, presenting as low a profile as possible as she scanned for the threat.

No attack came. Enkido casually replaced the horn on the wall while the girls stood at the ready. There were five of them now, her cousins Micha and Jarvah joining them not long after the Damajah gave them to Enkido. The new girls were years younger, but seemed to adapt to Enkido’s world the faster for it, and for the example Ashia set.

For months, Enkido’s training room had been the centre of their world. They slept and ate there, meals and rest earned only with pain. Lessons always ended with one of the girls nursing numbed limbs or worse maladies. Sometimes they could not smell. Other times deaf for hours. None of the effects was permanent.

If he was pleased with them, Enkido would massage and stretch away their pain, restoring lost limbs and senses, speeding healing.

They learned quickly that hard work pleased him. And stubborn resolve. A willingness to continue even when hurt or in pain. Complaints, begging, and disobedience did not.

They had not been allowed a full sleep since that first night. Twenty minutes here, three hours there. The eunuch would wake them at odd hours and expect them to perform complex sharukin, or even spar. There seemed no pattern to it, so they learned to sleep when they could. The perpetual state of exhaustion made the first weeks seem a blurred dream.

Lessons with the dama’ting came and went like mirages in the desert. They obeyed the Brides of Everam without question. Enkido always knew if they had displeased one of the women in white, and made it known without words why the mistakes should never be repeated.

I would kill for a full sleep, Shanvah’s fingers said.

Most of the lessons the dama’ting gave were of little interest to the girls, but the secret code of the eunuchs, a mixture of hand signs and body language, had been embraced fully. Complex conversations could be had in code as easily as speech.

Enkido gave occasional commands or bits of wisdom in code, but the eunuch still preferred to silently teach by example, forcing them to guess the full meaning for themselves. Sometimes days went by without a word in code.

But while it did little to foster communication with their master, it had become their primary means of communication with one another. Enkido, it turned out, was not deaf. Quite the contrary, the slightest whisper could bring pain and humiliation that kept the girls silent in his presence. Ashia was sure he had caught them speaking in code more than once, but thus far he had chosen to ignore it.

As would I, Ashia’s fingers replied, shocked to find she truly meant it.

I haven’t the strength to kill, Sikvah said. Without sleep, I may die. As usual, Micha and Jarvah said nothing, but they watched the conversation closely.

You won’t die, Ashia replied. As the master taught me to survive on shallow breaths, so too is he teaching us shallow sleep.

Shanvah turned to meet her eyes. How can you know that? her fingers asked.

Trust your elder, little cousins, Ashia replied, and even Shanvah relaxed at that. Ashia could not explain, but she had no doubt of the master’s intent. Sadly, understanding did not give her endurance. That had to be earned.

There was an unexpected reprieve as Enkido made his most beloved gesture, pointing towards the towels. They must have slept longer than they thought. All five girls had a spring in their step as they collected their towels and lined by the door. The eunuch dismissed them with a wave.

Twenty hours a day with Enkido, as the Damajah commanded. Three more studying with the dama’ting. And that one, blessed hour between, when they were in the baths. The one place Enkido could not follow. The one hour they could speak freely, or close their eyes without permission. Showing submission to the nie’dama’ting was a small price for the peace.

The Betrothed sneered at them in the baths, the halls, at lessons, laughing at the nie’Sharum’ting, as Amanvah had dubbed them. The black bidos forever marked Ashia and her cousins from the other girls in the palace. Even the dal’ting girls sent to learn pillow dancing seemed above them. They were allowed to keep their hair, and not beaten for their errors.

Ashia and her little cousins had learned to keep quiet and to themselves, passing unnoticed whenever possible, showing submission when not.

As usual, they were the first to the baths. The nie’dama’ting would not arrive for a quarter hour, but Ashia led them directly to the small fountain at the edge of the pool, even though the water was not as hot, so far from the wards that heated it. There they washed the sweat from their skin, and helped one another massage sore muscles, sand calluses, and treat blistered skin. Enkido’s lessons on massage and healing were invaluable in the baths.

There was a shout as the doors opened. The nie’dama’ting entered in a knot, and clearly a confrontation was going on at their centre.

Ashia was not fool enough to stare, but she casually sat atop the fountain, right by the flow of water, to grant a better view from the side of her eyes. Wordlessly, her cousins did the same, pretending to groom one another as they watched.

This was not the first time they had witnessed the Betrothed fighting. They called one another sister, but there was little love among them, each vying for influence over the others and the favour of Amanvah. Outside, they used debate and logic, but in the privacy of the baths, where the Brides of Everam would not see, they were as apt to use cutting words, or even sharusahk.

The argument was between two older girls, Jaia and Selthe. They seemed ready to come to blows, but both glanced first to Amanvah, seeking favour.

Amanvah turned her back on them, giving them permission to fight. ‘I see nothing.’

The other Betrothed did the same, repeating the words and turning their backs until the older girls faced each other alone.

Who will take the match? Ashia’s fingers asked.

Selthe, Sikvah answered without hesitation. It is said she will soon finish her dice and take the white.

She will lose, and badly, Ashia disagreed.

Her form is strong, Shanvah noted. Micha and Jarvah did not comment, but they followed the conversation with their eyes.

There is fear in her eyes, Ashia said. Indeed, Selthe took a step back as Jaia moved in. A moment later, Selthe’s head was being held under the water. Jaia kept her there until Selthe ceased struggling and slapped her submission on the surface of the pool. Jaia pushed her farther under, then let go and took a step back. Selthe rose with a splash, gasping for air.

Weak lungs, too, Ashia said. She was barely under the water a full minute.

‘I see your fingers chattering, Sharum dogs!’ Amanvah’s cry snapped their heads up. The girl strode angrily their way, several other Betrothed at her back.

‘Behind me, little cousins,’ Ashia said softly as Amanvah approached. ‘Eyes down. This is not your fight.’ The girls complied as Ashia raised her gaze to meet Amanvah’s. The act seemed to double the younger girl’s ire as she pulled up, close enough to reach out and touch.

The kill zone, Enkido’s fingers had called the space between them.

‘You saw nothing,’ Amanvah said. ‘Say it, nie’Sharum’ting.’

Ashia shook her head. ‘The large fountain is not worth fighting over, cousin, but nothing you can do will make me lie to my master, much less the dama’ting. I will not volunteer the information, but if asked, I will tell the truth.’

Amanvah’s nostrils flared. ‘And what is that?’

‘That the nie’dama’ting lack discipline,’ Ashia said. ‘That you call one another sister but do not know the meaning of the word, bickering and fighting like khaffit.’ She spat in the bath, and the other girls gasped. ‘And your sharusahk is pathetic.’

Amanvah’s eyes flicked to her target an instant before she struck, but it was more than enough for Ashia to block and plot her next three blows. The Betrothed spent two hours each day studying sharusahk. Ashia and her cousins spent twenty, and the difference had come to tell.

Ashia could have put Amanvah under the water as easily as Jaia did Selthe, but she wanted the beating to last, as had the one Amanvah delivered on their second day in the palace.

Two knuckles into the armpit, and Amanvah howled with pain. A chop to the throat cut off the sound, and Amanvah’s eyes bulged as her lungs seized. The heel of Ashia’s hand to her forehead left Amanvah stunned as the force of the blow knocked her backward into the water.

Ashia could have continued the beating, but she stayed her hand as Amanvah rose choking to her knees, coughing out bathwater. ‘If you walk away now, I will not have to tell the dama’ting you are fools, as well.’

It was a goad, of course, forcing Amanvah to willingly prolong the beating, lest she appear weak in front of the other nie’dama’ting.

The other girls held their collective breath as Amanvah slowly got to her feet, water dripping from her skin. Her eyes promised murder, but they also told Ashia where she would strike next.

The eyes tell all, Enkido’s fingers had said. Ashia stood calmly, breathing in steady rhythm, her guard low, inviting the attack.

Amanvah was more cautious now, keeping her guard in place and using feints to set up her true attacks.

It was all to no avail. Ashia could see the moves before Amanvah even made them, blocking a series of blows without retaliating, simply to show the ease of it.

Up to their thighs in water, Ashia kept her feet planted, blocking and dodging with her upper body alone, but Amanvah needed her feet. It made her slow, and she soon began to breathe hard.

Ashia shook her head. ‘You Betrothed are soft, cousin. This lesson was overdue.’

Amanvah glared at her with open hatred. Wrapped in the soft cocoon of her breath, Ashia was calm, but she put a smile on her lips, if only to goad her cousin further. She already knew what Amanvah was planning, though she wanted to believe the girl was not so stupid as to actually attempt it.

But in her desperation, Amanvah took the bait, delivering a series of feints before trying a kick.

Her legs already tired and underwater, the kick was pathetically slow. Amanvah was counting on surprise, but even that would not have been enough. Ashia caught her ankle, yanking the leg upward.

‘One stupid enough to kick in water does not deserve the use of their leg.’ She struck hard, driving her stiffened fingers hard into a precise point on Amanvah’s thigh. Amanvah screamed from the pain, and then the leg went limp in Ashia’s hand.

Ashia spun her as she fell, easily slipping into a submission hold as she held Amanvah under.

Jaia tried to intercede, but Shanvah moved in without a word, striking two quick blows that collapsed the older girl’s legs. She fell to the water, thrashing to keep her head above the surface. Selthe could have stepped in to help her, but she and the other nie’dama’ting stood frozen in place. Sikvah, Micha, and Jarvah lined up next to Shanvah, blocking their path to the combatants.

Amanvah thrashed at first, and then went still. Ashia waited for her to slap the surface of the water in submission, but to her credit, the girl never did. She knew she was the Deliverer’s daughter, and even Ashia would not dare kill her in front of everyone.

She pulled Amanvah’s head free of the water, letting her gasp a breath.

‘Sharum blood of the Deliverer. Say it.’

The girl looked at her in fury, spitting in Ashia’s face.

Ashia did not let her draw another breath before putting her back under, twisting her arm painfully for long moments.

‘Sharum blood,’ Ashia said, pulling her into the air. ‘Everam’s spear sisters. Say it.’ Amanvah shook her head wildly as she gasped and thrashed, so Ashia put her under again.

This time she waited long minutes, her hands in tune with Amanvah’s body. The muscles tensed one last time before consciousness was lost. When she felt it, she pulled Amanvah out into the air a third time, leaning in close.

‘There is no hora magic in the bath, cousin. No dama’ting, no Enkido. There is only sharusahk. We can do this every day if you wish.’

Amanvah eyed her with cold rage, but there was fear there as well, and resignation. ‘Sharum blood of the Deliverer, Everam’s spear sisters,’ she agreed. ‘Cousin.’

Ashia nodded. ‘An admission that would have cost you nothing, when I came to you in friendship.’ She let go her hold and stepped back, pointing. ‘I think it is the Betrothed who will use the small fountains where the water is cool from now on. Everam’s spear sisters claim the large one.’

She looked out over the assembled nie’dama’ting and was satisfied to see them all rock backward under her gaze. ‘Unless any wish to challenge me?’

Shanvah and the others broke their line as if the move had been rehearsed, giving room for a challenger to approach, but none was so foolish. They made way as Ashia led her sisters to the large fountain, where they continued their bath as if nothing had happened. The Betrothed helped Amanvah and Jaia onto benches, massaging life back into their limbs. They watched Ashia and the others dazedly, their own bathing forgotten.

That was incredible, Shanvah’s fingers said.

You should not have interfered, Ashia replied. I ordered you to stand back.

Shanvah looked hurt, and the others genuinely surprised.

But we won, Micha signed.

Today we won, Ashia agreed. But tomorrow, when they come at us together, you will all need to fight.

The nie’dama’ting did indeed attack the next day. They entered the bath en masse, moving to surround the large fountain where Ashia and her spear sisters bathed, outnumbering them three to one.

Six nie’dama’ting were carried from the bath by their sisters that day, limbs too numb to support them. Others limped or nursed black bruises. Some were dizzy from loss of air, and one had still not recovered her sight.

They went through lessons fearing reprisal, but if the dama’ting asked questions about the state of them, the nie’dama’ting saw nothing.

When they returned to Enkido, they found him kneeling at the head of a small table with six steaming bowls. Always, the girls had knelt by the wall as they ate their small bowls of plain couscous. The room had never before held any piece of furniture beyond training equipment.

But even more shocking was the scent that came from the bowls. Ashia turned and saw dark meat atop the couscous, moist with juice and dark with spices. Her mouth watered, and her stomach lurched. Food such as she had not tasted in half a year.

As if in a daze, the girls followed their noses to the table. It felt like floating.

The head of the table for the master, Enkido signed.

The foot, for Nie Ka. He indicated that Ashia kneel at the opposite end. He beckoned Shanvah and Sikvah to kneel on one side, Micha and Jarvah the other.

Enkido swept his hands over the steaming bowls. Meat this one night, in honour of Sharum blood.

He thumped his fist on the table, making the bowls jump. The table, always, for Everam’s spear sisters.

From that day forward, they always ate together, like true family.

He punished their failures, yes, but Enkido gave rewards, too.

No meat had ever tasted sweeter.

Years passed. At sixteen, Ashia and the other girls had been commanded to begin growing back their hair. It seemed heavy now, clumsy. She kept it carefully pinned back.

At seventeen, her father sent for her. It was the first time she had left the Dama’ting Palace in over four years, and the world outside looked strange to her now. The halls of her father’s palace were bright and garish, but there were places to hide, if one was limber and quick. She could disappear in an instant if she wished, trained to be invisible.

But no, she was here to be seen. It was an alien concept, half remembered from another life.

‘Beloved daughter!’ Imisandre rose and went to embrace her when she entered the throne room.

‘It is a pleasure to see you, honoured mother.’ Ashia kissed her mother’s cheeks.

Her brother stood to the right of the throne, draped in the white robes of a full dama. He nodded to her, but did not presume to speak before their father.

Ashan did not rise, watching her coolly, searching still for some imperfection to judge. But after Enkido, her father’s expectations were met effortlessly. Back straight, eyes down, every fibre of her black robes in place, she silently approached. At the precise distance from the throne, she stopped and bowed, waiting.

‘Daughter,’ Ashan said at last. ‘You are looking well. Does the Dama’ting Palace agree with you?’

Ashia straightened, but kept her eyes at her father’s sandals. He had two Sharum guards by the door, too far to assist him in time. A Krevakh Watcher lurked in the columns behind the throne. She might not have noticed him when she was younger, but now he might as well have been wearing bells. Pitiful protection for the Damaji of the Kaji and his heir.

Of course, Ashan himself was a sharusahk master, and could see to his own defence against most any foe. She wondered how he and her brother would fare against her now.

‘Thank you, honoured Father,’ she said. ‘I have learned much in the Dama’ting Palace. You were wise to send me and my cousins there.’

Ashan nodded. ‘That is well, but your time there has come to an end. You are seventeen now, and it is time you were married.’

Ashia felt as if she had been punched in the gut, but she embraced the feeling, bowing again. ‘Has my honoured father selected a match at last?’ She could see the smile on her brother’s face, and knew who it was before her father spoke again.

‘It has been agreed between fathers,’ Ashan said. ‘You are released from the Dama’ting Palace to marry the Deliverer’s son Asome. Your palace chambers are as you left them. Return there now with your mother to begin preparation.’

‘Please.’ Having dismissed her, Ashan was already looking to his advisor Shevali when Ashia spoke.

‘Eh?’ he asked.

Ashia could see storm clouds gathering on her father’s brow. If she were to attempt to refuse the match …

She knelt, putting her hands on the floor with her head between them. ‘Excuse me, honoured Father, for disturbing you. It was my hope, only, to see my cousins one last time before I go with my honoured mother to follow the path Everam has laid before me.’

Her father’s face softened at that, the closest he had ever come to a show of affection. ‘Of course, of course.’

She held her tears until she reached the training chamber. Her spear sisters were practising sharukin, but they stood straight, bowing. Enkido was not to be found.

Nie Ka, you have returned, Shanvah signed. Is all well?

Ashia shook her head. Nie Ka no longer, sister. That title will be yours now, and the care of our little sisters. I am to marry.

Congratulations, sister, Sikvah signed. Who is the groom?

Asome, Ashia signed.

An honour, Micha signed.

What will we do without you? Jarvah’s hands asked.

You will have one another, Ashia signed, and Enkido, until such time as we are reunited. She embraced each in turn, and still refused to cry.

But then the door opened, and Enkido appeared. With a wave, the other girls filed out of the room, dismissed.

Ashia looked at her master, and then, for the first time since she was sent to the Dama’ting Palace, she wept.

Enkido opened his arms, and she fell into them. From his robes he took a tear bottle. He held her, steady as stone, stroking her hair with one hand as he collected her tears with the other.

‘I’m sorry, master,’ she whispered when it was done. It was the first time in years anyone had spoken aloud in the training chamber. The sound echoed to her sensitive ears, seeming wrong, but what did it matter now?

Even the palm weeps, when the storm washes over it, Enkido signed, moving to hand her the bottle. The tears of Everam’s spear sisters are all the more precious for how seldom they fall.

Ashia held up her hands, pushing the bottle away. ‘Then keep them always.’

She looked down, even now unable to meet his eyes. ‘I should be overjoyed. What greater husband could a woman dream of than the Deliverer’s son? I thought that fate was taken from me when I was sent to you, but now that it has come again, I do not wish it. Why was I sent here, if only to be given to a man who would have had me regardless? What point in the skills you have taught, if I am never to use them? You are my master, and I want no other.’

Enkido looked at her with sad eyes. I had many wives before giving myself to the dama’ting, his fingers said. Many sons. Many daughters. But not one has made me as proud as you have. Your loyalty makes my heart sing.

She clutched at him. ‘Asome may be my husband, but you will always be my master.’

The eunuch shook his head. No, child. The command of the Deliverer cannot be denied. It is not for me or you to speak against his blessing, and I will not shame the Deliverer’s son by coveting what is rightfully his. You will go to Asome a free woman, unbound to me.

Ashia pulled away, walking to the door. Enkido did not follow.

‘If you are no longer my master,’ she said, ‘then you cannot command my heart.’

The wedding was everything she might have dreamed as a girl, fit for a prince and princess of Krasia. Her spear sisters stood beside her as she waited for her father to escort her to where Asome waited with Jayan at the foot of the Skull Throne in Sharik Hora.

Enkido was in attendance as well, guarding the Damajah and watching over the proceedings, though none of the guests knew it. She and her sisters knew the signs, saw the slight ripples he left to mark himself to them.

The oaths and ceremony were a blur. Two thrones had been provided for the bride and groom at the feast, but Ashia sat alone, waiting on her husband as he accepted gifts and spoke to the guests, Asukaji at his side.

No expense had been spared, but the rich, honeyed cakes were bland to Ashia’s tongue. She longed to be back safe underground, eating plain couscous at the foot of Enkido’s table.

But for all she walked through the day in a daze, it was the wedding night that brought home her true fate.

She waited in the pillow chamber for Asome to come and take her as a husband, but hours passed in silence. Ashia looked more than once at the window, dreaming of escape.

At last, there was a sound in the hall, but it never reached the door.

There was a vent above the archway. Ashia was up the wall in an instant, her fingers easily finding holds in the minute cracks between the stones. She put her eye and ear to the vent, seeing the back of Asome’s head, with Asukaji facing him. They looked to be arguing.

‘I cannot do this,’ Asome was saying.

‘You can, and you will,’ Asukaji said, taking her husband’s face in his hands. ‘Ashia must give you the son I cannot. Melan has thrown her dice. If you take my sister now, it will be done. One time, and the ordeal be over.’

Realization was a slap in the face.

It was no sin for men to love their own gender. It was common enough in the sharaj, boys forming pillow friendships to pass the years before they were old and experienced enough for their first wife. But Everam demanded new generations, and so all but the most stubborn push’ting were eventually bound to marry and share the pillows, if only long enough to produce a son. Everam knew, Kajivah had said as much to Asukaji many times.

But she had never thought she would be a push’ting bride.

They entered a moment later. Ashia had plenty of time to get back in the pillows, but her mind was reeling. Asome and Asukaji were push’ting lovers. She had never meant anything to them save as a womb to carry the abomination they wanted to bring into the world.

They ignored Ashia, Asukaji undressing her husband and stiffening him with his mouth until he could do the deed. He joined them in the pillows, coaxing them together.

His touch made Ashia’s skin crawl, but she took shallow breaths, and endured.

Despite his words, there was jealousy in her brother’s eyes, his face darkening as Asome gasped and saw Everam, seeding her. As soon as the deed was done, Asukaji pulled them apart and the two men fell into an embrace, seeming to forget she was even there.

Ashia thought then about killing them both. It would be simple. They were so lost in each other she doubted they would notice until it was too late. She could even make it seem an accident, as if the act had been too much for poor Asome’s heart. Her brother, distraught at his lover’s death, would have taken a knife to himself rather than live without.

Enkido had taught her to do those things, so cleanly that the Deliverer himself would never know.

She closed her eyes, living the fantasy fully, not daring to move lest she make it reality. She breathed, and eventually her centre returned. She rose from the pillows, pulling her wedding robes back on, and left.

Her husband and brother did not notice.

5
Kajivah
333 AR Autumn

Ashia looked up in shock as wardlight flooded the room where she wept. How long since someone had been able to sneak past her guard? Had she forgotten everything her master taught?

Enkido would be ashamed of you, Micha said, and it was true. How could she lead the Sharum’ting when she could not even lead herself?

She turned to the doorway expecting to see Kajivah, but her heart sank farther at the sight of her husband. Perhaps it was inevera that Asome should find her so, eyes puffed and wet, as much a failure at motherhood as she was in alagai’sharak. He would tell her now, as so many times before, that she should give up her spear. And perhaps he was right.

‘Tikka was having one of her fits.’ Asome produced a spotless white cloth from his sleeve, handing it to her to dry her eyes. ‘But I wore her down with patience, though Everam knows, a mountain does not have enough.’

Ashia laughed, sniffing into the cloth.

‘Word of your exploits in the night has already reached the palace, jiwah,’ Asome said.

Ashia looked at him weakly. He knew. Everam damn him, he already knew of her loss of control out beyond the Maze. Would he have her stripped of her spear, now that the Deliverer was not there to stop him? Asome and her father had both argued long and hard to keep her from alagai’sharak. With Ashan on the Skull Throne, this was all they needed. Even the Damajah could not stop them.

‘Those men were foolish to leave their unit behind,’ Asome went on. ‘It was only by Everam’s infinite mercy that you should have been there to save them from themselves. You have done well, jiwah.’

Relief flooded Ashia, though it was mixed in a sickening swirl of guilt. Was she less a fool?

Even more confusing was the source of the praise. Had Asome ever spared a compliment for her? Words failed as she watched him, waiting for the twist.

Asome crossed the room to the greenland bed in her pillow chamber. He sat, sinking into the feathered mattress, then immediately stood back up.

‘Everam’s beard,’ he said. ‘Do you actually sleep on that?’

Ashia realized her husband had never even seen her sleeping chambers before. She shook her head. ‘I fear it will swallow me. I sleep on the floor.’

Asome nodded. ‘The greenland ways threaten to make us as soft as they.’

‘Some, perhaps,’ Ashia said. ‘The weak of will. But it is to us, the blood of the Deliverer, to show them a better way.’

Asome looked at her a long time, then began to pace the room, arms crossed behind his back, hands thrust into his sleeves.

‘I have failed you as a husband,’ he said. ‘I knew I would never be good at it, but I did not realize what it would drive you to.’

‘My path was laid down by Everam before you took me to wife,’ Ashia said. ‘I am what the Damajah made me, a spear sister of Everam. She knew this, and advised against the match, but our fathers would not listen.’

Asome nodded. ‘Nor Asukaji, who pressed for the match at every turn. But perhaps it is inevera. My mother told me on Waning that a great man does not fear his wife will steal his glory. He uses her support to reach even higher.’

He moved over to her, offering a hand to pull her to her feet, mindless of the greasy black ichor that stained her fingers. ‘It seems I am not a great man, but perhaps, with your help, it is not too late.’

Ashia’s eyes narrowed. She ignored the hand, curling her legs and kicking herself to standing. ‘What are you saying, husband? You must forgive me if I require plain words, but we have had many misunderstandings. What support do you wish from me?’

Asome bowed. Not so long and deep as to show deference, but still a sign of respect that surprised her. Her husband had not bowed to her since their wedding day. ‘This night? Nothing save a peace between us, and a renewed hope to preserve our marriage, as the Deliverer has commanded. Tomorrow …’ He shrugged. ‘We shall see what the dawn brings.’

Ashia shook her head. ‘If by “preserving our marriage” you mean I submit to your touch again and bear you further sons …’

Asome held up a hand. ‘I have eleven nie’dama brothers, and dozens more among the nie’Sharum. Soon I shall have nephews in the hundreds. The house of Jardir, nearly extinct a generation ago, is thriving once again. I have done my duty and produced a son and heir. I need no further children. What child could be greater than our Kaji?’

Asome cast his gaze to the floor. ‘We both know I am push’ting, jiwah. I do not crave a woman’s touch. That night was …’ He shook his head vigorously, as if to throw the image from his mind. Then he looked up, meeting her eyes. ‘But I am proud of you, my Jiwah Ka. And I can still love you in my way, if you will allow it.’

Ashia looked at him a long time, considering. Asome and her brother had been dead in her heart since the wedding night. Was there any return from the lonely path?

‘Why are you proud of me?’ she asked.

‘Eh?’ Asome said.

‘You said you were proud of me.’ Ashia crossed her arms. ‘Why? A fortnight ago you stood before the Shar’Dama Ka crying shame and demanding divorce.’

Now it was Asome’s turn to stare while he sifted his feelings and chose his words. ‘And you stood there beside me, fierce and certain of your place in Everam’s plan. I envy that, cousin. Heir to Nothing, they call me. When have I understood my place in it?’

He swept a hand her way. ‘But you. First of the Sharum’ting, giving glory to Everam in sacred alagai’sharak.’

He paused, and his eyes flicked to the floor. He let out a sigh and raised them again, meeting her eyes and holding them. ‘I was wrong to try to deny your wishes, jiwah. It was jealousy, and a sin against Everam. I have repented before the Creator, but the sin was against you. I beg that you accept my apology.’

Ashia was stunned. An apology? From Asome, son of Ahmann? She wondered if she were sleeping, and this some bizarre dream.

‘Jealousy?’ she asked.

‘I, too, crave the right to fight in the night,’ Asome said. ‘An honour denied me not by sex, but the colour of my robe. I was … bitter, that a woman should be given the right to do what I may not.’

‘Traditions change every day, as we approach Sharak Ka,’ Ashia said. ‘The Deliverer was vexed when he forbade you to fight. Perhaps when he returns …’

‘And if he does not return?’ Asome said. ‘Your father sits the throne now, but he does not have a warrior’s heart. He will never allow the dama to fight.’

‘The same was said of my spear sisters,’ Ashia said. ‘If this is what you want, you should be making peace with the Damajah, not me.’

Asome nodded. ‘Perhaps. But I do not know how to begin. I always knew Jayan was not worthy to succeed my father, but I did not know until today that I, too, had failed my parents.’

‘The Damajah has promised you the succession of the Skull Throne,’ Ashia said. ‘That is no small thing.’

Asome waved his hand. ‘A meaningless gesture. Ashan is young. Sharak Ka will likely have come and gone before Everam calls him to Heaven, with me left watching from the minarets.’

Ashia laid a hand on his shoulder. He stiffened at the touch but did not pull away. ‘The Damajah is under more strain than you know, husband. Go to her. She will show you the path to honour.’

Asome reached out, entwining their arms as he, too, reached for her shoulder. Ashia stiffened in return. It was a sign of trust among those who studied sharusahk, both of them giving the other opportunity for leverage and attack.

‘I will do what I can,’ Asome said. ‘But her first command was that I make peace with you.’

Ashia squeezed his shoulder. ‘I have not broken your arm, husband. Nor you, mine. That is peace enough to build upon.’

Inevera lounged in her new robes on her bed of pillows beside the Skull Throne. Still scandalous by Krasian standards, the bright colourful silks were a shock to the eyes in a culture where every decent woman was in black, white, or tan.

But now the thin silk was opaque. No more would men have a glimpse of the flesh beneath, always ready for the Deliverer’s pleasure. She kept her hair uncovered, but now the locks were tightly woven and banded with gold and jewels instead of falling free for the Deliverer to stroke.

She let her gaze slip across the auras of the men in the room. All of them, even Ashan, were afraid of her. He shifted on the throne, uncomfortable.

That, too, was good.

‘The Sharum Ka!’ the door guard called as Jayan strode into the room and past the Damaji, climbing to stand opposite Asome on the fourth step.

It was an agreement that had only come after hours of negotiation between their camps. The fourth step was high enough to advise quietly, but low enough that their eyes were below sitting Ashan, and level with each other. The dice had predicted blood in the streets should either stand a step higher or lower.

Jayan’s entourage remained on the floor. Hasik, Ahmann’s disgraced eunuch brother-in-law, now heeled Jayan like an attack dog. With him stood kai’Sharum Jurim, who commanded the Spears of the Deliverer in Shanjat’s absence, and Jayan’s half brothers, kai’Sharum Icha and Sharu, eldest sons of Ahmann by Thalaja and Everalia. Both were seventeen, raised to the black mere months earlier, but already they commanded large contingents of Sharum.

‘Sharum Ka.’ Ashan accorded Jayan a nod of respect. The Andrah had never cared for Inevera’s firstborn, but he was not fool enough to let the rift between them deepen. ‘How fare the defences of Everam’s Bounty?’

Jayan bowed, but it was a shallow courtesy, showing none of the obeisance due an Andrah from his Sharum Ka. ‘They are strong … Andrah.’ Inevera could almost hear his jaw grinding at the title as he looked up at his uncle. ‘Not a single demon has been spotted within miles of the throne since Waning. The Sharum must venture far to even wet their spears. We have built new defences and established additional fire brigades in the chin villages worthy of salvage after the demons burned the fields, and turned others into new Mazes to trap and harry alagai in the night, further culling their forces after their defeat at Waning.’

Defeat. A political choice of word. Even Jayan knew better. The only thing that truly defeated the alagai on Waning was the sun. They would return, as strong as ever.

Ashan nodded. ‘You have done well, Sharum Ka. Your father will be proud on his return.’

Jayan ignored the compliment. ‘There is another matter I must bring before the court.’ Inevera frowned, though the dice had already told her this was coming.

Jayan clapped his hands, and fourteen muscular young men in black bidos entered the throne room, dropping to one knee in a precise line behind him. All carried shields on their backs and spears in hand. Inevera looked at them, seeing her husband’s handsome features on each of their sixteen-year-old faces. One of them was her third son, Hoshkamin, the others second sons of Everalia and Thalaja, and the firstborn of all the Damaji’ting save Qeva.

‘The Andrah no doubt recognizes my brothers, sons of Shar’Dama Ka,’ Jayan said. ‘Their elder brothers,’ he indicated Icha and Sharu, ‘even I, myself, took the black at seventeen. But while young, my brothers have our father’s Sharum heart. When they learned of his absence, all demanded the right to stand in the night. Their training in both sharaj and Sharak Hora has been without flaw, and I saw no reason to refuse. I myself stood as ajin’pal, blooding them in the New Maze. Each has personally sent more than one demon back to the abyss. I ask they be made kai’Sharum, in accordance with Evejan law.’

Ashan glanced to Inevera. Raising new warriors to the black could only be done with the approval of the dama’ting who cast the bones for them, and only Inevera and her Jiwah Sen could cast for the Deliverer’s sons.

Jayan was wilier than Inevera had given him credit for. The dice told her he had been the one to demand the boys fight, but none had been unwilling. The moment they donned black robes with white veils, each of Ahmann’s sons would command great power among their tribe’s warriors, and all would owe their allegiance to Jayan. Raising them would increase her son’s power greatly at a time when he might still try to usurp the throne.

But neither could she easily refuse. Inevera’s power over her sister-wives was great, but even she would be a fool to insult them all in one move. She had cast the bones for all the boys in their birthing blood, and by law, if they had stood in the night and taken alagai, they could claim their birthrights.

She nodded her permission, keeping her face serene.

‘It is done,’ Ashan said, relieved. ‘Rise, kai’Sharum. Everam looks upon the Deliverer’s sons with pride.’

The boys rose smoothly, but did not whoop or cheer, bowing to the throne and standing with tight discipline. Jayan, however, could not keep the smug smile from his face.

‘These are difficult times for Krasia, with the Deliverer abroad,’ Asome said. ‘Perhaps it is time his dama sons took the white robes, as well.’

It was like a bucket of camel water thrown on the Damaji. They stood shocked a moment, their indignation building, and Inevera savoured it. She was well in favour of raising Ahmann’s dama sons. The sooner the boys were given the white, the sooner they could take control of the tribes and spare her the endless grumblings of these old men.

‘Ridiculous!’ Aleverak snapped. ‘No boy of fifteen has ever been raised to the white.’ If he had been cowed by his defeat the day before, it did not show. Healed by Belina’s magic, the Damaji looked haler than he had in years. But if he felt any debt to Ahmann’s Majah wife, it did not stop him from opposing her son’s advancement. Aleverak stood to lose more than the others if Maji was raised to dama.

A chorus of agreement rose from the other Damaji, and Inevera breathed, holding her centre. Everam grant she soon be free of these vile men, more interested in holding their own power than helping their people.

‘Many things will happen for the first time before Sharak Ka is upon us,’ Asome said. ‘We should not deny our people leaders when the dama are already stretched thin keeping peace in the chin villages.’

Ashan considered, eyes flicking around the room. As Damaji, he had been a strong leader for the Kaji, but he seemed more diplomat than Andrah, eager to please all and secure his position.

Still, Ahmann had ordered him to take the throne to keep his sons alive, and it didn’t take a great mind to see that would be easier with them in white.

‘Take them,’ she breathed. Wards carried the words to his ears alone.

‘Age is irrelevant,’ Ashan said at last. ‘There are tests for the white, and they will be administered. It will be upon the sons of the Deliverer to pass them. Asome will observe the testing personally and report back to me.’

Inevera could see the flush of pleasure in the auras of the Damaji’ting at the unexpected pronouncement, a mirror image of the sour cloud around the Damaji. Reading auras was subtler even than the dice, but with every passing day she grew more adept.

The next order of business was the matter of the night’s new Sharum’ting. Since Ahmann’s creation of the Sharum’ting – to give rights to a chin woman, no less – there had been a growing movement among women to kill alagai, thus gaining the rights of men to own property, bear witness, and have liberty to refuse a man’s touch. Women came to the Dama’ting Palace every day, many in secret, begging to be trained. Inevera had given them to Ashia, and not regretted the decision.

Chin women, unused to the yoke of Evejan law, came in numbers, often with the encouragement of their husbands. Krasian women came at a trickle. Three thousand years of subservience had been beaten into them, and while the movement was growing, it was still overpowered by the fierce and near-unanimous opposition of Krasian men, husbands, fathers, brothers – even sons still in tan. Many women were prohibited from leaving their homes without escort, and brutally beaten when they tried to slip away to the palace.

Even those raised to the black were not safe. With the aid of warded weapons, all had taken alagai, but the best of them had weeks of training compared to the lifetime of most Sharum. More than one of the women had been found beaten, raped, or killed.

But there was always blood for the alagai hora, and when Inevera found the assailants, Ashia and her spear sisters soon paid a visit. The crime was returned tenfold, and their remains left where others would find them and remember the lesson.

As if summoned by the thought, Ashia entered the throne room, escorting two groups of women to the dais. The larger group, twenty women trained in the Dama’ting Palace, knelt in tight lines as they awaited judgement. Some wore dal’ting black, others the more varied dress of chin.

Ashia kept a hard eye on the women, but Inevera could see the pride in her aura. Her growing knowledge of alagai lines of power and points of convergence had allowed her to design sharukin more dependent on leverage and accuracy than strength of arm. She called the fighting style Everam’s Precise Strike, and taught the women well.

The other group was more curious. Seven common dal’ting, huddled together on their knees, fear and determination in their collective aura. Several women had bloodied bandages showing under their blacks, signs of alagai wounds. One had her entire arm and part of her face wrapped in white cloth that was already stained brown. Firespit. She could see the deep burns in the woman’s aura. Without magic, she would never recover fully.

Another woman had blackened eyes and what looked like a broken nose under her veil. Inevera didn’t need to probe further to know those injuries had not come from a demon.

‘Daughter.’ Ashan acknowledged Ashia with a nod. He remained displeased with her new station, but was wise enough not to publicly undermine her. ‘Who have you brought before the Skull Throne?’

‘Candidates for the spear, honoured Andrah,’ Ashia said. She gestured to the women she had trained. ‘These women were all trained in the Dama’ting Palace, and have taken demons in alagai’sharak. I ask that they be made Sharum’ting.’

Ashan nodded. He wasn’t pleased at the idea of presiding over women taking the spear, but had seen Ahmann do it often enough that he did not resist. He looked to Damaji’ting Qeva. ‘Have the bones been cast?’

Qeva nodded. ‘They are worthy.’

Ashan whisked a hand at the women. ‘Rise, Sharum’ting.’

The women rose and bowed deeply before Ashia dismissed them.

Ashan regarded the group of fearful dal’ting huddling before the dais. ‘And the others?’

‘Untrained dal’ting from a Khanjin village,’ Ashia said. Damaji Ichach stiffened. ‘Their honour is boundless. They took it upon themselves to come to the Deliverer’s call, going out into the night and killing a demon. They ask for the rights the Deliverer promised them.’

‘That’s one way of putting it,’ Jayan said.

Ashia nodded to him. ‘My cousin does not agree.’

Ashan’s aura darkened. ‘You will address the Sharum Ka with the respect he is due, daughter.’ His voice was a deep boom, far from the quiet tones he had used a moment ago. ‘You may serve the Damajah, but Jayan is still your superior.’

Ashan turned to Jayan. ‘I apologize for my daughter’s rudeness, Sharum Ka. I assure you she will be disciplined.’

Jayan nodded, waving a hand. ‘Unnecessary, Uncle. A warrior my cousin may be, but she is a woman, and cannot be expected to control her emotions.’

‘Indeed,’ Ashan agreed. ‘What does the Sharum Ka have to say on this matter?’

‘These women are outlaws,’ Jayan said. ‘They have brought shame to their families with their reckless actions, endangering their fellow villagers and causing the death of an innocent woman.’

‘Serious accusations,’ Ashan said.

Jayan nodded. ‘With deliberate planning and forethought, they violated the curfew of the local dama and disobeyed the commands of their Sharum husbands, sneaking out of their homes at night and crossing the village wards. They lured a lone flame demon into a crude trap and surrounded it. Using improvised weapons and shields, poorly painted with stolen wards copied from their honoured husbands’ equipment, they attacked. Without training, one woman was killed, and several others injured. The fires started in their battle threatened to burn the entire village down.’

‘That isn’t …!’ one of the women blurted, but the others grabbed her, covering her mouth. Women were not to speak in the Andrah’s presence save when spoken to, and under Evejan law, they could not bear legal witness in any event. Their husbands would speak for them.

Jayan’s eyes flicked to the commotion, but he said nothing. They were only women, after all.

Ashia bowed deeply, an artfully executed show of deference, just enough to mock without giving true offence. ‘The words of the honoured Sharum Ka of Krasia, firstborn son of the Deliverer, my cousin the esteemed Jayan asu Ahmann am’Jardir am’Kaji, may he live forever, are true, Father, if exaggerated in detail.’

Jayan crossed his arms, the hint of a smirk at the corner of his mouth.

‘They are also irrelevant,’ Ashia said.

‘Eh?’ Ashan said.

‘I, too, violated curfew and disobeyed my husband to go into the night,’ Ashia said. ‘The curfews are designed to make it illegal for any woman to go into the night.’ She met her father’s eyes. ‘You debated these very points with the Deliverer on the day he named me Sharum, and they did not deter him then. They should not deter you now. By the Shar’Dama Ka’s own words, any woman who kills a demon is to be made Sharum’ting.’

Ashan frowned, but Jayan was not finished.

‘Indeed,’ he said. ‘But I count seven women, and only one demon killed. Who is to say who struck the killing blow? Or if all of them struck at all?’

‘Also irrelevant,’ Ashia said, drawing a glare from Jayan. ‘All warriors share kills, especially when blooding nie’Sharum. By your measure, there is not a warrior in Krasia who does not claim more than are his due. The Deliverer himself was one of more than a dozen spears in the push guard on his first night in the Maze.’

‘The Deliverer was twelve years old that night, daughter,’ Ashan said, ‘and was sent to Sharik Hora for five more years before he was given his blacks.’

Ashia shrugged. ‘Nevertheless, if you discount shared kills, you will need to strip the blacks from every warrior raised before the Deliverer returned fighting wards to us, and half the rest. The purpose of the blooding is not to kill a demon unassisted. It is to test a warrior’s courage in standing fast against the alagai. These women have done so. In truth, their test was the greater for the lack of proper training and equipment. Are these not the very hearts we need with Sharak Ka nigh?’

‘Perhaps,’ Ashan agreed.

‘And perhaps not,’ Damaji Ichach cut in. ‘Andrah, surely you cannot mean to raise these women? They are Khanjin. Let me see to the matter personally.’

‘I do not see that I have a choice, Damaji,’ Ashan said. ‘I am of no tribe at all, and must follow the Deliverer’s commands.’

‘You are Andrah,’ Aleverak snapped. ‘Of course you have a choice. Your daughter twists the Deliverer’s words to trap you, but she does not speak the whole truth. “Any woman who takes a demon in alagai’sharak shall be Sharum’ting,” the Deliverer said. I do not believe this qualifies. Sharum blooding does not come without the approval of a drillmaster. Alagai’sharak is a sacred ritual, not some fools stealing out into the night on a whim.’

The other Damaji grunted along, and Inevera felt her jaw tighten. Again the rasping chorus as the old men quoted scripture, related irrelevant anecdotes, and warned sagely against being too free with the rights of Sharum. She stroked the hora wand at her belt, imagining for a moment what it would feel like to blast the lot of them into the abyss.

‘Did any men witness the event?’ Ashan asked when the hubbub had faded. He still had not consulted the women themselves, and likely would not.

Jayan bowed again. ‘Andrah, the women’s husbands are waiting outside, and beg to speak before you make your decision.’

Ashan nodded, and the men were brought in. All wore blacks, though by their look and equipment none was a warrior of note. Their auras were coloured with rage, shame, and awe at the grandeur of the throne. One of the men was particularly distraught, barely contained violence radiating from him like a stink.

The widower. Inevera shifted slightly on her bed of pillows. Watch that one, her fingers said.

I see him, Damajah. Ashia’s hand hung loose at her side, her reply a whisper of nimble fingers.

‘These women killed my wife, Holy Andrah,’ the distraught warrior said, pointing. ‘My Chabbavah would not have disobeyed me and acted so foolishly without their foul influence. I demand their lives in recompense.’

‘Lies!’ another of the men shouted. He pointed to his own wife, the dal’ting who had been beaten. ‘My wife fled to me after the disaster, and made clear Chabbavah had been one of the ringleaders pressuring the others. I regret my spear brother’s loss, but he has no right to claim vengeance for his own failings as a husband.’

The widower turned and struck at him, and for a moment the two warriors traded blows. Ahmann had tolerated no violence in his court, but none of the men, even Ashan, seemed inclined to stop them until the second man had put the widower onto the floor in a painful hold.

Ashan clapped his hands loudly. ‘The argument stands. Everam would not give victory to a liar.’

Inevera breathed. Not a liar. Only a warrior who had beaten his wife.

The second man bowed. ‘I ask the holy Andrah to remand these women to us, their rightful husbands, for punishment. I swear by Everam they will not bring shame to their families, our tribe, or your throne again.’

Ashan sat back on the throne, steepling his fingers and staring at the women. Ashia had made a compelling case, but Inevera could see in his eyes that the new Andrah would still refuse them. Given the opportunity, Ashan would take the spears from every Sharum’ting, Ashia included.

She should have brought the women to me first, Inevera thought. But perhaps this, too, was Everam’s will.

Living in the Northland where women had as many rights as men had shown Krasian women that there was an alternative to living their lives under a husband’s sandal. The greenlanders had not been able to stand against the Krasian spears, but they had struck at the very heart of their enemy in the Daylight War. More and more women would seek their due, and sooner or later the clerics must be confronted on the matter.

Inevera did not want to overrule Ashan publicly on his first day on the Skull Throne, but if he would not see reason, so be it.

She opened her mouth to speak, but was checked as Asome loudly cleared his throat and spoke with a voice that carried through the room. ‘My honoured wife is correct.’

Ashan’s face went slack with surprise, and even Inevera was struck dumb as Asome stepped down from the dais to take the floor. The boy had argued vehemently against the formation of Sharum’ting and his wife and cousin’s raising.

‘It is true my honoured father said that the demons must be taken in alagai’sharak,’ Asome said, ‘but what is alagai’sharak, truly? It literally means “demon war”, and war is no ritual. The alagai have made all humanity, male and female, their enemy. Any battle against them is alagai’sharak.’

Jayan snorted. ‘Leave it to my dama brother to fail to understand war.’

It was the wrong thing to say in a court dominated by clerics, further proof of Jayan’s tendency to speak without thought. Ashan and the Damaji all turned angry glares upon him.

At last, Ashan found his spine, using the same deep boom he had used on his daughter a moment before. ‘You forget your place, Sharum Ka. You serve at the will of the white.’

Jayan blanched, and anger blossomed in his aura. His hand tightened on his spear, and if he had been a single grain more the fool he might have used it, even if it plunged all Krasia into civil war.

Asome was wise enough to keep his expression neutral, but it did not save him from the dark gaze Ashan turned his way. ‘And you, nie’Andrah. Did you not argue long and hard against women taking the spear before this very throne not long ago?’

Asome bowed. ‘Indeed I did, Uncle. I spoke with passion and belief. But I was wrong, and my honoured father was right to ignore my pleas.’

He turned, sweeping his eyes over the room. ‘Sharak Ka is coming!’ he boomed. ‘Both the Deliverer and the Damajah have said it is so. Yet still we stand divided, coming up with petty excuses why some should be allowed to fight while others stand by and do nothing. But I say when the Deliverer returns with all the armies of Nie biting at his heels, there will be glory and honour enough for all in the great battle. We must be ready, one and all, to fight.’

He pointed to Ashia. ‘It is true I argued against my wife taking the spear. But she has brought us nothing save honour and glory. Hundreds owe their lives to her and her spear sisters. They carry the Damajah’s honour on the field, trusted with her protection. They elevate us all. Women give us strength. The Deliverer was clear on this. All who have the will for Sharak Ka must be allowed to stand.’

He paused, and Asukaji stepped into the gap as smoothly as if it had been rehearsed. The two were ever the first to support each other.

Ashan shook his head. ‘Everam, not you, too.’

Asukaji pointed to the Sharum husbands. ‘What have these men to hide, that they fear the witness their wives might bear against them if raised? Perhaps the threat of it will make some husbands wiser. These women have fought alagai. Should our walls fail, they will be the last defence of our children. With so much resting upon them, why should they not have rights?’

‘Why not indeed?’ Inevera asked, before any of the older men had time to formulate a retort. She smiled. ‘You men argue as if the choice were yours, but the Deliverer gave the Sharum’ting to me, and I will decide who shall be raised and who shall not.’

Ashan’s scowl was belied by the relief in his aura, spared responsibility for a decree that would make him enemies regardless of how he ruled.

‘Umshala.’ She beckoned her sister-wife, Damaji’ting of the Khanjin. ‘Foretell them.’

Eyes widened. Foretellings were private things. The dama’ting were secretive with their magic, and with good reason. But the men needed reminders that there was more than politics at work here. It was Everam’s will that should guide them, not their own petty needs.

The women knelt in a crescent about Umshala’s casting cloth. All of them wore reddened bandages, and the Damaji’ting touched her dice to the wounds, wetting them with blood for the prophecy.

Inevera dimmed the wardlight in the chamber. Not to aid the casting, for wardlight did not affect the dice. Rather, she did it so all would see the unmistakable glow of the hora, pulsing redly with Umshala’s prayers. Hypnotized, men twitched at the flash of light each time she threw.

At last, Umshala sat back on her heels. She turned, ignoring Ashan to address Inevera. ‘It is done, Damajah.’

‘And what have you seen?’ Inevera asked. ‘Did these women stand fast in the night? Are they worthy?’

‘They are, Damajah.’ Umshala turned, pointing to the woman who had been beaten. ‘Save for this one. Illijah vah Fahstu faltered in her strike and fled the demon, causing the death of Chabbavah and the injury of several others. The kill is not hers.’

Illijah’s aura went white with terror, but the other women stood by her, reaching out in support – even the woman who had been badly burned. Inevera gave them a moment for pity’s sake, but there was nothing she could do. The dice cut both ways.

‘Six are raised,’ she said. ‘Rise, Sharum’ting. Illijah vah Fahstu is returned to her husband.’ It was a cruelty, but better than if Inevera had left her fate to Damaji Ichach, who would likely have had her publicly executed for bearing false witness before the throne.

Illijah screamed as Fahstu walked up behind her, grabbing the top of her hair in one thick fist, dragging her backward off her knees. She stumbled, unable to rise fully, as Fahstu dragged her from the room, her wails echoing off the walls as the Damaji watched with cold satisfaction.

Bring me the hand he uses to drag her before the sun sets, her fingers told Ashia.

Ashia’s fingers replied in their customary hidden whisper. I hear and obey, Damajah.

‘Wait!’ one of the women cried, drawing everyone’s attention. ‘As Sharum’ting, I wish to testify on Illijah’s behalf to bring witness against the crimes of Fahstu asu Fahstu am’Ichan am’Khanjin.’

Inevera waved, and the guards lowered their spears, preventing Fahstu from leaving the throne room. Illijah was released, and both were escorted back to the throne.

Damaji Ichach threw up his hands. ‘Is this what the Andrah’s court has become? A place for ungrateful women to complain about their husbands like gossiping washerwomen?’

Several of the Damaji nodded with agreement, but Damaji Qezan of the Jama, Ichach’s greatest rival, smiled widely.

‘Surely not,’ Qezan said, ‘but your tribe has brought such drama to the court, we of course must see it through.’ Ichach glared at him, but other Damaji, even some of those who had supported him a moment ago, nodded. They might not be washerwomen, but the Damaji loved gossip as much as any.

‘Speak,’ Ashan commanded.

‘I am Uvona vah Hadda am’Ichan am’Khanjin,’ the woman said, using a man’s full name for the first time in her life. ‘Illijah is my cousin. It is true she ran from the alagai, and is not worthy to stand in the night. But her husband, Fahstu asu Fahstu am’Ichan am’Khanjin, has been forcing her to prostitute herself for years to earn money for his couzi and dice. Illijah is an honourable daughter of Everam and refused his initial demands, so Fahstu beat her so badly she was forced to keep to her bed for days. I witnessed her shame personally.’

‘Lies!’ Fahstu cried, though Inevera could see the truth in his aura. ‘Do not listen to this vile woman’s falsehoods! What proof does she have? Nothing! It is the word of a woman against mine.’

The woman whose arm and face were wrapped to cover her firespit burns moved to stand beside Uvona. Pain lanced across her aura, but she stood straight, and her voice was firm. ‘Two women.’

The other four moved in, the women standing together as one.

‘Six women bear witness to your crime, Fahstu,’ Uvona said. ‘Six Sharum’ting. We went into the night not to claim rights for ourselves, but for the sake of Illijah, that she might be free of you.’

Fahstu turned to Ashan. ‘Andrah, surely you will not take the word of women over a loyal Sharum?’

Umshala looked up as well. ‘I can consult the dice if you wish, Holy Andrah.’

Ashan scowled, knowing as well as any what answer the dice would bring. ‘Do you wish to confess, son of Fahstu, or shall we clear your name with hora?’

Fahstu blanched, then glanced around, seeking support where there was none. At last he shrugged. ‘What difference does it make what I do with my own wife? She is my property, and no Sharum’ting. I have committed no crime.’

Ashan looked to Ichach. ‘He is your tribesman, Damaji. What say you to this?’

‘I rule in favour of the husband,’ Ichach said without hesitation. ‘It is a wife’s duty to work and support her husband. If he cannot pay his debts, the failing is hers and she should pay the price, even if he decide it be on her back.’

‘Or her knees,’ Damaji Qezan said, and the other men laughed.

‘The Damaji of the Khanjin has spoken,’ Inevera said, drawing looks of surprise. ‘For prostituting his wife, Fahstu shall not be punished.’ A wide smile broke out on Fahstu’s face at the words, even as the eyes of the new Sharum’ting fell. Illijah began to weep once more, and Uvona put an arm around her.

‘However, for the crime of lying to the Skull Throne,’ Inevera went on, ‘he is found guilty. The sentence is death.’

Fahstu’s eyes widened. ‘What?’

‘Umshala,’ Inevera said.

The Damaji’ting reached into her hora pouch, pulling out a small black lump – a piece of breastbone from a lightning demon. The Damaji’ting knew to avert their eyes, but the rest of the room looked on and was blinded by the flash of light, deafened by the thunder.

When their eyes cleared, Fahstu son of Fahstu lay halfway to the great doors, his chest a charred, smoking ruin. The smell of cooked meat permeated the room.

‘You push fast and too hard, Damajah,’ Qeva said. ‘The Damaji will revolt.’

‘Let them, if they are such fools,’ Belina said. ‘Ahmann will not weep if he returns to find the entire council reduced to a scorch on his throne room floor and his sons in control of the tribes.’

‘And if he does not return?’ Melan asked.

‘All the more reason to cow the Damaji and recruit as many Sharum’ting as possible now,’ Inevera said. ‘Even Abban the khaffit has more soldiers than I.’

‘Kha’Sharum,’ Qeva said derisively. ‘Not true warriors.’

‘Tell that to Hasik,’ Inevera said. ‘The Deliverer’s own bodyguard, brought down and gelded by the khaffit. They say the same about the Sharum’ting, but I would take any of Enkido’s spear daughters over a dozen Spears of the Deliverer.’

They reached Inevera’s private gardens, a botanical maze filled with carefully manicured plants, many cultivated from seeds brought all the way from Krasia. There were medicinal herbs and deadly poisons, fresh fruit, nuts and vegetables, as well as grasses, shrubs, flowers, and trees cultivated for purely aesthetic value.

It was easy for Inevera to find her centre in the gardens, standing in the sun amidst so much flourishing vegetation. Even in the Palace of the Deliverer in Krasia, such a garden would have been impossible to maintain. The land was too harsh. In Everam’s Bounty, it seemed one had but to throw seeds in any direction and they would thrive unaided.

Inevera breathed deeply, only to be thrown from her centre as she caught a hint of the perfume that always signalled an end to tranquillity.

‘Flee while you can, little sisters,’ she said quietly. ‘The Holy Mother waits within the bowers.’

The words were enough to send her sister-wives hurrying from the garden as fast as their dignity would allow. As his Jiwah Ka, Ahmann’s mother was Inevera’s responsibility, a position the women were all too happy to yield.

Inevera envied them. She, too, would have fled had she been able. Everam must be displeased, not to have warned me in the dice.

Only Qeva, Melan, and Asavi dared to remain. Ashia had vanished into the leaves, though Inevera knew she was watching, never more than a breath away.

Inevera breathed, bending to the wind. ‘Best get it over with,’ she muttered, and strode ahead to where the Holy Mother waited.

Inevera heard Kajivah before she saw her.

‘By Everam, keep your back straight, Thalaja,’ the Holy Mother snapped. ‘You’re a bride of the Deliverer, not some dal’ting merchant in the bazaar.’

The scene came into sight as Kajivah reached and snatched a pastry from her other daughter-in-law. ‘You’re putting on weight again, Everalia.’

She looked to one of the servants. ‘Where is that nectar I asked for? And see they chill it this time.’ She rounded on another servant, holding a ridiculous fan. ‘I didn’t tell you to stop fanning, girl.’ She fanned herself, hand buzzing like a hummingbird. ‘You know how I get. Everam my witness, the entire green land is as humid as the baths. How do they stand it? Why, I have half a mind—’

The woman mercifully broke off as Inevera entered the bower. The other women looked as if they were about to be rescued from a coreling. Kajivah might treat every other woman like a servant, but she was wise enough to respect the dama’ting, and Inevera most of all.

Usually.

‘Where is my son?!’ Kajivah demanded, storming over to Inevera. She wore the black robes and white veil of kai’ting, but had added a white shawl as well, similar to Ahmann’s mode of dress. ‘The palace buzzes with gossip, my son-in-law sits the Skull Throne, and I am left the fool.’

Truer witness was never given, Inevera thought.

Kajivah grew increasingly shrill. ‘I demand to know what’s happened!’

Demand. Inevera felt a coil of anger in her centre. Had the woman forgotten who she was talking to? Even Ahmann made no demands of her. She imagined herself blasting Kajivah across the gardens like Fahstu at court.

Oh, if it could be so easily done. But while Ahmann would be forgiving if she vaporized the entire council of Damaji, he would hunt his mother’s killer to the ends of Ala, and with his crownsight, there would be no hiding the crime.

‘Ahmann is hunting a demon on the edge of the abyss,’ Inevera said. ‘The dice favour his return, but it is a dangerous path. We must pray for him.’

‘My son has gone to the abyss?!’ Kajivah shrieked. ‘Alone?! Why are not the Spears of the Deliverer with him?’

Inevera reached out, grabbing Kajivah’s chin. Ostensibly it was to force her to make and hold eye contact, but Inevera put pressure on a convergence spot, breaking some of the woman’s energy.

‘Your son is the Deliverer,’ she said coldly. ‘He walks in places none may follow, and owes no explanations to you, or even me.’

She released Kajivah, and the woman fell back, weakened. Thalaja caught her and tried to usher her to one of the stone benches, but Kajivah straightened, pulling from her grasp and meeting Inevera’s eyes again.

Stubborn, Inevera thought.

‘Why was Jayan passed over?’ Kajivah demanded. ‘He is Ahmann’s eldest heir, and a worthy successor. The people worship him.’

‘Jayan is too young and headstrong to lead in Ahmann’s stead,’ Inevera said.

‘He is your son!’ Kajivah shouted. ‘How can you …’

‘ENOUGH!’ Inevera barked, causing everyone to jump, most of all Kajivah. It was rare for Inevera to raise her voice, especially in front of others. But more than anyone else alive, Inevera’s mother-in-law could test her patience. ‘You have forgotten yourself, woman, if you think you can speak to me so of my own children. I forgive you this once, for I know you are worried for your son, but do not cross me. All of Krasia needs me, and I do not have time to soothe your every anxiety. Ashan sits the Skull Throne by Ahmann’s own command. That is all you need know of the matter.’

Kajivah blinked. How many years had it been since someone dared speak to her like that? She was the Holy Mother, not some common dal’ting.

But for all the liberties she took and influence she had, Kajivah had no true powers. She was not even dama’ting, much less Damajah. Her wealth and servants were a stipend from the throne Inevera could easily rescind in Ahmann’s absence, though there would be others quick to try to gain her favour with gifts of gold.

‘Mother.’ Inevera and the other women turned to see Asome enter the bower. He had been silent as Enkido in his approach. Asome bowed. ‘Grandmother. It is good to see you both.’

Kajivah brightened immediately, opening her arms for her grandson. He moved into her embrace and accepted the kisses she gave through her veil with grace and dignity, though the treatment was below his station.

‘Tikka,’ Asome said, using the informal Krasian word for ‘grandmother’ Kajivah had instilled in all her grandchildren even before they began to speak. Just the sound of it from Asome’s lips made the woman melt into agreeability as if drugged. ‘Please be gentle with my honoured mother. I know you fear for Father, but she is his Jiwah Ka, and no doubt her worry is as great as yours.’

Kajivah nodded as if dazed and looked to Inevera, her eyes respectfully down as she nodded. ‘Apologies, Damajah.’

Inevera wanted to kiss her son.

‘But why were you and your brother passed over?’ Kajivah asked, regaining something of her resolve.

‘Passed over?’ Asome asked. ‘Tikka, Jayan sits the Spear Throne, and I am next in line for the Skull. Asukaji has been made Damaji of the Kaji. Your firstborn grandsons are all kai’Sharum now, and soon the second sons will take their places as nie’Damaji. Thanks to you, the line of Jardir, so close to ending twenty years ago, is set to control all of Krasia for generations.’

Kajivah seemed mollified at that, but pressed still. ‘But your uncle …’

Asome cupped her chin in his hand much as Inevera had, but instead of touching a pressure point, he laid his thumb on her veil. He touched her lips as gently as a feather, but it silenced Kajivah as effectively as Inevera’s more forceful move.

‘The Evejah teaches us all dama’ting possess the Sight,’ Asome said, ‘the Damajah most of all. If she has allowed my honoured uncle to sit the throne, it is likely because she sees Father returning soon, though of course she cannot speak of such things directly.’

Kajivah glanced at Inevera, a touch of fear in her eyes. The Sight was revered in Krasia, the source of dama’ting power. Inevera played along, giving Kajivah a measured stare and the slightest hint of a nod.

Kajivah looked back at Asome. ‘It is bad fortune to speak of fortune.’

Asome bowed with convincing deference as Kajivah mangled the ancient proverb. ‘Wisely said, Tikka.’ He looked at Inevera. ‘Perhaps there is something my honoured grandmother could do to praise Everam and help pray for Father’s safe return?’

Inevera started, Asome’s words reminding her of the advice her own mother Manvah had given her with regard to the Holy Mother. She nodded. ‘Waning will be upon us in less than two weeks, and with the Deliverer abroad, morale will be low even as the forces of Nie gather once more. A great feast to give heart to our warriors and join the voices of many as one in beseeching Everam for Ahmann’s victory in his latest trial …’

‘A wonderful idea, Damajah,’ Melan said, stepping forward. Inevera looked at her old rival, thankful for the support.

‘Indeed,’ Asome said. ‘Perhaps the Holy Mother could even give the blessings over the food and drink?’

‘I was going to see to it personally …’ Inevera lied.

As Manvah had predicted, Kajivah leapt at the bait. ‘Think on it no more, Honoured Damajah. Many are the burdens upon you. Let me lift this one, I beg.’

Indeed, Inevera felt a great burden lifting. ‘One feast may not be enough, I fear. We may have need of another at Waxing, and on until Sharak Ka is won.’

Kajivah bowed, deeper than Inevera had seen in years. ‘It would be my great honour to see to it, Damajah.’

‘I will ask the Andrah to assign a generous stipend from the treasury for the feasts,’ Inevera said, knowing Ashan would be as pleased as her to have the woman out of their hair. He would agree to anything and call it a bargain. ‘You will need help, of course. Florists and chefs, scribes to prepare invitations …’ People who can read and do sums, she thought derisively, for of course Kajivah could do neither, even after twenty years of palace life.

‘I would be honoured to assist the Holy Mother,’ Melan said.

‘I, too, will assist, as my responsibilities will allow,’ Asome said, looking pointedly at Inevera. She had no doubt it was a debt he would one day collect upon, but she would pay it gladly. This was a favour beyond price.

‘It is settled, then,’ she said, giving Kajivah a nod. ‘All of Krasia will owe you a debt for this, Holy Mother.’

6
A Man Is Nothing
333 AR Autumn

Abban leaned heavily on his crutch as he descended the palace steps, gritting his teeth at each stab of pain in his twisted calf. Knives were being sharpened throughout the court of the Deliverer, but sometimes it felt the palace steps were his greatest challenge each day. He could bear most anything for a profit, but embracing pain for its own sake had never been a skill he’d mastered.

Not for the first time, he regretted his stubborn refusal to let the Damajah heal him. It was wise to remind her she could not bribe him with comforts – especially ones she could as easily take away – but the thought of stairs without pain was an image worth killing for. Still, there was something he had wanted far more, and soon he would have it.

Drillmaster Qeran walked beside him, faring far better on the steps. The drillmaster’s left leg was missing at the knee, replaced with a curved sheet of spring steel. The metal bowed slightly with each step, but easily supported the large man’s weight. Already, Qeran was close to the fighting skill he had once claimed before the injury, and he continued to improve.

Abban’s kha’Sharum were not allowed at court, but the drillmaster had trained the Deliverer himself, and his honour was boundless. Even in Abban’s employ, he was welcome most anywhere, including the palace. A useful thing for a bodyguard. Now none was fool enough to harass Abban as he passed.

Earless was waiting for them at the foot of the stairs, holding open the door to Abban’s carriage. Two kha’Sharum sat the driver’s seat, spears in easy reach, and two more at a high bench at the carriage rear, these armed with Northern crank bows. Qeran sprang easily into the carriage, taking Abban’s crutches as the deaf giant lifted Abban into the carriage as easily as a man might pick up his child, sparing him the dreaded steps.

Too big to comfortably fit inside, Earless closed the door and climbed the first step, holding a handle to ride outside. He knocked on the carriage wall, and the drivers cracked the reins.

‘Have the Damaji accepted Ashan as Andrah?’ Qeran asked.

Abban shrugged. ‘It is not as if the Damajah gives them a choice, with her displays of power. Ashan is her puppet, and none fool enough to challenge her.’

Qeran nodded. He knew the Damajah well. ‘The Sharum do not like it. They believe the Sharum Ka should have taken his father’s place. They fear a dama on the throne will take focus away from alagai’sharak.’

‘What a tragedy that would be,’ Abban said.

Qeran looked at him coldly, not amused. ‘If Jayan calls, the spears will flock to him. It would be easy for him to put Ashan’s and the Damaji’s heads up on spears and take the throne.’

Abban nodded. ‘And easier still for the Damajah to reduce him to ash. We waste our time, Drillmaster, pondering shifts above our station. We have our duty.’

They arrived at Abban’s compound, a high, thick wall heavily manned with armed kha’Sharum. The gates opened before them as the drivers gave the proper signal, revealing the squat, blocky buildings within.

The compound was strong and secure, but Abban was careful – on the surface at least – to give it no quality others might covet. There was no aesthetic to the architecture, no gardens or fountains. The air was thick with the smoke of forges and the sound of ringing hammers. Men laboured everywhere, not an idle hand to be seen.

Abban breathed deep of the reeking air and smiled. It was the smell of industry. Of power. Sweeter to him than any flower’s perfume.

A boy scurried up as Earless deposited Abban back on the ground. He bowed deeply. ‘Master Akas bids me inform you the samples are ready.’

Abban nodded, flipping the boy a small coin. It was a pittance, but the boy’s eyes lit up at the sight. ‘For swift feet. Inform Master Akas we will join him shortly.’

Akas managed Abban’s forges, one of the most important jobs in the entire compound. He was Abban’s cousin by marriage, and was paid more than most dama. One of Abban’s best kha’Sharum Watchers lurked in his shadow, ostensibly for his protection, but as much to deter or report anything hinting of treachery.

‘Ah, Master, Drillmaster, welcome!’ Akas was in his fifties, his bare arms thick with muscle in the way of those who worked the forge. Despite his age and size, he moved with the nervous excitement of a younger man. A khaffit like Abban, he was without a beard, though a rough stubble clung to his chin. He stank of sweat and sulphur.

‘How is production?’ Abban asked.

‘The weapons and armour for the Spears of the Deliverer are on schedule,’ Akas said, gesturing to pallets piled with spearheads, shields, and armour plates. ‘Warded glass, indestructible so far as we can determine.’

Abban nodded. ‘And for my Hundred?’ He used the term for the hundred kha’Sharum Ahmann had given him, but in truth they were one hundred and twenty, with close to a thousand chi’Sharum to supplement them. Abban wanted all of them armed and with the best equipment money could buy.

Akas scratched at his stubble. ‘There have been … delays.’

Qeran crossed his arms with a glower, not even needing a cue from Abban. Akas was a big man, but not fool enough to mistake the gesture. He put up his palms placatingly. ‘But progress has been made! Come and see!’

He darted over to a group of pallets, these shields and spearheads shining like mirrors. He selected a spearhead and brought it over to a squat, heavy anvil.

‘Warded glass,’ Akas said, holding up the spearhead, ‘silvered as you requested to hide its true nature from the casual observer.’

Abban nodded impatiently. This was not news. ‘Then why the delay?’

‘The silvering process weakens the glass,’ Akas said. ‘Watch.’

He put the spearhead on the anvil, holding it in place with banded clamps. Then he took up a long, heavy sledge, the handle three feet long and the head thirty pounds at least. The master smith swung the hammer with practised smoothness, letting its weight and momentum do more work than his considerable muscles. It came down with a sound that resonated through the forges, but Akas did not stop, putting all his strength behind two more swings.

‘A waste to make that man khaffit,’ Qeran said. ‘I could have made a great warrior of him.’

Abban nodded. ‘And had no weapons or armour for him to wield. The sagas may tell tales of cripples working the forge, but it is a strong man’s labour, and not without honour.’

After the third blow, Akas unclamped the spearhead and brought it over for inspection. Abban and Qeran held it to the light, turning it this way and that.

‘There,’ Qeran said, pointing.

‘I see it,’ Abban said, staring at the tiny flaw in the glass, near the point of impact.

‘Ten more blows like that, and a crack will form,’ Akas said. ‘A dozen, and it will break.’

‘Still stronger by far than common steel,’ Qeran said. ‘Any warrior would be lucky to have such a weapon.’

‘Perhaps,’ Abban said, ‘but my Hundred are not just any warriors. They have the greatest living drillmaster, the richest patron, and should have equipment to match.’

Qeran grunted. ‘I’ll not argue, though mirrored shields bring some advantage over clear glass. We used mirrors to herd alagai in the Maze. They are easily fooled by their own reflections.’

‘That’s something, at least,’ Abban said, looking back to Akas. ‘But you spoke of progress?’

Akas broke into a wide, conspiratorial smile. ‘I took the liberty of making a set with the new alloy.’

The alloy was electrum, a rare natural mix of silver and gold that was in short supply and valuable beyond imagining. The Deliverer had already confiscated all the known metal for the Damajah’s exclusive use. Abban had secured his own source, and had agents seeking more, but the consequences would be dire if the Damajah caught him hoarding the sacred metal.

‘And?’ Abban asked.

Akas produced a spearhead and shield from beneath a cloth. Both shone bright as polished mirrors. ‘As strong as the warded glass, at least. We cannot melt or break either one. But the new alloy lends … other properties.’

Abban kept the twitching smile from his lips. ‘Do go on.’

‘When we charged the equipment, the warriors made some startling discoveries,’ Akas said. ‘The shield did more than block alagai blows. It absorbed them. The warrior took a full lash of a rock demon’s tail without shifting his feet an inch.’ Qeran looked up sharply at that.

‘Once charged, the alagai could not even approach the shield for the length of a spear. The warrior had to turn the shield aside just to strike.’

‘That is as much a weakness as strength,’ Qeran said, ‘if one must give up protection to strike a blow.’

‘Perhaps,’ Akas said, ‘but what a blow! The speartip split the rock demon’s scales as easily as plunging into water. Observe.’

He took the spearhead back to the anvil, using a different clamp to secure it vertically, point down. Again he lifted the sledge and struck hard. There was a great clang, and Abban and Qeran both gaped to see the speartip embedded over an inch into the iron. Again Akas struck, and again, each blow hammering the spearhead in like a nail into wood. On the fourth blow, the anvil split in half.

Qeran moved to the anvil, touching the cracked metal reverently. ‘The Andrah must hear of this. Every warrior must have one. Sharak Ka will be ours!’

‘The Andrah already knows,’ Abban lied, ‘as do the Deliverer and Damajah. On your life and hope of Heaven, Qeran, you will speak of it to no other. Just the thin sliver used in the glass is worth more than a Damaji’s palace, and there is not enough to equip even a fraction of our forces.’

Abban’s lips curled in a smile as Qeran’s own fell away. ‘But that doesn’t mean my drillmaster and his most trusted lieutenants should not have these.’

The drillmaster’s mouth opened, but no sound came out.

‘Come, Drillmaster,’ Abban said. ‘If you stand there gaping, we shall be late for our appointment.’

Drillmaster Qeran kept pace with Abban as they strode through the new bazaar, a huge district of Everam’s Bounty determined to recapture – and exceed – the vast glory of the Great Bazaar of Krasia.

Already, there had been great strides. The Northerners had not taken well to Evejan law, but they understood commerce, and there were as many chin as there were dal’ting and khaffit working and shopping in the hundreds of kiosks and stalls lining the streets. To Abban, it felt almost like home, save without the ever-present heat and dust.

Evejan law meant little in the bazaar. For every merchant loudly hawking wares, another was quietly whispering of items and services forbidden by the Evejah, or otherwise prohibited by the dama. Gambling. The flesh of pigs. Couzi. Weapons. Books. Relics from before the Return. All could be found in the bazaar if one had money to pay and knew whom and how to ask.

For the most part, this was permitted. Indeed, some of the biggest consumers of illegal goods were the dama and Sharum themselves, and no one would dare arrest them. Women and khaffit were less fortunate, and were occasionally condemned and made public examples of by the dama.

Standing well over six feet tall, armed with spear and shield and Everam only knew how many hidden weapons, Qeran still looked uncomfortable. His eyes flicked everywhere, as if expecting ambush at any moment.

‘You seem nervous, Drillmaster,’ Abban said. ‘How is it a man who stands fast before the alagai in darkness should fear to walk a street in the brightness of day?’

Qeran spat on the ground. ‘This place is as much a Maze as any used to trap alagai.’

Abban chuckled. ‘That is so, Drillmaster. The bazaar is made to trap purses instead of demons, but the idea is much the same. Customers are drawn in easily, but find egress more difficult. Streets twist and dead-end, and armies of merchants are ready to pounce on the unwary.’

‘It’s easy to know who the enemy is in the Maze,’ Qeran said. ‘Men are brothers in the night, and alagai don’t come offering gifts and lies.’ He looked around warily, dropping a hand to his purse as if to reassure himself it was there. ‘Here, everyone is an enemy.’

‘Not when you’re with me,’ Abban said. ‘Here, I am Andrah and Sharum Ka both. Even now, people mark us together. Return tomorrow, and they will fall over themselves to find your favour, in hopes that you might bring good word of them to me.’

Qeran spat again. ‘I have wives to shop the bazaar for me. Let us be about our business and be gone from this place.’

‘Soon enough,’ Abban said. ‘You know your part?’

Qeran grunted. ‘I have been breaking boys and building men from the pieces since before you were born, khaffit. Leave it to me.’

‘No lectures about the sacred black?’ Abban asked.

Qeran shrugged. ‘I have seen the boys. They are lax. Weak. Jurim and Shanjat spoiled them to turn them against you, and it will take a firm hand to turn them back. They will need to feel as nie’Sharum again.’

Abban nodded. ‘Do this for me, Drillmaster, and you will be compensated beyond dreams of avarice.’

Qeran dismissed the offer with a wave of disgust. ‘Pfagh. You have given me back sharak, son of Chabin. This is the least I can give in return. A man is nothing without the respect of his sons.’

‘This is the place,’ Abban said, pointing to an eating establishment. The front porch was filled with patrons at low tables, taking midday meal, smoking, and drinking bitter Krasian coffee. Women scurried to and fro, bringing a steady stream of full cups and bowls from inside, returning with empties and jingling purses full of draki.

Abban led them into the alleyway, rapping his crutch on a side entrance. A boy in tan opened the door, deftly catching the coin Abban flipped him as he escorted them down a rear stair.

The clatter of dice and shouted bets filled the air, a sweet haze of pipe smoke. They stopped behind a curtain, watching as a group of Sharum drank couzi over a dicing table piled high with coin.

‘The dama’ting should … ah,’ Abban said, spotting Asavi coming down the main stair. Her white robes stood out in the dark basement, but the men, intent on the wards carved into the dice faces, did not notice her approach until she was upon them.

‘What is this?!’ Asavi shouted, and the Sharum all jumped. One of the men – Abban’s son Shusten – whirled towards her, spilling his cup. The dama’ting pretended to step back, but gave the sleeve of her robe a masterful flick, catching the spill.

There was a tense silence as Asavi regarded her sleeve, none of the warriors even daring to breathe.

Asavi touched the wetness, bringing her fingers to her nose. ‘Is this … couzi?’ She shrieked the last word, and the men nearly pissed their bidos. Even Abban felt terrified, though he himself had arranged the meeting. It was a scene not unlike the one thirty years past, when his father, Chabin, accidentally spilled ink on a dama’s robe, and was put to death on the spot. He swallowed a lump at the memory. Perhaps it was fitting his sons should take a similar lesson.

‘Forgive me, dama’ting!’ Shusten cried, snatching a cloth of dubious cleanliness and reaching out to grab her sleeve, blotting ineffectually at the stain. ‘I will clean …’

‘How dare you?!’ Asavi cried, pulling her sleeve free of his grasp. She caught his wrist, pulling the arm straight and whirling to slam her open palm into the back of Shusten’s elbow. His arm broke with an audible snap, much as Chabin’s neck had.

Shusten screamed, but it was choked off as the dama’ting struck again, this time at his throat. ‘You will clean it with your blood, fool!’ She bent forward, kicking her right leg back and curling it up and over her head, kicking him in the face.

‘Beautiful,’ Qeran whispered, watching her art. Abban glanced at him. He would never understand warriors.

Shusten fell back, nose shattered, and crashed into the dicing table, sending coin and couzi scattering in all directions. The Sharum broke away, far less worried about their money than the dama’ting’s wrath.

Asavi strode in, continuing the beating. Shusten attempted to crawl away, but a kick to his thigh collapsed his leg. The next kick was to his balls and even Qeran winced at the whimper Shusten gave at the blow, blood bubbling from his broken nose.

A bit of the spray of blood and snot spotted Asavi’s robe, and she gave a growl, pulling the curved knife from her belt.

‘No, dama’ting!’ Fahki, Shusten’s elder brother, cried, rushing to interpose himself. ‘Mercy, for Everam’s sake!’

Fahki was unarmed, hands open in supplication. He was careful to avoid touching the dama’ting, but Asavi moved like a dancer, slipping a leg in his path. Her cry was quite convincing as Fahki stumbled into her, bearing them both to the dirty wooden floor.

‘Your cue, Drillmaster,’ Abban said, but Qeran was already moving. He threw open the curtain, careful not to reveal Abban’s presence, and strode into the room.

‘What is the meaning of this?!’ Qeran roared, his voice like thunder in the low-ceilinged room. He snatched Fahki by the collar of his robe, hauling him off the dama’ting.

Asavi glared at him. ‘Are these drunkards your men, Drillmaster?’ she demanded.

Qeran bowed deeply, slamming Fahki’s head into the floorboards in the process. ‘No, Dama’ting. I was taking my meal in the establishment above and heard the commotion.’ Still holding Fahki, who choked and gagged at the grip on his collar, he reached a hand out to Asavi.

The dama’ting took the offered hand and he pulled her to her feet, turning to cast a glare over the men cowering against the walls. ‘Shall I kill them for you?’

It seemed a ludicrous statement, a single warrior threatening to kill close to a dozen men, but it was a threat all took very seriously. One did not take on the red veil of a drillmaster easily, and Qeran was well known to all the warriors of the Kaji, a living legend in both alagai’sharak and the training grounds.

Asavi, too, cast her eyes over the men for long, tense seconds. At last, she shook her head.

‘You men,’ she called to the cowering warriors. ‘Tear the black from these two.’

‘No!’ Fahki screamed, but the men, his spear brothers a moment before, were deaf to his cries as they moved in. Qeran threw him to the men and one of them caught him with a spear shaft under the chin, choking out any resistance as half a dozen men eagerly tore his Sharum robes from him. Shusten was unable to put up even a token resistance, moaning as the remaining warriors stripped him.

How quickly the fabled loyalty of Sharum fades when put to the test, Abban mused. They would do anything to get back in the dama’ting’s good grace.

‘You are khaffit now,’ Asavi told the naked men. She looked at Fahki’s shrivelled manhood and gave a snort. ‘Perhaps you always should have been. Return to your fathers in shame.’

One of the warriors knelt before her, placing his hands and forehead on the floor in absolute supplication. ‘They are brothers, dama’ting,’ he said, ‘their father is khaffit.’

‘Fitting,’ Asavi said. ‘The fig lands close to the tree.’ She turned to regard the other warriors. ‘As for the rest of you, you will go to Sharik Hora and repent. You will not take food or drink for three days in penance, and if I learn you have so much as touched a cup of couzi – or dice – again, you will share their fate.’

The warriors gaped a moment, until Asavi clapped her hands in a sharp retort that made them all jump. ‘Now!’

Practically pissing their bidos, the warriors hurriedly backed out of the room, bowing repeatedly and saying ‘Thank you, Dama’ting,’ over and over. They stumbled into one another as they bottlenecked at the stairwell, turning and running up the steps as fast as their sandalled feet could carry them.

Asavi cast one last disgusted glance at the naked men. ‘Drillmaster, dispose of these pitiful excuses for men.’

Qeran bowed. ‘Yes, Dama’ting.’

Fahki and Shusten blinked in the dim lamplight as the hoods were pulled from their heads. They were tied to chairs in an underground chamber. Both had been ‘softened’, as Qeran put it, bruises still swollen and red, not yet gone to purple. Shusten’s arm had been set in plaster and his nose splinted. Both had been dressed in ragged shirts and pants of khaffit tan.

‘My prodigal sons return,’ Abban said. ‘Though perhaps not as proud as when I saw you last.’

The boys looked at him, squinting until their eyes adjusted to the light. Qeran stood a step behind Abban, arms crossed, and Fahki’s eyes widened at the sight of him. Abban could see understanding dawn.

Perhaps they are not total fools, he thought, pleased. Warrior sons were bad enough. If they proved fools as well, he would just as soon kill them and have done. He had other sons, though none more by Shamavah, the only wife who truly mattered to him. For her sake, he must try to pull these back into his fold.

‘Why are they bound?’ Abban asked. ‘Surely my own sons pose no threat to me. There is no need for such shameful treatment.’

Qeran grunted, pulling a knife as he went over, cutting their bonds. The boys groaned, massaging ankles and wrists to restore blood flow. Shusten looked weak and chastened, but Fahki still had defiance in his eyes.

‘Abban.’ He spat on the floor, a pinkish froth of blood and saliva. He looked to his brother. ‘Our father is bitter we proved his betters and rose above his station. He has found a way to bribe a dama’ting to drag us back to his world of commerce and khaffit.’

‘You are khaffit now, too,’ Abban reminded him.

‘You took our blacks in deception,’ Fahki growled. ‘We are still Sharum in the eyes of Everam, better than all the khaffit scum in Everam’s Bounty.’

Abban put a hand to his chest. ‘I took your blacks? Was it me who put cups of couzi and dice in your hands? Was it me who tore the robes from your backs? Your own brothers were happy to do it, to save themselves. Your loss of status is a product of your own foolishness. I warned you what would happen if you kept to dice and drink. The black does not put you above Everam’s law.’

Fahki rolled his eyes. ‘Since when do you care for Everam’s law, Father? Half your fortune comes from couzi.’

Abban chuckled. ‘I do not deny it, but I am smart enough not to dice away my profits, or to drink in public.’

He limped over to the third chair in the room, easing himself down and peering at them between the humps of his camel-headed crutch. ‘As for your being better than khaffit, we shall soon put that to the test. You will be fed and given a night’s sleep. In the morning, you’ll be given a spear and shield and set against one of my kha’Sharum guards. Any one. You may choose.’

Fahki snorted. ‘I will kill him in less time than it took you to limp your fat carcass across the room, old man.’

Qeran barked a laugh at that. ‘If you last five minutes, I will give you the robes off my back and my own good name.’

The smug look fell from Fahki’s face at that. ‘Why do you serve this khaffit, Drillmaster? You trained the Deliverer himself. You sully your good name with every order you take from beneath you. What price did you demand, to sell your honour to a pig-eater?’

Qeran walked over to Fahki, bending low as if to whisper an answer. Fahki, the fool boy, leaned in to hear.

Qeran’s punch knocked him out of his chair and onto the floor. Fahki coughed, spitting a wad of blood and the shards of a broken tooth onto the stone floor.

‘Your father may allow you to speak to him with such disrespect …’ Qeran said.

‘For now,’ Abban cut in.

‘For now,’ Qeran agreed. ‘But as you say, I am a drillmaster of the Sharum. I have trained countless warriors, and claim their kills as my own. A million alagai have I shown the sun, boy, and I owe you no explanations. For every insolent word you cast my way, I will break a part of you.’

Qeran smiled as Fahki glared at him. ‘Yes. Come at me. I see it in your eyes. Come and test your mettle. Abban has two sons. Perhaps he won’t miss one.’

‘I daresay I don’t need either, if they are fool enough to attack you, Drillmaster,’ Abban said.

Fahki breathed deeply, muscles knotted, but he stayed on the ground.

Abban nodded. ‘The beginning of wisdom. Perhaps there is hope for you yet.’

Fahki chose the smallest and weakest looking of the kha’Sharum to challenge in the yard the next day. Skinny and bespectacled, the man seemed no match for Fahki, who was tall and thick like his father.

All of clan Haman was summoned to witness the event. Abban had the inner ring around the combatants filled with women, Fahki’s sisters, cousins, aunts, and stepmothers. The kha’Sharum and chi’Sharum watched eagerly, as did all of the workers in Abban’s employ, given time off simply to add to the boy’s humiliation.

Fahki circled warily, spinning his spear in an impressive – if pointless – display. The spectacled kha’Sharum watched him coolly, not bothering to circle. He was Sharach, and carried an alagai-catcher instead of a spear. The long hollow pole ended in a loop of woven cable that the warrior could tighten with a lever on the shaft.

A vendor made his way through the crowd, selling candied nuts.

At last Fahki’s tension reached a breaking point, and he charged, spear leading. The warrior batted the point aside and had the loop around Fahki’s neck in an instant, whipping the pole and turning the momentum of his attack against him. Fahki had to leap head over heels and flip himself onto his back simply to keep from having his neck broken.

A twist of the pole, and Fahki was on his stomach. Abban nodded to his daughter Cielvah, and the girl stepped forward, carrying a short leather lash.

‘Apologies, brother,’ she said, pulling Fahki’s pantaloons and bido down. The boy thrashed, but the kha’Sharum tightened the noose and kept him prone.

Abban looked to Shusten, standing by his side. His son had his eyes on the ground, unable to watch, but he flinched with every sound of the lash, and wept at his brother’s humiliation.

‘I trust, my son, this lesson is not lost on you,’ Abban said.

‘No, Father,’ Shusten said.

Abban nodded. ‘Good. I hope your brother is as wise. If you prove worthy, Qeran will train you and Fahki properly, and you will rise to kha’Sharum.’

The Sharach warrior escorted Fahki over to Abban at the end of his pole. The boy’s face was red with shame under the tear-streaked grime of the yard. Abban nodded to the warrior, who released Fahki and stood at attention.

‘This is Lifan,’ Abban said, gesturing to the Sharach. ‘He will be your tutor.’

Shusten looked at him. ‘You said Drillmaster Qeran …’

‘Would teach you to fight, yes,’ Abban said. ‘If you prove worthy. Lifan will tutor you in reading, writing, and mathematics. Lessons your mother began, abandoned when you were called to Hannu Pash. You will hop to his every command. When you can read without moving your lips and do sums without your fingers, we shall discuss whether you will be allowed to hold a spear again.’

7
More Sack Than Sense
333 AR Autumn

Jardir gaped at the Par’chin, seeking signs of deceit – or madness – in his aura. But the Par’chin was calm, focused, and very serious.

Jardir opened his mouth, then closed it again. The Par’chin laughed.

‘If this is some jest, Par’chin, it will be the end of my patience …’

The son of Jeph remained relaxed, waving him down. In a show of trust, he backed away till his back struck the window, then slid down to sit on the floor amidst the broken bits of his chair. ‘No jest. Know it’s a lot to wrap your thoughts around. Plenty of questions, ay? Take your time, and start throwing them when you’re ready.’

Jardir stiffened, unsure. The heat of battle was fading, but his muscles were bunched for action, knowing the Par’chin could be upon him the moment he let down his guard.

But in his heart, he did not believe it. The Par’chin was many things, but he was not a liar. His casual posture reminded Jardir of the countless hours they had spent interrogating each other, talking about everything under the sun as they fought to understand each other’s language and culture. The Par’chin’s relaxed demeanour had always put Jardir at ease in a way he never was with his own people.

He looked to the bed, but like the chair it was a wreckage, broken by the force of his leap. Instead he backed to the window opposite the Par’chin, sliding to the floor to mirror him. He remained alert to attack, but the Par’chin was right. There was nothing to be gained in fighting each other before dawn came to even the odds.

Rivalries must be put aside when night falls, the Evejah said.

‘How can we get to the abyss?’ Jardir asked, picking a question at random out of the many swirling in his thoughts. ‘You can mist as the alagai do, but I cannot.’

‘Don’t need to,’ the Par’chin said. ‘There are land routes. The minds take human captives and keep them alive in the Core.’ He spat on the floor. ‘Keeps their brains fresh.’

‘We must journey to the underworld to save those lost souls,’ Jardir guessed. ‘Then Everam will …’

The Par’chin sighed loudly, rolling his eyes. ‘If you’re going to make a fresh guess at “Everam’s plan” every time I tell you something new, we’re going to be here a long time, Ahmann.’

Jardir scowled, but the Par’chin had a point. He nodded. ‘Continue, please.’

‘Dunno if there’s much worth saving in any event.’ The Par’chin’s eyes were sad and distant. ‘The minds consider empty brains a delicacy. Imagine dozens of generations, living and dying in darkness, eating moss and lichen, cattle for the slaughter. Denied clothes or even language. Ent human any more. Become something else. Dark, twisted, and savage.’

Jardir suppressed a shudder.

‘Point is,’ Arlen said, ‘there are a number of routes we can follow to the Core, but it’s a long, winding trail. Lots of forks, dead ends, pitfalls, and dangerous crossings. Not something we could ever do on our own. Need a guide.’

‘And you want that guide to be one of Alagai Ka’s princelings,’ Jardir said. The Par’chin nodded. ‘How will we make it betray its own kind and guide us?’

‘Torture,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Pain. Demons have no sense of loyalty, and rail against captivity. We can use that.’

‘You sound unsure,’ Jardir said. ‘How can we trust a prince of lies in any event?’

‘It’s a weak point in the plan,’ the Par’chin admitted. He shrugged. ‘Need to catch one, first.’

‘And how do you intend to do that?’ Jardir asked. ‘I’ve killed two. One I took by surprise, and had help from Leesha Paper and my Jiwah Ka with the other. They are formidable, Par’chin. Given a moment to act, they can—’

The Par’chin smiled. ‘What? Turn into mist? Draw wards in the air? Heal their wounds? We can do these things, too, Ahmann. We can set a trap even Alagai Ka could not escape.’

‘How can we even find one?’ Jardir asked. ‘After I killed one the first night of Waning, its brothers fled the field. They kept their distance the following nights, moving quickly.’

‘They fear you,’ the Par’chin said. ‘They remember Kaji, the mind hunter, and the many he killed with the crown and spear and cloak. They will never come within miles of you willingly.’

‘So you admit Kaji was the Deliverer, and I am his heir,’ Jardir said.

‘I admit Kaji was a general the mind demons feared,’ the Par’chin said, ‘and when you faced them with his spear and crown, they came to fear you, too. Doesn’t make you heir to anything. If Abban wore the crown and held the spear, they’d piss themselves and run from him, too.’

Jardir scowled, but it was pointless to argue. Despite his doubtful words and the Par’chin’s disrespect, he felt hope kindling in his breast. The Par’chin was building to something. His plan was madness, but it was glorious madness. Madness worthy of Kaji himself. He embraced the barb and pressed on. ‘How can we know where to set wards to trap one?’

The Par’chin winked at him. ‘That’s the thing. I know where they’re going on new moon. All of them.

‘They’re going to Anoch Sun.’

Jardir felt his blood go cold. The lost city of Kaji, where the Par’chin’s theft of the spear had set everything in motion. ‘How can you know this?’

‘You’re not the only one who’s fought minds, Ahmann,’ the Par’chin said. ‘While you struggled with one in your bedroom, I fought its brother north of the Hollow. Would’ve had me, if not for Renna.’

Jardir nodded. ‘Your jiwah is formidable.’

The Par’chin accepted the compliment with a nod, but sighed deeply. ‘Maybe if I’d listened to her, I wouldn’t have been caught with my bido down by three of them last month.’ His eyes dropped to the floor, and his aura coloured with shame. ‘Got inside my head, Ahmann. Couldn’t stop them. Rooted around my memories like a rummage trunk. Most of all, they wanted to know where I found the wards …’

‘Raise your eyes, son of Jeph,’ Jardir said. ‘I have never met a man who fought the alagai harder than you. If you could not stop them, they could not be stopped.’

Gratitude flushed in the Par’chin’s aura as he lifted his chin. ‘Wasn’t all bad. Even as they looked into my thoughts, I got a glimpse into theirs. They mean to return to the lost city and do what three thousand years of sandstorms could not. Dunno if it’s fear the city has secrets yet to divulge, or a wish to shit upon their ancient foes, but they will exhume the sarcophagi and raze the city.’

‘We must stop them at any cost,’ Jardir said. ‘I will not have my ancestors profaned.’

‘Don’t be a fool,’ Arlen snapped. ‘Throw away all strategic advantage over a handful of dusty corpses?’

‘Those are heroes of the First War, you faithless chin,’ Jardir snapped. ‘They carry the honour of mankind. I will not suffer them to be sullied by the alagai.’

The Par’chin spat on the floor. ‘Kaji himself would command you leave them.’

Jardir laughed. ‘Oh, you claim to speak for Kaji now, Par’chin?’

‘I’ve read his treatise on war, too, Ahmann,’ the Par’chin said. ‘No thing is more precious than victory. Kaji’s words, not mine.’

Jardir balled his fists. ‘You’re free with the holy scripture when it suits you, son of Jeph, and quick to dismiss it as fantasy when it does not.’ His crown began to glow fiercely. ‘Kaji also commanded we honour the bones of those who have given their lives in alagai’sharak above all others, and let none profane them.’

The Par’chin crossed his arms, the wards on his flesh flaring to match the crown. ‘Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me you will give up our one chance to take the fight to the demons just to preserve the honour of empty shells whose spirits have long since gone down the lonely path.’

Our cultures are a natural insult to each other, Par’chin, Jardir had once said. We must resist the urge to take offence, if we are to continue to learn from each other.

The son of Jeph’s aura was plain. He believed he was in the right, but had no wish to fight over the matter.

‘You are not wrong,’ Jardir admitted, ‘but you are a fool if you think I will stand idle and watch a demon shit upon the bones of Kaji.’

The Par’chin nodded. ‘And I do not ask you to. I ask that if it comes to it, you watch them shit upon Isak. Maji. Mehnding. Even Jardir, should they find him.’

‘They will not,’ Jardir said, relieved. ‘My holy ancestor is interred in the Desert Spear. We can move the body of Kaji there.’ Still, the thought of letting the alagai desecrate the bodies of the great leaders of the Evejah horrified him. Even with all Ala at stake, he did not know if he could witness such a thing and not act to stop it.

‘And what advantage do we gain by this … sacrifice?’ Jardir asked through bitter tones.

‘We do not steal Kaji away,’ the son of Jeph said. ‘The first Shar’Dama Ka will serve his people once more, baiting the trap we will set upon his tomb. Anoch Sun is enormous. We cannot predict precisely where the mind demons will strike, save that one crypt, seen so clearly in my memory. They are coming there, Ahmann. They are coming in force. And we will be there to meet them, hidden in Cloaks of Unsight. When they enter the chamber, we will capture one, kill as many as we can while surprise holds, and flee.’

Jardir crossed his arms, looking sceptical. ‘And how are we supposed to accomplish this?’

‘We use the crown,’ the Par’chin said.

Jardir raised a brow.

‘The Crown of Kaji’s warding field can repel any demon, even an army of them, up to half a mile,’ the Par’chin said.

‘I am aware of this,’ Jardir said. ‘It is my crown.’

The Par’chin smiled. ‘Are you also aware that you can raise the field at a distance? Like a bubble, keeping demons out, or as in the Maze …’

‘… keeping them in,’ Jardir realized. ‘If we get in close …’

‘… you can trap them in with us,’ the Par’chin said.

Jardir clenched a fist. ‘We can destroy Nie’s generals before the first sallies of Sharak Ka even begin.’

The Par’chin nodded. ‘But it won’t do much good if their queen can lay more.’

Jardir looked at him. ‘Alagai’ting Ka. The Mother of Demons.’

‘Just so,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Kill her, and we’ve a shot at winning the war. If not, they’ll come back again, even if it takes another three thousand years. Eventually, they’ll wear us down.’

‘What if I do not agree to this plan, Par’chin?’ Jardir asked. ‘Will you steal the crown and try alone?’

‘Half right,’ Arlen said. ‘Minds are coming to Anoch Sun on new moon and I’ll be there with or without you. If you can’t see the value in that, then you’re not the man I thought you were. Take your crown, slink back to your ripping throne, and leave Sharak Ka to me.’

Jardir gritted his teeth. ‘And the spear?’

‘The spear is mine,’ Arlen said. ‘But you swear by the sun to do this with me, I’ll give it to you free and clear and call it a bargain. If not, I’ll take it to the Core and put it through the demon queen’s heart myself.’

Jardir stared at him a long time. ‘That will not be necessary, Par’chin. It grates me to be given what is already mine, but what kind of ajin’pal would I be if I let you walk such a road alone? You may think Everam a lie, Par’chin, but truly He must love you, to grant you such courage.’

The Par’chin smiled. ‘My da always said I had more sack than sense.’

Arlen bustled about the kitchen, his hands a blur as he worked. He had never been a great cook, but years spent alone on the road had made him efficient enough at boiling potatoes and pan-frying meat and vegetables. He used no fire; heat wards etched into the pots and pans did the work, powered by his touch.

‘May I assist?’ Jardir asked.

‘You?’ Arlen asked. ‘Has the self-proclaimed king of the world ever even touched unprepared food?’

‘You know me well, Par’chin,’ Jardir said, ‘but not as well as you think. Was I not nie’Sharum once? There is no menial task I have not bent my back to.’

‘Then bend your back to setting the table.’ The banter was familiar, something Arlen hadn’t realized he had missed all these years. It was easy to fall into their old patterns, brothers in all but name. Jardir had stood with Arlen on his first night in the Maze, and in Krasia, that was as great a bond as blood. Greater.

But Jardir had been willing to kill him for power. He had not done it with malice, but he had done it all the same, and even now, Arlen had to wonder if he would do it all over again if he had the chance … or if the chance came again in the future. He searched Jardir’s aura for a clue, but he could discern little without Drawing magic through him and Knowing him fully – an intrusion Jardir would no doubt sense, and have every right to take offence to.

‘Ask, Par’chin,’ Jardir said.

‘Ay?’ Arlen asked, surprised.

‘I can see the question that gnaws at your spirit,’ Jardir said. ‘Ask, and let us have it done.’

Arlen nodded. ‘Soon enough. Some things are best done on a full stomach.’

He finished preparing the meal, waiting patiently as Jardir said a prayer over the food before they set to eating. A single serving was enough for Arlen, but Jardir had suffered serious wounds in their battle on the cliff, and while magic could heal them in an instant, it couldn’t make flesh and blood from nothing. He emptied three bowls and still reached for the fruit plate while Arlen cleared the table.

When he returned he sat quietly, watching Jardir gnaw the bowl down to stem, seed, and core.

‘Ask, Par’chin,’ Jardir said again.

‘Did you decide to kill me in the heat of the moment that night in the Maze,’ Arlen asked, ‘or was our friendship a lie from the start?’

He watched Jardir’s aura carefully, taking some small pleasure as hurt and shame coloured it for an instant. Jardir mastered himself quickly and looked up, meeting Arlen’s eyes as he let out a long exhale, nostrils flaring.

‘Both,’ he said. ‘And neither. After she threw the bones for you that first night, Inevera told me to embrace you like a brother and keep you close, for I would one day need to kill you if I was to take power.’

Something tightened in Arlen, and unbidden, the ambient magic in the room rushed to him, making the wards on his flesh glow.

‘That don’t sound like both,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘Or neither.’

Jardir could not have missed the glow of his wards, but he gave no indication, keeping his eyes fixed on Arlen’s. ‘I knew nothing of you then, Par’chin, save that the Sharum and dama nearly came to blows over your request to fight in the Maze. You seemed a man of honour, but when your rock demon broke the wall, I did not know what to think.’

‘You talk like One Arm was a piece of livestock I tried to sneak past the gate,’ Arlen said.

Jardir ignored the comment. ‘But then, as the alagai poured through the breach and despair took hold in the hearts of the bravest men, you stood fast and bled at my side, willing to give your life to capture the rock demon and put things right.

‘I did not lie when I called you brother, Par’chin. I would have given my life for you.’

Arlen nodded. ‘Nearly did more’n once that night, and Creator only knows how many times since. But it was all a show, ay? You knew you’d live to betray me one day.’

Jardir shrugged. ‘Who can say, Par’chin? The very act of foretelling gives us a chance to change what is seen. They are glimpses of what might be, not what will. What would be the point, otherwise? If I thought myself immortal and began to take foolish risks I would otherwise have avoided …’

Arlen wanted to argue, but there was little he could say. It was a fair point.

‘Inevera’s prophecies are vague, and often not what they seem,’ Jardir went on. ‘I spent years pondering her words. Kill, she had said, but the symbol on her dice had other meanings. Death, rebirth, conversion. I tried to convert you to the Evejah, or find you a bride and tie you to Krasia, in hope that if you ceased to be a chin and were reborn as an Evejan, it would fulfill the prophecy and allow me to spare you.’

Almost every man Arlen knew in Krasia tried to find him a bride at some point, but none so hard as Jardir. He never would have guessed it was to save his life, but there was no lie in Jardir’s aura.

‘Reckon it came true after a fashion,’ Arlen said. ‘Part of me died that night, and was reborn out on the dunes. Sure as the sun rises.’

‘When you first presented the spear, I knew it for what it was,’ Jardir said. ‘I sensed its power and had to force down my desire to take it from you then and there.’

Arlen’s lip curled, showing a hint of teeth. ‘But you were too much a coward. Instead you conspired and lured me into a trap, letting your men and a demon pit do the dirty work for you.’

Jardir’s aura flared, a mix of guilt and anger. ‘Inevera too told me to kill you and take the spear. She offered to poison your tea if I did not wish to sully my hands. She would have denied you a warrior’s death.’

Arlen spat. ‘As if I give a demon’s piss. Betrayal’s betrayal, Ahmann.’

‘You do,’ Jardir said. ‘You may think Heaven a lie, but if you were given to choose your death, you would face it with a spear in your hand.’

‘Didn’t have a spear when death came for me, Ahmann. You took it. All I had were needles and ink.’

‘I fought for you,’ Jardir said, not rising to the bait. ‘Inevera’s dice have ruled my life since I was twelve years old. Never before or since have I so defied them, or her. Not even over Leesha Paper. Had Inevera not proven so … formidable, I would have hurt her when my arguments failed. I left for the Maze determined. I would not kill my brother. I would not rob him.’

Arlen tried to read the emotions in Jardir’s aura, but they were too complex, even for him. This was something Jardir had wrestled with for years, and still not come to terms with. It did little to ease his sense of betrayal, but there was more, and Arlen wanted to hear it.

‘What changed?’ he said.

‘I remembered your words,’ Jardir said. ‘I watched from the wall as you led the Sharum to clear the Maze, the Spear of Kaji shining bright as the sun in your hands. They shouted your name, and I knew then they would follow you. The warriors would make you Shar’Dama Ka, and charge Nie’s abyss if you asked it.’

‘Afraid I’d take your job?’ Arlen asked. ‘Never wanted it.’

Jardir shook his head. ‘I did not care about my job, Par’chin. I cared about my people. And yours. Every man, woman, and child on Ala. For they would all follow you once they saw the alagai bleed. I saw it in my mind’s eye, and it was glorious.’

‘Then what, Ahmann?’ Arlen asked, losing patience. ‘What in the Core happened?’

‘I told you, Par’chin,’ Jardir said. ‘I remembered your words. There is no Heaven, you said. And I thought to myself, Without hope of Heaven, what reason would you have to remain righteous when all the world bowed to you? Without being humble before the Creator, what man could be trusted with such power? Nie corrupts what She cannot destroy, and it is only in our submission to Everam that we can resist Her whispers and lies.’

Arlen gaped at him. The truth of the words was written on Jardir’s aura, but his mind boggled at the thought. ‘I embody everything you hold dear, willing to fight and die in the First War, but you’d betray me because I do it for humanity, and not some figment in the sky?’

Jardir clenched a fist. ‘I warn you, Par’chin …’

‘Corespawn your warnings!’ Arlen brought his fist down, the limb still thrumming with power. The table exploded with the blow, collapsing in a spray of splinters. Jardir leapt back from the broken boards and shrapnel, coming down in a sharusahk stance.

Arlen knew better than to attempt to grapple. Jardir was more than his match at hand-fighting. He’d fought dama before, and been lucky to escape with his life. Jardir had studied for years with the clerics, learning their secrets. Even now, when Arlen was faster and stronger than anyone alive, Jardir could take him like a boy to the woodshed. Much as Arlen wanted to meet Jardir on even terms, there was nothing to be gained, and everything to lose.

Jardir’s superior sharusahk skill was irrelevant in any event. His understanding and control over his magic was rudimentary at best, self-taught and unpractised. It would be some time before he was in full control of his abilities, and even then he could not match with hora relics what Arlen, who had made magic a part of him, could do. If he wanted to kill Jardir, he could.

And doom them all. Arlen might be able to make the crown work without Jardir, but there wasn’t much chance he could escape Anoch Sun alive without help, and he’d never make it to the mind court alone. The Core would call to him, its song more insistent the closer he drew.

Nie corrupts what she cannot destroy. Words of faith, but there was wisdom in them all the same. Every child had heard the proverb in the Canon that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The Core offered absolute power, but Arlen dare not touch it. He would lose himself, absorbed and burnt away like a match thrown into a Solstice bonfire.

He breathed deeply to calm himself before he did something rash. Jardir kept his guard up, but his aura showed he had no desire to fight. They both knew what was at stake.

‘I made a promise to you that night as I left you on the dunes, Par’chin,’ Jardir said. ‘I threw you a waterskin and promised I would find you in the afterlife, and if I had not kept true and made the Ala a better place, we would have a reckoning.’

‘Well it’s come early,’ Arlen said. ‘Hope you’re ready for it.’

Jardir looked at the sky as they exited the tower, trying to deduce where they were from the position of the stars. South and west of Everam’s Bounty, but that told him little. Millions of untamed acres lay between the great city and the desert flats. He might manage to find his way back on his own, but Everam only knew how long it would take.

He didn’t need to ask the Par’chin his purpose in leading them from the tower. It was written clearly on his aura, mirrored in Jardir’s own. The hope that fighting side by side against the alagai, as they had done so many times before, could begin to eat away at the anger and mistrust that lay between them still.

Unity is worth any price, the Evejah said. Kaji had called it the key to Sharak Ka. If he and the Par’chin could find unity of purpose, then they stood a chance.

If not …

Jardir breathed deep of the night air. It was fitting. All men are brothers in the night, Kaji had said. If they could not find unity before the alagai, they were unlikely to find it elsewhere.

‘They’ll catch our scent soon enough,’ the Par’chin said, reading his thoughts. ‘First thing to do is recharge your crown.’

Jardir shook his head. ‘The first thing is for you to return my spear to me, Par’chin. I have agreed to your terms.’

The Par’chin shook his head. ‘Let’s start slow, Ahmann. Spear’s not going anywhere just yet.’

Jardir gave him a hard look, but there was nothing for it. He could see the Par’chin would not budge on the point, and it was useless to argue further. He raised his fist, knuckles scarred with wards Inevera had cut into his skin. ‘The crown will begin to recharge when my fist strikes an alagai.’

The Par’chin nodded. ‘No need to wait, though.’

Jardir looked at him. ‘You suggest I take more from you?’

The Par’chin gave him a withering look. ‘Caught me off guard the once, Ahmann. Try that trick again and you’ll regret it.’

‘Then how?’ Jardir asked. ‘Without an alagai to Draw from …’

The Par’chin cut him off with a wave of his hand, gesturing at their surroundings. ‘Magic’s all around us, Ahmann.’

It was true. In crownsight, Jardir could see as clearly at night as in day, the world awash in magic’s glow. It pooled at their feet like a luminescent fog, stirred by their passage, but there was little power in it, any more than smoke had the power of flame.

‘I don’t understand,’ Jardir said.

‘Breathe,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Close your eyes.’

Jardir glanced at him, but complied, his breathing rhythmic and even. He fell into the warrior’s trance he had learned in Sharik Hora, soul at peace, but ready to act in an instant.

‘Reach out with the crown,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Feel the magic around you, whispering like a soft breeze.’

Jardir did as he asked, and could indeed sense the magic, expanding and contracting in response to his breath. It flowed over the Ala, but was drawn to life.

‘Gently Draw it,’ the Par’chin said, ‘like you’re breathing it in.’ Jardir inhaled, and felt the power flow into him. It was not the fire of striking an alagai, more like sunlight on his skin.

‘Keep going,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Easy. Don’t stop with your exhales. Just keep a steady pull.’

Jardir nodded, feeling the flow continue. He opened his eyes, seeing magic drifting to him from all directions in a steady current, like a river heading to a fall. It was a slow process, but eventually the chasm began to fill. He felt stronger.

Then his elation cost him his centre, and the flow stopped.

He looked to the Par’chin. ‘Amazing.’

The Par’chin smiled. ‘Just gettin’ started, Ahmann. We’ve got a lot more to cover before we’re ready to face a court of mind demons.’

‘You do not trust me with the Spear of the Kaji, but you give me the secrets of your magic?’

‘Sharak Ka comes before all else,’ Arlen said. ‘You taught me war. Only fair I teach you magic. The rudiments, anyway. Spear’s a crutch you’ve leaned on too long.’ He winked. ‘Just don’t think I’m teaching you all my tricks.’

They spent several more minutes thus, the Par’chin gently coaching him in how to Draw the power.

‘Now hold the power tight,’ the Par’chin said, producing a small folding knife from his pocket. He opened it and flipped the blade into his grip, passing the handle to Jardir.

Jardir took the small blade curiously. It wasn’t even warded. ‘What am I to do with this?’

‘Cut yourself,’ the Par’chin said.

Jardir looked at him curiously, then shrugged and complied. The blade was sharp, and parted his flesh easily. He could see blood in the cut, but the magic he’d absorbed was already at work. The skin knitted together before it could begin to well.

The Par’chin shook his head. ‘Again. But keep a tighter grip on the power. So tight the wound stays open.’

Jardir grunted, slicing his flesh again. The wound began to close as before, but Jardir Drew the magic from his flesh into the crown, and the healing stopped.

‘Healing’s great when your bones are in the right place and you’ve got power to spare,’ the Par’chin said, ‘but if you’re not careful, you can heal twisted, or waste power you need. Now let out just a touch, sending it straight where it’s needed.’

Jardir let out a measured trickle of magic, and watched the cut seal away as if it had never been.

‘Good,’ the Par’chin said, ‘but you might’ve done with less. Two cuts, now. Heal one, but not the other.’

Holding tight to the power, Jardir cut one forearm, and then the other. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, releasing a fraction as much magic as before and willing it to his left arm alone. He could feel the tingle run along the limb, and opened his eyes to see the cut slowly sealing, the other still oozing blood.

There was a howl not far off, the sound of field demons. Jardir looked in that direction, but the alagai were still too far off.

‘Draw power from that direction,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Take it in through your eyes.’

Jardir did so, and found that even though there was no direct line of sight, he could see the creatures in the distance, running hard for their position.

‘How?’ he asked.

‘All living things make an imprint on the ambient magic,’ the Par’chin said, ‘spreading out like a drop of dye in water. You can read the current, and see beyond the limits of your eyes.’

Jardir squinted, studying the approaching creatures. A full reap, more than a score of demons. Their long, corded limbs and low torsos glowed fiercely with power.

‘They are many, Par’chin,’ he said. ‘Are you certain you do not wish to return the spear to me?’ He scanned the sky. There were wind demons beginning to circle as well, drawn to the glow of their power. Jardir reached for his Cloak of Unsight, ready to pull it close, but of course the Par’chin had taken that, too.

The son of Jeph shook his head. ‘We can’t take them with gaisahk alone, then we got no business in Anoch Sun.’

Jardir looked at him curiously. The meaning of the word was clear enough, a conjunction of the Krasian gai, meaning ‘demon’, and sahk, meaning ‘unarmed’, but he had never heard it before.

‘Sharusahk was designed for men to kill one another.’ The Par’chin held up a warded fist. ‘Needed to change it up a bit to bring the wards to bear properly.’

Jardir crossed his fists before his heart and gave a shallow bow, the traditional bow of sharusahk pupil to master. The move was perfectly executed, but doubtless the Par’chin could see the sarcasm in his aura.

He swept a hand at the rapidly approaching field demons. ‘I eagerly await my first lesson, Par’chin.’

The Par’chin’s eyes narrowed, but there was a hint of smile on his lips. His face blurred momentarily, and his clothes fell away, leaving him in only his brown bido. It was the first time Jardir had truly seen what his friend had become. The Painted Man, as the Northerners called him.

It was easy to see why the greenlanders thought him the Deliverer. Every inch of his visible flesh was covered with wards. Some were large and powerful. Impact wards. Forbiddings. Pressure wards. Like Jardir, a demon could not touch the Par’chin, but that he willed it, and his punches, elbows, and kicks would strike the alagai like scorpion bolts.

Other wards, like those than ran around his eyes, ears, and mouth, were almost too small to read, conveying more subtle powers. Midsized ones ran up and down his limbs. Thousands in all.

That in itself was enough to amaze, but the Par’chin had always been an artist with warding. His patterns, simple and efficient, were rendered with such beauty they put Evejan illuminators to shame. Dama who had spent a lifetime copying and illustrating sacred text in ink made from the blood of heroes.

The wards Inevera had cut into Jardir’s flesh were crude by comparison. She would have needed to flay him alive to approach what the Par’chin had done.

Magic ran along the surface of those wards, crackling like static on a thick carpet. They pulsed and throbbed, brightening and dimming in a hypnotizing rhythm. Even one without wardsight could see it. He didn’t look like a man any more. He looked like one of Everam’s seraphs.

The field demons were close now, racing hard at the sight of prey. They stretched out in a long line, a few loping strides apart. Too long spent fighting the first would have the second upon him, and on and on, till he was fighting all of them. Jardir tensed, ready to race to his friend’s aid the moment he began to be overwhelmed.

The Par’chin walked boldly to meet them, but it was warrior’s bravado. No man could fight so many alone.

But again his friend surprised him, slipping in smoothly to grab the lead demon and turn its own momentum against it in a perfect sharusahk circle throw. Cracked like a whip, the field demon’s neck snapped a split second before the Par’chin let go. His aim was precise, crashing the dead alagai into the next in line, sending both tumbling to the ground.

The Par’chin glowed brightly now. In the seconds of contact, he had drained considerable magic from the first demon. He charged in, stomping down on the living demon’s head with an impact-warded heel. There was a flare of magic, and when the Par’chin turned to meet the next in line, Jardir could see its skull had been crushed like a melon.

A crash and shriek stole Jardir’s attention. While he had been focused on the Par’chin, a wind demon had dived at him, hitting hard against the warding field that surrounded Jardir’s crown for several paces in every direction. Including up.

Everam take me for a fool, Jardir scolded himself. In his younger days, he would never have been so reckless as to lose track of his surroundings. The Par’chin feared that the spear had made him lax – and perhaps it had – but the crown was more insidious. He’d begun to drop his guard. Something that would cost him in Anoch Sun. The demon princelings had shown at Waning there were still ways they could strike at him.

Jardir collapsed the field, dropping the wind demon heavily to the ground. It struggled to rise, more dazed than harmed, but as Drillmaster Qeran had taught so many years before, wind demons were slow and clumsy on the ground. The thin bone that stretched the membrane of its wings bowed, not meant to support the demon’s full weight, and at rest the creature’s hind legs were bent fully at the knee, unable to straighten fully.

Before it could manage to right itself, Jardir was on the demon, kicking its limbs out and using his own weight to knock the breath from it once more. The wards scarred onto Jardir’s hands were not as intricate as the Par’chin’s, but they were strong. He sat on the demon’s chest, too high for it to bring its hind talons to bear, and pinned its wings with his knees. He held its throat with his left hand and the pressure ward cut into his palm glowed, building in power as he punched it repeatedly in the vulnerable bone of its eye socket, just above the toothed beak. Impact wards on his knuckles flashed, and he felt the bone crack and finally shatter.

Then, as the Par’chin had shown him, he Drew, feeling the alagai’s magic, absorbed deep in the centre of Ala, flood into him, filling him with power.

Another wind demon dove for him while he was engaged, but this time Jardir was ready. He had learned in lessons long ago that wind demons led their dive with the long, hooked talons at the bend in their wings. They could sever a head with those talons, then spread their wings wide, arresting their downward momentum as they snatched their prey in their hind talons and launched back skyward with a great wingstroke.

Flush with magic, Jardir moved impossibly fast, catching the demon’s wing bone just under the lead talon. He pivoted and threw himself forward, preventing the demon from spreading its wings and throwing it to the ground with the full force of its dive. Bones shattered, and the demon shrieked, twitching in agony. He finished it quickly.

Looking up, he saw the Par’chin fully engaged now. He had killed five of the field demons, but the rest, more than three times that number, surrounded him.

But for all that, he did not appear to be in danger. A demon leapt at him and he collapsed into mist. The alagai passed through him and crashed into one of its fellows, the two going down in a tangle of tooth and claw.

An instant later he reformed behind another of the beasts, catching it under the forelegs and locking his fingers behind its neck in a sharusahk hold. There was an audible snap, and then another demon came at him. He misted away once more, reforming a few feet away, in place to kick a demon in the belly. Impact wards on his instep flashed, launching the alagai several feet through the air.

Jardir was the greatest living sharusahk master, and even he could barely hold his own against the Par’chin’s mist-fighting. Against the alagai, with their powerful bodies and tiny brains, it was devastating.

‘You cheat, Par’chin!’ Jardir called. ‘Your new powers have made you lax!’

The son of Jeph had caught an alagai’s jaws in his hands, and was in the process of forcing them open well past their limit. The demon let out a high-pitched squeal, thrashing madly, but it could not break his hold. He looked over to Jardir, amusement on his aura. ‘Says the man hiding behind his crown’s warding field. Come and show me how it’s done, if you’ve had your rest.’

Jardir laughed, pulling open his robe. The Par’chin’s body was wiry and corded like cable, a sharp contrast to the heavy bulk of Jardir’s muscles, a broad canvas Inevera had painted with her knife. He pulled the crown’s warding field in close and strode into the press. A field demon leapt at him, but he caught its foreleg and snapped it with an effortless twist, dropping it in time for a spin-kick that took the next demon at the base of its skull. The impact ward on his instep was enough to break its spine, killing it instantly.

The other demons, their ravenous fury turned to a more cautious aggression after their battle with the Par’chin, circled, issuing low, threatening growls as they looked for an opening. Jardir glanced at the Par’chin, who had stepped back to observe. His wards of forbiddance glowed fiercely, and Jardir could see the edge of the warding field they formed. It bordered several feet in every direction around the Par’chin, like an invisible bubble of impenetrable glass.

His own warriors had been ready to name the Par’chin Deliverer that night in the Maze. Jardir had thought it due only to the Spear of Kaji at the time, but it seemed the Par’chin was destined to power. It was inevera.

But destined to power did not mean he was Shar’Dama Ka. The Par’chin baulked at the final price of power, refusing to take the reins his people thrust at him. There was still much he had to learn.

‘Observe, Par’chin,’ Jardir said, making a show of setting his feet as he took one of the most basic dama sharusahk stances. He breathed in, taking in all his surroundings, all his thoughts and emotions, embracing them and letting them fall away. He looked at the demons with calm, relaxed focus, ready to react in an instant.

He lowered his guard, pretending distraction, and the alagai took the bait. The ring around him burst into motion as all the field demons moved at him together with all the precision of a push guard.

Jardir never moved his feet, but his waist, supple as a palm frond, twisted and bent as he dodged the attacks and turned them away. He seldom needed more than the flat of his hand to redirect tooth or talon, slapping at paws or the side of a field demon’s head just enough to keep them from touching him. The creatures landed in confused tumbles, dazed, but unharmed.

‘You fighting, or just playing with them?’ the Par’chin asked.

‘I am teaching, Par’chin,’ he replied, ‘and you would be wise to attend the lesson. You may have skill with magic, but the dama would laugh at your sharusahk. There is more than dogma taught in the catacombs beneath Sharik Hora. Gaisahk has merit, but you have much to learn.’

Jardir sent a pulse of power through the crown, knocking the alagai back in a tumble as if from the press of a shield wall. They shook themselves off, growling and beginning to circle once more.

‘Come,’ Jardir beckoned, making a show of setting his feet. ‘Plant your feet and let us begin the lesson.’

The Par’chin melted into mist, reappearing right at his side, feet set in a perfect imitation of Jardir’s stance. Jardir grunted his approval. ‘You will fight without misting. Sharusahk is the eternal struggle for life, Par’chin. You cannot master it if you do not fear for yours.’

The Par’chin met his gaze, and nodded. ‘Fair’s fair.’

As the demons came back at them, Jardir gave the Par’chin a mocking wink. ‘But do not think I am teaching you all my tricks.’

Jardir watched the sun strike the bodies of the alagai they had used as sharusahk practice dummies. Demons more powerful than field and wind had arrived as the night wore on, drawn to the sound of battle. In the end he and the Par’chin had been forced to drop their easy pretence and fight hard to take them with gaisahk alone.

But now their foes lay broken at their feet, and he and the Par’chin stood to show them the sun.

If Jardir lived to be a thousand, he would never tire of the sight. The demons’ skin began to char instantly, glowing like hot coals before bursting into bright fire, casting a flush of heat over his face. It was a daily reminder that, no matter how dark the night, Everam would always return in strength. It was the one moment of every day when hope overpowered the burden of his task to free his people of the alagai. It was the moment when he felt as one with Everam and Kaji.

He looked to the Par’chin, wondering what his faithless ajin’pal saw in the flames. His crownsight was fading as shadows fled, but there was still a hint of his ajin’pal’s aura, and the hope and strength of purpose that filled it in that moment.

‘Ah, Par’chin,’ he said, drawing the man’s gaze. ‘It is so easy to remember our differences, I sometimes forget the similarities.’

The Par’chin nodded sadly. ‘Honest word.’

‘How did you find the lost city, Par’chin?’ Jardir asked.

Arlen could not read Jardir’s aura in the daylight, but the sharp, probing look in his eyes told him this was no random question. Jardir had been holding it, biding his time, waiting until Arlen was relaxed and unsuspecting.

And it had worked. Arlen knew his face in that instant told Jardir much he would have preferred to keep secret. His thoughts offered up a dozen lies, but he shook them away. If they were to walk this road together, it must be as brothers, honest and with trust, or their task was doomed to failure before it even began.

‘Had a map,’ he said, knowing it would not end there.

‘And where did you get this map?’ Jardir pressed. ‘You could not have found it out in the sands. Such a fragile thing would have long since crumbled away.’

Arlen took a deep breath, straightening his back, and met Jardir’s eyes. ‘Stole it from Sharik Hora.’ Jardir’s nod was calm, the act of a disappointed parent who already knows what his child has done.

But despite his posture, Arlen could smell his mounting anger. Anger no wise person would ignore. He readied himself, wondering if he could defeat Jardir in the light of day if it came to blows.

Just need to get the crown off him, he thought, knowing it sounded far simpler than it was. He’d rather climb a mountain without a rope.

‘How did you accomplish this?’ Jardir asked with that same tired tone. ‘You could not have penetrated Sharik Hora alone.’

Arlen nodded. ‘Had help.’

‘Who?’ Jardir pressed, but Arlen simply inclined his head.

‘Ah,’ Jardir said. ‘Abban. He’s been caught bribing dama many times, but I did not think even he could be so bold, or that he could have lied to me for so long without being discovered.’

‘He ent stupid, Ahmann,’ Arlen said. ‘You’d have killed him, or worse, done some barbaric shit like cutting out his tongue. Don’t you deny it. Wasn’t his fault, anyway. He owed me a blood debt, and I wanted the map in payment.’

‘That makes him no less accountable,’ Jardir said.

Arlen shrugged. ‘What’s done is done, and he did the world a favour.’

‘Did he?’ Jardir asked. His calm façade dropped as he glared at Arlen, striding in till they were nose-to-nose. ‘What if the spear was not meant to be found yet, Par’chin? Perhaps we were not ready for it, and you denied inevera by bringing it back before its time? What if we lose Sharak Ka over your and Abban’s arrogance, Par’chin? What then?’

His voice grew in power as he went on, and for a moment Arlen felt himself wilt under it. Stealing the scroll had never seemed right, but even now, he would do it again.

‘Ay, maybe,’ he agreed. ‘And it’s on me and Abban if it’s so.’

He straightened, leaning back in and meeting Jardir’s glare with one of his own. ‘But maybe our best chance to win Sharak Ka was three hundred years ago, when humanity numbered millions, and your ripping dama kept the fighting wards from us by locking those maps up in a tower of superstition. Who bears the weight of arrogance then? What if that was what denied Everam’s ripping plan?’

Jardir paused, losing a touch of his aggressive posture as he considered the question. Arlen knew the sign and stepped back quickly. He stood arms akimbo, offering neither aggression nor submission. ‘If Everam’s got a plan, he ent shared it with us.’

‘The dice—’ Jardir began.

‘—are magic, and no denying,’ Arlen cut him off. ‘That don’t make them divine. And they never told Inevera to have you stop me going to Anoch Sun. They just told you to use me when I got back.’

The anger further left Jardir’s scent as he considered this new possibility. His old friend could be a fool over his faith, but he was an honest fool. He truly believed, leaving him forever hamstrung as he tried to reconcile the hypocrisies of the Evejah.

Arlen spread his hands. ‘Got two choices here, Ahmann. Either we stand around arguing abstractions, or we fight Sharak Ka the best we can with what we’ve got and sort out who’s right after we win.’

Jardir nodded. ‘Then there is only one choice, son of Jeph.’

The days passed, and their tentative accord held. Jardir felt more in control of his magic than ever before, stunned at the breadth of power at his fingertips, and his previous narrow vision of it.

But for all their progress, Waning drew closer by the hour. He and the Par’chin could run at great speed when the magic filled them, but even so, Anoch Sun was not close, and they still had to lay their traps.

‘When will we leave for the lost city?’ he asked one morning, as they waited to show the night’s kill the sun.

‘Tonight,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Lesson time’s done.’

With those words, he melted away into mist. Jardir watched closely with his crownsight as he slipped down into one of the many paths that vented magic onto the surface of Ala. Everam’s power of life, corrupted by Nie.

He was gone for but an instant, but when he rose back out of the path, the current of magic that came with him told Jardir he had travelled a long way, indeed.

In his hands, he carried two items: a cloak and a spear.

Jardir was reaching for the spear before the Par’chin had fully solidified. His hand passed through it at first grasp, but he snatched again, and took hold at last, pulling it from the Par’chin’s hands.

He held the spear before him, feeling the thrum of its power, and knew it was the genuine Spear of Kaji. Without it, he had felt empty. A shell of himself. Now it was returned, and at last his heart eased.

We shall not be parted again, he promised.

‘You’ll be needing this, too.’ Jardir looked up just as the Par’chin tossed Leesha Paper’s Cloak of Unsight to him. His arm darted out to catch it before the edge touched the ground.

He eyed the Par’chin in annoyance. ‘You insult Mistress Leesha by treating her wondrous cloak so disrespectfully.’

Leesha’s gift did not have the hold over his fate the spear did, but he could not deny that the feel of the fine cloth, and the invisibility it gave him against even the most powerful alagai, made him feel their mad plan might have a chance.

‘How will you hide, when the alagai come to Kaji’s tomb?’ he asked when the Par’chin gave no reply. ‘Have you a cloak as well?’

‘Don’t need one,’ the Par’chin said. ‘I could trace the wards of unsight in the air, but even that’s too much trouble.’

He held out his arms, wrists turned outward. There, on his forearms, were tattooed the wards of unsight.

The wards began to glow, even as the others on the Par’chin’s skin remained dark. They became so bright Jardir lost sight of the individual symbols as the son of Jeph faded, much as when he became insubstantial – translucent and blurry. Jardir felt dizzied at the sight of him. Something urged him to look away, but he knew in his heart that if he did, he would not be able to find the Par’chin when he looked back, even if the man did not move.

A moment later, he returned to focus. The glow faded from the wards, and they became readable once more. Jardir’s eyes danced over them, and his heart caught in his throat. Warding was like handwriting, and these were traced in the distinct looping script of Leesha Paper, embroidered in detail all over his cloak.

Normally it made his heart sing to see the art of his beloved’s warding, but not here.

‘Did Mistress Leesha ward your flesh?’ He did not mean the question to come out as a growl, but it did. The idea of his intended touching the Par’chin’s bare skin was unbearable.

To Jardir’s relief, the Par’chin shook his head. ‘Warded them myself, but they’re her design, so I copied her style.’ He stroked the symbols almost lovingly. ‘Keeps a part of her with me.’

He wasn’t telling all. His aura practically sang with it. Jardir probed deeper with his crownsight, and caught an image that burned his mind’s eye. Leesha and the Par’chin naked in the mud, thrusting at each other like animals.

Jardir felt his heart thudding in his chest, pounding in his ears. Leesha and the Par’chin? Was it possible, or just some unfulfilled fantasy?

‘You took her to the pillows,’ he accused, watching the Par’chin’s aura closely to read the response.

But the Par’chin’s aura dimmed, the power Drawn beneath the surface. Jardir tried to probe, but his crownsight struck an invisible wall before it got to his ajin’pal.

‘Just ’cause I let you read my surface aura now and then don’t give you the right to break into my head,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Let’s see how you like it.’

Jardir could feel the pull as the Par’chin Drew magic through him and absorbed it, Knowing him as intimately as a lover. He tried to stop the pull, the Par’chin caught him unaware, and by the time he could raise his defences, it was done.

Jardir pointed the spear at him. ‘I have killed men for less insult, Par’chin.’

‘Then you’re lucky I’m more civilized,’ the Par’chin said, ‘’cause the first insult was yours.’

Jardir tightened his lips, but he let it go. ‘If you have been with my intended, I have a right to know.’

‘She ent your intended, Ahmann,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Heard her tell it to your face on the cliff. She’ll be corespawned before she becomes your fifteenth wife, or even your First.’

The Par’chin was mocking him. ‘If you heard those private words, Par’chin, then you know she carries my child. If you think for a moment you have a claim to her …’

The Par’chin shrugged. ‘Ay, she’s a fine woman and I shined on her a bit. Kissed her a couple times, and once, something more.’

Jardir’s grip tightened on the spear.

‘But she ent mine,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Never was. And she ent yours, either, Ahmann. Baby or no. If you can’t get that, you’ll never have a chance.’

‘So you no longer desire her?’ Jardir asked incredulously. ‘Impossible. She shines like the sun.’

There was a sound of galloping hooves, and the Par’chin smiled, turning to watch his Jiwah Ka riding hard in the predawn light. She rode bareback on an enormous mare, leading four similarly huge horses. Their hooves, bright with magic, ate the distance at more than twice the speed of a Krasian racer.

‘Got my own sun, Ahmann,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Two is asking to be burned.’

He pointed to Jardir as he strode out to meet his wife. ‘You already got enough sun to turn the green lands into another desert. Think on that.’

Renna flew from the saddle, and Arlen caught her in his arms, returning her kiss. He concentrated, activating the wards of silence on his shoulders. Jardir would see the magic and know they were masking their words, but Arlen didn’t think he would say anything. A man was entitled to private words with his wife.

‘All well in the Hollow?’ he asked.

Renna saw the magic, too, and kept her face buried in his chest as she spoke to hide the movement of her lips. ‘Well as can be expected. Hope you’re right about this being a light moon. They ent ready for much more, especially without us.’

‘Trust me, Ren,’ Arlen said.

Renna thrust her chin at Arlen, but he could tell she was gesturing past him, at Jardir. ‘You tell him yet?’

Arlen shook his head. ‘Was waiting for you to come back. Tell him soon as the sun comes up.’

‘Might regret giving him the spear back first,’ Renna said.

Arlen shrugged and gave her a smile. ‘This ent Domin Sharum with a bunch of rules on fighting fair. Got Renna Bales at my back if things go sour, don’t I?’

Renna kissed him. ‘Always.’

Jardir averted his eyes, giving the Par’chin and his jiwah privacy in their greeting. Her arrival with the horses meant their trip to face the alagai princes was nigh, and Jardir was eager for the test, but there was disappointment, as well. Alone, he and the Par’chin had begun to find accord at last. The addition of his unpredictable Jiwah Ka could upset that precarious balance.

The sun crested the horizon at last, and Jardir breathed deeply, falling into his morning meditation as the bodies of the alagai began to smoke and burn. Everam always returned things to balance. He must keep faith in inevera.

When the flames had died down, they took the horses to the stable beside the hidden tower. Up close, the animals were enormous, the size of camels. The wild mustang that roamed the green lands had grown powerful in their nightly struggle with the alagai. His Sharum had captured and managed to train hundreds of them, but these were magnificent specimens, even so.

The black stallion that nuzzled the Par’chin’s hand, its body covered in warded armour and its head adorned with a pair of metal horns that could punch through a rock demon, could only be his famed horse Twilight Dancer. His jiwah’s piebald mare was almost of a size with it, wards painted on its spots and cut into its hooves. A simple leather girth wrapped its belly to help her keep her seat.

There were two other stallions and a mare, all of them with warded saddles and hooves. Powerful beasts – it was surprising even Twilight Dancer could keep them all in line. They stamped and pranced, but followed the lead into the stalls.

‘Why are there five horses, if there are only three of us?’ he demanded. ‘Who else have you taken upon yourself to invite to undertake this sacred journey, Par’chin? You claim to need my help, but you keep me blind to your plans.’

‘Plan was for it to be the three of us, Ahmann, but it hit a snag. Hoping you’ll help me get it unstuck.’

Jardir looked at him curiously. The Par’chin sighed and nodded to the back of the stable. ‘Come with me.’

He lifted an old rug out of the way, shaking off a camouflage of dust and hay. Underneath was a pull-ring to a trapdoor. He lifted the trap and descended into the darkness below. Jardir followed warily, aware that the Par’chin’s jiwah followed behind. Jardir did not fear her, but the strength of her aura told him she was powerful. Enough to give the Par’chin a telling advantage should they come to blows.

His crownsight returned as they slipped back into darkness, but the Par’chin’s wards began to glow anyway, sending the shadows fleeing as he led them to a heavy door, banded with steel and etched with powerful wards.

The Par’chin opened the door, casting light on the man and woman, clad only in their bidos, imprisoned within.

Shanjat and Shanvah looked up from their embrace, squinting in the sudden light.

8
The True Warrior
333 AR Autumn

‘Deliverer!’ Shanjat and Shanvah leapt to their feet, moving to stand apart. Without veil or robe, there was nothing to hide the blush of their skin or the guilty looks on their faces.

Indeed, their auras matched the look, shame and embarrassment palpable. Jardir assessed the situation, and his eyes darkened. Even if Shanvah had lain with him willingly, she was Shanjat’s daughter, and Jardir’s niece. Whether his spirit was penitent or not, Jardir would have no choice but to sentence his old friend to death.

He considered the thought grimly. Shanjat had served him loyally since the two of them were children in sharaj, and proven a good husband for his sister Hoshvah. More, Jardir needed Shanjat and the Sharum he commanded at his side when the First War began in full. Perhaps he could commute the sentence until after Sharak Ka. Give his loyal servant a chance to die on alagai talons and bring that his honour with him on the lonely path before he stood before Everam to be judged.

‘Forgive us, Deliverer, we have failed you!’ Shanjat cried before Jardir could utter a word. He and Shanvah fell to their knees, pressing hands and foreheads to the dirt floor. ‘I swear by Everam we tried every method in our power to escape and continue our search for you, but the Par’chin—’

‘—is using hora magic to strengthen our cell,’ Shanvah cut in. Her fingernails were raw and dirty. In wardsight, Jardir could see the scratches where she and her father had tested every inch of their prison.

He looked around the room, seeing no robes or veils. Of course the Par’chin would have stripped and searched them before imprisoning them. Even he was not such a fool as to leave them tools to escape. The only other thing in the room was a covered chamber pot, too small and fragile to make an effective weapon.

Suddenly Jardir was the one to feel ashamed. Was the caress of parent and child, trapped in a lightless cell, a crime? He had been ready to assume the worst, to sentence one of his oldest friends to death, when his only guilt stemmed from the fear they had failed in their duty to him.

‘Always quick to turn on a friend,’ the Par’chin murmured, and Jardir gritted his teeth.

‘Rise in honour, brother, niece,’ he said. ‘The Par’chin is beyond your power. There is no shame in defeat at his hands.’

Both stayed on their knees. When Shanjat hesitated, Shanvah spoke in his place. ‘It was not the Par’chin who captured us, Deliverer.’

Most fathers would have been enraged at the face lost having their daughter speak for them before the Deliverer, but Shanjat only looked at her with gratitude, and a pride Jardir had not seen him show either of his sons.

‘Was me,’ the Par’chin’s jiwah said. Jardir turned a sceptical eye on her. He knew the woman was formidable, but Shanjat and his daughter were kai’Sharum, Krasian warrior elite.

Shanvah raised her eyes to give the Par’chin’s jiwah an appraising look. ‘Her sharusahk is pathetic, Deliverer. A child could defeat her. But her magic is strong. Even with our night strength, she was beyond us. Our shields and spears lay broken.’

The words sent anguish through Shanvah’s aura. Jardir Drew through her as the Par’chin had taught him, seeing a vision around her. Inevera commanding Shanvah to seek the missing Deliverer. Her first assignment, one of such immense honour she could barely contain her pride. A chance to show the Deliverer and Damajah her worth.

And she had failed. Utterly.

Another vision arose, her defeat at the hands of the Par’chin’s jiwah.

‘The Par’chin brought me down in the same way, niece,’ he said. ‘You have been trained well, but you would be unwise to challenge his Jiwah Ka …’—he met Renna’s eyes—‘… in the night. In day, she will be more vulnerable to sharusahk, and no match for you.’

The Par’chin’s jiwah glared at him. Jardir felt the weight of auras shift as face in the room was restored to balance. Shanvah looked at Renna in a new way. A predator’s appraisal.

Jardir waved for his warriors to rise and turned angrily to face the Par’chin. ‘If my brother-in-law and niece have been mistreated …’

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