James A. West

Shadow and Steel

Chapter 1

His toes slipped an inch, then two. The cliff’s rough face scraped over his bare chest. Leitos clawed his way onto a ledge no wider than his palm. Rock crumbled. He grasped wildly at empty handfuls of night. A shout climbed up his throat-

— and became a grunt when the fingers of one hand caught the edge of a shallow crack. The jolting halt wrenched his shoulder, and he bit back a groan. He quickly reached up with his free hand and secured a firmer hold. A hundred feet below, barely seen for the darkness, the Sea of Sha’uul crashed over boulders draped with seaweed. The wind sang a haunting song as it passed over the island the Brothers of the Crimson Shield called Witch’s Mole.

Leitos turned his attention to climbing the cliff. The wan moonlight of the Sleeping Widow showed him many knobs and outcrops dotting the face of the sandstone cliff.

Picking a likely route, he swung his feet to a narrow lip, and then inched his fingers along the crack until he stood upright. He gulped a few deep breaths, willed his heart to beat slower, then stabbed his toes into a shallow fracture. Secure as he could hope to be, he reached overhead, and let his fingers seek like blind worms until they crawled over a stony ridge. He gave the lip a little of his weight, then more. It held. Repeating those movements, he resumed his ascent.

He had climbed another twenty paces when Ulmek’s gruff voice called, “There’s the weanling!” Leitos could picture the Brother’s swarthy skin clinging to the sharp bones of his face, his long dark hair held back in a rope-like braid. Not given to smiles, the second in command of the Brothers no doubt smiled now at the opportunity to heap failure upon Leitos, an escaped slave who had inadvertently brought destruction upon the Brothers’ last sanctuary. Where the rest of the Brotherhood had forgiven Leitos, Ulmek held his grudges.

Keeping his face and chest plastered against the rock, Leitos searched the curving rim of the cliff. Fifty feet above and off to one side, a torch moved down a line of shadowed figures, pausing at each man to make smaller flames….

Fire arrows!

As soon as he thought it, the first arrow whooshed across the dark gulf, struck the cliff, and exploded in a hail of sparks. The smell of singed hair flared Leitos’s nostrils as the tiny embers fell over his head, bare arms, and shoulders. He bit back the discomfort, letting it fuel his determination.

More fire arrows followed. All struck near Leitos, but none close enough to prove a true threat. Dark as the night was, that could change if he moved. The longer he stayed put, the more the Brothers derided him. The strain of dangling from the cliff began to cramp his fingers and toes, and his legs and arms trembled. Still the arrows fell, effectively keeping him in place. Doubts, like seeking adders, rose up to poison his will.

Fight until there is no breath in your breast, or blood in your veins, Leitos’s father said within his mind. You are a child of the north, and that is our way.

“I will,” Leitos answered through gritted teeth, and renewed his ascent, doggedly ignoring the barrage of flaming arrows, and praying to the Silent God of All that no errant breeze fouled the Brothers’ aim.

Picking his way up, he soon discovered a hollow just large enough to provide him with shelter and a place to rest. Leitos wedged himself in by cramming his chest against his knees.

“End this farce,” Ulmek called. “Say the word, and I’ll toss you a rope.”

“Never!” Leitos shouted.

Derisive hoots and laughter answered his defiance. Another arrow arced through the darkness, and burst a foot above Leitos’s shelter.

“Mind your aim,” Ba’Sel cautioned. Unlike Ulmek, the sable-skinned Brother was a kind and gentle man. Although they never said it within his hearing, some Brothers grumbled that Ba’Sel had grown too soft to continue leading the Brotherhood. Leitos understood their concerns, but for the last year his entire focus had been on training for this moment. And besides, he owed Ba’Sel his allegiance for taking him in, when any other would have cast him out.

After a final volley of arrows struck the cliff a pace higher than the last, the Brothers vanished. Leitos waited a little longer, then uncurled his legs and let them dangle below his precarious seat. Careful to make no sudden movements, he felt around and found a few suitable wind-carved pocks in the stone above his hollow, and used them to make his way to the rim.

As he stood up on solid ground, a promise Ba’Sel had made earlier came to him. “If you ascend this cliff, there are few obstacles built by the hands of men or gods that will bar your way.” He still had a long night ahead of him, but Leitos could not suppress a wave of joy brought by his latest accomplishment.

Under the cover of darkness, Leitos crept inland, relishing the feel of dew-kissed grass caressing his raw feet and scraped knees. After a few paces, he threw himself facedown, and pressed his lips to the ground.

Chapter 2

Leitos hunkered in the damp grass, motionless and silent. Other initiates in years past might have blundered headlong after their prizes, but he had decided to wait, hoping the Brothers would lower their guard.

Clad in only a breechclout, he shivered in the cool night air. Thirst assailed him, and his belly rumbled with hunger, but he ignored these discomforts. It was easy, after spending all but one of his eighteen years clawing ore from the earth, and suffering the ceaseless abuses of demon-born slavemasters.

Despite knowing the Brothers would do him no intentional harm-except maybe Ulmek-Leitos nevertheless felt uneasy, stalked.

Near and far, brush, trees, and deep shadows concealed six Brothers and their treasures. Somehow, he needed to avoid being seen, and to steal those treasures before dawn. Previous tests taken over the last few days had proven his ability with dagger and sword, staff and bow, even his hands and feet. Other trials-swimming around the island for an entire day, only to drag himself out of the sea at dusk to run back and forth across Witch’s Mole until dawn-had confirmed his endurance. This final test required stealth and cunning, patience and discernment, an altogether different set of skills.

Unable to go on resisting the press of time, Leitos finally took to his belly and crawled inland, making for the first of many places he would investigate. He soon reached a broad thicket with a grassy area at its heart. It was a perfect hiding place for a Brother.

Leitos slid under the prickly foliage, and wriggled through moldy leaves until almost reaching the thicket’s center. Careful not to make a sound, he got to his knees and looked around. His breath caught when he saw a shadow creeping through the moonlight, not twenty feet away.

Clad in close-fitting robes colored after the sands of Geldain, and wearing a sword strapped to his back, the Brother strode a few feet and halted, head turning toward Leitos. It was Sumahn. Only a handful of years older than Leitos, It was Sumahn who had found Adham wandering in the Mountains of Fire, some many days after the old man had risen up against the slavemasters in order to free Leitos.

Hoping he resembled a bush, Leitos did not move.

After a time, Sumahn set out again, pausing every few feet to peer about. Leitos relaxed when the warrior moved beside a tree, and tugged aside his robes to make water.

Leitos dropped down and slithered to the grassy spot where he had first seen Sumahn break cover. He was about to crawl into the open, when a contented sigh froze him. Next, he heard the rustle of the man’s clothes. A heartbeat later, he detected the soft crunch of leather-soled boots approaching.

If caught, Leitos would have to wait another turning of the moon before he could try again. I cannot wait that long.

The Brother came closer, and Leitos tensed to slip back into the tangled hedge. Sumahn stopped with a curse, and bent over.

Leitos could not see what was happening, but by the tearing sounds, he guessed that a thorny creeper had caught the hem of the Brother’s robes.

Leitos frantically searched the trampled grass for the telltale flutter of cloth marking the treasure. When he first learned of that aid, he had believed it would make the hunt easy. Now he knew better. In the darkness, any fluttering leaf or blade of grass could deceive the eye.

He turned his attention back to Sumahn, who was still struggling to get loose. A louder rip, another curse, and then Sumahn began to straighten.

Thinking quickly, Leitos patted the ground, found a pebble, and flicked it back the way he had come. The stone rattled through the brush. Breath burning in his chest, Leitos watched and hoped.

Sumahn’s lips parted around a sly grin. Ducking low, the Brother spun and moved off, doubtless intending to double back and sneak up on his quarry.

Safe for now, Leitos cast about. Where is it? The Brothers did not intend for the test to be impossible, just difficult. It crossed his mind that the rules might have changed unannounced, but then his gaze fell upon the hilt of dagger, its blade thrust into the dirt. From the hilt hung a scrap of dark fabric that lifted and fluttered on a breath of wind, curling like an enticing finger.

Leitos wormed closer and grasped the hilt.

“There you are!” Sumahn cried.

Leitos rolled over, an unformed oath lodged in his throat.

Sumahn was nowhere in sight.

“Might as well come out,” Sumahn said, sounding bored and a long way off.

He is cunning, Leitos thought, angry that he had almost been fooled into giving away his position.

Leitos snatched the dagger, and escaped through a break in the foliage. Once clear, he ran in a crouch up and over a small rise, slowing only when he reached a dense copse of trees, whose limbs all grew in one direction, trained so by the steady westerly winds that blew off the sea.

Busy congratulating himself, he almost ran headlong into the second Brother-Daris.

Leitos went stock-still, and studied his next opponent. Of an age with Sumahn, Daris counted it a point of pride when the other Brothers named him the trickster of the two. None questioned the pair’s courage and strength, but both Ulmek and Ba’Sel considered them reckless.

Clouds passed over the moon, and shadows frolicked over Witch’s Mole. Daris snorted, scratched his jaw with loose fingers, then slumped farther over.

Sleeping. Leitos could not believe his plan to wait out the Brothers had worked so well. Moving only his eyes, Leitos searched until he saw a small box tied with a ribbon resting next to the Brother’s outstretched legs.

After tucking Sumahn’s dagger into his breechclout, Leitos dropped to all fours and snuck forward. His chest demanded more air than he dared give it, and a faint sheen of sweat sprang from his brow. As he reached for the box, Daris mumbled in his sleep.

Leitos’s hand hovered. His heart told him to take the treasure and run. His mind spoke of caution. His mind won.

Ever so gently, Leitos settled his fingers around the wooden box, its length and width no larger than his palm, and covered with engravings. Daris stirred again, causing Leitos to flinch, a bare rippling of tensed muscles. He bit back a shout when he found Daris staring straight at him-No … he’s sleeping with his eyes open.

Leitos slowly brought the box to his chest, and Daris’s tricksome nature made itself plain when something rattled inside. Daris’s hand flew to the hilt of his sword, clutched it briefly, then fell away. Murmuring, the Brother rolled to his side, unconsciously swatting a midge from his ear.

After a few moments, Leitos untied the cloth ribbon and carefully dumped out a trio of mismatched glass beads. He left Daris to his slumber, and crept downslope.

Zera, Leitos thought, with a touch of melancholy, would have been proud. In a very real sense, she had begun his training a year before, which had put him into Ba’Sel’s hands. Of course, her intention had not been to train him, but to trick him into leading her to the Brothers of the Crimson Shield. His love for her had blinded him to her true purpose. While none of the Brothers held that mistake against him-except for Ulmek-it troubled Leitos that he had failed to see through Zera’s ploy. If he had heeded his father’s advice to trust no one save the Brothers, the warriors would likely still reside in their last sanctuary on the mainland of Geldain.

Leitos shoved that to the back of his mind and pressed on through the night, scouring Witch’s Mole and finding two more Brothers sleeping near their treasures. He took a silver pendant hung on broken tree branch by Ke’uld, a Brother who shared ancestry with Ba’Sel-a black-skinned people once of southern Geldain. Soon after that, he found Halan curled up like a baby in a nest of grass. Securing his golden torque proved easiest of all. The snores of the bluff-featured man not only led Leitos to him, but masked his flight.

Two left, Leitos thought, taking a moment to hide his winnings in a rocky hole at the base of a tree-a place he had chosen days before. After coming across three sleeping Brothers, Leitos forced himself not to grow complacent. It would not surprise him to learn that Daris, Ke’uld, and Halan had all been told to feign sleep, just to put him off his guard.

After arranging a handful of grass over the hole’s opening, Leitos looked to the thin gray line brightening the horizon. In less than two hours, the sun would burst over the turquoise waters of the Sea of Sha’uul, ending the test. I must hurry, he thought, at the same time knowing he must use more caution than ever.

Chapter 3

Leitos trotted down a narrow path of hard-packed dirt. Scraggly trees and thick brush provided concealment. He took a short rest when he came to a scatter of boulders rising on either side of the trail. He was within a mile of the southern shore of Witch’s Mole. It seemed odd that the last two Brothers would be in the same area, but the only other suitable place they could hide was at the very extent of the testing grounds, back to the north, atop the highest point of Witch’s Mole, where he had buried Zera. No one would-

Leitos stiffened. So far, he had not crossed the paths of Ba’Sel and Ulmek. Only one of those two men would violate Zera’s grave.

Cursing, Leitos wheeled and ran back, growing angrier with every step. All thoughts of becoming a Brother of the Crimson Shield and of taking his vengeance on the Faceless One flew out of his mind.

He soon crested a grassy knoll and stopped dead when he saw a familiar silhouette perched atop the cairn marking Zera’s grave.

“Come,” Ulmek called, “and take your treasure.”

When Leitos did not move, Ulmek slid off the cairn, and began walking in his direction, thumping the butt of a staff against the ground.

Leitos waited, grinding his teeth.

Ulmek halted just out of arm’s reach, the hollows of his eyes like black pits. “I trust you’ve already taken my Brothers’ prizes?”

“All but yours and Ba’Sel’s.” What he had accomplished did not matter. What did … well, at this moment, he was not sure, other than that Ulmek must pay for defiling Zera’s grave.

“Do you wish to have mine?” Ulmek held out a leather cord hung with a teardrop-shaped amulet-a stone of protection. The making of that protective device involved collecting the blood of those like Leitos and his father, whose ancestors had been washed in the Powers of Creation. The Faceless One then imbued certain ores with that blood, creating a ward against possession by the demonic spirits of Mahk’lar.

“The test is over,” Leitos said, his mind concentrating on how to beat Ulmek, a man who had spent more years in the thick of battle than Leitos had been alive.

“Is it … or has it just begun?”

“You saw me. I failed.”

Ulmek gave him a wry smirk. “Secretly finding and taking any of the treasures, while commendable, is only a part of it. More importantly, striving until the coming of the dawn, even in the face of certain defeat, is the only action required to succeed. In that, you have won your sword and dagger, and a place amongst my Brothers.”

Leitos felt off balance. He had been sure Ulmek meant to provoke him by waiting for him on Zera’s grave, but instead the man was blathering about the test. More, he had just told him he had passed, and was now a Brother of the Crimson Shield.

Ulmek fixed him with a hard gaze. “You see, it is vital that our brethren fight until the end, even when death is certain. How would you chose, little brother, if faced with the choice between life and death?”

Leitos spoke the only truth he knew. “I have given myself to defeating the Faceless One-even if that means my death.”

“Indeed?” Ulmek said. “I am most curious to learn the truth of your conviction … with a final test.”

Before Leitos could respond, Ulmek’s staff cracked against his ribs and knocked him to the ground. Fighting for breath, Leitos rolled to his feet. Staff flashing, Ulmek battered his shoulder, and then his opposite knee. Leitos hobbled clear, searching for a weapon-a rock, a stick, anything-but the only weapon available was in Ulmek’s hands.

“You had better fight,” Ulmek advised. “Our order can ill-afford sniveling weaklings to fill its ranks.”

Leitos tried to work the feeling back into his bruised limbs. Does he mean to kill me? The thought seemed absurd, but another look at Ulmek’s face told him otherwise. The man’s animosity was evident in his scowl and the hard, merciless set of his mouth.

With no great effort, Leitos mirrored that expression. Grow strong and cruel. Those words echoed in his mind, words spoken by his father, advice given as a means to survive a vicious world.

Ulmek attacked again, holding nothing back, and Leitos ducked under the whistling staff. “Come on, boy, prove your worth, or be cast down.”

Leitos dredged his soul and found a lifetime of buried fury. Once touched, that wrath scorched away any fright or doubt. His menacing smile gave Ulmek pause. “If you want to fight to the death,” he said, “so be it.”

“ ‘Death?’ ” Ulmek repeated. As he considered that, his eyes narrowed, and then he lunged, aiming his strike at Leitos’s neck.

Leitos twitched out of reach, then swiftly crowded the larger warrior. Backpedaling, Ulmek reversed his strike. Leitos caught the shaft against his palms, spun in a tight half-circle, and slammed an elbow against Ulmek’s temple.

Eyelids fluttering, Ulmek staggered away, dragging the staff behind him. Leitos brought his foot down, splitting the seasoned shaft, and hastily caught up the staff’s broken end. He whirled it in a defensive blur.

“Ba’Sel and Sumahn claimed you showed promise,” Ulmek grated. “All the Brothers have said the same.”

When Ulmek came again, Leitos defended himself. Wood cracked against wood. The jarring blows stung Leitos’s hands, sank an ache deep into his shoulders, drove him back a step at a time. Where Leitos faltered, Ulmek advanced, sure of foot, confident, deadly.

Leitos feinted a strike at the warrior’s head, then dropped below Ulmek’s guard, and struck him across one knee with all his strength. As Ulmek danced back, Leitos somersaulted over the ground, coming up slightly behind his foe. He rammed the point of his elbow into the back of the man’s unhurt knee, then pivoted, one leg extended, and swept Ulmek off his feet.

Leitos scrambled up and away, gathering himself to finish the contest, but Ulmek was already on his feet again.

“You’ll have to do better than that, boy,” the warrior taunted. “Or, perhaps, you would rather me leave you to weep over your dead mistress? Who can say concerning changelings, but it could be that her breasts are yet plump with a weanling’s milk? Your love for her is sickening, not worthy of our order. You are weak, boy, pathetic….”

As Ulmek continued to berate him, Leitos’s anger became uncontrollable, scorching away carefully constructed barriers against memories he would rather leave buried. He saw again Zera’s radiant emerald eyes before him, burning with the fiery light that he had stolen when he plunged his dagger into her heart, an accident born of a fear for everything the Faceless One touched. Even as she died in his arms, Zera had pleaded for Leitos to speak his love for her.

Her blood spreading over his hands burned as hotly in memory as it had on that terrible night. Ulmek had made him remember those things, and he hated the man for it.

“There we are,” Ulmek said softly. “Come for me, boy!”

Silent and grim, Leitos charged. When Ulmek stumbled on a jutting stone he should have seen, Leitos stabbed the splintered end of his staff at Ulmek’s neck. The warrior blocked the blow without effort, one moment fighting to regain his footing, the next poised and sure. A trap!

Before Leitos could catch his balance, Ulmek thrust his heel behind Leitos’s and struck him on the point of the chin, his fist falling like a slab of granite. Leitos slammed against the ground, numb all over.

Ulmek knelt at Leitos’s side. “I know Ba’Sel warned you about letting anger take your heart-he taught me the same, many years gone. I’ve never believed it, and still do not. The trick, boy, is to master that fire, use it to your advantage. Your failure to do so has cost you a victory. When you feel you are ready to try-”

Ulmek looked up sharply. “Do you hear that?”

Leitos, only now catching his breath, sat up and cocked his head. Beneath the hooting song of the island and the breeze whispering through leaves, he heard a rhythmic thrumming.

“Drums,” he said, doubting his ears. “It sounds like drums.”

Just then, a closer sound of breaking limbs came to them. Both leaped up, brandishing their broken staffs.

Ba’Sel burst out of the trees a hundred paces away, his faded robes flapping.

“We must return to the sanctuary,” he panted. Sweat sheened his dark skin, and his eyes were wild with a fear that no leader of warriors should reveal.

Leitos had never seen him like this, and it left him unsettled.

Ulmek caught Ba’Sel’s shoulder before he could bolt back the way he had come. “What is wrong?”’

“Sea-wolves,” Ba’Sel blurted, jabbing a finger to the west.

Ulmek and Leitos spun. Far out to sea, seemingly ushered up from the south by massing storm clouds, a pair of sleek ships propelled by dozens of sweeping oars and square sails plowed the sea toward Witch’s Mole. The drumming had grown louder. Less than half a turn of the glass remained before they would make landfall.

“Why has no one sounded the alarm?” Ulmek demanded.

Ba’Sel looked more flustered than ever. “We were preparing to raise our newest Brother. There was a feast that needed making, the honing and oiling of his sword and dagger-”

“I know about the ceremony,” Ulmek said. “None of that matters now, save that Leitos will need his robes and weapons. I trust you have given orders to destroy these scum?”

“Gods good and wise,” Ba’Sel breathed, “are you mad? We cannot fight them. I have cautioned the men that we must avoid confrontation. Even now, they are preparing to return to our longboats, so that we can escape. We make for Geldain. Perhaps it is safe to return to our last sanctuary or, maybe, we can vanish into the Fire Mountains.”

Leitos glanced at the closing vessels. Their drums had grown louder still, and their rams carved furrows through the turquoise waters.

“When will you tire of running and hiding?” Ulmek asked.

“We must preserve our order,” Ba’Sel said. “Lest you forget, we are not an army, but a meager company whose survival demands that we strike from the shadows.”

“What if the Kelrens capture us? Would you have us accept their chains, or would you then allow us to fight?”

Ba’Sel looked offended. “You know the answer to that.”

“Do I? Do any of us? We creep and cower, as a matter of course. Truly, what purpose do we serve any longer? We are the Brothers of the Crimson Shield, yet we are Brothers only to ourselves and shields to nothing, save our own lives.”

“Do you so eagerly seek death?”

“No, Brother, I seek life-a better life, a free life-for myself and our kindred of this fallen world. That is all I have ever sought. If we destroy these slavers this day, how many innocents will we spare from chains on the morrow?”

Brow furrowed, Ba’Sel turned his back on Ulmek. “Do as I command. We must be well away before the Kelrens drop anchor.”

Ulmek hesitated, seemingly on the verge of adding more, then stormed down the slope.

Leitos looked after him, stunned by what he had just seen and heard. Until that moment, he had never put much stock into the rumors about Ba’Sel’s growing fearfulness. Until now, it had not mattered to him, as all his energies had been on fashioning himself into a warrior strong and skilled enough to stand against the Faceless One. Now, with an enemy at hand, threatening their very existence, his leader had given the command to flee, never considering that his men knew every foot of Witch’s Mole, and could likely crush the sea-wolves.

“Come,” Ba’Sel said, “we must make haste. By sunset, I mean to walk again upon the lands of my birth.”

Chapter 4

By the time Leitos and Ba’Sel reached the heart of the sanctuary, the dust of rushing feet had hazed the torch-lit cavern. Ba’Sel hurried off toward a central pool to help others fill waterskins. Leitos made for his father.

Openings dotted the walls at intervals around the small chamber, from mere cracks to natural archways, which provided safe travel to places all over the island. The Brothers had fashioned bunk beds along one wall, rising four and five high in order to conserve space. Nooks and crannies held what few supplies they had gathered. In all, it was a tidy if stark home.

Adham, stuffing supplies into a pair of haversacks resting on his bed of woven grass and lashed saplings, glanced up at Leitos’s approach.

“You have made me proud,” he said, pushing a strand of iron-gray hair from his eyes. Long years, many spent in the Faceless One’s mines, had lined his brow, but not so much as to ever guess his true age. A hundred and sixty-seven years he had walked the world, but he looked less than a quarter of that. He had once told Leitos how Kian Valara and Ba’Sel had been present when the Well of Creation was destroyed. Exposure to the unleashed Powers of Creation had given them long life and a remarkable ability to heal, which they had passed down to their children.

Leitos wanted to tell of his concerns about Ba’Sel, but decided to keep it to himself. Instead, he smiled in answer. “Apparently the sea-wolves are proud as well, and have come to celebrate.”

Adham offered a cursory grin. “Well, such as it is, you had better put on your uniform,” he said, pointing to a bundle of folded clothes to color of dark sand.

Leitos picked up the outer robe, a well-made garment of sturdy cloth. The linen inner robe lay beneath, and had numerous pockets sewn all over it. He donned this first, then drew on the outer robe. A plain leather belt would hold it closed.

“I told them to make them a little big,” Adham said. “The menfolk in our family tend to come into our growth later than most.”

“It is perfect,” Leitos said. Simple as the clothing was, he had never worn anything so fine.

“I suppose you’ll want your boots,” Adman said, pulling them from under the bed.

As Leitos put them on, his father produced something else. Leitos stared at the weapons. A short, straight-bladed sword in a leather scabbard, and a long, spike-like dagger. The Brothers often chose their swords by what they could scavenge from bone-towns and the like, but their daggers had been forged before the Upheaval for use by Geldainian mercenaries, the Asra a’Shah. That order of warriors had become the Brothers of the Crimson Shield, but their daggers, meant to inflict deep, nearly bloodless punctures, had not changed. Leitos had often wondered how many remained in the world, but supposed only Ba’Sel and a few others would know.

“A pity we are not staying to fight,” Adham said, while Leitos secured his sword and dagger to his waist. Adham’s gray eyes shone with an eager wildness, something the Brothers claimed was common to ice-born Izutarians who were about to rain destruction upon their enemies.

Before Leitos could agree, a laughing Sumahn and Daris burst into the sanctuary from a passage that led to the western shore. Everyone went still. Ba’Sel straightened from filling a waterskin, a shadow of concern spreading across his features. “Have the Kelrens landed?”

“They have,” Sumahn answered. “Hundreds.”

“To be fair,” Daris interjected, “we crushed a fair number of them with a rockslide after they found us. Doubtless, they are rethinking the plan to hunt us.”

Ba’Sel slung the waterskin’s strap over his head and pulled it across his chest. “How did they find you?”

“Strictly speaking,” Daris began, smiling as broadly as ever, “putting my arrow in that Kelren’s heart might have given us away.”

Sumahn shook his head. “Don’t forget the one I poked into that ugly wench’s ribs-have you ever seen such brands as she wore? Gods good and wise, why would folk scar themselves so?”

“You attacked the Kelrens?”

Finally sensing trouble, the young Brothers fell quiet.

Before Ba’Sel could browbeat the pair, Ulmek strode forward. “The folly of these idiots is the least of our concerns. My lookouts have brought word that the sea-wolves are sweeping across Witch’s Mole. If we do not hurry, this sanctuary will become our tomb-”

The sounding of a gong cut him off. The three distinct tolls signaling that an enemy had entered one of the passages. Another peal burst from an opening a quarter turn around the cavern. Again, three sharp rings.

The Brothers all looked to a frozen Ba’Sel.

Before he could give any orders, deep, snarling howls filtered into the chamber from far away. Leitos had heard such voices before. The Kelrens had brought Hunters with them, Na’mihn’teghul, changelings, the wolves of the Faceless One.

Ba’Sel’s distracted air shattered. “Block all the openings. Quickly!”

“You mean for us to face the changelings?” Ulmek said, drawing his sword.

“No! We flee through the east passage, and make for our longboats, and then the sea. Go, you fools, and block the ways.”

After a moment’s hesitation, several Brothers vanished into the openings around the cavern. Before Leitos could join them, Ba’Sel caught his arm.

“You stay with me. You and Adham. It’s your blood the Faceless One seeks, your blood we must keep out of his hands.”

“And it’s the lives of your men that he wants to extinguish,” Adham said.

The thunder of falling rock drowned out anything else he might have added, and dust began billowing from the many passages.

“This will only slow our enemies for a short time,” Ulmek warned.

Ignoring the warning, Ba’Sel called to the returning Brothers, “Gather all weapons, and enough supplies to last two days.”

“Stay here,” Adham told Leitos, and rushed off.

Ulmek glanced at Ba’Sel, then joined the Izutarian at the racks holding swords and hide bucklers, bows and quivers, spears and staffs.

“I have seen it a hundred times and more,” Ba’Sel said, “yet always the pain our departure brings is as my heart’s first breaking.”

“Then let us fight,” Leitos blurted.

Ba’Sel turned. “A new-made Brother, and already so full of wisdom?”

“Give the Faceless One the war he desires,” Leitos urged.

“Were it so simple,” Ba’Sel murmured dismissively.

As the Brothers began to regroup, Leitos leaned close to Ba’Sel. “Someone told me once that there is no place for weakness and self-pity in this world. She said that we die or survive, that life under the rule of the Faceless One is struggle and pain and sorrow. She gave me a choice to fight and live, or to quit and perish. I chose then to fight, glad for opportunity. Then as now, I choose to fight.”

“I would like to meet this woman,” Ba’Sel said absently.

“You trained her, and took her as your own daughter.”

“Zera?” Ba’Sel said in a stricken tone. At Leitos’s nod, he added, “I suppose I should have known. She was a woman of simple truths.”

“Is there any other kind of truth?”

“Perhaps, perhaps not, but I cannot see how any truth, save fleeing, will help us now. We cannot preserve our lives by fighting. At best, we would wake on the morrow, chained and bound for a mine, such as the one you escaped. At worst, we will all perish.”

“Flee this day if we must,” Leitos allowed, “but soon we-you-must begin to make ready for the war you told me was coming. If we continue running, the Brothers of the Crimson Shield may last out the year, maybe even the year after, maybe even a dozen more, but our order is dying a slow and certain death.”

“Wars are fought with armies, Leitos,” Ba’Sel said, sounding tired.

“Then it is time for you to raise an army. And if not you, then Ulmek would leap at the chance, and so too would Sumahn and Daris. Ke’uld and Halan as well. I would help, as would my father. All are willing, but you must allow it.” He searched Ba’Sel’s face, looking for any indication that his leader agreed, or was at least considering the possibility. He saw only indecision.

Adham and Ulmek trotted up, each carrying extra weapons and supplies. Without a word, Ba’Sel took an offered haversack and a staff.

“Your bow,” Adham said gruffly, handing the weapon and a quiver of arrows over to Leitos. “An Izutarian without a bow is but half a man.” Usually he smiled when he said this, but not now.

Leitos took the short, double-curved weapon that Adham had helped him fashion when they first came to Witch’s Mole. While the Brothers had seen to all aspects of his training, Ba’Sel had noted Adham’s unmatched skill with a bow, and left it to him to train Leitos in its use.

“Is all in readiness?” Ba’Sel asked, once the Brothers had gathered round. Grim nods met his question. “Very well,” he said, and set out.

One by one, some few holding torches aloft, the Brothers merged into a growing line. As they marched, the Brothers each took a turn coming abreast of Leitos. With approving grins, they gripped his shoulder, or thumped him on the back, each in their own way voicing their approval and acceptance of him into their ranks. Ulmek came last, and Leitos fought to conceal his surprise.

“I still do not trust your judgment, Izutarian,” he rasped near Leitos’s ear. “But then, I could say the same of Sumahn and Daris, and most of the rest of these motherless goats. You are one of us now, a Brother of the Crimson Shield, and I will guard your life with my own.”

Astonishment stuck Leitos’s tongue to the roof of his mouth. Ulmek noticed his surprise, and his smile widened, a brief flicker of wry amusement, then he strode ahead to join Ba’Sel.

Soon the way grew brighter, the scent of the sea filled the passage, and the Brothers crept from gloom into the dappled sunlight falling through the boughs of scrubby trees.

Leitos took a knee beside Ba’Sel, and was joined by Ulmek and Adham, Halan and Ke’uld. Leitos glanced around, feeling that something was out-of-place. He saw nothing obvious, and counted it as nervousness.

“The way looks clear,” Halan whispered, his rumbly voice matching his blocky frame. Sweat glistened on the dark stubble sprouting from his head. He looked a brutal man, but was known to be the most tenderhearted of the Brothers.

“That’s what worries me,” Ke’uld said, black eyes roving. Wiry and dark, he could have been kin to Ba’Sel. He tugged at the pointed tuft of tight black curls adorning his chin. “Even with so many sea-wolves locked in the passageways, there should be scores of sea-wolves crawling over Witch’s Mole. Yet I see nothing of them. Where are they?”

Ulmek looked to the sun, nearing the highest point of its daily journey. “Give it a little time, and you will have all the sea-wolves you could want gnawing at your heels.”

“They’ll find I’m not so tasty when I poke a blade in their festering gobs,” Ke’uld warned.

Ba’Sel caught the Brother’s arm. “We will not fight this day, unless forced to it.”

“Just so,” Ke’uld said with a sour expression.

Leitos listened with half an ear as he studied the scrub- and rock-covered hillside that led down to a cove a quarter mile away. With the heat of the day upon them, the waves beating themselves to a pristine froth along the shore looked inviting enough that he could almost forget their enemies were fanning out over the island. Beyond the cove’s inward curving points, the turquoise Sea of Sha’uul waited, empty of Kelren ships. In the far distance, the hazed bulk of the closest island to Witch’s Mole rose out of the sea like a great, bushy dome. The Brothers called it Giant’s Head.

“We need a scout,” Ba’Sel said, favoring Leitos with a pointed look.

“Of course,” Leitos said.

“Sneaking is best,” Ulmek advised.

Adham touched his son’s arm. “Have a care,” he said, speaking aloud the concern written across the Brothers’ faces.

Leitos could not find the words to express his gratitude. So, with a last nod, he set out down the hill, ghosting through the trees over several hundred paces. He scanned around, at once searching for enemies, and picking out a concealed route. All was still, but a tingle of unease troubled him.

After clearing the dense copse, a sense of nakedness fell on him. He darted to the nearest outcrop of boulders and lost himself amid their scant shade, and the tufts of tall grass growing at their feet.

Sheltered again, the feeling of eyes tracking him diminished, but the same disquiet he had felt when escaping the east passage came again. He paused, listening to the nearby boom of incoming waves. A cricket chirred nearby, then fell quiet. He tugged at his snug robes, suddenly feeling constricted. Not a breath of wind disturbed trees or grass.

Before anyone decided he had frozen in fear, Leitos shook off his worry, and scurried farther down the slope.

Coming to a thicket that stretched across half the hillside, he dropped to his knees and crawled under a wall of twisted branches covered with waxy leaves and thorns. A pace deeper in waited a neatly trimmed passage.

Leitos got off his belly and nocked an arrow. For a dozen paces, he crept along the living tunnel. Other than the Brothers’ footprints, the only sign that anything else had recently passed by were trails left by snakes, and the tracks of birds and mice.

He entered a large clearing roofed by interlaced branches, below which waited the four overturned longboats they had used them to escape Geldain a year ago. Dust, dried leaves, and bird droppings covered the hulls.

Leitos circled the boats. All lay quiet and stuffy under the thicket, the ground free of any sign that Kelrens had been there. He paused to listen, an arrow half-drawn. After a moment, a songbird lighted in the branches overhead. Another joined it, and they began chattering. Ba’Sel and Adham had taught him that birds across any land were fair spies….

Leitos stiffened. There had been no birds when they emerged from the sanctuary, where there should have been many sheltering from the day’s heat in the tree boughs. Something had driven them away-

Before the thought was finished, Leitos was running back the way he had come.

Chapter 5

Leitos burst out of the thicket and dropped behind the nearest boulder. Far up the hillside, lost among the trees, his Brothers remained invisible. Dark clouds gathered over Witch’s Mole. Leitos began to relax. The coming storm might have driven most of the birds to cover-

An inhuman howl cut off the thought. A heartbeat later, a screaming horde of warriors, men and women alike wearing only baggy black or white breeches, exploded from all available cover between him and his Brothers. A hail of arrows fired by hidden archers flew over their heads and streaked into the trees where the Brothers waited.

Leitos cried a belated warning, and then loosed an arrow just ahead of the lead Kelren. The barbed head tore through the man’s bowels, and he fell in a tumbling roll.

All at once the Brothers surged from the trees, bucklers held at shoulder height to deflect falling arrows, as they sprinted toward Leitos. Every third man returned arrow for arrow, but they were far outnumbered. Even as he watched, the number of Kelrens tripled.

Leitos took aim at another target. Waving a pitted sword overhead, the howling woman outdistanced her companions. Embracing a sense of cold dispassion, Leitos fired. The arrow flew true and sank deep into the pit of her arm. Her cry cut off, but she ran a few more steps before toppling.

Leitos fired at another slaver. The sea-wolf fell, an arrow jutting from his neck. Before Leitos could target more enemies, the horde fell upon the Brothers of the Crimson Shield. Leitos sprinted up the hill to join them.

In the time it took for him to halve the distance to the battle, the Brothers had abandoned bows for swords, and presented a phalanx of whirling blades. Wave after wave, the Kelrens bled and died upon that blurring wall of razor-edged steel. Eager war cries became screams of agony.

Adham, Ba’Sel, and Ulmek formed the center of that line, fighting as Leitos had never imagined men could fight. Sea-wolves fell before them, throats torn out, limbs shortened to gushing stumps, entrails spilling. The Brothers advanced in lockstep, trampling the dead and wounded underfoot.

Just before Leitos reached the Brothers, a pair of changeling wolves circled the battle and attacked from behind. Where the Brothers fought with terrible beauty, the wolves ravaged mindlessly. Blood flew from their rending jaws. Teeth as long as a man’s fingers, and claws even longer, slashed like daggers.

Caught in the haze of battle, the Brothers closed ranks when their fellows fell, unaware of the threat at their backs.

Close enough now to smell the sharp odor of blood, Leitos ran faster, his sword replacing his bow. “Father!” he cried. “Behind you!”

The furious storm of battle crushed his voice before it reached a single ear. And still the Kelrens came, eroding the line of defending Brothers. Dust rose into swirling clouds, obscuring sight of the slaughter.

And then Leitos stumbled into the fray. All blurred around him, friend and foe becoming one. His sword slashed at branded skin, knowing it belonged to Kelrens.

“Now!” Ulmek yelled, sounding near.

Leitos heard breaking pottery, and then a flash of indigo light exploded before his eyes.

Nectar of Judgment! Terrible understanding filled him, even as a blast of heat and smoke knocked him sprawling. Within heartbeats, flames were sweeping through a line of screaming Kelrens, allowing the Brothers a chance to retreat.

Chaos capered and spread, separating enemies into smaller pockets. Leitos fought his way toward the longboats. Around him, hoarse shouts, the clangor of steel, the inferno’s whooshing crackle, all blended into a maddening roar.

From that madness emerged a changeling wolf, its spiny pelt smoking and charred. It spotted Leitos, growled low in its throat, and came near not on paws, but humanlike hands, the clutching fingers tipped with black talons. As it closed, its scorched hackles rose.

“Yours is the blood of Valara,” the wolf growled. Silvery threads of drool dripped from its teeth. Its huge chest blasted breaths that smelled of burned meat. “I’ve glutted upon your bloodline before. Kneel before me, and your death will be quick.”

“And what reward would your master grant for killing a prize he would rather have delivered alive?” Leitos shouted.

The changeling’s baleful yellow eyes narrowed. “The Faceless One commands less than he knows.”

Done banding words with a demon-born, Leitos attacked. The wolf reared, and Leitos ducked raking talons, even as he slashed his sword across the changeling’s belly. The wolf screamed and bounded away.

Leitos spun and came on, drawing his dagger. Belly awash in blood, the wolf turned back, jaws snapping. Leitos crouched low, allowing talons to whicker past his face, the tip of one dragging a bloody scratch down his cheek. He wrenched his head sideways and thrust his dagger deep into the wolf’s chest, then leaped away.

When the wolf turned and sprang again, Leitos dropped to his knees, and drove his sword deep between the changeling’s ribs. The wolf’s roar became a whimpery yelp, and the creature landed heavily, struggling to face Leitos.

“You have won nothing,” the demon-born rumbled through the froth of blood coating its muzzle. “You and all your weak kind will die-the age of men is finished.”

Leitos’s sword whirled and fell, slicing the wolf’s thick neck to the bone, and the beast crumpled.

Before Leitos could get his bearings, Ulmek sprinted out of the smoke, caught hold of Leitos, and hauled him along. Only a few Brothers ran with him.

“My father?” Leitos cried, struggling to look over his shoulder.

“Run!” Ulmek growled.

With Leitos between them, Ulmek and the other grim-faced Brothers raced down the hill, angling toward the thicket and the longboats. The sea-wolves came together and gave chase.

Moments later, Leitos crashed headlong into the thorny wall of bramble. Numb with worry, he felt nothing, and he smashed his way through to the passage.

When he came to the first longboat, he heaved it over. The rest of the Brothers tossed the oars inside. Haversacks followed, landing in a haphazard pile. Ulmek moved to the bow, and the rest took up positions around the sides. Behind them, howling Kelrens drew nearer.

“When we reach the sea,” Ulmek said Leitos, “you and Halan use your bows to hold them off. The rest of us will row until we are clear of the shore.”

“Where are the others?” Leitos demanded. Of forty Brothers, only eight remained.

“Some are dead,” Ulmek said, looking back the way they had come. By the sound of it, Kelrens were using their swords to clear a wider path.

“My father…?” Leitos could not say the words.

“Adham and Ba’Sel were taken. We may yet save them, but not without first saving ourselves.”

Sick with dread, Leitos took his place near the stern, and helped lift the boat. At Ulmek’s word, they followed a passage through the thicket, and came out at a precipitous trail leading to the cove.

Without slowing, the Brothers leaped down the slope, the longboat scraping and bumping over the ground. Halfway to the shore, the trail steepened. Rising dust marked their descent, and large rocks bounced ahead. At the bow, Ulmek suddenly cursed and stumbled. He fought to regain his feet, but the way was too steep. Instead of holding the boat back, his weight pulled it faster. The longboat shot forward, dragging the Brothers along. Across from Leitos, Ke’uld screamed and vanished from sight.

At the end of the trail, the longboat gouged into a berm of sand littered with seaweed and driftwood. The Brothers rolled over one another, ending up in a tangled pile.

“Up!” Ulmek called. “Damn the lot of you, up!”

As they hefted the longboat, one man remained half buried in the sand-Ke’uld, his leg horribly twisted. “Go,” he rasped.

Ulmek rushed to the fallen Brother and, avoiding the man’s weak attempts to drive him off, gently lifted Ke’uld into the boat. “Prepare the oars,” Ulmek said, retaking his place at the bow.

With the longboat held between them, the Brothers ran toward the waves. Face ashen, Ke’uld did what he could to obey Ulmek’s command.

The Brothers speared the longboat into a breaking wave, and leaned into the salty rush, straining to gain a few more feet. The wave turned back, helping them put out to sea. More waves crashed over the bow, but the Brothers kept on until they were swimming.

“Climb in,” Ulmek ordered, pulling himself up. He turned, caught Halan’s hand, and dragged him into the longboat. In moments, all had boarded the bobbing craft.

While Leitos joined Halan at the stern, the others caught hold of the oars and struggled to turn the bow into the incoming waves. By inches, the craft came about, and the rowing Brothers made for open water.

In the stern, Leitos knelt beside Halan, both ready with arrows nocked. Behind them, the Kelrens raced down the trail. Jaw set, Leitos took aim at the seething mass. His first arrow followed a blink after Halan’s. Leitos fired steadily. By his sixth shot, the longboat had begun to wallow past cresting waves, and the remaining Kelrens began to return fire.

The first volley flew high when the longboat dropped into a trough. The Kelren archers raised their bows and waited, timing the waves. Leitos and Halan began firing as fast as they could, their haste and the pitching sea ruining their aim.

“Stroke!” Ulmek cried.

Another volley of Kelren arrows flashed out of the sky, flying wide by mere feet.

“Stroke!”

Leitos bent his bow and fired, bent and fired.

“Stroke!”

The Kelren archers drew back their bowstrings, again timing the waves. Around them, their fellows roared, waving their swords overhead.

“Stroke!”

The Kelrens fired, and hope fled Leitos’s heart … but only for a moment. The closest arrow fell into the sea, twenty feet back. Behind him, the Brothers continued to heave at the oars.

“Come about,” Ulmek ordered, after the sea-wolves had become specks.

Dripping sweat, the Brothers dropped their oars and leaned on their knees, looking back the way they had come. Witch’s Mole thrust out of the sea, a green-haired skull bowing under the weight of gathering storm clouds. Cackling gulls wheeled overhead, mistaking the Brothers for fishermen.

After a time, Halan spoke up. “Do you mean to leave our Brothers to the slavers?”

Ulmek glared back in silence.

“You cannot have us abandon our Brothers to those filthy butchers,” Ke’uld gasped. His broken leg wept blood where splintered ends of bone had thrust through the skin. “What of Ba’Sel and the others? Do we leave them for dead, while we seek safety?”

Ulmek looked into each man’s face, before coming back to Halan. “Ba’Sel’s way is to keep to the shadows. Would you turn from his decrees?”

Halan’s craggy brow wrinkled. Ulmek’s questioning gaze roved. Brave and hard men all, none met his stare. Of anger-a tensing of the shoulders, a clenching of fists, and deep scowls-there was no shortage, but the Brothers of the Crimson Shield followed a strict hierarchy. In Ba’Sel’s absence, Ulmek was their leader, and it appeared that he meant to hold to Ba’Sel’s last command.

“Point us toward Giant’s Head,” Ulmek said slowly. “And make sure the Kelrens see us.”

Curious looks met this, and Leitos sat straighter. Ulmek went on.

“It is my intention to cut down ten sea-wolves for each one of us they have stolen from our ranks.” He paused, waiting until each man faced him. “Unless, of course, you think I should lead us scurrying into the shadows?”

“I have had my fill of hiding,” Ke’uld said. As the men murmured agreement, his eyes rolled up to show the whites, and his head clunked against the hull.

“Bind his leg,” Ulmek said.

As Halan and a few others rooted through haversacks to find anything to use for bandages, Leitos looked back toward Witch’s Mole.

Hold fast, Father. He willed that thought to bridge the gap between them, refusing to consider that his father might have perished in the battle.

Chapter 6

While the rest of the Brothers sat nibbling strips of salt fish on the hull of the overturned longboat, Leitos paced relentlessly. Seaweed and damp made the footing slick across the reddish shelf of stone, which slanted into the sea from the base of a cliff. He had covered its breadth more times than he could count.

A dozen feet away, whitecaps battered their way through the Bloody Fingers, a forest of sandstone sea stacks jutting off the southernmost point of Witch’s Mole. A steady wind soaked the Brothers and the shelf of stone with foaming spray. Overhead, clouds continued to mass, blotting out the failing light of day.

An hour before, when it seemed possible that the worst of the coming storm might skirt the island, Ulmek had sent Sumahn and Daris up the faint trail to the top of the cliff. “If you cross patrolling enemies, avoid them,” he had warned. “For now, we need only to know where the sea-wolves are holding our brethren. Alerting the Kelrens that we have returned will not help us.”

Sumahn and Daris accepted that order with agreeable nods, but Leitos scowled. “Should I not join them?”

“You are the last person I would send,” Ulmek said firmly. Before Leitos could protest, he took him aside. “If I had need of dead slavers, I would gladly send you.”

“You do not believe I can follow orders?”

Ulmek gave him a sympathetic look. “With your father taken, do you really think you could adhere to my commands?” Leitos made to answer, but Ulmek cut him off. “Kelrens are a cruel race, men and women both. Could you stand by and watch them dig out your father’s eyes, or cut off his tongue, or brand him with hot irons?”

“No,” Leitos admitted.

“And so you will stay here, at my side.” He clapped a hand over Leitos’s shoulder. “Trust that I know how you feel, and believe me when I say, I long for the moment when I can unleash you upon these bastards.” His eyes flashed darkly. “I long for that moment myself….”

Now Leitos pivoted on his heel, and stalked back the way he had come, glancing at the trail zigzagging up the cliff, almost invisible with the approach of night. Brush and trees on the rim whipped in protest against the wind’s fury, but he saw nothing of Sumahn and Daris. Lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and a brief, drumming patter of rain stung his cheeks.

A different sort of thunder turned him about, and he recoiled at the sight of a gigantic mountain of dark water crashing through the crooked stacks.

“Hold!” Ulmek shouted, and rushed to help Halan protect an unconscious Ke’uld.

With a shuddering boom, the wave tumbled over the men. Leitos scrambled for the longboat, but the turbulent waters swept him off his feet, dragging him toward the sea. Before the angry waters could take him, Ulmek caught his wrist and pulled him back.

“Bathing, are we?” Daris called out of the gloom, laughing as he rushed nimbly down the treacherous path. Sumahn came behind him.

Ulmek did not rise to the jest. “We cannot stay here any longer,” he said, wiping his face.

Leitos wanted to learn what the two Brothers had seen, but that would have to wait. He helped the others right the longboat, then, gently as possible, they settled Ke’uld into the bottom. After reloading the supplies, they launched the craft.

The turbulent waters threatened to shatter the longboat to splinters against the Bloody Fingers. With much cursing, half the Brothers rowed, while the other half used spare oars to keep the longboats off the stacks.

Beyond the Bloody Fingers, the Sea of Sha’uul had gone dark and perilous, with waves big as houses crashing over them. The storm gobbled the fading light of day. Lightning slashed the darkness, a chaotic flickering that turned the driving rain silver. Wind screamed, and thunder joined its voice to the steady rumble of the sea.

“What did you learn?” Ulmek yelled.

“The sea-wolves are taking the prisoners to one of their ships,” Sumahn shouted back, fighting to keep his balance.

“Which one?”

“The storm came too fast to know,” Daris answered. “It was dark before we found them gathered on the western shore.”

“What else?” asked Ulmek.

“Most of the Kelrens remain on shore,” Sumahn said. “They have built bonfires, and are well on their way to drunkenness. I think they mean to stay on the beach until the storm passes.”

Ulmek squinted against the lashing rain. “The Silent God of All has favored us with this storm. Make for the west!”

While the Brothers pulled at the oars, Ulmek called out his plan. Not a single Brother shrank from the coming danger, but instead rowed all the harder.

Leitos knelt beside a delirious Ke’uld, and bailed water. Using his arms and cupped hands, he swept the seawater over the side, only to have it come rushing back each time the longboat wallowed over another mountain of black water. Between the crests waited deep valleys, the longboat slicing through the lacey sheets of foam that adorned their steep walls. On and on they fought against the storm, until Leitos began to the think it was not a blessing at all, but a curse.

“There!” Ulmek called suddenly. He stood firm in the bow, despite the pitching seas.

Leitos looked up and caught sight of an anchored Kelren ship before they plunged into a trough. When the longboat rose again, lightning raked the clouds and lanced down, spreading violet fire over the ship’s mast and spars. The vessel’s bow slammed against the sea in a frothy explosion. Leitos searched for enemies on the deck, but all he could make out were ropes and tarps snapping in the gale. If the sea-wolves had any guards on watch, they had taken shelter.

“Closer,” Ulmek commanded. He had fished a coil of knotted rope from his haversack, and tied a small iron grappling hook to one end.

Foot by foot, the longboat slogged nearer to the Kelren vessel. Along with Sumahn and Daris, Leitos made ready. When the ship’s side loomed before them, Ulmek hurled the grapnel over the rail. He dragged the slack out of the line until the hook caught, and thrust the rope into Leitos’s hands.

There was no time for consideration. Leitos began climbing, using his feet to keep from slamming against the planks. Sumahn and Daris followed, their weight pulling the knotted cord tight. More Brothers came after, making a solid line of men.

Hand over hand, Leitos quickly hauled himself up to the rail, heaved himself over, and landed in a crouch on the rain-slicked deck. A hasty search showed him secured booms, furled sails, coils of rope, stacked buckets, and bulky shapes covered with tarps. A hundred paces across the teeming waves, the second slave ship bobbed wildly.

“Guards?” Sumahn asked, as he dropped next to Leitos. He braced himself against the ship’s bucking deck, and drew his dagger.

“If so,” Leitos said, as Daris joined them, “they are hiding in wait, or below decks.”

The trio quickly helped the rest of their brethren aboard. In the longboat below, standing protectively over Ke’uld, Ulmek gave a hand sign to begin.

“Keep an eye on the hatch,” Halan ordered Leitos. Then, taking charge of the boarding party, he directed the Brothers to the fore- and poop decks.

Without speaking, the Brothers spread out over the ship, checking every possible place to hide. They found nothing, and in short order returned to the raised hatch set in the center of the main deck.

“Waiting gains us nothing,” Leitos said, imagining his father shackled below.

“Do you mean to go down first?” Sumahn asked.

“You are a new Brother,” Halan rumbled in protest. “One of us should-”

“I’m the smaller target,” Leitos interrupted, drawing both his sword and dagger.

At Halan’s reluctant nod, Sumahn and Daris each grasped a handle, and prepared to swing open the doors. Sumahn eyed Leitos. “Are you ready, little brother?”

Leitos swallowed, throat dry despite the glut of rainwater pouring down. With some effort, he cleared his mind of all the possible dangers that might wait beyond those doors. “Now,” he said.

Sumahan and Daris heaved open the doors, and the ghastliest stench Leitos had ever smelled gusted from the open hatch. Behind it rushed a mutilated demon bearing an axe in one hand, and a torch in the other.

Chapter 7

Reeling backward, Leitos slashed at the terrible figure bearing down on him-not a creature, but a man, scarred over every inch of his body with gruesome brands. His sword furrowed the sea-wolf’s brow, and a wash of blood poured into his eyes, momentarily halting him.

By then, more Kelrens had swarmed out of the hatch to join the first, all wielding cudgels and axes, swords and daggers. Outnumbered though they were, the Brothers crashed against the horde.

Without thought, Leitos ran his dagger through the first Kelren’s throat, giving it a brutal twist before wrenching the blade free. Gagging, the man dropped his torch into a stack of crates, and toppled over the rail.

Lightning flashed, and out of that brilliant blue-white radiance came another sea-wolf. His fist, balled around the hilt of wide-bladed sword, landed against Leitos’s chin, knocking him into the stack of now smoldering crates. Stunned, Leitos struggled to get free of the shattered wooden slats. Despite the deluge, something within the crates went up with a loud whoosh of flames and heat. Leitos tumbled away, a hair’s breadth from catching fire himself.

The Kelren waded toward Leitos, battering men aside. Before Leitos could gain his feet, the man booted him in the ribs, the force of the kick tossing him across the deck. The sea-wolf drubbed him again, rocking his head.

Groaning, his face and ribs feeling crushed, Leitos flung himself against his attacker’s shins, knocking him off balance. When the Kelren stumbled out of reach, Leitos thrust himself to his feet. Still seeing starbursts, he held up his weapons, and beat a quick retreat.

To one side, the pile of crates erupted into a spitting tower of fire. Seeming to dance within the lurid firelight, the Brothers fought fluidly. The Kelrens attacked like wild animals, full of fury and seeking blood. That recklessness had cost them half their number, and no more were coming out of the hatch.

“A boy dares face me,” roared the Kelren in front of Leitos, “the greatest of my clan?” He whipped his head to clear sodden hair from his eyes, and raised his axe.

“And who stands against me,” Leitos shot back, “but a ravisher of swine?”

The sea-wolf’s face hardened, and he charged with a bloodcurdling battle cry. Leitos waited, and all before him slowed to the pace of a dream. As the slaver’s axe fell, Leitos dropped to his haunches and leaned hard to one side. His sword slid across the raider’s bare waist, sinking deep. The man lurched past with a strangled shriek, and skidded across the deck on his knees.

Leitos stood upright, and circled around the kneeling Kelren. He had dropped his axe in favor of holding back his insides. When Leitos came around him, a look of distress crossed his branded features.

Mind empty of all feeling and pity, Leitos drove his dagger into the slaver’s eye. The man stiffened, his fingers spasming through his innards. Leitos kicked the twitching raider off his dagger, and spun to face his next enemy. But to the last, the Kelrens lay dead.

“Gods good and wise,” Sumahn drawled, wiping his blade clean on a dead woman’s soiled breeches, “from a puling initiate to a blooded Brother, all in less than a night and a day. I suppose I have now seen everything.”

“Put out that damned fire,” Halan roared.

Leitos spun to find that while the flames had begun to die, they were far from out. As Brothers rushed to stamp out the fire, Leitos looked past them to the second Kelren ship, now aglow with lanterns, and teeming with movement. Even as he watched, the mainsail began to unfurl.

“It’s too late,” Daris said. “They must have seen saw the fire.”

“Surely they are not foolish enough to sail in this weather….” Sumahn trailed off. The ship was already setting out, nearly obscured by sheeting rain. “The cowards are leaving half their men behind.”

“Search below for our Brothers!” Halan ordered.

Leitos scrambled down the ladder to the rowing deck. Nothing moved, but the rank smell was worse below decks. Struggling not to gag, Leitos waited for the others to join him.

The light of a single firemoss lantern, hanging on a peg driven into an overhead beam, cast all in ugly yellow hues. Rainwater dripped onto rows of benches lining either side of the deck. Hull-side racks held stacks of long oars. The portholes through which those oars drove the ship were shuttered against the storm. Piles of crates and barrels, secured with webs of rope, nearly hid two closed doors set in the bulkheads on either end of the deck. On Kelren vessels, Ulmek had told them, the shipmaster’s cabin lay aft of the galley, and the crew’s quarters dominated the area beyond the forward bulkhead.

In the center of the rowing deck waited another large hatch that led down to the hold. The source of the ship’s stench-tar, salt fish, caged animals, unwashed men, rancid bilge water-wafted through the hatch’s wooden grating. That was where the slavers kept prisoners. Before venturing there, Leitos knew they must secure the rest of the ship, or risk getting trapped below. It took every bit of his will not to hurl caution aside, and seek out his father.

“Get Ke’uld onto the ship,” Ulmek called back over his shoulder, as he descended the ladder. Once his feet hit the deck, he pointed at Leitos, Sumahn, and Daris. “You three secure the shipmaster’s cabin. The rest of us will see to the crew’s quarters.” He frowned then. “We need to take any remaining sea-wolves alive.”

“One would do for information,” Sumahn said.

“We need them all alive,” Ulmek said, his tone brooking no argument.

Daris moved to the aft bulkhead. Leitos came next, with Sumahn last. Each held two blades ready. After reaching the door, Daris opened it a crack, then shoved it wide. The galley was a cramped, narrow space with three walls of cabinets, a small iron stove, and reeked of strong spices.

Daris led them through the galley, squeezed through another doorway, and led them into a short passage. To one side, a ladder climbed up a bulkhead to a leaky hatch in the main deck, and next to this stood an open doorway. Beyond it lay a small cabin, the floor scattered with clothes. A large rumpled bed was tucked into a recess in the rearmost section, and a table was set with a half-eaten meal.

“Seems this ship is without a master,” Sumahn said.

Daris opened his mouth to respond, but a sudden commotion cut him off.

The three turned and ran back the way they had come, and found Ulmek standing over a score of kneeling Kelrens, men and women all bleary-eyed from sleep and too much drink. Some were naked, others wore breechclouts, still more were garbed in voluminous trousers that looked as if they had never suffered a cleaning. All bore signs of quick, violent abuses-bloody cuts, broken noses, a few shattered limbs. Some few lay near the open door to the crew’s quarters, sprawled in unconsciousness. Bindings secured every pair of wrists and ankles.

“Check the hold,” Ulmek ordered, his flinty eyes locked on the slavers. He tested the edge of his dagger on a thumb, the slowly twisting blade throwing shimmers of light.

“You’ll find naught but rats and supplies in the belly of the Bloody Whore’s,” one man said, his hostile grin showing a mouthful of rotten teeth. Like his shipmates, his hair hung long and matted, his weathered skin dark, leathery, and covered in entwined brandings.

Ulmek’s flat stare did not change when he booted the man’s face, driving him to the deck. Chuckling wetly, the Kelren gathered himself, struggled back to a kneeling position. He spat blood and two shattered teeth at Ulmek’s feet.

Eager to see if his father and Ba’Sel were aboard, Leitos hurried into the murky hold, only to find it packed with supplies. “Send down a light,” he called, refusing to accept his eyes, or the Kelren’s word.

Sumahn passed him down a lantern, and Leitos held it high. Rats scurried over barrels, crates, timbers and tools, rolls of canvas and coils of rope, and all else that the slavers might need on their voyages. There were no men, no chains. Disheartened, Leitos climbed back to the rowing deck, and shook his head at Ulmek’s questioning look.

“Telmon does not lie,” the prisoner said with a shrug.

Ulmek kicked him again. This time, Telmon was slower getting back to his knees. Nose shattered and pouring blood, he looked at Ulmek with an expression that spoke not of anger, but something darker and far more dangerous. When his eyes found Leitos, his face changed to a greedy curiosity.

“You have the look of an Izutarian.”

“Do not speak to him,” Ulmek said to Leitos.

“Haven’t seen your kind in years,” Telmon said. “A pity. I miss the sweet tears that your women weep when they spread their legs for me and my fellows.”

A prickly heat flashed over Leitos’s skin. His sword flashed in a deadly stroke, but Ulmek caught his wrist.

“The other ship is almost out of sight,” Halan said through the hatch.

Ulmek cursed under his breath. “Sumahn, make sure these animals stay put.”

Telmon’s abrupt laughter filled the rowing deck, and the other slavers added their voices to his. Ulmek twined his fingers through sea-wolf’s ratty hair, then dragged him to the ladder up to the main deck. “Climb.”

Telmon spat again. “May a bloody pox infect your mother’s festering-”

Ulmek rammed Telmon’s face against a rung, ending his insult. “Climb, or I will shove this dagger through your spine. You’ll twitch and cry, but you won’t die … at least not quickly.”

Telmon’s face writhed with something beyond hate, but he went up the ladder, clumsily, for the ropes binding his hands and feet. Before he was halfway through the hatch, Halan snatched him out of sight.

“With me,” Ulmek said, pointing to Leitos and Daris.

The trio climbed into the storm. They joined Halan and a kneeling Telmon at the starboard rail, looking south. Lightning clawed at the black of night, highlighting the other ship’s ghostly outline.

“Where do they go?” Ulmek shouted above the wind.

Telmon laughed riotously. Ulmek clubbed him across the mouth, and asked again. Still laughing, Telmon said, “My mates sail for the hunting grounds.”

Those words sent a nervous flutter through Leitos’s belly, and he offered up a silent prayer for his father, Ba’Sel, and all the others.

Ulmek seemed unperturbed. “Then we will follow.”

“We do not know how to sail a ship!” Halan protested.

“No,” Ulmek agreed, “but our captives do.”

Telmon laughed all the harder. “I’d not help you if-”

Ulmek caught Telmon’s ear and wrenched his head to the side. His dagger flashed, and Telmon fell screaming to the rain-washed deck.

“You will help us!” Ulmek bellowed, flinging the severed ear into the Kelren’s face. “By the gods good and wise, you will sail this wallowing tub, even if I have to cut pieces off you until you do.”

As Telmon blubbered his newfound willingness, Leitos watched a foaming wave take the Kelren’s ear across the deck and over the side. What little pity he retained in his heart went with that bit of bloody meat. He let it go. For the sake of his Brothers and his father, he could not suffer any such feelings to stain his conscience.

Chapter 8

For two sleepless days and nights, the gale blew and raged. By day, under leaden skies, the Night Blade always sailed ahead of the Bloody Whore, a misty shape at the edge of sight. At dawn of the third day, the Brothers found that the ship had vanished.

Now nearing sunset, the swells still wore foaming white crowns, and the rain came sporadically in pounding sheets, but the worst of the storm had passed. In the time since the night of the raid, four more Kelrens had lost their ears to Ulmek’s blade, before the rest decided that sailing the ship without objection was the better option.

“I still believe they yielded too easily,” Leitos said, looking down the deck. From this vantage, they could keep an eye on the sea-wolves busy sailing the Bloody Whore.

“Perhaps,” Ulmek allowed, haggard of face and eye. A wave boomed against the hull, sending up a curtain of salty spray. He caught a rope tied about the foremast to keep his balance.

“They cannot be trusted,” Halan said.

“Of course not,” Ulmek snapped. “I suffer them to live out of need alone.”

“And after our brothers are with us again, what then?” Halan asked, his bluff features drawn, accentuating the dark circles under his eyes.

Ulmek scrubbed a hand over his face. “When we have rescued Ba’Sel and the others, I will strike off the heads of these sea-wolves until my sword breaks.”

Halan looked to a rosy slash of clouds hanging low over the southern horizon. By the coming dawn, the storm would be a memory. “We are not seafarers,” he said slowly. “We are far from home, and getting farther by the hour. Kill the sea-wolves, and we will remain far from home.”

“Then I suggest you learn from them,” Ulmek said. “Make them believe we mean them no harm.”

Leitos turned his eyes on the five slavers who wore bloodstained bandages around their heads, those who had lost their ears. He doubted they would ever make the mistake of believing they were safe in the hands of the Brothers of the Crimson Shield.

Telmon glanced at Leitos, bared his rotten teeth in a grin. Sumahn, standing nearby, slapped the back of the slaver’s head. Telmon flinched, looking like a feral animal about to lash out, then abruptly bent back to coiling rope.

“What if we do not find the Night Blade?” Halan ventured.

“We have no choice but to trust that we will find her where Telmon promised,” Ulmek said.

After discovering the disappearance of the Night blade, Ulmek had threatened to chop off a few more precious pieces of Telmon if he failed to explain how a ship could disappear. The slaver admitted that his comrades had likely dumped their cargo to make better speed. “To the south, there is nowhere else to go. I tell you true, they sail for the hunting grounds,” the slaver asserted, all the more believable because Ulmek had been a hair’s width from blinding the sea-wolf with the tip of his dagger.

“As do we?” Ulmek asked. The Bloody Whore sailed south, to be sure, but as none of the Brothers had ever ventured beyond sight of land, there was no way to know for certain if the Kelrens were sailing them where they claimed.

Telmon leered. “Soon, you’ll know Telmon does not lie. By midnight, unless the Whore strikes a reef and founders, she’ll be riding anchor beside the Night Blade….”

Ulmek interrupted Leitos’s grim study. “The storm is letting up. You, Halan, and two others go and get some sleep.”

“What of you?” Halan asked. “As our leader, you can ill-afford to neglect yourself.”

Ulmek’s fierce expression left no room for argument. “I will take rest when our men are safe among us.”

More than food, the opportunity of rest pushed Leitos below decks to collapse into a smelly hammock in the crew’s quarters. The night of his testing, the battle against the Kelrens, and the many long hours standing on the deck of the Bloody Whore, all seemed distant, memories so vague as to be someone else’s.

As soon as he closed his eyes, Zera materialized before him, clad in snug leathers. The scorching heat of her green eyes dwindled to reveal a glow of sorrow. She seemed smaller, childlike, vulnerable in a way that he never could have imagined when she strode at his side across Geldain. He reached for her, hands dripping the cooling scarlet life that had once flowed through her veins. When he touched her, she became as smoke and ash, and drifted away….

Leitos startled awake and stared up into the gloom. It was not the first time he had dreamed of Zera, but each time it was as if it were the first. He feared his grief for her loss would always remain as fresh and raw as an unhealing wound.

Gradually, he became aware that the ship rode the sea more smoothly. They had passed through the storm. The door to the crew’s quarters stood ajar, letting in murmured voices and a little light. He thought it might be the handful of slavers Ulmek had ordered chained to the rowing benches, until he made out the voices of Sumahn and Daris. Leitos clambered out of the hammock and strode from the crew’s quarters.

He found Sumahn and Daris sitting on a pair of upended casks, swords out. They cut off talking when he came into sight, as if caught saying something they should not. Sumahn grunted in greeting, then went back to using the tip of his sword to scratch some figure into the deck.

Daris made busy honing his blade with long, even strokes. “About time you woke up. The rest are already topside. According to that Telmon, we are soon to drop anchor.”

“Take a seat,” Sumahn offered, and rolled a third cask Leitos’s way.

After settling on the small barrel, the trio sat listening to the whoosh of the sea passing along the hull, and the soft metallic whisking noise of Daris honing his blade. The longer they sat still, the more Sumahn’s face twisted.

Daris said, “Might as well let it out.”

He had barely finished before Sumahn began speaking. “I’m tired of always running about like bumbling lackwits. What are we doing, what is our purpose?” He stabbed the tip of his sword into the center of his crude design.

Daris glanced at Leitos. “You tell him, little brother. I have-many times-but it seems my words are wind.”

Leitos shrugged. “We are trying to rescue Ba’Sel, my father, and all the rest of our brethren.”

“I know that much,” Sumahn snapped. “What I mean is, what are the Brothers of the Crimson Shield doing in Geldain and in the world? For as long as I can remember, we run and hide, pricking the Faceless One where we can, but never causing real harm. We take in the rare urchin or escaped slave, but only those who are deemed worthy to fill our ranks. Ba’Sel speaks of some ancient treaty between him and a forgotten ice-born king, but adheres to that treaty only when it suits him.”

“I suppose you side with Ulmek, then?” Daris asked, thumbing the edge of his sword. “All that proud tripe about being the ‘tip of the spear that pierces the Faceless One’s heart’ … even if in the piercing, the tip is destroyed?”

Sumahn looked around the shadowed deck. “Better a broken spear than this,” he said bitterly. “After we save Ba’Sel and the others, what then?” He did not wait for an answer. “I’ll tell you what. We will go back to Witch’s Mole, or maybe Giant’s Head, or some other rock in the sea, or maybe even return to Geldain, and there we will burrow into another cave. We will train for a war that we will never join, and scrounge and hunt to survive. In time, we will grow old and die.” He paused, looking for an argument that never came, then went on.

“All the while, Ba’Sel will replace us, one by one, and keep blathering about the world before the Upheaval and the Faceless One. He will rouse new Brothers, train them. In time they, too, will go to unmarked and unremembered graves. Perhaps another will rise up to take Ba’Sel’s place, but not before he trains that warrior to be just like him-weak, indecisive … useless.”

“Those are dangerous words,” Daris said with a frown. Leitos wondered how many of the others felt the same.

“And words they will remain, until you do something.”

All three jerked at Telmon’s voice. Sumahn jumped to his feet, and thrust the tip of his sword against the slaver’s neck. “What are you doing here?”

Telmon traced the length of the blade with bland eyes. Still bound at the wrists, he slowly raised a wooden cup of water past the sword, and sipped. “Your leader, Ulmek, sent me to fetch you. Thought since I was down here, I ought to take a drink.”

“Ulmek sent you alone?”

A watery trickle of blood escaped the bandage around Telmon’s head, rippled over the brands on his neck and down one side of his equally scarred chest. “Where am I to go, what am I to do, when my ship is overrun with such warriors as yourselves?” The indolent look in his eyes, his condescending tone, belied his praise.

“Maybe I’ll take your advice, and begin by ridding you of that ugly head of yours,” Sumahn growled, twisting the tip of his sword deeper into Telmon’s neck. A drop of blood sprang from the wound.

“Aye, you could,” Telmon said. “But you won’t.”

“And why not?”

Telmon’s eyes narrowed, and he pressed against the sword. Blood pooled on the flat of Sumahn’s blade. Telmon smiled broadly. “Because you need me, and all my fellows, to get you home.”

A murderous light sparked in Sumahn’s gaze. “We can make do with one less sea-wolf,” he growled. He abruptly shifted his weight to his back foot, preparing to thrust.

“Hold!” Ulmek bellowed.

“None of you,” Telmon whispered, “dare follow your convictions. You bow and scrape to this Ba’Sel, an impotent old man who would better serve your Brotherhood if you gave him over to vultures.”

“Get back above, vermin,” Ulmek ordered Telmon, “or I’ll let the boy have his way.”

“As you command,” Telmon said, bobbing his head in mock deference. He sauntered away, making no hurry to climb the ladder to the main deck.

“My orders were to keep these ill-begotten scum alive and hale,” Ulmek said after the slaver vanished. “Those orders stand, unless you think to displace me?”

Sumahn looked at his feet, shaking with rage. “No,” he said stiffly. “Never.”

“Away with you,” Ulmek said, moderating his tone. “And you, too, Daris. Leitos, with me.”

Sumahn jammed his sword into the scabbard strapped across his back, and went topside. Daris went with him, casting a curious glance at Leitos, before he disappeared through the hatchway.

Ulmek eyed the chained Kelrens. All had come awake by now, and they looked on with varying degrees of contempt.

“We need answers,” Ulmek said, fingering a burlap sack tied to his belt. When he brushed the bulge at the bottom, it shifted and squeaked.

“So you no longer believe Telmon?” asked Leitos.

“As you suggested, why would a sea-wolf, a man who puts red-hot irons to his skin as a matter of course, turn against his brethren at the mere loss of an ear? Together, we will find the truth.”

Leitos looked to that squeaking sack again, and with a shudder wondered what Ulmek had in mind.

Chapter 9

Ulmek chose out the biggest of the sea-wolves, a man with countless brands covering slabs of lean muscle. The Kelren peered through ropes of knotted hair with startling blue. Unlike Telmon, his grin held white teeth, if crooked.

“Tell me,” Ulmek said, “what will your fellows do when they reach these hunting grounds? Will they drop anchor and go ashore? Do you have a fortress there, some defensible ground?”

The sea-wolf shifted, rattling the short length of chain securing him to the bench. The rest of the slavers watched, eyes glittering with a strange anticipation.

“You will answer me,” Ulmek warned, his voice more menacing for the softness of it.

“Here’s an answer,” the man growled, “go bugger that boy at your side.”

Ulmek knelt down. “In the shipmaster’s cabin,” he said to Leitos, eyes locked with the Kelren’s, “you will find a small pot of honey on the top shelf of the wardrobe. Bring it to me.”

The slaver laughed. “You think sweets will loosen my tongue?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Leitos heard Ulmek say, before striding into the galley and out of earshot.

In the shipmaster’s cabin, Halan sat next to the bed, using a damp cloth to wipe Ke’uld’s feverish brow.

“Ulmek wants honey for the sea-wolf,” Leitos said.

Halan winced, and thrust his chin in the direction of the wardrobe. “Whatever you see,” he said in a cryptic tone, “it is best not to think too much about it.”

Leitos retrieved the honey, then looked to Ke’uld. “How is he?”

Halan shook his head in answer, and Leitos silently left him to tend his friend.

When he returned, the now unchained slaver lay on his back, mouth slack, a large knot forming at his temple.

“Open the hatch to the hold,” Ulmek ordered Leitos.

After doing so, Leitos helped Ulmek drag the groaning Kelren to the opening. Together they lowered the groggy sea-wolf into the waiting murk. Ulmek descended first, holding aloft a firemoss lantern, and Leitos followed. Ulmek hung the lantern on a peg overhead.

“What do you mean to do?” Leitos asked uneasily.

Ulmek glanced at him, features bland. Instead of answering, he said, “While I see to his arms, you tie off his legs.”

By the time they finished securing the ropes, the Kelren was on his back, arms and legs pulled tight. When Ulmek cut off the man’s grubby trousers, leaving him bare as a newborn, Leitos remembered Halan’s wince at the mention of honey, and steeled himself.

Ulmek used a pail to splash some thick, dark bilge water over the Kelren’s face. He came awake, sputtering and cursing. Ulmek then took the pot of honey from Leitos. With a little work, he pried off the lid.

The glassy eyed sea-wolf watched it all. “We’ve oft wagered between us whether you Brothers preferred laying with goats or men.” He brayed mirthless laughter, and thrust his hips obscenely. “Now I know. But there’s no need for honey-many a maiden has told how my nectar is sweeter than a child’s dreams.”

With a disquieting lack of emotion, Ulmek poured the thick amber fluid over the Kelren’s loins. “Tell me your name?”

“What is it to you?”

“When I tell others about this, your name will remind them of whom I speak … keep things clear in their minds.” Ulmek dropped the empty pot, and slowly drew his dagger.

“Guess,” the Kelren snarled.

Ulmek held the blade before his face, admiring its edge. “Just a name,” he whispered, moving to stand over the sea-wolf. He abruptly sliced the dagger across his palm, then clenched his fist. Blood squeezed between his fingers, dripped onto the man, covering him with small crimson coins.

“Your pain does not frighten me,” the Kelren scoffed. As Ulmek’s blood continued to drip, the sea-wolf’s bravado gradually vanished, until he began bucking against the restraints. “What are you doing? What do you want?”

“Your name,” Ulmek said again, as if it were the simplest of requests. He shook the sack at his belt. Whatever was hidden within the burlap prison stirred, making the coarse fabric dance. “For the moment, a name is more than enough.”

Looking at the sack, the slaver’s eyes bulged. “Rallin,” he blurted. “Rallin of the Blackfish.”

Ulmek cocked an eyebrow at Leitos. “Surely, he jests?”

Leitos shrugged uncomfortably. “Why would he?”

“ ‘Tis true!” Rallin bellowed.

Ulmek knelt at the slaver’s side. “You have done well, Rallin of the Blackfish. Now I need to know the best way to get aboard the Night Blade.”

The sea-wolf stiffened, resoluteness replacing the panic in his stare. “I’ll never tell, you accursed-”

Rallin’s retort became a short scream when Ulmek thrust the dagger under his kneecap. When he stopped digging, Rallin’s head dropped back. “You cannot break me,” he panted.

“You mistake me,” Ulmek said; Leitos had never heard or seen the man look so serene. “I do not want to ‘break’ you. I want to rescue my men. Surely you understand?”

The sea-wolf held silent, and Ulmek worked the blade deeper into the joint, steel grinding through gristle and sinew. The sound set Leitos’s teeth on edge.

Sweat sprang from the slaver’s pores, and a stink of terror wafted from his skin, an odor Leitos knew all too well from the mines of his childhood. He felt no pity, for men like this had chained his people and countless others, all without a care that most would suffer horribly and eventually die in the hands of Alon’mahk’lar.

When Ulmek canted the blade, prying up Rallin’s kneecap, the man lost control of his bladder. Ulmek’s nose wrinkled in distaste, but he did not relent.

“Tell me how to take the Night Blade, and I will leave you with the ability to walk. Hold your tongue, and….” Ulmek levered the dagger. A hissing screech burst through Rallin’s teeth.

“I do not think my dagger will loosen his tongue,” Ulmek said, and withdrew the blade.

The sea-wolf lay gasping. His rolling eyes found Leitos. “Kill this inbred bastard for me, free those above, and I’ll see that you are safe among my people for the remaining days of your life.”

A shiver of revulsion passed over Leitos’s skin. “You think I would betray my own for the promise of becoming one of you?”

“The Faceless One rewards his followers,” Rallin said.

“The Faceless One seeks to destroy all humankind,” Leitos answered hollowly.

“Lies, boy! Exaggerations and blasphemies, spread by fools. I tell you, we have lives worth living. We serve him, and in return, he rewards us, allows us to sail and take plunder of his enemies-our enemies. Stay with these men, and you’ll be hunted all your days. The Brothers of the Crimson Shield are the true betrayers. Stay with them, and you’ll die by the sword or wither in chains. Side with us, and reap the blessings of our master.”

Leitos said nothing, but he noticed Ulmek’s scrutiny.

“Well, little brother, what will it be?” Ulmek asked. Leitos frowned at the question, spoken as if there was actually a choice. Ulmek dropped his gaze to Leitos’s hand. He had unknowingly drawn his sword. “Will you cut me down and free him?”

“No. Never,” Leitos said. “I … I meant to end his drivel.”

“Then why not do it?”

“Would you stop me?”

“No.” Ulmek stood away with an inviting gesture. “Kill him. He and those like him have preyed upon your people long years, much as they have preyed upon mine. He deserves death. Take your vengeance.”

Rallin looked between them. “Don’t listen, boy. To kill a servant of the Faceless One is a grievous crime.”

Leitos gripped the hilt of his sword, knuckles going white. He stepped forward, eyeing Rallin’s pulse throbbing in his neck. That was where the blade would fall, stilling the Kelren’s lies. In an instant, it would be over. The sword swung above his head, his muscles went tight and hard. In a blink, he could destroy this lying, hateful beast. A blink….

Leitos abruptly lowered the sword, settled back on the soles of his feet. “We need to learn his secrets. Killing him serves nothing.”

“You are learning, little brother,” Ulmek said solemnly.

“A test?” Leitos asked in disbelief.

Ulmek nodded. “Each new day is filled with challenges and obstacles. We learn from them, surmount them, or we do not. To be a Brother of the Crimson Shield is to overcome more often than you fail … and to survive, of course.”

While Leitos considered that, Ulmek reached into the sack at his belt, and carefully drew out a large rat. He held it up for Rallin to see.

“In the alleys of Zuladah, they are not so willing to let a man handle them,” Ulmek said, deftly avoiding the vermin’s nipping teeth. As he looked into its shiny black eyes, the creature calmed. “On a ship, though, rats are used to men tromping about-they do not like us overmuch, but they tolerate our presence.”

“You are a fool if you think a rat will make me betray my own.”

“You overestimate yourself,” Ulmek said placidly. He raised a bloody finger to the rat. It stretched out its nose, whiskers dancing eagerly. “Or, perhaps, you misjudge the persuasiveness of hungry vermin.”

Rallin went still as stone. “What … what do you mean to do?” he demanded.

“One way or another, I will have the answers I require,” Ulmek said. “That is all. Your life, your pain and suffering, are all meaningless to me, while my the men of my order are my life. Answer my questions, Rallin of the Blackfish, and you will walk out of here … a whole man.”

“Gods good and wise, you are mad!”

“Refuse to tell me what I need … well, no matter. Another will, and you will have been ruined for nothing.”

“Do not do this,” Rallin pleaded.

Ulmek went on, as if the sea-wolf had not spoken. “After this little fellow tastes blood, he will call to his companions. More will come, and more still. Dozens, maybe scores. After they lick away the blood, they’ll taste the honey. By then, a swarm will have covered you, frenzied with hunger. They will start digging then, and chewing-their claws and teeth are so very sharp.”

“Do not do this!” Rallin repeated, howling the words.

“They will devour your manhood, burrow into your bowels, eat their way to your beating heart-but only if I let them.” Ulmek pulled another rat from the sack.

“I cannot watch this,” Leitos muttered hoarsely.

“You must,” Ulmek said. “I must. Even Rallin, here, must see how far I am willing to go in order to free our brethren. The Faceless One and his agents have forced their war and their chains on us far too long. This night, all that ends. No more running. No more hiding. No more submitting.”

With some effort, Leitos stood his ground, and glanced at the slaver. “You can escape the judgment you deserve,” he said, voice cold. “The choice is yours-a choice that you have never given to those you kill or enslave. Tell us how to defeat the Night Blade. Tell us how to get our brethren safely back, and you will be spared.”

Rallin’s gaze darted from the lively rats held in Ulmek’s hands, and back to Leitos. “I … I’ll tell you … just don’t put those rats on me. I swear, to all the gods that heed men, I’ll tell!”

And so he did, telling of Kelren strategies and how to overcome them, of signals and how to answer them. He also revealed that Telmon intended to lead the Brothers into a trap that would get them all killed.

When he finished, fresh tears were spilling from his eyes. “You will let me live, a man whole … as you promised, yes?”

“No,” Ulmek said, and tossed the rats onto the slaver.

Rallin began screaming before Ulmek hustled a stunned Leitos up out of the hold. His initial shrieks were merely cries of fear. By the time Ulmek shut the hatch, the sounds of agony filled the hold.

“Do not fret,” Ulmek said to the chained Kelrens. “Do as you are told, and I promise you will fare better than your mate.”

Naked terror shone in the eyes of the sea-wolves, and Ulmek laughed.

Back on the main deck, under the cover of night, Rallin’s cries vanished beneath the sounds of the sea, and the wind singing through taut stays and shrouds.

“Telmon!” Ulmek shouted good-naturedly. He cast about, found Telmon, and strode aft under a sky bursting with bright stars.

The sea-wolf looked up from tying off a stay to a wooden cleat, suspicion flitting across his face. “Where is Rallin … what did you do to him?”

Nearby, Sumahn leaned against the rail, talking quietly to Daris. They fell silent at Ulmek’s approach, and the two young warriors gaped when their leader dropped a friendly hand on Telmon’s shoulder.

“I want to thank you,” Ulmek said, smiling broadly.

“For what?” Telmon’s suspicion had grown palpable.

“For making this so much easier.”

Before Telmon could react, Ulmek’s sword found a home in his guts. With a vicious sawing motion, Ulmek disemboweled the Kelren, and thrust him over the rail.

Chapter 10

The lanterns hung about the deck of the Night Blade came into view beyond a spit of land covered in lush foliage that served as natural breakwater for a shallow cove. It was just as Rallin had told. The Bloody Whore’s sails billowed, as if eager to join her anchored sister.

Word passed among the Brothers to make ready. In a hushed voice, Daris called for more speed through the open hatchway. The remaining Kelrens-faced with the threat of suffering as Rallin had-put their backs to the oars, propelling the ship to greater speed. With Ulmek manning the rudder, the Bloody Whore rounded the breakwater. Like a black swan, the ship glided through calm waters glimmering in the light of the moon.

Hunkered behind a cluster of barrels near the portside bow, Leitos searched the darkness, but could not see anyone aboard the Night Blade.

“They will stay hidden,” Rallin had warned. “Only after the proper signals are given, will my mates respond.”

He had gone on to explain those signals, and what to expect in return. Ulmek had cautioned the Brothers that they should believe little, if any, of what the man claimed. “However, we will do as he said, while expecting the worst. But no matter what happens, our task is to free our brethren….”

Now the Bloody Whore veered toward the Night Blade, rapidly cutting the distance. Halan, standing at the bowsprit, signaled the other ship with a shuttered lantern, as Rallin had said they should.

After a long moment, a lantern on the Night Blade blinked in response. Halan signaled again. More quickly than before, he received two slow blinks, followed by four rapid flashes.

“They want us to come abreast,” Halan said over his shoulder.

Again, Daris commanded more speed, and Leitos heard the sweep and splash of oars increase their pace.

Keeping low, he moved to the rail. Sumahn nodded his readiness. More Brothers shifted amid the shadows, blades bared. As Leitos went over Ulmek’s plan again, his fingers tightened around the hilts of his sword and dagger.

Over the rail, he could make out the Bloody Whore’s ram, a great bronze beak cutting a path to their target. An emaciated harridan of wrought iron stood upon the ram’s top edge, her corroded hair swept back, and mouth spread wide around long fangs. It was an ugly thing, forged by Kelren hands, but this night it would serve the will of the Brothers of the Crimson Shield.

“Make ready,” Halan called softly, drawing his great scimitar.

Leitos’s heart began to thump.

Shouts erupted from the deck of the Night Blade, then a sea-wolf cried, “They mean to ram us!”

A moment later, the Bloody Whore speared the Night Blade’s hull at the waterline, and a thunderous crash of rupturing planks and timbers spilled out over the cove.

“Now!” Halan bellowed.

Leitos leaped a breath too late, and the jarring collision sent him flying over the rail. He landed on his face, and flipped across the Night Blade’s deck.

Sumahn, Daris, and the others rolled expertly, coming up in the midst of stunned Kelrens. The peals of clashing swords erupted an instant later, but were faint under the crackling din of the Bloody Whore impaling her sister’s bowels and breaking her keel. The mangled remains of the wrought iron harridan ripped a splintery gash through the Night Blade’s deck, splitting the ship in half.

Leitos gained his feet as the Bloody Whore ground to a halt. The Night Blade’s bow began to rise precipitously, and battling warriors stumbled down the deck. Deep groans and the rush of water told Leitos he had only moments to reach the hold before the front half of the ship sank.

Leitos raced forward, flung open the hatch, and jumped through. A single guard, dazed and bleeding, staggered drunkenly in the wavering light of a firemoss lantern. Leitos attacked without hesitation. The sea-wolf blocked his sword stroke, but missed his slashing dagger. Gagging on the blood filling his throat, the slaver plummeted into the hold through the second hatchway.

Leitos caught the lantern, and clambered down the ladder. He dropped into water deep as his knees. Aft, the splintered hulls of both the Bloody Whore and Night Blade strained against one another in mingled destruction. Seawater boiled into the hold, floating the dead guard, and rats by the score.

Chasing the lantern’s light, Leitos made for the sound of shouting men. Kicking apart a jammed bulkhead door, he found the prisoners. Filthy, scabbed, and hollow-eyed, they all squinted against the sudden light.

“Father!” Leitos cried.

“Leitos?” came the disbelieving response. Then, “Get the key! The guard wears it around his neck.”

Leitos splashed back through the doorway. The bobbing Kelren now served as a raft for a handful of chittering vermin. Leitos swept them aside, and found the key attached to a leather cord. He ripped it free, and made his way back to the prisoners.

By now, the rush of seawater had submerged the lower bunks. The Brothers chained to them fought to thrust their faces clear, their eyes wide with terror.

“There’s no time to free us all!” Ba’Sel shouted. “Unbind those you can, and escape before we sink!”

Leitos found him, a dark face almost lost amongst the others. Beside him stood Adham.

Forcing himself to remain calm, Leitos made his way forward, unlocking those Brothers’ shackles who were nearly underwater, then those who were chained to higher bunks. Where other men might have fled in panic, the freed Brothers stood fast, some guarding the doorway, the rest helping find locks for Leitos to unfasten.

“Fool, boy,” Ba’Sel grumbled when Leitos reached him.

Leitos unlocked his shackles, then his father’s.

Adham wrapped him in a fierce hug, then abruptly pushed him to arm’s length. “I take it you are not alone-unless you learned how to sail a ship?”

“The rest are above.”

“The sea-wolves said they killed you all, before the storm forced them to flee.” Unshed tears shone in his gray eyes. “I did not believe them. Not for a moment.”

Ba’Sel caught Leitos’s shoulder. “Weapons?”

“There is too much wreckage to be sure,” Leitos answered.

Ba’Sel ordered the hold scoured for anything with which to fight. In short order, the Brothers had armed themselves with iron-headed mauls, a pair of adzes, belaying pins, and splintered pieces of planking.

Leitos tried to press his sword into Adham’s hand, but his father took the dagger instead.

“I want to be close to these bastards when I spill their guts,” he growled.

In the brief time it had taken to arm themselves, the hold had almost become impassible. The Brothers swam to the ladder, and climbed to the rowing deck. Before they could join the battle on the main deck, a tremendous column of seawater shot up through the hatchway they had just escaped. What was left of the Night Blade’s hull shattered around them like an eggshell, and a foaming blast of seawater washed Leitos and the Brothers out of the wreckage, and across a coral reef.

Another debris-laden wave rolled Leitos off the reef into deeper water. Gasping, he struggled to stay afloat while holding his sword. Brothers bobbed to the surface close by, most coughing and entangled in coils of rope. A few stood on the reef, looking around in astonishment. More still swam away from the grounded ships, making for the distant shoreline.

“Leitos!” Adham called.

Leitos swam toward his father. After a few strokes, his feet touched the sandy bottom. “We need to go back for the others.”

“There is no need,” Adham answered, pointing at what was left of the two ships, the reef holding them fast.

Moonlight played across the debris, and Ulmek stood on the highest point of the Night Blade’s ruined bow. He raised a firemoss lantern, peering about. Behind him, some of the Brothers began lining up Kelren prisoners on the tilted deck, while others tossed lines to those swimming nearby.

“Dealing with these bastards will make for a long night,” Adham warned, swiping a strand of seaweed from his cheek.

“We cannot kill them,” Leitos said. Adham gave him a sharp look, and he added, “As our prisoners told us, we do not have the seamanship to make the return journey. Besides, we will need them to build us another ship … if that is possible.”

“He speaks the truth,” Ba’Sel said, gazing at the leaning palm trees growing above a pale ribbon of shoreline. Higher, a shadowed and dense forest guarded the way to a mountainous land.

“One of our prisoners,” Leitos said, “named these the hunting grounds. He always laughed when he said it, as if our coming here would mean our doom.”

“I would speak with this man,” Ba’Sel said.

Leitos shook his head. “Telmon will never talk to the living again.”

Ba’Sel grunted. “Then perhaps one of these others will.”

“Rest assured, they will talk,” Adham assured him.

“First,” Ba’Sel said wearily, “we must get our men and the prisoners ashore. Then we set a guarded camp. I do not know what dangers these lands hold, but we must be prepared to meet them.”

Chapter 11

Hours later, in a burst of gold and crimson, the sunrise brightened the leafy green foliage that climbed the flanks of sharp ridgelines and soaring mountains, the highest peaks of which hid amongst banks of mist. From Leitos’s vantage point, the curving shoreline gave way to a terrace of black rocks to the south; to the north, pale sands climbed out of the sea and became dunes covered in patches of tough grass.

Ba’Sel’s thoughtful expression spoke of vague familiarity. “If I do not miss my guess, we are standing on the shores of Yato, the largest island in a chain of the same name. I saw a map as a boy. Hundreds of isles stretch to the south and east, like a great claw cutting through the Sea of Sha’uul.”

“And how does that serve us?” Ulmek groused.

Leitos knew the man was happy to have rescued Ba’Sel and the others, but he did not know how he felt about relinquishing command. Without question, he was back to his usual ill-tempered self.

Ba’Sel fingered a scabbed lump at his hairline. “Poorly, unless Pa’amadin favors us. Even before the Upheaval, those who flourished on these islands were a warlike folk. By all accounts, the Yatoans were not given to trade, or forgiving of outlanders. They proved so hostile in guarding their islands that even the Suanahad Empire, with its hunger for conquest, gave Yato a wide berth.”

“Yatoans,” Ulmek murmured. “Where have I heard that name?”

Ba’Sel glanced at Leitos and quickly away. “Zera was of these lands.”

“So she claimed,” Ulmek said. “Only a fool would trust the words of a lying demon-born. But that is of no matter. We should double the guard at once. Telmon suggested these lands are a danger to us.”

“No,” Ba’Sel said. “Our scouts have found no spies, we have suffered no trouble, and so we will show no outward signs of hostility. If there are any watchers, we will show them that we mean no harm, and perhaps they will help us.”

Ulmek shook his head in disgust, and Leitos found himself torn. Fighting the Faceless One’s minions had left him with a sense of purpose and fulfillment-after a long year of training, he had finally begun his avowed quest. And the night before, when Ba’Sel had spoken of making ready, Leitos had been sure the encounter with the Kelrens had changed the man’s heart. But it had not, and his renewed passivity left Leitos deeply troubled.

In the uncomfortable silence that followed, Leitos avoided his father’s pointed look, and tried not to think about standing on the place of Zera’s birth. Unlike Ulmek, he had no trouble believing Zera in this matter.

Feeling more exhausted than ever, Leitos settled onto the sand. Through the night, while the tide was out, the Brothers had gathered every weapon they could find from both ships. After that, they hauled the prisoners ashore, along with a small stockpile of barrels, crates, and any other supplies they could rummage. After the tide retreated again, Ba’Sel intended for them to return to the ships, and retrieve whatever else they could find of use.

Between the battle on Witch’s Mole and that aboard the Night Blade, the Brothers of the Crimson Shield had lost a dozen men. Thirteen lost, if the murmurs about Ke’uld’s chances proved true.

Leitos looked down the shoreline. Ke’uld briefly thrashed about, and Halan stilled him with a gentle hand. His scimitar lay across his legs, and he eyed the roped Kelrens.

With all that had happened since departing Witch’s Mole, Leitos had nearly forgotten about Ke’uld’s wounds. Now the Brother’s occasional outbursts served as a stark reminder of his declining strength. A fever burned in him, and even at a distance Leitos could make out the sweat coating his skin. Fresh bandages covered his shattered leg. Those wrappings only served to keep flies away. Had the Brothers still been on Witch’s Mole, they could have used various healing herbs and potions to aid him. But in this strange land, they had not had time to hunt for anything that might help.

“If he has any chance,” Ba’Sel said now, following Leitos’s gaze, “we’ll have to take off his leg at the knee. Even that may not be enough.”

“Better to give him to the sea, than to make him a cripple,” Ulmek countered. “It is what I would want for myself.”

“As would I,” Adham said, using a thick splinter to pick his teeth. “I have seen such wounds before. No man can survive the corruption that has seeped into him.”

“Before … before we do that,” Ba’Sel said, “I will ask him what he wishes.”

“Try as you will,” Ulmek allowed, “but Ke’uld may never be able to answer. More and more, he raves like a madman. His blood spreads the poison, blackening his veins. Soon, he will fall into a stupor.”

“I will not kill one of ours without making the effort to find out what he would choose for himself,” Ba’Sel said.

“And what of these Yatoans?” Ulmek said, refusing to let the matter rest.

“We do not know if enemies await us here,” Ba’Sel said. “There is just as much chance we have unknown friends spying upon us.”

“With so much doubt as to what these lands hold,” Adham advised, “we should put a few of these sea-wolves to the question.”

Ba’Sel closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. “In time, Izutarian, in time.”

Leitos looked away from Ba’Sel, trying not to hear the words that came unbidden to his mind. Weak … indecisive … useless.

Glaring, Ulmek abruptly jumped to his feet and strode down the shoreline.

Adham gestured to Leitos, and they walked to the surf. “I fear Ba’Sel has grown incapable of leading.”

Leitos thought to argue, but he found no words to counter his father’s observation. “What can we do?”

“What soldiers have always done,” Adham said grimly. “We follow his commands, until enough of us die that the living revolt.”

“Can we not reason with him?”

Adham toed a bleached shell half-buried in the sand. “Ulmek is his lieutenant, the man he should heed, and still Ba’Sel refuses to listen to him.”

“Maybe Ba’Sel refuses to listen,” Leitos said, “because Ulmek lives only for the destruction of his enemies.”

Adham shot him a quizzical look. “And all you have done in the last year, my son-the training, driving yourself beyond the requirements of even the Brothers of the Crimson Shield-you did those things because you wish to make amends with the Faceless One? Is yours not a heart bent on vengeance?”

Leitos frowned. “It’s different for me. I-”

“You lost your love,” Adham said bluntly. The breeze pushed back his gray locks, and he squinted against the glint off the sea. “Do you think Ulmek was born with rage and hate in his heart for the Faceless One … or do you suppose that he, too, has suffered loss?”

“I never thought about it,” Leitos admitted. In truth, he knew nothing of Ulmek’s youth, and only a little of how he had become a Brother.

“Do not judge Ulmek too harshly. He and the rest of us are fighting a war with small hope of victory. But we will fight it, because we must. As I have always taught, you must become strong and cruel. To fight against the Faceless One and his demon-born armies, a man must be hard and utterly merciless … and the leader of such a man, all the more so. If Ba’Sel cannot see that the loyalty of the Brothers is disintegrating, if he cannot accept that he must stand and fight, then I see no other choice than to replace him.”

“Would you lead?” Leitos asked.

Adham shook his head. “I am an outsider. They must choose one of their own. Ulmek is the rightful choice, and he will need supporters. You, my son, can be the key to making that happen…if you are willing.”

Troubled, Leitos rested a hand on the hilt of his sword. He had coveted the weapon a long and trying year before passing his tests. Now he had it, and had used it to prevail against the agents of the Faceless One … and now his father wanted him to betray Ba’Sel, the man he had entrusted with his life, the man who had taught him so much, even beyond waging war.

“I cannot stand against Ba’Sel,” Leitos said, making up his mind. “When the time comes, he will stand for us, and all men. I know he will. He must.”

“I pray you are right, for time is short.”

“How do you mean?”

Adham glanced back at the waking Brothers, then farther down the beach, to where Ulmek stood looking into the forest. “Ulmek will act, even if opposed, because he, too, feels that he must. If the change of power is not smooth, infighting will destroy the threads that hold the Brothers together.”

Leitos sighed “We have to give Ba’Sel time to come around. I will talk to him myself. If I say nothing, and let Ulmek overthrow our leader, then I become a conspiring scoundrel. Such a road can only lead to destruction.”

“I understand your heart, my son. And without the threat of the Faceless One, I would agree with you. But we live in an age where pity, softness of any kind, leads only to death. I will not command you to go against your convictions, but trust that the odds are against those beliefs bearing good fruit.”

With that weighing on Leitos’s heart, they returned to Ba’Sel and the others, who had gathered around Ke’uld. Ulmek looked their way, his lean face a brooding mask.

Ba’Sel knelt beside Ke’uld and took his hand. “Brother,” he began, “you are not well.”

Ke’uld’s dark eyes rolled. Sweat beaded his sable skin, dampened the brittle fronds beneath him. “Surely you jest?”

“Your leg is….”

“Rotten,” Ke’uld finished for him, “and must come off, if I have any chance to live. Is that the way of it?”

Ba’Sel nodded, his eyes wet with unshed tears. The Brothers shuffled their feet, some peering at Ke’uld, others looking away, perhaps fearing to ever have to make such a decision for themselves.

“You have been as a father to me, since my own was killed,” Ke’uld whispered. “I’m glad you found me, but our time together has passed. Pa’amadin calls me home.”

Ba’Sel acknowledged this with a silent nod.

“Give me to the sea,” Ke’uld urged. “The sea will take me the rest of the way.”

“Brother,” Ba’Sel said, “are you sure this is what you want?”

“There is nothing you can do for me. Quickly now, give me the death I choose. Quickly. I hear Peropis’s breath in my ears, I feel her unholy touch upon my soul. She will devour my sin … but I will be free.” He grinned then, lips trembling. “Unlike you sad lot of bastards.”

A few rueful chuckles met this, but Ba’Sel looked horror-stricken. “I…. No. No, I cannot.”

“I understand. I do. But if not you, then Ulmek will do as I ask.”

Ba’Sel abruptly stood and moved off, struggling through the sand.

Halan gestured to Ulmek, and the stoic warrior dear near. Face unreadable, he looked after Ba’Sel for a time, then down at Ke’uld.

“Are you ready?” he asked without preamble, though his tone was gentle. When Ke’uld nodded, Leitos thought sure he saw a flash of remorse cross Ulmek’s rigid features. Then it was gone, replaced by a visage of stone.

“Help me,” Ulmek ordered. Not waiting to see if anyone would, he caught Ke’uld under the shoulders. Halan and five others joined him, and they gently lifted their fallen brother.

Leitos glanced at Ba’Sel, who had fallen to his knees, head bowed, shoulders shaking.

“Go to him,” Adham said gently. “Though I wish you would not, tell him what you feel you must.”

“What of Ke’uld?”

“He is with his kindred. At a man’s end, there is little else he could ask for.”

Leitos was halfway to Ba’Sel, when a shout from the forest drew him up short. Ulmek and the others, waist deep in the cove’s gentle surf, with Ke’uld floating between them, paused as well.

For a long moment, nothing moved. Then a Brother burst out of the forest, and behind him came a dozen men, tall and slender, with the most striking features Leitos had ever seen. Despite their peaceful expressions, he instinctively gripped his sword hilt.

The newcomers paused, observing all, then found Ulmek and the others standing in the surf.

“Bring your companion to us,” the tallest of the newcomers called.

The rest of the Brothers standing watch erupted from the forest. Swords bared, they crept close, apprehension alive on every face.

The strangers showed no indication of fear. That, more than all else, bothered Leitos. They reacted as if the armed men closing in on them were no more threatening than gnats.

“Bring your man to us,” the apparent leader said again, “and we will restore his life.”

Chapter 12

Hours seemed to pass before anyone moved. Then, all at once, Ulmek and the others returned to shore, bearing Ke’uld. Ba’Sel walked slowly toward the strangers, while the Brothers around the newcomers formed into a tight circle.

Leitos studied the strangers. The men were tall-the tallest standing head and shoulders above Ba’Sel. Besides delicate golden torques worn at their throats and matching armbands, they wore soft boots of pale leather, and unadorned ankle-length kilts white linen. Their arms and legs were extremely long, almost freakishly so, giving them a spindly appearance. Taken as a whole, he decided they could not be Yatoans-not if Zera had been of that people.

The closer Leitos came, the more he found to trouble him. Their skin had a faint golden cast, and without wrinkle or blemish. To the last, their narrow heads were shaved smooth. Those not keenly focused on the Brothers bringing Ke’uld ashore, gazed about with slitted eyes that tilted up at the edges, and were colored the hue and sheen of polished bronze. They are not men. Cannot be. And if not men, they must be-

“Alon’mahk’lar!” Leitos cried, drawing his sword. The word ripped from his throat at the same instant someone else shouted, “Changelings!”

In moments Halan, Ke’uld, and the Kelrens were the only ones not standing around the strangers. For all the swords and hard expressions, the golden folk seemed dismissive.

“I am Adu’lin-kalat a’Kuadaye,” the leader said placidly, his voice carrying an unmistakable note of disdain. His smirking lips mirrored that tone. “You may call me Adu’lin.”

“You have a strange look,” Sumahn said tactlessly. “Are you human?”

“We are as human as you.” Adu’lin seemed untroubled by the question. “We are known as Fauthians, an ancient and reclusive race dedicated to absolute peace and harmony. We mean you no harm. Be warned, however, there are those who creep over these islands who would seek to destroy you, as surely as they seek to destroy us. It is good that we found you, before they attacked your party.”

“You speak of the Yatoans,” Ba’Sel said, seemingly entranced.

Adu’lin’s amber gaze became speculative. “Since our arrival to these shores in the early years after Upheaval cast us adrift from our homelands, the Yatoans have sought to eliminate us. They are all of them barbaric, and bent only on destruction. We pray daily for them to embrace tranquility, but so far we have done so in vain.” As he spoke, his eyes roved over the men around him, then the bound Kelrens. As his scrutiny passed over Leitos and Adham, Leitos thought he saw more than passing interest.

“What do you want?” Ulmek demanded.

“Only to help,” Adu’lin said. “As soon as we learned strangers had run aground, we set out from our city. Although we are not sea folk, we have among us those who can repair your ships. In the meantime, we invite you to join us at Armala, our home. You will be safe there.”

“You claimed you could restore Ke’uld,” Ba’Sel said, stepping past Ulmek’s raised sword. “Unless you can cure death, there is nothing you can do.” Despite his words, he sounded hopeful.

“Often, the injured are not as near to death as they think,” Adu’lin said.

“This is foolish,” Ulmek snapped. “We cannot blindly trust them.”

“Be still,” Ba’Sel said.

Adu’lin smiled faintly. “Let us help. Afterward, I will answer whatever questions you have.” This time when his eyes flickered over Leitos and Adham, Leitos was sure he saw more than idle curiosity.

“You must hurry,” Ba’Sel said, striding toward Ke’uld.

When Adu’lin did not follow, Ba’Sel spun to find Ulmek and the others had not budged. “Lower your swords!” he ordered. The Brothers did so, but hesitantly.

“Very good,” Adu’lin said after the last sword whispered back into its scabbard. He motioned for his fellows to join him. The Brothers parted ranks, but hovered on either side of the Fauthians, hands never releasing their hilts.

Adu’lin’s group gathered around Ke’uld. Despite his worsening state, he began thrashing, eyes swelling with panic. “Demon-born! Flee, my brothers, flee!”

Adham leaned toward Leitos, and said, “Wait, but be ready.”

Adu’lin knelt over Ke’uld’s wounded leg, reached out with a long-fingered hand. At his gentle touch, Ke’uld suddenly went still, his expression softening. After drawing back the bandage, the Fauthian’s blade-thin nose wrinkled.

“He is, perhaps, closer to death than even I believed. Pray with me,” he said to his fellows.

Forming two ranks, the Fauthians pressed closer, blocking sight of the wounded man and their leader. For a time, nothing seemed to happen, then Leitos heard a low chanting. Unfamiliar words washed over him, filling him with palpable pressure, as if the air itself had grown dense. Startled gasps from the Brothers told him he was not alone in what he sensed.

The chanting went on and on, and a serene drowsiness fell over Leitos. He resisted at first, but in due course the chanting put him at ease, and he sat down. It felt good to relax, and he could not come up with a reasonable explanation why he should avoid resting. Not long after, he fought to keep his eyelids from drifting shut. The warmth of the morning, the sound of the sea mingling with the chanting, all worked together to release the burdens of his heart. He began nodding, eyes closing…….

When he opened them, he looked at the beach from an odd angle. It took a moment to understand that he had stretched out in the warm sand. He could not quite recall what had happened. There had been a shipwreck, talk of turning against Ba’Sel, and people … strange, golden-skinned folk-

Leitos pushed himself up and clutched for the hilt of his sword, sure it had been taken. He found it at his hip, where it should be. The gold folk-Fauthians, he remembered, as things became clearer-huddled a little way down the beach. Halan and Ba’Sel, both with looks of wonder on their faces, sat before Ke’uld, who spoke quietly but with excited gestures. Ke’uld looked as if he had never been sick a day in his life, let alone near death. Ulmek and most of the others were keeping an eye on the Kelren prisoners and the Fauthians.

The light had changed, and Leitos judged that it was past midday.

“Was your rest as good as mine?” Adham asked calmly, his eyes on the Adu’lin.

Leitos brushed sand off his cheek. “I’m not sure I’ve ever slept better,” he admitted. “What happened?”

“Those Fauthians are as good as their word. They healed Ke’uld-so well that he was dancing about earlier, just to prove he could.”

Leitos glanced over the various groups again. “Why is everyone divided?”

“I gather that Ulmek is unwilling to accept any gifts from these snaky folk, while Ba’Sel is eager to do just that. The sea-wolves, well, they do not have much choice where they sit.”

“Do you trust these Fauthians?”

“No,” Adham said without hesitation. “Something is wrong here.”

“What do you mean?”

“The way they healed Ke’uld, for one. Not with poultices and splints, but with words, a song. My father spoke rarely of the powers that escaped the Well of Creation, and my mother mentioned them even less, but most of what I remember is their fear of the Powers of Creation, those used by the Three in the making of this world. In the hands of men, they feared only evil could come of such power, for it was never meant for mortal hands.”

Leitos’s eyebrows shot up. “You think these Fauthians used these Powers of Creation?”

“With words alone,” Adham said, “they healed a deadly wound, and brought a man back from the brink of death.” He paused long enough to lock eyes with his son. “In your heart, do you really believe they used only words?”

“I do not understand,” Leitos said.

Adham leaned back on an elbow, twisting a little so no one could see his face. “The Fauthians began chanting,” he said in a low voice, “and straight away, I felt a terrible exhaustion melt my bones. It was all I could do to plop down on my backside, instead of pitching over and planting my head in the sand. You, me, all of us ended up sprawled on the beach, caught in a delirium, while those Fauthians went about their work. But I ask you, since when can words heal a man, while at the same time make anyone nearby fall into a deathly slumber?”

Leitos shook his head.

“My mother told me a story once, about how Prince Varis took her captive, intending to make her into his pleasure slave. Ellonlef resisted his efforts to drain the life from her flesh, but she was only able do so because Kian had inadvertently passed some of the energies from the Well of Creation into her, when he restored her life after a cave-in.”

“I mean no disrespect,” Leitos said, “but what does one have to do with the other?”

Adham cast a glance over his shoulder, studied the Fauthians a moment, then looked back. In a lower voice than before, he said, “My mother told of a strange weakness coming over her when Varis tried to drain her of her life.”

“Are you saying that what she felt, and what we felt, is the same thing?”

“Exactly the same. As soon as I felt my life draining away, I remembered that story. As we have the blood of Kian and Ellonlef in our veins, I believed I could resist. I tried, my son, but failed. Perhaps I recognized it too late to make a difference, or maybe these Fauthians are stronger than Varis ever was. Either way, I’m sure they have somehow harnessed the Powers of Creation, which were flung far and wide when Prince Varis destroyed the Well of Creation, and freed the Mahk’lar upon all the world.”

“We have to tell Ba’Sel,” Leitos said. Changelings, Alon’mahk’lar, Mahk’lar, a man could fight such creatures, but the Powers of Creation, once wielded by the Three, was too great a force to contend with.

Adham caught his wrist. “Do you think Ba’Sel is the man you should tell?”

Leitos hesitated. Ba’Sel would probably dismiss the warning out of hand, or he would suggest that they show courtesy, and do what they could to avoid provoking the Fauthians. Ulmek, on the other hand, would draw his sword and attack…. Or would he?

“Ba’Sel will not understand,” Leitos said, getting to his feet. “Ulmek will, but he could react in a way that gets us all killed.”

Adham offered a devilish grin. “If we are to die this day, then let us be about it with courageous hearts.”

With a deep sigh, Leitos made his way toward Ulmek. One of the Fauthians glanced his way, but Leitos kept on, moving with no great haste. The Fauthian turned back to his companions.

When Leitos reached Ulmek’s side, the man gave him a searching look. “What troubles you?”

“We are in danger,” Leitos said. “These Fauthians are more than they appear, and I believe they are dangerous.”

“Ba’Sel does not think so,” Ulmek said, his expression sour.

“Ba’Sel is wrong,” Leitos said, then quickly told Ulmek the story his father had just passed on. He finished by advising, “We must get away from these Fauthians.”

Ulmek surprised Leitos by clapping a hand on his shoulder. “We will, little brother. But, as you can see, we have no way to escape. For the time being, we will let them play the generous hosts. Who knows, we might learn something from them that can be used against the Faceless One.”

“What of Ba’Sel?”

Now Ulmek’s face hardened. “He is still our leader. Much as I disagree with him, I trust him with my life.” When he said this, Leitos noticed a flicker of doubt cross his face. It vanished as quickly as seen. “Our task is to stay alive long enough to let him come around.”

“But what if he does not?” Leitos hated asking.

“He will,” Ulmek said with more surety than Leitos felt. He gazed across the beach to the Fauthian leader. “However, should the worst happen, be prepared to fight.”

Before he could say anymore, Adu’lin caught everyone’s attention, and motioned for them to join his group.

“As I warned you before,” the Fauthian leader said, “these are dangerous lands. All the more so after nightfall. That is when the Yatoans are at their worst, raiding at will, slaughtering anyone they find not of their clans. No place is safe-save Armala, our city,” he said, pointing at the mist-shrouded mountain peaks.

“A long journey,” Ulmek said, “when half the day is already gone.”

Adu’lin nodded. “All the more reason to make haste. If we leave within the hour, we can reach Armala by dusk. That is,” he added with a challenging grin, “if you Geldainians can keep up with us?” A few derisive hoots met this, and Adu’lin’s grin widened.

Ba’Sel quieted the men with a curt gesture. “What of the Kelrens?”

Adu’lin glanced at the bound slavers, as if noticing them for the first time. “Bring them along, of course. Perhaps, in time, we can tame the hearts of these brutes.” He did not mention what would happen if that plan failed. “Now go, friends, and gather what you will for the journey.”

Before Leitos could join his father, Ulmek pulled him aside, and pressed a near empty haversack into his arms. “Keep this with you at all times, little brother, and guard it with your life. For now, keep your head down, play the submissive slave-I’m sure you remember how. I will tell a few of the others to do the same.”

“Can you do the same?” Leitos asked doubtfully.

“Absolutely not,” Ulmek said. “My role in this game is to do everything I can to keep these Fauthians focused on me and a few others. I will present myself as a potential threat. That will give you more freedom to be my eyes and ears.”

Leitos had never played the spy, but he was glad that someone amongst the Brothers had some kind of plan. “Agreed,” he said, studying the edge of the forest. He saw a faint flicker, and then a shape, there and gone in a blink. Startled, sure he had seen a face peering at him, he searched the forest, but it had vanished.

“Something wrong?” Ulmek asked.

Leitos considered telling Ulmek what he had seen, but instead held his tongue. With all that talk of the Yatoans, he had probably just imagined a person watching them.

After they set out, moving at a fast trot along a stone-paved trail that led deep into the damp green forest, Leitos kept seeing that face in his mind, and began to think it was not something conjured from his imagination. As the day waned and the party climbed higher, he wondered why that face had seemed so familiar.

Chapter 13

Belina streaked through the sun-dappled forest, leaping fallen logs and narrow brooks, scampering up and over moss-covered boulders, tearing down faint trails hung with vines and creepers. She did not give in to the aching burn in her chest until after she had caught hold of a hidden rope, and swung across a plunging gorge.

She landed on the far side, secured the rope among hanging vines, and flung herself down. Gasping and looking up through the dense foliage, she saw only quaking leaves alight with the vibrant red and orange glimmers of sunset. Dusk’s first bats took the place of chattering birds, and wheeled and fluttered after insects. Even those things she barely noticed, her mind fixed on the young man she had seen on the beach.

She had seen his likeness in visions, as far back as she could remember. She feared him more than she feared the Fauthians and the slavers, yet he was the one she had to protect at all costs, even if the cost meant her life. If she failed, she would cease to be, along with her people, and the rest of humankind, all erased from the memory of time.

Belina abruptly sat up. She was supposed to protect him, but instead, shocked at seeing him, she had run off like a girl fleeing a charging boar. “I have to go back and find him,” she muttered.

Always in her visions the youth was older, a man steeped in shadow and pain, a warrior of steel, a bringer of death. The young man she had seen on the beach looked different, as yet untouched by the trials awaiting him … but he was the same. She knew it in her heart.

She stood and looked back the way she had come. Why had he and those others been with the Fauthians? Could it be that they had their own seers, and meant to use the young man against her people?

By now, the Fauthians would be nearing Armala, a sprawling fortress-city built all of black stone. Armala was older than the Fauthians, older than the Yatoans, perhaps as old as the dawning of the world. It was as much a place of death for her kind as the Throat of Balaam, that cavern of howls and blue fire, where the Fauthians gave captured Yatoan women and girls into the hands of Alon’mahk’lar. So, too, was it the place where they bowed to their god, the oppressor of all peoples, the maker of nightmares, the Faceless One.

Belina remained undecided, until the last of the daylight gave way to night. If she was to aid the young man, she must enlist her father. That was easier thought that done, for her father did not believe her visions, and neither did most of her clan. But for the sake of the world, she had to try.

She set out with a clear purpose in mind, her feet dancing unerringly over shadowed paths.

Chapter 14

Armala did not rest so high in the mountains as Adu’lin had suggested, but about halfway to the highest peak. By the time they halted before a high wall, the paved path had leveled out and the sky had grown thick and dark under a shroud of glittering stars and a rising half-moon. Inland, the air was stifling, and fragrant with rotting leaves and mud. Strange calls filled the night, and Leitos heard Adu’lin mention something about monkeys and ferocious cats as large as a man, and black as midnight. He had never seen either creature, but had heard enough descriptions from the Brothers to know what they were.

Torches flickered atop the wall, which was built into a narrow gap in a vertical spine of rock that cut across the path and fell into a lightless gorge. Overhead, guards bearing bows and halberds moved behind a crenelated parapet.

“You claim a dedication to peace and harmony,” Ulmek said to Adu’lin, “but those men have the look of warriors given more to taking life, than preserving it.”

“Alas, the defense of our home is a distasteful burden the Yatoans force us to endure. At one time, when first we arrived to these lands, we gladly sacrificed our lives on Yatoan swords. We hoped our lack of resistance, and our message of peace, would cool their savagery. The effort decimated our numbers so much that even now, after all these years, we are still few. For the sake of preserving and spreading our beliefs, we swallowed our aversion to touching the implements of death. We took up arms, but only as a means of defense, and the preservation of our life. And, for long years, just the possibility that we would defend ourselves has been enough to keep the Yatoans at bay. Of late, that has changed.”

Ba’Sel moved closer to the golden-skinned man. “If you need help, only ask, and my men and I will beat back these enemies for you.”

Ulmek’s head whipped around, his features tight with incredulity. Leitos blinked slowly, thinking he had heard wrong. Glancing at the others, he knew he had not. We will beat back these enemies for you. After so long of ordering the Brothers to always run and hide, to always shun their only purpose as free warriors, now he spoke of joining battle against unknown foes. It made no sense.

“I thank you, Ba’Sel,” Adu’lin said with a slight bow. “But that will not be necessary. While we are few, my people have the means to repel those who would destroy us. For now, it would honor me to serve you and your men by providing you with refuge, while our shipwrights repair one of the wrecked vessels.”

Ba’Sel accepted that with a nod, seemingly oblivious of the Brothers’ questioning stares. Adu’lin, Leitos noted, did not seem so unaware. By his estimation, the man’s eyes missed very little.

Adu’lin moved to a small, rusted iron door set to one side of the main gate. A shutter grated open, and a narrow Fauthian face peered through. Adu’lin spoke a quiet word, and a moment later the door screeched inward. Adu’lin led the Brothers and Kelren prisoners through. Behind them, the guard closed and barred the door.

Four more guards emerged from a squat gatehouse, each as tall and striking as Adu’lin and the rest of the Fauthians. Two guards took the unresisting sea-wolves down a paved street, vanishing into a city as dark and still as a tomb. Braced by Adu’lin’s retinue, the other two guards stood fast, halberds held across their chests. Where their leader’s gaze was inscrutable, theirs spoke of open mistrust, if not outright dislike.

Adu’lin bowed with an air of formality. “I bid you welcome to our city, Armala.” His thin smile did not match the warmth of his graciousness. “You will be safe here, and all your needs met.” His tone raised a tickle of suspicion in Leitos’s mind. As far as Adu’lin and his kindred knew, the Brothers of the Crimson Shield might be every bit as troublesome as the Yatoans, yet he behaved as if they could not be a threat.

“To ensure your safety, and to allay my people’s concerns,” Adu’lin went on hurriedly, as if embarrassed, “I must ask that you relinquish your weapons. We will hold them in our armory for safekeeping. And, of course, they will be returned upon your departure.”

Before anyone could protest, Ba’Sel’s sword whispered from its scabbard, and he presented the weapon to Adu’lin. Eyes bulging indignantly, Sumahn stepped forward. The way he clutched his hilt prompted the two Fauthian guards to swing their halberds in his direction. Adu’lin’s eyes widened with fear-the first true emotion Leitos believed he had seen from the man.

Ulmek caught the young warrior’s arm before he could bare an inch of steel. “We are guests here, youngling. Mind your manners.” After Sumahn acquiesced with a reluctant nod, Ulmek released him. As Ba’Sel had before him, Ulmek drew his weapons, and presented them to Adu’lin.

Adu’lin gestured absently to the ground at his guards’ feet. “Stack your weapons there. My men will see them safely delivered to the armory.”

Sumahn was the last to relinquish his sword and dagger. Instead of adding them to the pile, he hurled the dagger at Adu’lin’s feet, burying half the blade into a crack between the paving stones, making the Fauthian leader take a hasty step backward. Sumahn’s sword joined the dagger, the steel throwing sparks as he drove into the gap. His defiance brought a secret gladness to Leitos and, he was sure, to all the Brothers. All except a scowling Ba’Sel.

“Very good,” Adu’lin said, only a little flustered. “Come. I will show you to your quarters.”

When no one moved, Ba’Sel wheeled, his dark face tight with anger. “As Ulmek said, we are guests. Behave as such.”

Many of the Brothers looked to Ulmek, who inclined his head almost imperceptibly. If it disturbed Ba’Sel to see his men look to another for approval, he hid it well.

He abruptly spun on his heel and moved beside Adu’lin. Hesitantly, the rest of the Brothers fell in line. Behind them, the Fauthian guards wheeled a cart next to the weapons, and began carelessly tossing them into the wooden bed.

Leitos moved between Adham and Halan, doing his best to make himself seem the most uninteresting Brother of the lot. More than Ulmek’s order to do so, he wanted to remain anonymous. He did not feel as if he were coming into a place of safety, but rather into an enemy stronghold. It concerned him that Ba’Sel seemed oblivious. Even now, their leader walked alongside Adu’lin as a deferential servant, speaking quietly and smiling a great deal. The Fauthian paid Ba’Sel little mind.

As they progressed through the city, Leitos began to think less about their situation, and more about his surroundings.

Built upon a narrow plateau, the city climbed gently to the south, joining a moonlit ridgeline that meandered down from high peaks, and passed through milky curtains of mist. Leitos guessed Armala stretched north to south for a league, but was only a quarter that in width. A snaking wall surrounded the city. At the center of it all stood a domed palace, with four towers at each corner of its curtain wall. It was the only place in Armala with lights of any sort.

He saw no signs of activity or life beyond the center of the city. In truth, the streets they walked, the buildings they passed, all had the look of long disuse. They reminded him of the bone-towns he and Zera had passed through. The thought of those, and the Mahk’lar that had claimed them for their own, made him uneasy. But other than a familiar feeling of abandonment and a decrepit aspect, he saw no indication of demonic spirits within Armala.

“This city,” Adham whispered, searching the darkness as intently as Leitos and the rest of the Brothers, “it reminds me of Fortress El’hadar and the Black Keep, a place my father spoke of.”

Leitos cocked his head in curiosity, as the party moved through a broad, circular intersection of two streets. His eyes fixed on a feminine figure carved from bone-pale stone, and towering thrice his height. Naked and majestic, she stood frozen between steps, one hand brushing her smooth hip, the other eternally reaching for something unknown. Above her rounded breasts, she ceased to be a woman. The creature’s skull was grotesquely swollen and elongated, and it peered northward with huge, rounded sockets.

Leitos jerked his gaze away. Beside him, Adham shivered, his face ashen in the moonlight. When he spoke again, his voice was rough.

“Since before the dawn of our people, the Black Keep has stood. Many tales say it has been there at the edge of the Qaharadin Marshes since the forming of the world. Walls built around it crumble faster than stone and mortar should, and nothing wholesome will grow in its shadow. Yet the dark stone of that keep resists time and decay. Armala is a city of Black Keeps.”

Leitos realized then that the paving stones beneath their feet, the walls of the buildings around them, the monuments and fountains they had passed, were all built of dark stone.

Before they reached the thin pools of light escaping the high, arched windows of the palace, Adham said quietly, “Watch your step and your back. This city is cursed, every bit as much as Fortress El’hadar. We are not guests here, but prisoners.”

Chapter 15

We are not guests here, but prisoners….

Days had passed since Adham spoke those words, and each new dawn stole away a little more of their grim portent. Armala was indeed a city built of black stone, but during the day, when sweltering under the hot sun, or dripping after one of the rain showers that soaked all with fleeting ferocity, those stones were, in the end, simply dark by the nature of their creation. And though many of the city’s monuments and fountains were terrible to look upon, they were only small blights.

While Adham stayed on edge, always casting about with a mistrustful glare, Leitos and the others settled in. Sumahn and Ulmek seemed to forgive Ba’Sel’s order to surrender their weapons, and so did the rest of the Brothers. Those were not the only changes.

While hesitant at first, everyone soon accepted Adu’lin’s offers of Fauthian delicacies. Of the copious amounts Fauthian fruit wine, only Leitos and Adham abstained. For Leitos, the sickly-sweet drink curdled in his gut, where Adham refused to imbibe any spirits other than jagdah-the only liquor, he insisted, potent enough for those of Izutarian blood.

When not feasting, all the Brothers save Ulmek and Ba’Sel luxuriated in the palace’s large, colonnaded bathhouse, fed by hot springs that bubbled up from deep under the city. After much cajoling, Adham and Leitos joined them, learning why the Brothers had taken to bathing three and four times in a single day.

“It is not cleanliness these fools seek,” Adham growled, hastily toweling himself off.

Leitos followed his father’s gaze, and nearly swallowed his tongue.

At one end of the bathhouse, a train of Fauthian women, clad in diaphanous silks of every bright hue, swept through an archway. When all had gathered round the edge of the bath, some of them pressed wooden flutes to their lips and struck up a trilling melody. The bathing Brothers began clapping a slow beat, to which the rest of the women danced. It was a dance, Leitos noted with shock, that involved shedding a strip of silk every few twirling steps.

Like Fauthian men, the women were tall. Where the men were given to gangly builds, Fauthian women were sleek of limb, and generously rounded at hip and breast. And to the last, each was breathtakingly beautiful, with cascading waves of red-gold hair falling to their waists. Seeing them that way, naked and smiling playfully, brought a pang to Leitos’s heart.

When he had been on the run from the changelings Sandros and Pathil, Zera had taken him to a secret cavern in the desert. There had been a pool there, as well, but cold and deep. She had worn the same kind of mischievous look as the Fauthian women did now, putting him terribly out of sorts. Though nothing had happened between them, afterward she had promised never to try and seduce him again. She had named them friends, but he had loved her as much then as he did now.

“Time to go,” Adham ordered, snatching Leitos out of the steaming pool, and then heaping his clothing into his arms.

“Where are you off to, little brother?” Daris hooted.

Juggling his boots and robes, Leitos waved awkwardly. The Brothers looked his way just long enough to shout a few good-natured taunts, then returned their attention to the giggling women, who by now had doffed all their silks in favor of throwing themselves into the bath and the eager arms of the Brothers.

In a chamber beyond the muggy confines, Adham paused long enough for Leitos to get dressed-a tricky affair, since he was still wet. After that, they strolled outside into the heat of the day. Only when Leitos noticed that they were heading toward the main gate in the palace wall, did he speak.

“We should turn around, go back to our quarters. I’m sure Ulmek and Ba’Sel are in the gathering hall. Maybe we could get something to eat-”

“I’m finished with gathering halls and rich food, and all this accursed Fauthian friendliness,” Adham snarled. When he caught Leitos eyeing him uncertainly, he halted and shook his head. “I’m sorry for snapping at you. But there is something wrong here. I have felt it in my bones since the night we arrived. Gods good and wise, I felt it the moment those snaky yellow bastards crept from the forest, and all but begged to lay hands on Ke’uld.”

Leitos did not know what to say to that. He did not overly trust the Fauthians, but other than Adu’lin’s occasional lingering looks and sly smiles, none of them had done anything to make him as uneasy as his father was.

Two guards came together on the wall walk arching over the open gate. When the pair glanced down, Adham spun Leitos in the other direction. Once they were well out of earshot, he said, “The time has come to search this city.”

“Are you sure that is a good idea?”

“Has Adu’lin denied us the chance?”

Leitos thought about it. “No, not exactly. But more than once I have gotten the impression that we ought to keep to the palace grounds … for our safety from the Yatoans. Besides, how would we get past the guards?”

“If these guards are any indication, the Yatoans are not the frightful warriors Adu’lin claims.”

“What do you mean?”

“If you feared an attack at any moment, would you spend so much time watching the palace grounds, or would you look to the streets beyond, in the direction that the enemy would come?”

Instead of answering, Leitos cast an eye over the grounds. Wherever a guard walked, he looked inward, not out. They did not behave like men in fear of anything. Truth told, they seemed bored to the point of collapse. Here and there, he actually saw a guard slouched against his grounded spear or halberd, apparently napping.

“And if we get past the guards,” Leitos said cautiously, not wanting to encourage his father into doing something rash, “what do you expect us to find?”

Adham peered under his brows, his eyes hard and gray as old ice. “Not us-you. I do not have your skills. If I leave, it will be behind my sword. So far, things have not yet gotten so bad as that. At least, I hope not.”

Leitos did not like where this was going, but at the same time, the idea of sneaking through the city, hunting for answers to unknown questions, filled him with a sense of purpose he had not known he missed. “I’ll do it. But again, what am I searching for?”

Adham sighed. “That, my boy, I do not know. Something, anything, that tells us who these Fauthians really are.”

“You mean, other than who they say they are?”

“Exactly. Adu’lin is hiding something, and I want to know what. We need something to give to Ba’Sel and Ulmek … something that will pull their heads out of that disgusting fruit wine long enough to see reason.”

And if I find nothing? Leitos resisted speaking that question aloud. A part of him truly did not want to find anything against the Fauthians. It would be a pleasant change if a stranger did not prove to be an enemy in league with the Faceless One.

“Here,” Adham said gruffly, pressing a sheathed dagger into his son’s hand. It was a Kelren blade, but a weapon just the same.

“Why do you still have-” Leitos began, but Adham cut him off.

“We Izutarians learned, long before the Faceless One rose to power, that giving over your sword to a ruler hastens a man’s journey to the grave.”

Leitos tucked it into his belt. “But now you are unarmed.”

“Never, my son.” Adham drew back the edge of his robe to show the hilt of another Kelren blade. With a last word of caution, Adham stalked away.

Getting free of the palace grounds proved as easy as Adham had suggested, a simple matter of waiting for the footfalls of a guard to fade in the distance, and then slipping through the open gate and making for the nearest crop of shadows.

Leitos followed empty streets and alleys, always sure to keep buildings between himself and the palace wall, until he was far enough away that there was little chance anyone would see him. Not that he feared that overmuch. As Adham had said, the Fauthian guards only seemed interested in the palace grounds, not the city. Still, he kept a wary eye for any Fauthian patrols. He was not sure if there were any, but something in the back of his mind suggested that having them catch him beyond the palace walls would prove troublesome.

Leitos crept along, poking his head into a building here or there, or fully investigating those that seemed the most interesting. After several hours of discovering only dust, cobwebs, and rotted furnishings, he began to doubt he would locate any of the damning evidence his father wanted. He had found more things of curiosity in the bone-towns of Geldain.

Gradually moving toward Armala’s southern wall, he kept on until dusk, when he came to a tall, needlelike watchtower ringed about its crown with arched openings. An iron-banded door set in its base was the only way inside.

He gazed at those openings, so far above. If there was anything incriminating to see, it might stand out from on high. And, if nothing else, the view might give him a better idea about Armala and its defenses.

He tried the door’s latch. Like nearly every other door he had tested, this one was unlocked. Inside showed more untouched dust and spiders’ leavings, all lit by golden bars of sunlight slanting through the windows. The tower’s center was hollow, with a wooden stairway turning its way up to the top.

After testing the first few wooden treads and finding them sound, he began to climb. It was slow going, for the higher he went, the more cautious he became about the ancient steps. They creaked and groaned, but otherwise seemed solid.

The stairway ended at trapdoor set in the tower’s only floor. Hand on the iron handle, he hesitated. If there were guards standing watch on the other side, there would be no way to get away. Save for those he left behind him, there had been no tracks in the dust. Unless Fauthians could fly, he reasoned, no one had been in this tower for a very long time.

He eased the door up a crack, searched the gap for any traps or dangers, then pushed it all the way open. In one corner he found a large bird’s nest, but nothing else. Staying in a crouch, he moved to the nearest window and looked out.

From so high, Armala seemed small, barely deserving to be called a city. He spied the palace straight away, even saw guards striding the wall walks. Due east rose a twin to his tower. To the north, near the gate they had used to first enter the city, two more towers overlooked the city. Between those four landmarks, lay Armala. Much as the bone-towns he had passed through, Armala seemed bereft of life and all hope. Of anything his father sought, he saw nothing that he had not seen during their march to the palace.

He moved to the opposite opening. The city wall, secured by a handful of guards, followed the curves of the land. From a closed gate, braced by two squat gatehouses, a narrow road ran a short stretch-no more than a hundred paces-through a field of tall grass, before vanishing into the forest. By its direction, it followed the ridgeline that began its ascent soon after the field ended and the forest began.

He was wondering if that road led to the top of the mountains, or maybe over them, when he heard a faint scream. Another followed, louder and longer, and filled with agony.

Silence fell with disturbing abruptness. Not one of the guards below him so much as twitched. They have heard those cries before … and often.

Leitos did not move for a long time. The sun settled its girth behind the cloud-draped horizon, and a deeper red covered the land. Soon after, darkness thickened, welling up out of the forest’s ravines and hollows, and spilling out over everything.

Had he left the tower and fled back to the palace, he never would have seen the faint blue glow, high upon the slope beyond the city. That was where screams had come from, he had no doubt. And it was the place to which he could not keep himself from going.

Chapter 16

Even stopping often to listen for patrolling guards, Leitos quickly reached the southern curve of the city wall. Fast as the trip was, it still felt too long. He was sure that someone out in the forest, caught within that strange blue light, needed help. And as far as he could tell, he was the only one willing to offer it. It crossed his mind that the Yatoans were trying to lure the Fauthians into a trap, but the utter lack of concern he had seen from the guards made him doubt that.

Climbing the wall unseen, he judged, and vanishing into the waiting forest without being noticed, were his only true challenges. That, and his return. But if he made it out undetected, then getting back in should be no more difficult.

The moon had not yet risen, and the Fauthians began lighting torches along the wall. Soon their flickering glow created numerous islands in the darkness. Guards walked between those glowing points, spears resting on their shoulders. They appeared no more alert now than they had earlier.

Leitos picked the spot he would scramble over the wall, waited until a guard passed into shadow, and ghosted to the wall. He put his back to the stonework, as the first guard returned and met another above him. They spoke briefly, then moved apart.

Listening to the footfalls, Leitos began counting. He did not stop until the guard had completed his full circuit. Twice more he counted, gauging how much time he would have to get over the wall. He knew the time was too short to go without stopping, and the only place to stop was under the wall walk. That meant clinging there and waiting. After scaling the cliff on Witch’s Mole the night of his testing, besting Armala’s wall would prove easy.

When the guard passed by again, Leitos began climbing, using the finger- and toeholds provided by the wall’s undressed stonework.

In short order, he heard approaching footsteps, and paused under the wall walk. When the guard passed, he heaved himself up, spared a quick glance in either direction, then crawled on his belly over the wall walk, and through a notch in the parapet.

A moment later, he stood on the ground. Keeping up his count, he ran in a crouch through the tall grass, and vanished into the waiting forest. Under the cover of towering trees, he straightened, listening for an alarm that never came.

“That wasn’t so hard,” he said under his breath, and angled toward the narrow road that wended up the steep ridgeline. It felt good to stretch his legs and fill his lungs with deep breaths. After less than a mile, the road topped a rocky knob bare of trees. He paused to get his bearings. Back the way he had come, the outline of Armala was marked out by a string of torches along the city wall, and the city itself was a slash of darkness surrounding the glowing palace. He hoped his father would not worry over his absence, but it was too late to go back now.

Leitos was about to set off when a shriek burst from the trees up ahead. His heart thudded at the horror contained within that voice. For the first time since climbing down from the watchtower, he could just make out that faint blue light peeking through dense foliage.

Moving with more caution than before, Leitos left the road and crept in that direction, the night air heavy with dampness. He searched the forest. Trees with broad trunks loomed, their leafy boughs spreading high above. Night creatures, usually active with wild hoots, howls, and murmuring calls, had gone quiet. The darkness provided him with good cover, but it also concealed watching enemies.

He moved with slow deliberation, making himself one with the landscape, until he fully entered the forest.

The scream came again, closer. The hair on the back of his neck stood up. The voice belonged to a woman. His fingers clamped tighter around the hilt of the Kelren dagger. Eyes narrowed, he saw only darkness. Something waited for him ahead. He felt its presence, like outstretched fingers a hair’s breadth from touching his neck. Sweat trickled over his skin, raising a rash of gooseflesh.

The woman cried out, begging. Another voice answered, too softly to understand.

The tenuous thread holding him in place snapped, and he set out at a reckless pace.

He pushed through brush tangled with great spider webs. Dew that had collected on wide leaves and within trumpet-shaped flowers soaked his robes. Trailing vines and thorny creepers caught his feet, determined to trip him. He pressed on, mind bent on the woman.

He finally came to rocky outcrop draped in gnarled tree roots. Above the outcrop, the blue light shone brighter than ever. Leitos clamped the dagger between his teeth, and began to climb up the roots, causing dirt, moss, and crawling things to dribble over his head. At the top, he scrambled up and hid behind a huge tree trunk.

Settling the dagger back in his hand, he edged around the tree. Through the azure glow, he saw a cliff rising into the night. At the base of the cliff, a path led into an arched opening, the source of all that glaring illumination. As his eyes adjusted, and he made out a terrible visage carved into the rock above the arch. Narrow and long, it was a Fauthian face, but engraved all over with angular glyphs. Similar engravings decorated the arch’s stonework.

A low moan drew his eye back to the opening. He crept farther around the tree, breath caught in his chest. If anyone guarded this place, surely they would see him. When he stepped fully into the open the radiance fell over him, and a prickly sensation crawled over his skin. He drew back, and the feeling vanished. “What is this place?” he murmured.

His answer was a blade pressed to his throat. An instant before he smashed aside the weapon and brought his own dagger to bear, the keen edge pressed harder against his neck, and a female voice cautioned, “Do as I say, or I’ll have off your head.”

She sounded young, but no matter how he rolled his eyes, she remained out of sight. Leitos weighed his chances of escaping without earning a severed windpipe, and found the odds against him. He grunted in answer, and relaxed.

“Very good. Now, step back before someone sees you.” With the utmost caution, guided by the girl’s firm hand, he backed up until lost in deep shadow.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

Leitos decided the truth might persuade her to ease the blade from his neck. “I heard screams, and came to help.”

“You came to the Throat of Balaam, intending to help? You are either you are a fool, or a liar.”

“Then why are you here?”

“To grieve.”

Leitos kept quiet for a moment, then asked, “What is this Throat of Balaam?”

His captor spun him around, slammed him against the tree, and pressed the tip of a broad knife into the fold under his eye. At the sight of her, Leitos’s breath caught, his legs quivered. Zera’s ghost lurked in this girl’s face and pale green eyes.

As surely as shock held him, it clutched the girl. “You!” she said. “Why are you here?” she demanded.

Leitos tried to speak, but no words came. A leather thong held back her short dark hair. Smears of dirt covered much of her face, doubtless placed on her cheeks and brow in an effort to better conceal her presence in the forest. Her closefitting clothing was equally dark, all of mottled greens and browns and dark grays. She was not Zera, but there could be no question that Zera and this girl had a shared ancestry.

Something behind him drew her eye, and she dragged him down, hissing into his ear, “Stay quiet, or we will both die.”

At his questioning expression, she caught his chin in a strong grip, forced him to look toward the arched opening. He squinted against the glare, and saw a pair of men walk out. Their height, gangly limbs, and long kilts marked them as Fauthians. Behind them came an equally tall, beautiful woman in flowing robes, her arms cradled around a small bundle. Like the others, she was Fauthian.

“What is happening here?” Leitos whispered harshly. “What is this place?”

The girl jabbed a finger against his lips, shushing him. She remained quiet long after the Fauthian trio departed. He was about to break the silence again, when two more Fauthian men emerged from the opening under the cliff. Each held the ankle of a nude, lifeless woman who was clearly not Fauthian. They dragged her behind them. Blood covered her torso and legs from a gaping wound in her belly.

The girl at his side moaned and shut her eyes. Leitos swallowed the bile that flooded the back of his throat.

After the Fauthians turned off the path and vanished into the forest, yanking their burden over root and rock with cold indifference, Leitos leaned closer to the girl and asked again, “What is going on here?”

“This night,” she said in a halting voice, “one of my kindred died … and a demon was born into the world.”

That hair on the back of Leitos’s neck stood on end. “I must return to Armala and warn my friends.”

“You mean the men who were with you on the beach?” Nothing in her demeanor hinted that she might still want to stick her knife into his gullet, and that seemed promising.

“Yes,” Leitos said, standing. “And it was you I saw hiding in the forest,” he said, remembering the face he had seen.

She nodded. “As long as I can remember, I have been waiting for you to land on our shores,” the girl said, gazing into the empty space between them. “The night of the wreck, I awoke and knew you had come.” She faced him, looking uncomfortable. “I went to you, but found that you had already joined the Fauthians.”

“I have not joined them, we were taken into their care.” He shot her an inquisitive look. “And what do you mean, you have been waiting for me….” He trailed off, as understanding dawned. “You are a seer, is that it?”

She made a vague gesture toward her head. “Until tonight, I have always seen you in my mind-not as you are now, but as you will be. Your name is Leitos, yes?” He gave her a startled nod, and she added, “I am Belina.”

“Belina, I must return and tell my brothers about what I have seen.” In truth, he was not sure what he had seen, but knew it troubled him.

“You cannot.”

“Of course I can. I snuck here, didn’t I?”

“I mean,” Belina said, some of the fire coming back into her eyes, “that I will not allow you to return. You must come to my camp. Elder Damoc will have questions, especially now that my visions of you can be proven.”

“I will return,” Leitos promised, “this time on the morrow. For now, I must go. My people might be in danger. When I tell them what I saw, they will join me in helping you.” Considering Ba’Sel’s apparent trust of Adu’lin, he hoped he was not telling the girl a lie.

Belina’s gaze flickered over his shoulder. “No!” she hissed.

Leitos dropped to his haunches and spun, belatedly sensing a presence. His flung up his dagger against a looming shape, but a cudgel crashed against his skull. Blackness cascaded over his eyes, stealing away the sharp pain in his temple. From far away, he heard Belina’s protests. His shadowy assailant struck again, driving him to the ground. Then he was falling in to darkness, unfeeling, unknowing.

Chapter 17

A snuffling squeal filled Leitos’s ear, and something cold and wet bumped his cheek. He sat up, reaching for his dagger, but it was gone. A coarse-haired piglet bolted away, its squeals like spikes piercing his skull. He raised a muddy hand to his scalp, felt a pair of lumps under his crusted hair.

“Behave, and we’ll get you cleaned up,” a girl said.

Careful to not make any quick motions, Leitos glanced around in the predawn gloom. The rank air surrounding him was thick with dew and buzzing midges. For a moment, he did not recognize her. Then, slowly, the events of the night before came back, as well as meeting this young woman … Belina. She was prettier without mud covering her face.

She sat on a mossy rock outside his cage, an enclosure made of saplings lashed together with thick vines. Using the same knife she had wielded the night before, Belina sliced a piece of yellow-skinned fruit with a seedy pink center, and popped the wedge into her mouth. She chewed, eyeing him askance, as if expecting him to do something dangerous. That look of distrust annoyed him, since it had been her and her friend who had knocked him senseless, before tossing him into a pigsty.

“Is there any reason I should believe you?” he asked. She frowned as if offended. “So far, you and your people have done nothing to earn my good behavior. Having met two peoples on Yato, I can say that only the Fauthians have treated me well.”

“The Fauthians?” she spat. “Do you not remember what you saw last night?”

“I saw the Fauthians take a dead woman from a cave-”

“-the Throat of Balaam is no mere cave,” she interrupted. “It is a place of dark powers … an abode to evil.”

“Is it?” Leitos said, arching a skeptical eyebrow. “Or is that what you would have me believe? Adu’lin warned of your kind, how savage you are, even to your own. For all I know, you and that brute who clubbed me might have been torturing the woman, and her dying screams brought a Fauthian patrol to rescue her.”

“Are you mad?” Belina said, mouth agape. “The Fauthians are vile and cruel. They take our women and they … they do unspeakable things to them. On most islands they let the Kelrens hunt us. Our men, the slavers kill outright, or chain for the Faceless One’s mines. But our women are the true prize. They capture them and force them to … to.…” She cut off with an agonized look. “They do things that I cannot-will not-utter aloud.”

If Leitos could trust anything, it was that Belina believed what she was saying. But then, Adu’lin and the other Fauthians held a similarly hostile view of the Yatoans. Still, all that about the Kelrens hunting them bothered him. Telmon had named these islands the hunting grounds, and that made him want to believe Belina. He touched his scalp again, and wondered if he could trust anyone.

“If you expect me to behave,” Leitos said, “then you had better show me some proof against the Fauthians. As it stands, nothing you and your people have done convinces me not to side with them, and see you as my enemy.”

“You remember what I told you last night, about the birth of a demon, and the Fauthian woman carrying a newborn child, and the dead woman who was dragged out after?” Leitos nodded, and Belina took a deep breath. “The Fauthians force our women to breed with Alon’mahk’lar. What comes later are nightmares made flesh, changelings, Na’mihn’teghul.”

Leitos recalled the story the changeling Hunter Sandros had told him about his own mother, who willingly gave herself into the hands of Alon’mahk’lar for just such a vile purpose. Afterward, she had eviscerated her own husband, as a living sacrifice to the Alon’mahk’lar. Or, perhaps, the man’s death had merely been for sport. Sandros had never elaborated on the reason. Leitos also thought of Zera. If Belina was telling him the truth, then Zera might have been born in that cave, the Throat of Balaam.

But there were still unanswered questions.

“I have not seen any Alon’mahk’lar in Armala,” he said.

“And neither have you seen any children, have you? Strange, wouldn’t you say, since all the Fauthians are young and hale, the perfect age to rear families.”

Leitos frowned. In the last year, he had grown so accustomed to seeing only fellow Brothers, all older than him, that the lack of children in Armala had escaped him.

Belina said, “Adu’lin has likely hidden away the Alon’mahk’lar who serve him. As to the babes, they are born but never seen. We do not know where they go or how. As for the Fauthians, as far as we know, they cannot bear children.”

“Then how can they continue to exist?”

Instead of answering, Belina glanced at the spot where his fingers massaged his head. “You must forgive Nola. She is quick-tempered, untrusting, and given to crushing heads, instead of making friends.”

“She?” he said ruefully. “You threatened to cut my throat, and this Nola clubbed me. Are all Yatoan women so hungry for blood?”

“Not by choice,” Belina said, an abashed grin turning her lips. Her study returned to his face, and the grin became a scowl. “To stay alive under the heel of Fauthian dominance, we cannot suffer remorse, or show mercy to our enemies … or those who might become our foes.”

They sat in silence for a time, Leitos considering what she had told him, and Belina paring her fruit and chewing the slices as if angry at them. Awakening birds sang to the brightening dawn. The piglets wallowed in the mud, snorting and grunting.

While he saw no easy way out of his predicament, Leitos judged that Belina’s choice of the word camp had been accurate. Small, domed huts sprouted from the forest floor like mushrooms. Made from cut branches and layered leaves, the shelters were almost invisible, even close up. Leitos supposed they would keep off the rain well enough, but were in no way permanent. Even his cage had the look of something made in haste, meant only to keep a few feral piglets alive until the time came to eat them.

Roughly in the center of the encampment, a ring of stones contained a fire that gave off more smoke than flame. Above it hung a sooty earthenware kettle. Something bubbled within the kettle, but Leitos could not tell if the aroma filling his nose came from the contents or the rooting swine.

A rustling noise drew his eye to a man with dark, close-cropped hair emerging from one of the huts. Like Belina, he wore snug trousers, a tunic, and soft leather boots that laced to the knee, all dyed in mottled greens, and slashed with browns and grays. As with the huts, even standing in plain sight, the man blended well with his background.

“Damoc, our clan’s elder, will soon question you,” Belina said. Leitos sensed a tone of warning, which did not settle his apprehension a whit. “He has spent the night with his council, discussing your presence and purpose.”

“I have little to say that they do not already know,” Leitos said. “Unless, of course, you held back what I told you.”

“My father knows all that I do,” Belina answered. With that, she stood up and strode away.

“Your father?”

Belina’s departure captured the man’s attention, and his gaze moved to Leitos. His was a face of angles and edges, and his hazel eyes contrasted sharply with deeply tanned skin. Leitos saw no mercy in that stare, no compromise.

“I am Damoc, leader of my clan,” he said after coming close.

“Well met,” Leitos said, giving his own name with a respectful bow of his head. A life of submitting to his slavemasters had taught him that deference often smoothed paths.

Damoc stared silently, and Leitos felt like an insect under that stolid gaze. He wondered if Damoc would stomp on him, or let him go free.

“Why are you here?” Damoc finally asked.

Leitos gazed around, wondering if the man was mocking him. “I would not be, but for Belina and Nola.”

Damoc’s scowl deepened. “Why have you come to my homelands?” he growled.

“Not by choice, and not for your hospitality, I can assure you,” Leitos said, his deference already exhausted.

“Answer my questions, or I will feed your corpse to these shoats.”

“Very well,” Leitos began. “Kelrens came to the Singing Islands, where my brethren and I had hidden from the Faceless One’s forces.”

“Brothers of the Crimson Shield?”

That Elder Damoc knew of his order startled Leitos, but there was no point denying it. “Yes.”

Damoc rubbed his chin. “It is unlikely that the sea-wolves would have sought out men who are known, even in Yato, as deadly adversaries … not without good cause. When they come to these hunting grounds, they gather scores at a time. Why do you think they would have wasted so much effort gathering a few Brothers?”

“I have no idea,” Leitos said.

“So how were you caught?” Damoc asked. The way he said it suggested that he did not believe they had been captured.

“We misjudged the slavers’ strength. Also, they had Hunters with them, changeling wolves.” Damoc’s lips curled in distaste, but he held silent, waiting for Leitos to continue. “Some of our number were taken….”

Leitos spoke on for long moments, detailing the entire account. When he finished, Elder Damoc’s features grew thoughtful.

“If all that you say is true, then why have you joined with the Fauthians, as much the enemies of humankind as the Faceless One?”

“We did not join them,” Leitos said, tired of explaining that point, but having no choice. “We only accepted their generosity. If they had not healed Ke’uld, a Brother who was near death, perhaps we would not have. Also, they offered to repair one of the Kelren ships for our return to Geldain.”

Where Damoc had shown no inclination toward humor, he laughed now. “Repair ships? Fauthians were men of the sea, generations gone, but no more. Now they shun deep waters.”

Leitos scowled. There was another creature that avoided deep water. “You speak as if they are Alon’mahk’lar.”

Damoc’s face twisted. “They are far worse. Demons and demon-born are what they are, by their inborn nature. The Fauthians willingly chose to side against humankind.”

Leitos’s eyes held Damoc’s. “Let me go, and I will tell my brethren who the Fauthians really are. If we find that you speak the truth, we will destroy them.”

“No,” Damoc intoned. “You have joined with our enemy, and so have become an enemy to all men.”

“Have you heard nothing I said?” Leitos gasped.

“Do you deny that you and your fellows have taken shelter in Armala?”

“No,” Leitos said, shaking his head, then rushed to explain. “Our only purpose is to destroy those who bend knee to the Faceless One!” He was uncomfortably aware that if that mission had ever been true, it no longer held sway amongst the majority of his fellows. Even now, he could imagine Sumahn and Daris taking their pleasure with the Fauthian women, while the rest supped on Fauthian food, and slept in Fauthian beds.

“I could almost believe you,” Damoc mused regretfully, “but to do so could prove to be my downfall, that of my clan, and all my people. I cannot take the chance that you are lying.” He took a deep breath and stood rigid. “You will burn before a gathering of my people. Such is the sentence for those who have sworn fealty to the Faceless One.”

“I did not swear to anyone,” Leitos shouted, hauling himself out of the muck. “You must believe me. We did not know. Damoc, free me!”

Damoc turned and strode away. He did not slow, or so much as hunch his shoulders against Leitos’s pleas.

Chapter 18

At dawn the night after he sent his son off, a bleary-eyed Adham peeked into Leitos’s room, thinking he must have returned by now. The bed still stood empty and unused. Hoping he had missed his son’s return, he joined Ba’Sel and Ulmek in the gathering hall.

“He’s probably sneaking about stealing things,” Ulmek said, and then filled his mouth with a gulp of fruit wine, indifferent to the greenish liquid that dribbled over his chin.

Ba’Sel drained his own goblet, swaying a bit in his seat. “The boy is probably enjoying the city. As I understand it, he has never seen a living city, other than Zuladah. Trust that hunger will bring him back-you know how boys love to eat.”

“He would not have left without telling me,” Adham countered, keeping to himself that he had sent Leitos in search of anything the Fauthians might be hiding.

Ba’Sel frowned doubtfully. “Surely you must know that young men often stretch the bounds put in place by their elders.”

“Sumahn and Daris ought to be proof enough of that,” Ulmek drawled. “If you need more, look to your own youth.”

“From the time I could raise a sword without slicing off my ears,” Adham snarled, “I set to slaughtering enemies, not lolling about and cavorting with strange flesh.”

“Strange of flesh these Fauthian women may be,” Ulmek said, turning an eye on a laughing pair of women passing by, “but Sumahn names them exotic … and skilled in matters of love. In that, I must agree.”

Of all the Brothers, Ulmek was the last one Adham would have expected to fall under Fauthian sway.

“Do not fret, Adham,” Ba’Sel said, smiling and glassy-eyed. “Leitos has shown great promise. You should trust in him and his wisdom.” He winked. “Besides, it could be that he has chosen to make a man of himself among our hosts.”

Adham abandoned the two to their wine, and went to find Adu’lin. If not for desperation, he would not have lowered himself to speak with that yellow snake of a man. Adham did not trust the Fauthian or his people. In truth, he did not believe they were people at all, but something very much akin to Alon’mahk’lar. Who knew what the Fallen were capable of creating?

He found Adu’lin speaking quietly to a group of his folk, who sat on benches fashioned after nude children-human children, Adham noted uncomfortably. Behind them stood a fountain fashioned into a wrinkled crone of hammered bronze, with a crown of ruby horns, and pendulous breasts that streamed water from jade nipples; below the waist, she became a stone serpent of thick coils that trailed into a pool tiled in eye-wrenching patterns.

Tearing his gaze from the fountain, Adham demanded, “Have you seen my son?”

“Which one of you would that be?” Adu’lin asked, smirking. “Forgive me, but you all look so much alike to us.”

Adham tried to ignore the Fauthians’ sniggering, but the cracking knuckles of his tightening hand gave evidence of his irritation. “He is the youngest of our party,” Adham grated. “His name is Leitos. He was not abed this morning, and may not have been all night.”

Adu’lin favored him with an unreadable expression, though a flicker of some emotion-surprise, alarm, wrath? — lit his stare. “As I warned you and the others, this city is ancient and far larger than my people can fully inhabit. As such, much of Armala is dangerous for its sad state of neglect. If your son has gone nosing about where he ought not-which Ba’Sel assured me none of his men would do-then it is possible some ill has befallen him.”

In a voice low and dangerous, Adham said, “Listen well, you goat-buggering serpent, if you know where my son is, tell me. If not, then get off your scrawny backside, and start searching this befouled city for him.” He reached for his sword to emphasize his point, belatedly remembering that it was not there. He had his dagger tucked under this robes, but thought better about drawing it.

Each Fauthian watched his hand clutch the empty air at his hip, and their amber eyes narrowed to slits. A smug look passed over Adu’lin’s thin face. “We are all friends here. Surely there is no need for hostility?”

“Forgive me,” Adham forced himself to say, suddenly feeling imperiled. “Concern for my son has soured my manners. I would like to search for my son, but I do not know the city, or where to start. I … I need your help.”

“Of course,” Adu’lin said, placid and accommodating once more. “But as you would only hinder us, I must ask you to return to your quarters. Trust that we will find your son … if he is in the city.”

“Where else would he be?”

Adu’lin shrugged. “We place guards on the walls to keep the Yatoans out, not to keep our people in. But then, we know better than to venture outside the city. It is conceivable that your son might have disregarded my warnings, and left Armala. I hope that is not so … as should you.”

After leaving Adu’lin, Adham returned to his quarters and paced, wall to wall. Every hour on the hour, he went to Leitos’s room, hoping he had returned. The chamber remained empty.

Now, with the sun westering toward its nightly slumber, and still no word from Adu’lin’s search party, his worry became stark fear. Adham cursed himself for not insisting on joining the Fauthians, and he cursed Ba’Sel and the others for their careless indifference about … well, everything. No one asked after the Fauthians’ disregard for repairing a Kelren ship, no one spoke of training, no one seemed interested in returning to Geldain to fight the Faceless One and his minions.

Something was foul in Armala, and Adham needed answers-he intended to get them, with or without the help of the Brothers of the Crimson Shield.

Chapter 19

“You cannot put him to death,” Belina warned, looking at her father over the fire’s glowing embers. An opening in the hut’s roof created a gentle draft, drawing out the smoke, even as it ushered in fresh air under the edges of the domed shelter.

“My decision is final,” Damoc said. “We do not know if this Leitos is in league with the Fauthians and the Faceless One, but we cannot take the chance that he is. If we are betrayed now, our homelands are lost to us forever.”

Our homelands were lost when our forefathers traded the defilement of our mothers and daughters for the illusion of peace, Belina thought but did not say. There was no point voicing aloud what her father knew in his heart, even if he refused to admit it with his mouth.

For generations after the Upheaval, Yatoan womenfolk had given themselves to the godlike Fauthians, who in turn gave them over to Mahk’lar for the creation of Alon’mahk’lar. Bearing those monsters changed the women. They became as living ghosts, and their love grew cold. After bringing forth demonic life, the only thing that gave them pleasure or purpose was to offer themselves for breeding, again and again.

In time, the Alon’mahk’lar race grew plentiful, and the Fauthians conceived of a new race with which to gift the Faceless One-the Na’mihn’teghul, changelings, created by breeding women to Alon’mahk’lar. Only the hardiest woman survived those cruel assaults. Fewer still survived the long pregnancies required for Na’mihn’teghul young, let alone the birth.

Belina’s father and mother, like all Yatoans, had dutifully bowed to their masters’ plan, and to them was born a daughter, Belina’s older sister. When the Fauthians had come to claim the child for their own purposes, it had broken what little remained of their mother’s mind. One night, just as Belina had seen in a dream-vision, her mother had risen and given herself to the sea.

With the death of his wife, and the abduction of his eldest daughter, Damoc awakened and found his purpose. He opened the eyes of his people to the truth of their servitude, to the horrors forced upon them. In doing so, he began a war of resistance against the Fauthians, and their demon-born host. In time, her father proposed retaking the largest island of Yato, and destroying the Fauthians, once and for all.

Now Belina feared Damoc’s lust for vengeance had blinded him to other truths. “If you kill Leitos,” she said, “you destroy us all, and sentence the world to darkness.” She hesitated, knowing how he felt about the things she saw when she closed her eyes. “I have told you my visions, so you know this.”

Damoc prodded the embers with a stick, sending a swirl of ash up and out of the hole in the roof. “I have never doubted that you believe what you have seen in dreams-but they are just dreams, nothing more.”

Although Belina had never spoken it aloud, she knew the reason her father refused to accept her gift. To admit the truth was to acknowledge that somehow she had inherited an unnatural ability … something, perhaps, leftover from her demon-born sister.

“Leitos came ashore, just as I told you he would,” Belina said gently. “Name it a dream if you will, but he has come as I foretold.”

Even in the gloom, her father’s doubt was apparent. “You spoke of a man of shadow and steel, of blood and death, yet my eyes see only a stripling youth who was easily taken by you and Nola. How is such a one as that supposed to save our people, let alone the world?”

When Belina did not answer straight away, Damoc added, “All you have done, daughter, is cross the paths of coincidence with a comely face, and now you try to force this Leitos into an imaginary role. Nothing more. Your heart compels you to distrust reason, and I cannot allow you to make that mistake.”

“So you will kill him out of hand,” she said, her anger rising. “In doing so, what do you gain?” She could not relent. Her visions had never been wrong. “Had you heeded what I saw, you might have stopped mother from-”

“Dare not blame me for that,” he said, raising a warning finger. “You were but a child. Always you prattled of your nightmares and dreams-like any child.”

“Except my nightmares and dreams were as true then as now.”

“You dreamed the fears of our clans, repeated things you had heard. That is all. What happened was expected-the lost and desolate of our people have always given themselves to the sea, as did your mother.”

There had been other visions, dreams, forewarnings, but Belina did not bother mentioning their accuracy. As her father was now, he would dismiss those too. As he always has, she thought, seeing that he would never believe her, that he would always bury the truth with reason. It was the same throughout the clan.

But not this time. She knew Leitos was more than he appeared-or he would be, if he survived. But, if there was a way to help, she did not see it. Belina remembered traitors who had died roped to a pole, burning from the feet up, hair flaring like oil-soaked straw, screaming until their lungs burst. She remembered, and she wept for Leitos, the youth of her visions.

Chapter 20

Throughout the day, while secretly using the edge of a blunt stone to grind away a knot of vine holding the pen together, Leitos watched the Yatoans.

Armed with bows and spears, they made little noise in their comings and goings, effortlessly blended with their surroundings, and never spoke above a murmur. Like the Fauthians, there were no children in sight, unless he counted Belina and a handful of others near his own age. To his mind, they were not here to settle, but to raid.

And none of that information did him any good. He was going to roast alive, by Elder Damoc’s decree, and that hour was rushing nearer.

Cautious not to draw attention, he abandoned his blade of stone, and tried to lift an edge of the pen. Stakes driven deep into the soft earth kept it in place. Likewise, he could not hope to squeeze through openings small enough to contain piglets. He took up his stone and resumed his work.

Near dusk, Damoc emerged from his hut, and ordered a few Yatoans to bring wood and join him deeper in the forest. Leitos avoided thinking about what they were up to. By now his fingers were raw from trying to cut through the vines, but he had still not made enough progress. With darkness closing fast, he decided he could risk a bit more effort.

Sweat had begun to run over his cheeks when Belina came from her father’s hut, cast about with a harried look, and found a youth about Leitos’s age sitting at the edge of camp. Belina did not head straight for the young guard, but made a circuitous route through camp. At one point she glanced at Leitos, made an indecipherable motion with her hand, then frowned at his bemused expression. She looked away with a dismissive snort.

Leitos shook his head, and set to sawing at the vines with a vengeance, keeping a sharp eye for anyone paying him too much mind. Even if he managed to get loose, he would still have to escape the Yatoans.

As he labored, Belina finally moved before the guard. She smiled and began to speak. With a surprised look, the youth jumped to his feet. When Belina pressed closer to him, he asked a question, and received a hesitant nod in return. A leering smile played across the youth’s face, and he abruptly kissed her. Before Belina could do anything-Leitos had the distinct impression she was about to stir his innards with that knife of hers-the guard hoisted his spear and disappeared into the forest, making for higher ground.

Scrubbing her lips with the back of her hand, Belina watched him vanish into the forest. Then she turned and made her way to Leitos. As she passed by her father’s hut, she retrieved a bow and a quiver bristling with arrows.

He did not know what was happening, but Belina’s ire now seemed directed at him. Held by her smoldering gaze, he wondered if what she intended could be worse than burning alive.

“You’ll never cut through those without an ax,” Belina said.

Leitos glanced at the frayed vines. “I had to try. Will you tell your father, or do you intend to poke a few arrows in me? I suppose that would be preferable to burning.”

Instead of answering, Belina leaned on a nearby tree. Between the thin light of the waning day and her clothing, she all but disappeared against the bark. She continued to gaze at him, silent and motionless.

Around camp, the Yatoans had begun to gather their weapons. A few stole looks his way. A long, low horn blast rolled down the mountainside. For a heartbeat only, the Yatoans froze in place. In the next instant, they charged up the slope. In moments, the Yatoans had disappeared, leaving only a few swaying leaves marking their passage.

“My father will be displeased that no one thought to leave a guard to watch over you,” Belina said. “He has often scolded our clan about leaving the camp untended. We are new to fighting,” she admitted.

Belina drew a dagger-the same Kelren blade his father had given him, Leitos saw-and slashed the twist of vine holding the cage’s makeshift door closed. It was the way out he had been looking for, given to him freely. But at the end of that path stood Belina.

“Do you mean to torture me before I burn?”

She looked at him as if he were an idiot. “Someday, you may well burn, but not this night.”

“Then what are you doing?”

She turned at the snap of a branch, listened for a moment, then faced him again. “You asked for evidence against the Fauthians-as if what you saw at the Throat was not enough-so I will give it to you.”

“Why?”

“I need you to see the truth,” Belina said, looking around apprehensively, “to understand those you have taken shelter with. For the sake of all, you must follow the right path.”

“Lead and I will follow,” he said slowly, unable to hide his mistrust.

“No,” she answered with an impatient scowl. “You go where I tell you, or I’ll gut you where you stand.”

When she motioned with the dagger, he weighed his options, and did as bidden. Observing his escape, the shoats followed suit, and scampered into the underbrush, squealing and grunting into the distance.

“Where to?” Leitos asked. If he wanted to get away, he would have to disarm her. In doing so, he presented himself with the dilemma of killing her, or tying her up and leaving her alone in the forest. He knew he could not kill her-no matter what she had done to him. Her sister, on the other hand, a girl he had yet to set eyes upon, was another matter. Nola had nearly taken off his head once before. Doubtless, she would slaughter him without hesitation. The same likely held true for all the Yatoans.

All, that was, save Belina. For the sake of all, you must follow the right path. He did not know what that could mean, or why she had said it with such conviction, but obviously his path meant a great deal to her, enough that she was willing to betray the trust of her clan.

Belina pointed out faint trail leading downhill. “Go,” she said. “Mind you do not make a peep, unless you favor fire to freedom.”

You call this freedom? He almost blurted the question, but thought better of it.

He set out, moving as quietly as an apparition. Belina came along a few paces behind, moving just as silently. Despite her threats, it felt good to be free of the company of swine, and on the move. As he pushed into the forest, he thought about the proof she meant to reveal about the Fauthians, and wondered if he really wanted to see it.

Chapter 21

Concealed within the shadows of the gallery overlooking the gathering hall, Adham cringed at the drunken merriment below, and at the music made by the Fauthian women.

He did a rough headcount. A full third of the Brothers who usually engaged in the nightly carousing were absent. Chief among the missing were Ulmek, Ba’Sel, Halan, and Ke’uld.

Sumahn and Daris, both stumbling drunk and stripped to their breechclouts, enjoyed the affections of several women, whose bare golden skin glowed with sweet oils.

Although repulsed, Adham was glad for the nightly distraction. It allowed him the freedom to begin looking for Leitos. So far, Adu’lin had not brought word one way or another about Leitos’s whereabouts. As far as Adham knew, the Fauthian had not bothered to search. Leitos had been gone a night and a day with no word nor any concern from anyone, and Adham’s worry had grown sharper by the hour. Only because he had lived amongst the Brothers for a year kept them safe from his ire.

While he would try not to draw undue attention to himself, Adham meant to find Leitos, no matter where that search took him. If worse came to worst and a Fauthian guard questioned him, he could feign drunken ignorance-as a precaution, he had sloshed a little of the fruit wine over his robes. Just the smell of it gagged him. Jagdah was the drink of his people, clear spirits that burned like purifying fire when it went down your throat, and warmed your body even during the coldest winter night. Good for drinking and healing, jagdah was the only thing besides water or tea worth drinking.

The gallery ringed the entire upper floor of the gathering hall, and at several points let out onto balconies overlooking the palace grounds. Adham moved cautiously to a balcony that offered clear sight of the armory where Adu’lin had deposited their weapons.

Taking a knee, he peered through the carved stone balusters. Standing in the flickering light falling from a pair of ensconced torches, two guards secured the door of the armory. After a little snooping, Adham had discovered the armory’s other doors had long been sealed with stone and mortar. Even the narrow windows were boarded over. Nevertheless, Adham knew he could get in-mortar crumbled quickly in a place so damp and hot.

Adham retreated to another balcony out of sight from the armory, took hold of the spreading limbs of a tree that grew against the side of the gathering hall, and climbed to the ground.

As he began his slow route around to the back of the armory, he went over the elements of his plan. After he collected the weapons he needed, he meant to scour the city in earnest. His greatest hope was that Leitos was still within the city, lost or, at worst, hurt and immobile but alive. Anything beyond that, he refused to consider.

He hurried across a cobbled street, and paused in the shadows on the far side, and eyed the guards. The men had not seen him. He ducked into an alley so narrow that his shoulders brushed the walls. Overhead, the roofs leaned close together. Lichen and damp moss clung to the walls and the ground, silencing his footsteps.

The narrow passage branched when it came to the back side of another building, and Adham turned toward the armory. The way became tighter than before, forcing him to squeeze through with his back and chest brushing the walls.

After a few paces, the walls pressed closer, making him breathe in shallow gulps. He used his hands to alternately pull and push himself along. When he investigated the way earlier, he had been sure there was plenty of room. Now his confidence wavered. Much tighter, and he would have to turn back.

After a few more feet, he reached a point where even breathing became almost impossible, but only a few paces stood between him and freedom. Adham rested, fighting the sense that the walls were living beings that wanted to crush him.

Preparing to push through, he went stiff when a small cascade of moss pattered over his shoulders and head. He glanced up, but saw only star-banded darkness … then a shadow silhouetted itself against that background. He blinked, and the figure disappeared.

Adham tried to get at his dagger, but he couldn’t reach it. He commanded himself to remain calm, told himself that he had seen nothing, but his heartbeat increased, and sweat sprang from his pours. He began bulling his way toward end of the passage.

After gaining a few more paces, he found himself pinned. More grit sprinkled down. He tilted his head back. The figure had returned, and with it several more. He recognized slender Fauthian heads peering down at him, radiating condescending triumph.

“Adham,” Adu’lin said, “might I ask what you are up too?” A few whispery chuckles met this.

“Where is my son?” Adham gasped. “Tell me, you creeping serpent!”

More chuckles filtered through the darkness, but something else caught Adham’s attention. A misty shape oozed into the gap between the roofs, a thing of shifting smoke and dull, silvery eyes. Spiderlike, the Mahk’lar crept closer, making no sound.

A swelling black terror filled Adham. He forced that fear down, and gusted all the air from his chest. His lungs began to burn straight away. Sensing the demonic spirit coming closer, he contracted his ribcage and lifted his feet. At once, his weight dragged him to his knees. Lower, there was a fraction more room. Adham scrambled ahead, clawing and kicking for every inch.

“You will not escape,” Adu’lin called.

Adham ignored him. He knew he could not escape from the Fauthians, not now, but he refused to die, trapped like a rat.

The last few feet of the passage squeezed in, the rough stonework scraping skin from his knuckles and elbows. He could hear the Mahk’lar murmuring indecipherable words that spawned a thousand visions of death, each worse than the last.

“Do not listen,” Adham told himself. “Do not see. Do not let it in.”

The cautionary words became a low chant, a distraction meant to reserve his sanity. He pushed forward, every inch slower and more painful than the previous. The walls squeezed tighter, and still he pressed on.

A pace from freedom, the two Fauthians guards he had initially tried to avoid showed themselves at the end of the passage. Growling low in his throat, Adham gave a last shove with his feet, and tumbled clear. His growl became a furious shout, as he bounded to his feet. He drew the Kelren dagger, and attacked as if it were a sword.

Stunned by his ferocity, the guards backpedaled, using their spears to keep him at bay. Adham caught the haft of one spear in a hand strengthened by long years of wielding heavy picks and mauls. The Fauthian tried to jerk the weapon free, but Adham held fast. With a violent twist, he wrenched it from the guard, and reversed the steel tip.

The other guard lunged. Adham deflected the attack, and drove the tip of his spear through his assailant’s belly. Adham ripped his weapon free, and the dying man’s scream filled the alley. From somewhere else, shouts of alarm sounded.

Adham went after the unarmed guard, who was retreating with hands raised. “There is no surrender,” he snarled.

Adham closed, and the Fauthian abruptly turned to flee. Adham hurled the spear, burying it between the guard’s shoulder blades. Before the Fauthian went still on the ground, Adham was there, tugging the shaft free, and wheeling to face the foes he knew must be coming.

The Mahk’lar slid out of the tight passageway, and rushed forward on a mass of legs. Its bulbous head jutted off its undulating back.

“You can do me no harm, demon,” Adham warned. “Best return to your mistress, and tell her that the line of Valera is alive and strong.”

The creature halted. “Valera?”

“Leave him be,” Adu’lin commanded, having come into the alley through a doorway at ground level.

“You do not command here,” the Mahk’lar hissed, a score of jointed limbs unfolding from its body. “Not in this.”

Adham took an involuntary step away, raising his spear. The demon continued to expand, driving back Adu’lin and his gathering men. Soon its dark bulk filled the narrow way.

“Valera blood,” the demon said, peering at Adham. “Such blood as that has been washed in the Powers of Creation … such blood is precious. Come, offer yourself to me, satisfy my hunger, and I shall see your rewards last all eternity.”

Adham forced a harsh, mocking laugh. “I will satisfy nothing of your needs, but I will destroy you.”

The demon reared, bellowing rage. He threw the spear at the densest part of the demon’s body, but the shaft passed through that misty substance. An instant later he heard a thump and a scream, and knew one of Adu’lin’s men, perhaps the Fauthian leader himself, had been impaled.

Before the demon could react, Adham flung himself at it. As he expected, the demon retreated, its limbs thrashing. Adham slashed a hand through the demon’s vaporous bulk, and a crackling flash of cool blue light brightened the alley. As he drove deeper into the demon’s suffocating mass, webs of azure lightning erupted from Adham’s skin, and spread like a ragged web over the demon.

Shrinking in on itself, the creature scrambled to escape, its cries shaking the walls. Adham closed his ears to those sounds, slammed shut his watering eyes, and continued to rake his hands through the creature’s insubstantial form, the crackling bursts of energy paining him, as well.

And then the agony vanished, along with the flickering pulses of radiance and the demon’s dread howls. Adham stood panting, eyes still shut.

“To destroy a demon is to draw more-those that might not be so agreeable,” Adu’lin shouted fearfully.

“And what manner of fool would wish to indulge demons, agreeable or not?” Adham asked. He opened his eyes to find no sign of the Mahk’lar, but the Fauthians had circled him about. Despite their professed aversion to violence, all held swords, long, brutal weapons. They seemed eager and willing to run him through, and waited only for Adu’lin’s command. Behind Adu’lin, a man lay on his back, fingers frozen around the haft of the spear Adham had thrown.

Shaken though he was, Adu’lin visibly collected himself, and put on a face of bland calm. “It is not a fool who treats with demons and their master. Rather, the fool is he who thinks to resist their rule-especially one of the Valera line. A lesson you shall soon learn, to your great displeasure.”

At the same moment Adham moved to break through those around him, the pommel of a sword crashed against the back of his head, driving him to his knees. The Fauthians fell on him, their brutal kicks and stomps first bruising him, then breaking him.

Chapter 22

Sumahn swept his goblet off the low table, watched it roll across the carpeted floor, then reached for the flagon of fruit wine. He poured the sweet nectar into his open mouth. Half of it splattered over his chest. That did not matter. There was more, always more, and the mess would invite Ina to use soft cloths to clean him … or, perhaps, she would use her lips.

In counterpoint to the delightful Fauthian music, Daris laughed dazedly, and rolled into the embrace of several cooing women-tangled as they were, and naked besides, it was hard to guess just how many entertained Daris this night.

All around the gathering hall, more Brothers were similarly engaged. All were drunk to the point of delirium, as the fruit wine had flown especially heavy over the course of the day. Sumahn noted with half a mind that Ba’Sel and Ulmek were not in attendance, as well as some of the older Brothers.

“Leave the young to their pleasures!” he bawled, as if his elders were listening.

Laughter and bawdy calls answered him.

Ina watched him with lidded golden eyes, a knowing smile turning her full lips. While Sumahn finished off the flagon, she swept back her red-gold hair, and arched her back enticingly. She was his favorite, as she seemed to guess his desires, no matter how chaste or perverse, before he had thought of them himself.

“Wine!” he slurred.

Ina reached behind her. Sumahn watched her skin pull taut over her lithe curves and thought of sweet butter, a delicacy he had not tasted in a lifetime. He reached to caress that warm flesh, but Ina turned back and pressed a fresh flagon into his hand. He blinked stupidly, and she seemed to double before his eyes.

“You’ve brought your sister?” he quipped, finding it difficult to keep his chin from bouncing off his chest.

He abruptly squinted at the gallery above, trying to clear his focus. “Did you see that?” he asked, struggling with the words. “Just there … I thought … I thought I saw someone.”

“Drink, my love,” Ina said, voice as soft and sweet as the fruit wine she offered.

“But there was someone watching-”

She pushed a long, perfectly tapered finger against his lips. “Drink … and know peace.”

“I would rather drink and know pleasure,” he murmured, fixated on her breasts.

“Drink first,” Ina said, helping tip the flagon.

Sumahn relented. Wine flooded over his tongue, the heady vapor of its honeyed effervescence filling his mind, crowding out all concerns….

What concerns do I have? he thought, as a fresh round of laughter washed over him. If he had any, he drowned them in wine, distantly aware that when he had first tasted it he had gagged on the syrupy thickness of the Fauthian drink. Soon after, he and the others had come to relish it. Unlike other wines, which left a man reeling after a night of drinking, and the promise of a throbbing head the next morning, the fruit wine imbued him with a sense of bliss so deep and persuasive as to wipe away all cares. After many years of fighting and running under Ba’Sel’s inept command, the respite was not just welcome, but earned.

After draining half the flagon, Sumahn dropped it and lay panting through a grin. Ina’s golden eyes never left his, as she began kneading the muscles of his thigh. Her touch sent tingles racing over his skin, and he let his head flop back. Through slitted eyes, he stared into the spinning darkness overhead, feeling weightless, serene, protected. Even when the shape he had seen before slowly materialized into a man bearing a terribly long-bladed sword, his calm remained. Gurgling like a fool, he watched more Fauthians emerge from the gloom, all armed and all stern of face.

“I think your menfolk are jealous,” he managed.

By now, Ina’s hands had moved higher up his leg, her feathery touch arousing. “Our people do not know jealousy,” she purred against his chest. She straddled him, and her eyes seemed to swell before him, like pools of molten gold. “But we do know hunger, my love,” she said. Sumahn grinned at her, despite the unexpected urgency in her voice. “A deep hunger … a soul hunger. It brings us both pleasure and pain. The need is unlike anything you have ever experienced.”

“I have known such needs,” Sumahn argued breathlessly. He winced as her nails pricked his skin. “I know them now,” he added, catching her breasts in his hands.

Ina’s eyes grew wider as she bore down. He thought sure he felt warm trickles of blood springing from his flesh. But that could not be. Ina would do him no harm … unless she had conceived some new manner of pleasure. Sumahn put on a wolfish smirk.

Ina leaned down and breathed into his ear. “So hungry, my love.”

Before Sumahn could respond, the boom of a crashing door echoed through the gathering hall. The music cut off at once. A life of battle and danger overrode the effects of the fruit wine, and he tossed Ina aside, his hands searching for the weapons he no longer had. His fingers flashed over the half-empty flagon, curled around the neck, and gripped tight. With a shout, he lumbered from the bed of pillows.

Adu’lin stood in the wide entrance to the gathering hall, flanked on each side by two guards bearing wicked-looking swords, their blades half as long as a man was tall, slender and slightly curved.

“It is time,” Adu’lin said.

While his fellows looked on in bleary-eyed confusion, Sumahn staggered closer to the Fauthian leader. “Time for what?” He gave a halfhearted effort at brandishing the flagon, but felt foolish for doing so. This was their host, Adu’lin. He was no enemy.

Adu’lin smiled in his flat way. “It is time for you and your fellows to repay our generosity.”

Sumahn considered that … rather, he tried. In truth, he had no idea what Adu’lin was getting at. What he really wanted was to return to whatever games Ina had dreamed up.

With that in mind, he faced her with a leering smile. Ina gazed back, her face as smooth and emotionless as carved stone. “Something amiss, my love?”

She moved with such blinding speed that Sumahn could not react. In the next moment, he found himself sprawled on his back, the gathering hall spinning around him. His jaw felt crushed, and that made no more sense than the taste of blood in his mouth. He tried to talk, but sharp pain stilled his tongue. From far off, he heard dismayed shouts, followed by the sounds of men slamming against the hall’s floor.

What is happening? That thought flitted through Sumahn’s mind, an instant before Ina’s bare foot viciously slammed against his head. All that he knew became as black and formless as the darkest reaches of the firmament.

Chapter 23

Gripping the rope, Leitos swung across the crevasse. Over the wind in his ears, he heard an alarming creak. The cleft below him was no more than a dozen feet wide, but darker than the night, and seemingly bottomless. Halfway across, something snapped overhead, and the rope dropped several inches.

Then he was on the far side, beyond danger. He dropped to the ground with no small measure of relief, and put more distance between his feet and the edge of the gap. He swung the rope back, and Belina caught it.

“Move over there,” she said, pointing at a tree farther along the trail.

“Do you not trust me yet?”

Belina laughed. “If I trusted strangers so quickly, I would have been captured or killed long ago.”

“I think the limb this rope is attached to might have broken,” he cautioned.

“Move,” Belina said, serious again.

Leitos held up his hands in surrender, and did as she commanded. He supposed he could have just as easily run off-it had crossed his mind more than once in the hour since she freed him-but he wanted to see her evidence against the Fauthians.

She eyed mistrustfully. Leitos folded his arms and leaned against the tree she had pointed out, doing his best to seem uninterested in what she was doing.

“If you do anything-”

“You’ll gut me where I stand,” Leitos interrupted, chuckling.

“No,” she said sweetly, “I’ll strip you bare, tie you up, and dip you into a stagnant pool favored by fangfish. For the mud and slime, you’ll not see them come, but you will feel them. They have wicked teeth, those little fishes, and a fierce appetite. They’ll make a eunuch of you in moments. If I decide to leave you in the water, they’ll make bones of you quicker than it takes for you to perish.”

Leitos swallowed. She sounded as though meant it. “I won’t do anything,” he said, thinking maybe he should take the opportunity to run.

She gazed at him a moment longer then, seemingly satisfied that he was telling the truth, she swung across the cleft. The rope neither creaked nor dropped, and she landed lightly as a butterfly.

“From here on,” she said, “we need to move as if they are waiting for us.”

“We are close then?”

“On the doorstep of the Throat of Balaam.”

Leitos began creeping down the trail. Over his shoulder, he asked, “Why does this place fill you with such dread?”

She looked at him as if he were the biggest dolt she had ever seen, an expression he was growing as used to as her constant threats. “Only fools and the servants of the Faceless One would not fear the Throat of Balaam-and I should think that even they cower in dread.”

“Why?” Leitos persisted.

Belina caught his shoulder and spun him about. “The Throat of Balaam is not just an evil place, Leitos, it is a … a womb for the creation of evil things.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Surely you cannot be this stupid?”

Leitos could not help but grin at her exasperation, but it was short-lived. “I am not from these lands. But then, neither am I from Geldain, where I was enslaved and ruled over by Alon’mahk’lar the whole of my life.” She gave him a troubled look, but he ignored her pity. “The Throat of Balaam is only a name and a strange light to me. If you want me to understand, then you’ll have to explain it-slowly, if you will, me being a fool, and all.”

“We do not have time for this,” Belina growled. “Go on, before I spill your guts.”

“There’s a new idea,” Leitos mumbled, and set out again.

They marched through the damp forest for another hour. The longer they went, the more Leitos began to wonder at how Belina and Nola had managed to carry him so far. More, he was curious about how they had kept him unconscious so long. He had seen slavemasters bludgeon men to insensibility, but usually those men came around soon after. Those who did not were rarely ever again right in their minds.

“Did you give me some kind of sleeping tonic?” he asked. At her blank look, he explained his thoughts.

“The juice from the root of the heart flower can soothe a teething babe. A bit more can put a man to sleep.”

“And if you use too much?” Leitos asked. “Would that kill a man?”

“Indeed,” Belina said cryptically.

“You have not given me much reason to trust you,” Leitos said. “At every turn, you threaten to gut me, or to feed me to fangfish, and now you tell me you might have accidently poisoned me to death.”

“When you see what I need to show you, you will understand why we do not trust outsiders,” Belina said, and ordered him to keep going.

They had not gone much farther when Belina dragged him behind the cover of a bush with leaves as broad as a man’s head. “We are close,” she said, her breath tickling his ear.

Leitos looked around, but saw only dense forest, mossy boulders, and hanging vines. The night was warm, and the long walk had brought sweat to his brow, and sweat brought buzzing midges. There was nothing around to indicate they were anywhere near the Throat of Balaam, especially the blue light that had initially drawn him. He said as much, even as he kept searching.

“We are farther up the mountain, above the entrance.”

“And where is this evidence you wanted to show me?”

“Before we go, I will answer your earlier question about why the Throat of Balaam frightens my people.” After a moment to collect her thoughts, she said, “Before the Upheaval, the Fauthians did not exist. Only Yatoans lived on the islands.”

“The Fauthians were created?” Leitos asked, thinking of the Alon’mahk’lar.

“Not exactly. Many generations gone, soon after the stars fell from the heavens and the skies burned, and the seas boiled against cracked shores, the Throat of Balaam burst open, casting its terrible light over the land. That light lured some of my forefathers to betray the command of the Great Council of Elders. They entered the Throat and communed with the Faceless One, and in that cold light, they were … remade.”

Leitos shook his head, confused. “So Fauthians are Yatoans?”

“They are not,” Belina said, fury tingeing her words. “Not anymore. The light changed them. And if not the light, then the Faceless One, who lives within the light, did it.”

Leitos’s pulse jumped. “The Faceless One lives here, on this island, within the Throat of Balaam?” It was all he could do not to shout the question. For a year, he had thought he must travel to his homelands, and from there search countless leagues of ice fields and snowy wastelands for the Faceless One. To know he stood so near his enemy, raised the hair on his neck.

“I need a weapon,” he growled. “I will destroy him-I must destroy him.”

Belina recoiled from the hatred on his face. “The Faceless One cannot be killed with a mortal weapon, otherwise it would have been done by now.”

“Perhaps those who have tried before did not have the skill or courage to do so,” Leitos countered. “Arm me or not, I am going to test myself this night.”

“The day may come when you face the enemy of humankind, but it is not this night, and not here,” she said with an odd surety in her voice.

“How would you know-your visions?”

“Yes.”

Leitos snorted and made to stand, but Belina laid his stolen dagger against his neck. “Sit down, and let me finish answering you.”

“And if I don’t, then what? Will you gut me, as you have so often promised? How does that fit with your visions?”

Belina leveled a flat gaze at him, making him feel slightly foolish for his bluster. “I do not wish to kill you, Leitos. I never have.” The way she said it made it sound as if she had known him for many years, instead of mere hours. If she really had been seeing him in visions all her life, then maybe to her it did seem as if she knew him. “You must heed me.”

“You mean trust you?”

“Yes,” Belina sighed. “Now, sit still, and let me finish.”

Leitos made a face, but settled back to the ground.

“As I was saying, those who communed with the Faceless One were never the same. For a time, my ancestors believed the Fauthians had been purified, remade with eternity in their flesh, and so honored them as gods.

“In time, the Fauthians became betrayers and destroyers of their servants, keeping only the strongest of us alive, and giving the rest to the Kelrens. Our masters began taking women and girls into the Throat, and bred them to Mahk’lar in the creation of Alon’mahk’lar. In time, they gave them over to Alon’mahk’lar, and the Na’mihn’teghul were born.”

Leitos peered at Belina. Hers was a face haunted by horrors too vile to speak of. But what if she was wrong, or lying, or telling only what she believed was the truth? As a slave, he had been deceived into thinking that his people deserved their enslavement for betraying the Faceless One. It was not until he escaped the mines, and had time to truly consider what he had endured all his life, that he changed his mind about the cruelty of the Alon’mahk’lar and their master, the Faceless One.

He looked closer at her, and saw no deception. What if everything she has said is true? If the Fauthians created changelings, then that meant they had made Sandros and Pathil … and Zera.

“Show me what you will,” he said abruptly, finding it difficult to remain impartial.

Belina looked at her hands, curled protectively around the hilt of the Kelren dagger. “I cannot know if it is too late to show you everything, but usually they keep our women for a few days, until they know that the seed of the Alon’mahk’lar has quickened within their wombs. After that, we do not know where they are taken.”

“You’re saying that some of your women are in the Throat of Balaam, at this moment?” He remembered the screams and the dead woman the Fauthians had dragged out of the Throat. He also recalled the Fauthian woman, holding a small bundle. Had she carried a changeling babe? Distaste quivered his skin.

“They may be,” Belina said. “I was child when they stopped bringing pregnant women back to the villages, where they would raise their accursed babes until the Fauthians came to take them. My mother and eldest sister were the last of our clan to be returned. My sister showed herself to be a Na’mihn’teghul the likes of which no one had ever seen, and she destroyed half the village. After that, the Fauthians began to keep the women and the babes, never to be seen again.”

“We should go,” he said.

“Follow me,” she answered in a hollow voice. Instead of threatening to spill his blood in some new way, she handed over the Kelren dagger and set out, leaving him to follow or stay behind.

He went after her, his heart racing as fast as his mind. If even half what she said was true, he intended this night to end his quest for vengeance against the Faceless One this night.

Chapter 24

Ringed by torchlight, Damoc inspected the pigsty that had held Leitos, then the severed vines that had held shut the small door. My own daughter has betrayed me.

Damoc cursed, ripped the door off the pen, and hurled it into the forest. Nola gave him a startled look, her green eyes wide … Nola, who looked so much like the first abomination foisted upon him and his wife by their Fauthians masters.

He had not always thought so poorly of that first daughter, but that had been before her change, and his wife’s death. On that night, when all that Belina had foretold came to pass, he had finally seen the truth, which led him to stir his people against their oppressors.

Even now, it pained him to admit that until that tragedy had struck him, he and most of the other elders had refused to believe the evil of the Fauthians. Instead of listening to the rational voice in his head, he had believed the Fauthians were good, and that serving them was the proper course. But no more.

“Will we go after them?” Nola asked. Her startlement had vanished. She was so different than Belina and their mother. If anyone had been born to fight, it was Nola. In truth, he sometimes feared that she craved battle too much.

Damoc ignored her for now, and stabbed a finger at Robis, the bumbling youth who fancied that he loved Belina, and who had blown the warning horn. “Come here,” he ordered.

Robis stepped forward, eyes downcast. He was a dullard with not the wits to properly wipe his own arse, let alone to see the deception Belina had cast over him. For all his faults, he was good in a battle, being too stupid to know fear or feel pain. Still, he had betrayed the clan.

“I did not know what she had planned,” Robis blurted. “She promised that she would-” He suddenly clamped his teeth shut, perhaps thinking it better not to reveal just what Belina had promised.

“Where was she taking him?” Damoc demanded.

“I–I don’t know,” Robis stammered. “She never said she was taking him anywhere. If I’d known, I would not have joined in her sport.”

“What manner of idiot believes rallying our defenses is a simple game?” Damoc seethed. “Did it ever cross your mind that sounding the alarm without cause might lead to leaving the camp undefended?” And that was yet another thing he would have to rectify. Someone should have stayed behind to guard the camp. Instead, all had snatched their weapons and run off like untrained louts. But again, that was for later.

Robis swallowed, his throat clicking in the quiet. “She said it would be fun to stir the camp.”

“Fun,” Damoc said flatly, his wrath extinguished by his disbelief. “We are not about fun,” he announced to all. “This rebellion we wage is no game. We fight an enemy that has every advantage, and no mercy for fools.”

A few nodded, but most looked at their feet, or the weapons held in their hands.

“I do not want your shame,” Damoc went on. “I want you to do what we have prepared to do. To accomplish that, we must keep our wits about us. Had the Fauthians crept into our camp, using Robis’s foolishness as a distraction, they could have wiped out the bulk of our clan in one attack.”

“How do we know they did not creep in among us?” Nola asked, her jaw set. “Why else would my sister have-”

“They did not,” Damoc said firmly. “Belina is confused, that is all. If there is a betrayer,” he allowed, “it is this Leitos.”

He refused to believe Belina had betrayed them. At the same time, it disturbed him that Nola so readily accepted the idea. But then, Nola had always been a girl who saw all in stark contrasts. To her there was right and wrong, even if the wrongs were done out of ignorance.

“Then what would you have us do?” Nola said, sounding unconvinced.

How long will I hold sway over her? he wondered-hardly a rare thought of late. A woman had never led a clan or served on the Great Council, but Damoc thought Nola might, one day. She was capable and ambitious enough. And should things go badly against the Fauthians, her unbending, pitiless ways might well appeal to the clans.

“We must find Belina and break the hold this outlander has over her,” Damoc said. “Then we will carry out his sentence.”

He was not entirely convinced Leitos was an enemy, but he refused to let his doubts outweigh what had to be done. If he ever discovered that his judgment had been made in error, then the burden of that mistake would have to be carried in his heart.

“And after that?” Nola pressed.

“After that,” Damoc said, “we do what we have planned so long to do-we destroy the Throat of Balaam, cutting off the Fauthians’ source of power. Then, while they are vulnerable, we will destroy our enemies, one by one, until none are left in all the Isles of Yato.” He cast about, pleased at the determined faces directed his way. “But first, we retrieve Belina.”

“Is that a mistake?” Nola did not say it as a challenge, but the challenge was there nonetheless.

“When we took up arms against our former rulers, we promised, when at all possible, to never again leave our people in their hands. You know that. We all know that. Even the least of us cannot be left to the Fauthians. That is our law,” he said again, ensuring all understood that his going after his daughter had nothing to do with his position as an elder.

There was no grumbling, no irreverent stares, but he felt the doubt flowing from his clan.

“Strike camp,” he called, giving them something else to think about, “and prepare to march. Leitos has already had too long to turn my daughter’s mind and heart. We must reach her before it is too late.” He paused, then added, “If you see Leitos, kill him straight away. He cannot be allowed to corrupt more of us.”

A subdued cheer went up, and Damoc found himself hoping he was right about the strange young man who Belina claimed to have seen in her visions, this so-called man of shadow and steel, the hope of the world…. If he was wrong, then even the mercy of the Silent God of All would fail to redeem him.

Chapter 25

The darkness of the cell was familiar to Adham, but little else. His long years in the mines had been a time of constant pain, be it from the lash, shackles, the sun, or the backbreaking labor of first crushing rock with pick or maul, then loading the rubble into buckets with hands covered in weeping blisters. Callouses he grew in abundance, but they were never strong enough to resist the cutting edges of freshly broken rock. The same could be said for the pitted iron bracelets he had worn, the marks of their long presence on his wrists a living testament to his captivity. Too, he remembered the harsh desert sunlight, the way it sucked moisture from the tongue and every pore, how it had roasted skin, left a man feeling hot and cracked. And there had been the hunger, a bitter companion with a will only to gnaw your insides. So while only the present darkness was the same, it brought sharply to mind all those past agonies and struggles.

Adham dropped his fingers from the heavy wooden door, and walked to the back wall, his shoulders brushing cool stone. His trek was short, less than his height. He had made it a hundred times since Adu’lin had him tossed into the cell. He turned, thought of the return journey, and decided to sit. In such a cramped space, pacing in circles left him dizzy.

Arms wrapped around his knees, the darkness pressed in. That, too, was a familiar sensation. He put it out of his mind. A barely heard ringing tickled his ears, and above this the slow thump of his heart.

After a time, the few noises he could hear faded to the voices in his mind. Those voices spoke their concern for Leitos and the Brothers, and some fretted over his own quandary.

Slowly, anger rose up, and he turned his attention to it. Worry rarely did a man any good, and while anger served its own dark master, at times it had a way of providing strength, even as it exacted a price. Right now, Adham was willing to pay whatever fee his wrath demanded.

By the time the rattle of a bar being removed from the door sounded within his tiny cell, he was grinding his teeth to the point of pain. As the door swung open, allowing a wedge of pale light to slice through the widening gap, his muscles clenched into tight knots. When he saw the narrow Fauthian face, Adham sprang.

The guard’s impassive expression flashed away to stark surprise. Dropping the torch, he reached for his dagger. At the same time, his lips parted to sound the alarm.

By then Adham was on him, fingers buried in the flesh of the man’s skinny neck. Eyes popping and shot through with hot blood, his teeth bared like a wolf, Adham wrung that throat, twisting, ripping.

The Fauthian forgot his dagger and clamped his hands onto Adham’s wrists, tried to pull them off. Adham drove forward and slammed the guard against a wall. The gagging Fauthian lashed out, his fists fluttering like a pair of startled birds.

“Where is my son, you filthy yellow worm?”

The guard, eyes bulging, answered with strained gurgles. Even if he freed the man, his crushed windpipe would not allow him to answer.

But Adham did not want an answer, he wanted weapons. Still, his fury drove him to shout. “Answer me!”

Other guards began to spill from a doorway from farther down the corridor. They rushed to aid their fellow, shouting and drawing swords.

Adham rammed the top of his head against the Fauthian’s face, once and again, each blow bringing the crunch of shattering bone. His fingers sank deeper, and the Fauthian’s mouth gaped, his tongue wagged. Adham darted his head forward again, driving that bit of pink flesh against the man’s teeth. The Fauthian’s eyes rolled.

Before the others could reach him, Adham snatched the Fauthian’s dagger, slashed his throat, then threw him before his companions. The lead guard danced to avoid his fallen companion, but fell in a sprawl. One after another, the guards tripped, adding to the growing tangle of arms and legs.

Adham sprinted down the corridor. Curses chased him, but nothing else. He paused at a crossing corridor. Right or left? Gloom marked one way, and torches brightened a distant junction in the other direction.

Adham ran full out into the light, and soon reached the intersection. Here he had only one choice, a wide stairwell leading up. He took the stairs two at a time, thinking up had to be better than down, when escaping a prison.

At the top of the stairs, he crashed into a massive set of double doors. He expected resistance, but they banged open, revealing a circular hall alight with scores of torches burning between grotesque sculptures. At the center of all that radiance stood a ring of smoothly tapered pillars, rising up to meet an open portal in the domed ceiling-the heart of the palace. Within that columned ring knelt the blindfolded Brothers of the Crimson Shield, most bloody and battered, all with their hands tied behind their backs.

Shouts rang out behind Adham, pushing him into the hall. He sensed a trap, but surely it was not for him. Or so he thought, until the architect of that snare spoke.

“It seems the resourcefulness of you Izutarians is not overstated,” Adu’lin said to one side.

Dagger at the ready, Adham searched for the Fauthian leader, but he remained out of sight.

“I now see why the Faceless One prizes your people,” Adu’lin went on. “I dare say that if you ice-born savages abandoned your futile resistance and embraced the High Lord of this world, his rewards would be beyond measure.”

“My people will fight until the last drop of our blood soaks the ground at our feet. To the Thousand Hells with you and your false god.”

“A pity,” Adu’lin said, not sounding put out in the slightest. He emerged from behind the statue of a nightmarish creature of horns, tattered wings, and bony limbs. Once he revealed himself, more armed Fauthians crept from the shadows.

Adham glanced over his shoulder. The guards he had thwarted stood behind him, looking eager to begin whatever it was Adu’lin had in store.

“Until the last drop of my blood,” he growled, and feinted toward them. They leaped back as one, but he had already spun around and was running for Adu’lin.

At Adham’s brazen attack, the Fauthian leader’s smug smile fell off his face. Adham loosed a battle cry and raised his dagger. If a man was to die this night, he meant it to be Adu’lin.

So great was his wrath, Adham barely noticed the Alon’mahk’lar step from behind a statue. Coarse reddish hide slashed with black, the demon-born moved between Adham and Adu’lin, a great sword held in its six-fingered hand. That weapon, fully as long as Adham was tall, swept upward.

“Do not kill him!” Adu’lin warned sharply.

The creature hesitated, and that was all Adham needed. He buried his dagger in the demon-born’s belly, and the Alon’mahk’lar bellowed. Before Adham could wrench the dagger loose, the Alon’mahk’lar smashed a fist against his shoulder. A loud popping noise filled Adham’s head, and fiery agony rushed through every inch of his body. The blow flung him through the air, and he bounced off a pillar. He collapsed to the stone floor, and fought to regain his feet.

The Alon’mahk’lar stalked close, protuberant black eyes slit by golden pupils. A double set of horns grew from its skull. One set spiraled upward, and the second set curved down around its thick neck. Its belly still bore Adham’s dagger. The beast raised its sword, preparing to cleave Adham in two.

“Hold,” Adu’lin shouted, arresting the demon-born’s attack. “The Faceless One offers handsome rewards for the living blood of the Valera line. Besides,” he added, “I promised our guest a harsh lesson, which I still mean to deliver.”

Adham gulped a breath while the Alon’mahk’lar was distracted. Envisioning the course he would take, Adham moved abruptly, teeth gritted against fresh agony.

He caught the hilt of the dagger, gave it a twist, and tore it from the demon-born’s guts. The Alon’mahk’lar floundered back with an eye-watering cry. In spite of Adu’lin’s command, the creature swung its sword. Adham flung himself aside, cringing at the sword’s fleeting brush over the back of his head.

He was up again in an instant, clumsy but moving toward the bound Brothers, whose blindfolded heads were turning this way and that.

The Alon’mahk’lar roared behind him. With the barest measure of caution, he slashed the bindings holding one man’s wrists, then another’s.

Wild shouts went up all around him, from the Fauthians and the freed Brothers. After the shouts came the sounds of fists pummeling flesh, steel hewing muscle and bone. Screams erupted from the wounded and dying.

Adham did not waste a moment to see who suffered the worst of the spreading melee. Once he had freed three Brothers, he knew he would never free them all.

His knife had just started to part another cord, when clawed fingers tangled through his hair and wrenched him off the ground. That huge fist turned him, until he was staring into the Alon’mahk’lar’s face.

Growling low in his throat, Adham thrust his dagger deep into one of the creature’s eyes, and deeper still, until only the hilt and cross guard jutted from the socket. The Alon’mahk’lar spasmed violently, throwing Adham aside.

Adham tried to control his fall, but landed in a heap at Adu’lin’s feet. Glaring, the Fauthian jabbed the point of a sword into the hollow of Adham’s neck, freezing him in place. “You try my patience,” Adu’lin snarled.

“Then we are even, on at least that score,” Adham returned.

From the corner of his eye, Adham saw the three Brothers he had cut loose: Ulmek, Sumahn, and Daris. They grouped together against a score of hesitant Fauthians. Outnumbered as they were, they were not outmatched, given the scatter of dead Fauthians sprawled across the floor.

Before Adu’lin could react, Adham cried, “Run!”

Ulmek’s dark eyes swung toward Adham.

“Damn your hides, go!”

With great reluctance, Ulmek ordered the retreat.

Adu’lin ordered his men to hold fast. “Where will they go?” he demanded, as if sensing a trap where there was none.

Willing to play on the man’s fears, Adham bared his teeth in a mocking smile. “Surely you cannot expect me to spoil the surprise?”

Adu’lin’s thin face writhed as he ground his teeth together. “I have no love of surprises,” he said. “But this night, I will make an exception.”

Adham had only a moment to wonder what he meant, before Adu’lin’s sword flashed toward him in an arc of silver-edged death.

Chapter 26

Blue light engulfed Leitos and Belina as they crept beneath the stern face carved into the cliff above them. Leitos had the uncomfortable feeling that its stony eyes regarded him with malice. Then they were moving deeper into the Throat of Balaam. A vaulted corridor, floored with fist-sized opals, stretched interminably into the dazzling light. Were it not the lair of the world’s bane, he would have counted it beautiful.

One cautious step at a time, Belina with an arrow nocked, Leitos with his dagger ready, they delved deeper into the Throat. As Leitos grew accustomed to the glare, he brushed his fingertips over the surface of a wall. Where the stone looked uneven, it was smooth and slick. Below the crystalline surface, tiny gems of every hue and clarity, glittered like faceted grains of sand. The beauty of those thousands of individual stones hit him all at once, and he found himself staring in open-mouthed wonder.

“What are you doing?” Belina hissed. Slowly, understanding shrank her dismay. “Let nothing blind you to the truth of Fauthian evil. Such was the undoing of my people.”

Leitos offered a noncommittal shrug, but Belina was having none of that. “Give me your word that you will not let what you see obscure what I have spoken of. You must see with your head and your heart, not with your eyes. The works of the Fauthians are as honey to mask the bitter taste of poison. Do you understand-do you promise?”

“Very well,” Leitos agreed. There was no point telling her that nothing, especially pretty gems, would change his mind about destroying his enemy.

After a time, Leitos began to wonder how far they had yet to go, and put the question to Belina. “I’m not sure,” she said, refusing to look at him.

“Not sure? I thought you had been here.”

“My father came here after … after my mother’s death. He told me what he saw, and warned us all to stay away.”

“So you do not know what we will find?”

“Of course I do.”

Leitos’s concern sharpened, even as his heart sank a little at the possibility of not finding the Faceless One. This Throat of Balaam might well be used for all the monstrous things Belina said, but only by Fauthians and Alon’mahk’lar. “What if your father lied?”

“He did not.”

“How can you know, if you have never-”

“I have seen this place,” Belina interrupted.

“Your visions,” Leitos said. “Are you sure what you see are not just dreams mingled with things you have heard from others?”

“Do events in your dreams come to pass?”

Leitos mulled that, then considered something else. “You said you recognized me-”

“I did,” Belina interrupted. “I have had visions of you for as long as I can remember. Even from afar, I recognized your face-” she hesitated, then said in a rush “-though it is not entirely the face of my visions.”

“That makes no sense. If you saw me, but it was not me, how can I believe anything you are saying?”

Belina shook her head. “In my visions you are older, harder. A man scarred, a man-” She cut off abruptly. After a moment, she said, “I will say no more on this matter. You can continue to trust me or not, but I will reveal nothing else about who you will become.”

“Why?” Leitos pressed.

“I fear that to tell too much would change what will be to what could be. It is not a risk I am willing to take.”

Gibberish, Leitos almost retorted, but thought better of it. “Well,” he said, as if he no longer cared about her visions, “let’s go see if your father spoke truth or lies.”

She glared, but did not bother defending Damoc. “Come along. We are almost there.”

After walking for what felt like many miles more, Leitos began to question what almost there meant to a Yatoan. Before he could voice his doubts, they came to place where the azure light shone brighter than ever. As they neared the spot, the glow became opaque. Not like light at all, but a curtain of frosted mist.

“What is this?” Leitos asked, just stopping himself from brushing it with his fingertips. The mist filled the height and breadth of the corridor, blocking sight of anything beyond.

Belina favored him with a nervous expression. “I … I don’t know. My father never mentioned this. I think coming here was a mistake. Perhaps the Faceless One knows we are coming, and laid a trap. Come, we will go back and get help-”

Leitos did not wait for her to finish. He caught his breath and stepped into the wall of light. He heard a startled yelp, but then he was passing through turquoise nothingness. It surrounded him, cold and wet. His skin tingled unpleasantly, and he felt a strange pressure building within him, seeking an escape-

— and then he stepped clear. The pressure eased, then vanished, though his skin still prickled. The awareness of those odd sensations flew from his mind, as he looked into a dark chamber so immense that it defied comprehension. A gasp drew his gaze to Belina, who would not step far from the misty radiance.

“Did your father describe this?”

“Yes,” she breathed. “As well, it is as I have seen. But seeing it now….” Her words trailed off.

The chamber, all of velvety gloom, stretched as far as the eye could see, and farther still. It was like looking into the emptiness between the stars. The difference was that he stood within those immeasurable gulfs.

A single source of illumination, a pillar of cold flame, hovered at the very heart of all that darkness. Its presence subdued the expansiveness, somehow dominating all within its sight.

“W-we dare not go closer,” Belina stammered.

“I dare,” Leitos said, eyes locked on that pillar and the vague figure seated atop it. The Faceless One. Belina had claimed no mortal weapon could harm him, but Leitos meant to learn for himself if that were true. If nothing else, he needed to see the face of his oppressor, the face that every tale said no living man had ever looked upon.

Belina tried to catch his arm, but he stepped from the spill of cool light at his back, and into the waiting void. Before his first step fell, he had a moment of doubt, a fear that his foot would drop through emptiness. He did not imagine falling, but ceasing to exist, his being devoured by the void….

His foot landed on an invisible surface as hard as stone. Only that the pillar of light remained ahead told him that he had not tumbled into oblivion. Belina cried out, whether in alarm or anger, he did not know. He thought to calm her, but could not look away from his goal.

He continued one ponderous step at a time, his breath coming in puffs. He realized that he did not walk, so much as drift. Upon recognizing that, he halted, but an unseen current carried him at great speed. Or is the Faceless One drawing me to him? An uncomfortable thought that quickly broke apart and dissipated.

While Leitos sensed himself drawing nearer to the Faceless One, neither the pillar nor the figure grew larger, giving the illusion that he moved not at all.

Then, with sickening abruptness, he found himself standing within the shadows just beyond the pillar’s luminance, gazing up at the figure seated upon a throne of intricately carved obsidian. The man leaned forward, his head deeply bowed, with thick and tangled strands of long dark hair obscuring his features.

Nothing about the Faceless One was as Leitos had imagined. Clad in simple leathers and furs, he looked an imposter upon a throne stolen from a mighty king. Usurper or not, strength resonated from his broad shoulders, deep chest, and thick arms, but nothing about him spoke of regal authority. Rather, this figure represented a raw, brutish power.

“Who are you?” Leitos asked, the sound of his voice thundering in the still. The figure flinched, seemed ready to reveal himself, then settled back. Leitos made his demand again, shouting it.

The man stirred once more, raising his head listlessly. Leitos clutched his dagger, not sure what good it would do, and not caring. Here was his enemy, and he would strike him down, somehow. He must.

That terrible head lifted higher, and Leitos felt ice coat his insides. Where a face should be, blue flame teemed over an indistinct skull.

“Go from this place,” the man pleaded, again at odds with Leitos’s expectations.

“I did not come here to obey,” Leitos said through clenched teeth, “but to destroy you.”

“Escape, boy … while you still can.”

The man’s hands suddenly pressed against his head, as if trying to contain those unnatural fires. His limbs trembled, and he doubled over, groaning.

Leitos waited, poised to attack.

The Faceless One abruptly sat straight, the fires solidifying enough to make out the vague outlines of a face, still unclear, but a true face. A vicious grin played over his lips. “Tell your father that death has found him!”

That shout fell on Leitos like the breaking of mountains, crushing him flat. The man began to rise, his proportions growing immense. The void’s emptiness came alive with roaring flames of every vile hue, and from those leaping fires sprang Mahk’lar. Terrible beings, creatures born of hate and shadow, their flesh formless, bloated, drooling corruption from gnashing, fang-filled mouths.

They danced near, their incomprehensible language filling Leitos’s mind with visions of a thousand atrocities. He saw the brutal ends of all those he knew, the destruction of all the world’s peoples. He saw screaming men, their flesh stripped from crushed bones, their living marrow scorched to ash. He saw women and girls savaged by demon-born, their beauty and grace pillaged by abominable lusts. He saw children boiled alive in their own blood, or roasted on spits above black fires, or torn from wombs with flaming pincers, before being ripped to pieces and stuffed into the fanged mouths of demons.

Howling in dismay, Leitos hurled his dagger at the Faceless One. For a moment all froze, save the twirling blade. For a moment, it seemed the Faceless One’s hellish delights would at last come to an end. For a moment alone, Leitos believed he would prevail against his dread foe.

The blade struck true, sinking deep into the Faceless One’s heart … and passed through him.

“No,” Leitos breathed.

The Faceless One fingered the spot where the dagger had pierced him, and Leitos fled. Roaring hateful mirth, the Faceless One ordered his minions to join the hunt.

Chapter 27

After hiding the bulk of his warriors around the entrance of the Throat of Balaam, Damoc strode into the chill light, following two sets of muddy tracks. One set he knew as well as his own, the other belonging to the outlander. He still could not understand why Belina had brought Leitos here. Surely no good could come of it.

Nola and a handful of others, all armed with bows and swords, guarded his flanks. Washed in the haunting radiance, their mottled garb served poorly to conceal them.

“Do not hesitate to cut down any Fauthian or Alon’mahk’lar we see,” Damoc told them. Of demonic spirits, neither he nor his people feared their touch. At worst, such were a nuisance, although he had heard it told that other peoples did not fare so well against Mahk’lar. In all the Great Councils, no one had been able to explain why the Yatoans could resist being taken by spirits. In the end, it was a small advantage.

“What of Na’mihn’teghul?” Nola asked. “Is it still your wish to capture any young ones we find?”

Damoc considered that decree, born of a secret and now forsaken desire to redeem his eldest daughter. His deeper hope was that his people could, perhaps, change the nature of one of those fell creatures, and turn its loyalties against the Fauthians. Or, at the least, use it to crush the sea-wolves who hunted the Isles of Yato. While he knew he could never fully trust such an abomination, it seemed well worth the risks to utilize such a living weapon. If it were not for Belina, who he was sure waited somewhere up ahead, he would have allowed the capture of any and all changelings they came across. But not this night.

“The time for taking captives is for later,” he advised. “Retrieving Belina and killing Leitos is our only purpose.”

“Had Belina not stopped me,” Nola said, “I would have cut his throat when we found him.” She searched the empty corridor. Only Damoc among his party had ever entered this domain, and his daughter’s apprehension mirrored that of the others.

“Do not fret over that,” Damoc said in a placating tone, sensing his daughter’s coming words before she spoke them.

“When this is over, we must confront Belina. Her decision to betray our trust has endangered the clan, perhaps all Yatoans.”

The warriors around them gave the pretense of ignoring the conversation, but Damoc knew they sided with Nola.

“She did not betray us,” Damoc said firmly. “She made a mistake, much as Robis blundered in heeding her.”

“And how many such mistakes will you allow her to make, before you enforce our laws?”

He dragged her close. “You are speaking of your sister,” he said against her ear. Nola tried to pull away, and though she was strong, he was stronger. “Trust that I will deal with Belina. Not you, not anyone else. And before you think to pass further judgments, remember that she is your sister-a sister who has, time and again, ensured your safety, when others would have left you in the hands of our enemies.”

“She has saved me, but only as I have saved her, on occasion. Past good deeds cannot erase present wrongdoing.”

“We will speak of this later,” Damoc growled. “For now, concentrate on our task.” Only after Nola nodded agreement, did he release her, and set out ahead of his clan.

As time had seemed to slow when first he had ventured into the Throat, it did so now. They had passed what he judged was the midway point, when a brief rumble filled the corridor, fading slowly.

Damoc signaled a halt, sure that buried under that noise he had heard a voice. When the silence persisted, he waved them forward.

The first time he journeyed into the Throat of Balaam, he had been searching for his eldest daughter. He found instead a breeding ground at the corridor’s end, a place rife with demonic spirits, Alon’mahk’lar, and fires spread across a seemingly infinite plane. Countless women and older girls had been held captive by invisible bonds across that endless expanse. All had been stripped bare, and they had gazed about with deluded, lustful eyes….

A night had not passed since that he did not relive the horror of those wanton expressions, or the dismay and revulsion he had felt upon witnessing the captives crying out for the brutal touch of Alon’mahk’lar. At the center of all that ruthless madness, the Fauthians and the Faceless One had overseen the loathsome ritual.

Remembering filled him with fresh fear. He could not let that happen again, not to anyone, and not to Belina. Damoc sped up until he was running.

The rumbling came again, and this time Damoc was sure he heard words. A moment later, a feminine scream raced down the corridor to meet them, and knew her voice as he knew his own.

“Belina!” he bellowed.

No answer came.

He and the others flew down the corridor.

Moments later, a figure appeared far ahead, running toward them. Damoc halted everyone with a warning shout. Movement to one side drew his eye, and he found one of his men raising a bow and drawing back the string.

“Hold, Kasem!”

The man cast him a confused look.

“It may be Belina,” Damoc explained, and noticed that Kasem’s eyes flicker toward Nola, before he grudgingly lowered his weapon. When Damoc glanced her way, Nola stood peering down the corridor, as if she had noticed nothing. The downturned corners of her mouth told a different story.

“Father,” Belina cried, sliding to a stop. “The Faceless One has Leitos!”

Damoc, blinking back tears of relief, tried to embrace his daughter, but she pushed him away. “There is no time. We must save him!”

He despised her senseless devotion to the youth. When he spoke, that hatred burst out. “Cease this deluded nonsense! We did not come for an outlander who has chosen to cast his lot with the Fauthians. We came for you.”

“He is not one of them,” Belina insisted, putting a pace between them. “It is as I have always told, he came to destroy the Faceless One!”

“The Faceless One cannot be killed,” Damoc scoffed.

“I told him as much, but he refused to listen. Believe me, his loathing for our enemies is as strong as our own. In that, he is an ally-but also a fool who believes he can defeat the Bane of Creation, by himself. Please believe me, if only this once. We must help him.”

“No,” Damoc said, refusing to acknowledge the nagging in the back of his mind that told him his refusal was a grave error. “We must leave.”

“I will not,” Belina said defiantly.

“You will heed me, child. One way or another.” As he spoke, he searched the faces of his companions for support, and found one face missing. His heart became a frozen lump in his chest. In a croaking voice, he asked, “Where is my daughter?”

Feet shifted uncomfortably, but no response came. But he knew the answer. All eyes turned to look down the corridor, just as Nola vanished into the cold burning light of the Throat of Balaam.

“No!” Damoc called, but it was too late.

Nola had not come to rescue her sister, but to hunt.

Chapter 28

Adham looked at his hand, moved his fingers. Not long before, that hand had rested a foot from the stump of his wrist. After Adu’lin had chopped off the appendage, he had healed him the same way he had healed Ke’uld’s leg. “Only to gain favor of the Lord of Light and Shadow, do I do this,” he had said.

It sounded like a favor Adham wanted no part of.

Adham’s father, Kian Valera, had seldom spoken of the abilities he had briefly held after being exposed to the shattered Well of Creation-but then, how often did a man need to hear the tale of bringing the dead back to life, before it stuck fast in his mind? Somehow Adu’lin, and maybe others, had gained the same ability for healing, despite being half a world away from the Qaharadin Marshes and that forgotten temple, which had protected a secret never meant for humankind to uncover.

A mystery of which I’ll never learn the truth, Adham thought now, raising his head to look at his companions. All the remaining Brothers were bound and blindfolded, unlike himself. He guessed Adu’lin wanted to torture him with the illusion that, if he tried hard enough, freedom might be attainable. The presence of armed Fauthians ensured that if he tried to escape, however, he would not get far.

I have lived a good and long life, Adham told himself. If it ends here and now, I am ready. He eyed Adu’lin standing beyond the ring of pillars, speaking in a quiet voice to some of his men, and vowed he would not die alone.

Adu’lin approached. “My men have caught those you freed.”

“You are a poor liar,” Adham scoffed. “Had you captured them, they would be here, with the rest of us.”

“Had they not fought,” Adu’lin countered, “you would be correct. But fight they did, bravely, ruthlessly … futilely. A pity none survived.”

At this, a few of the trussed Brothers gasped.

“You lie,” Adham said again, but with less conviction.

He had hoped Ulmek and the others would get to their weapons, and then return to teach these spawn of serpents a brutal lesson in the arts of war. But some hours had passed with no sound of fighting, and no alarms raised. He imagined Ulmek’s stony features gone slack in death, and his throat clenched.

“Believe what you will,” Adu’lin said. “The truth will become known to you soon enough, after I finish what I began this night. I think you will find it-”

At that moment, a guard glided near and spoke urgently into Adu’lin’s ear. The Fauthian leader’s face contorted for the barest instant, then smoothed to its usual bored indifference. No matter what mask he wore, Adham knew something troubled him deeply.

Adu’lin spun away, taking the guard with him, and signaling others to join him. Adham strained to hear, but could only make out some concern about a throat, or some such. Adham hoped the throat they were speaking of was a Fauthian’s, and that it had been cut.

Adu’lin sent his men off with a word, and moved deeper into the shadows. He spread his arms and bowed his head, like a priest of old honoring a god, and began muttering under his breath. Adham felt the hairs on the back of his neck stir, and a breath of damp ice teased over his flesh, as the words became clear.

From the darkness between the stars,

Came He, the Lord of Light,

To deliver peace and safety upon all lands.

Praise the Faceless One,

He who suffers the unworthy.

Praise the Faceless One,

He who blesses the contemptible.

Bow to His wisdom,

Bow to His righteous judgment.

Praise be to the Merciful One,

Praise be to the Lord of Light and Shadow.

After a few moments, Adu’lin ceased his supplications, and returned. He grinned down at Adham, revealing a malevolence that Adham had never before seen on the man’s face. From a leather purse hanging at his hip, he produced a handful of cords. From each hung a stone of protection. “As I was saying, Izutarian, I think you will find what I have in store for you and your companions enlightening.”

Chapter 29

With the Faceless One’s cruel laughter hounding him, Leitos rushed across the plane, its surface erupting with fire and crawling with demonic spirits. He ran as hard and fast as he had ever run in his life.

As in coming, he seemed to travel no distance at all, though he could make out the archway where he had left Belina, and that azure glow guided him. And then he saw a feminine silhouette emerge from the light, and come straight for him.

“Go back!” he cried, waving his arms. She did not heed him.

He cut off when a great arc of twisting flame rose between them. From its highest point, some steaming, pestilent liquid began raining down.

Leitos slid to a halt, searching for a way around, but in every direction leaped roiling flames, and from those fires oozed terrible creatures of mist and shadow.

Seeing no other way, he ducked his head and ran into the ghastly deluge. Hot drops splattered over him, reeking of sickness. He gagged, bent over and retched a thin drool of spittle, but never did he cease going forward.

The tacky rain fell harder, forcing Leitos to squint. Where that fluid touched bare skin, a burning itch spread outward, until it seemed that he had been flayed from head to toe with stinging nettles. The stench intensified, stealing his breath, blurring his vision. And still he ran, a slogging shamble where every step seemed to stick to the ground, before pulling free.

Without warning, he burst through the other side of the rain, staggering, his skin afire. He swiped a hand across his eyes, fearing he would go blind if even one drop of that damnable wetness dripped in them.

Suddenly remembering Belina, he cast about. Instead of Belina, came the last woman he had ever expected to see. He told himself that her presence was impossible, but in this place of infinity, the domain of the Faceless One, who could say what laws could be bent, or shattered entirely? It struck him that none of this was real, and that she was but an apparition, a memory plucked from his dreams and placed here, in this realm of nightmares. A single thing bound all those ideas together, and that was the guilt he felt, now and forever, for killing her.

She loomed closer, green eyes ablaze with unforgiving malice, her face as beautiful as he remembered.

“Zera,” he gasped, “I am sorry.”

Her sword, rising to strike, paused, and a look of shock crawled over her features. “Dare not speak that name,” she hissed, the tone of her voice different than he remembered.

Leitos snapped his eyes shut, then opened them. This young woman before him resembled his first and only love, but she was not Zera. She had not her years, and by her garb and the long bow slung across her back, she was Yatoan. A mingling of disappointment and relief flooded him. “We have to get out of here,” he said.

The girl smiled darkly. “Only one of us will leave.”

“What?” Leitos said, alarmed. He took a careful step back, glanced over his shoulder to find Mahk’lar gathering like a great knot of entwined serpents, growing more numerous within that arc of fire and venomous rain.

“If we do not flee,” he said urgently, looking back at her, “we will die. We can deal with your concerns later, once we are free.”

“You are my sole concern, Leitos,” she said. “And by that, I mean your death is all that matters to me.”

One moment she stood rigid, the tip of her sword aimed at his heart, the next she swept in for the kill, her flashing blade alight with a thousand flames, her grace making Ulmek’s poise and skill seem clumsy by comparison.

Her first strike slashed toward his neck, and he leaned out of reach, barely. The tip nicked the skin of his throat. She reversed her swing with a flourish, and again her blade cut him, leaving a shallow scratch along his raised forearm.

“Where is Belina?” Leitos demanded, thinking to distract the crazed girl with what must be a familiar name.

“Safe,” she said in a clipped tone.

Fury burned in her eyes as she advanced, her whirling strikes coming faster and wilder. In moments, despite his best efforts, her steel had marked him with a dozen shallow scratches. Having failed to cut him down, or even wound him gravely, her anger grew hotter.

“If you wanted an easy kill,” he taunted, knowing it might well prove deadly to do so, “you should have set yourself before a bush, and chopped at its branches.”

With an inarticulate scream, she attacked in an unrelenting flurry, the blade blurring before his eyes, nicking him here, slicing him there. Leitos dodged and danced and darted like a serpent, ever a hair’s breadth from death. He knew he could not keep it up for long. He had to end this.

She abruptly lunged, emerald eyes burning like matching portals of hate. Leitos twisted, and the sword tore through his robes, skimming his ribs. Before she could draw back, he stepped close, wincing as the keen edge sliced deeper. That sacrifice was his only defense.

His fist pistoned forward in a short, brutal hook, and slammed against the point of her chin. His unexpected attack caught her off guard, snapping her head to the side. Eyes fluttering, she fell. Leitos grunted harshly as the sword, still clutched firmly in her hand, reversed its track along his ribs. By the slow trickle of blood down his side, he guessed the wound was not deep, and so not deadly.

Behind him, the sounds of the Mahk’lar grew louder. He tugged the sword from her now limp fingers, and thrust it into his belt. He debated whether or not he should leave her behind, then decided that was no option. He caught hold of one arm, and heaved her over his shoulder. She was slight but solid, and while he had grown stronger in the last year, he still bowed under her weight.

Leitos shambled toward the corridor, his footing more sure with each step. Soon he began trotting, then running. The girl bounced on his shoulder. Doubtless she would awake to aching ribs-not to mention a bruised chin and splitting head-all of which, to his mind, was more than fair trade for the wounds she had inflicted upon him.

As the cries of the Mahk’lar increased, he slipped through the tingly veil, and then into the archway’s welcome glow. He had not traveled far when he caught a glimpse of his hand and arm wrapped around the back of the girl’s knees. A revolted groan slipped past his teeth. His skin was welted and inflamed under a wriggling mass of gray, spiny worms with large heads and sharp, pinching jaws.

Reining in his disgust, he gently placed the girl on the floor. Only then did he tear off his belt and outer robe, and set to scrubbing away the squirming grubs, a horror-stricken moan lodged in his throat. The creatures made plopping sounds when they fell to the opal floor tiles, and quickly dissolved into thin air, leaving behind greasy smudges. He shook out his hair so forcefully that his teeth rattled, then went still, waiting to feel if any more of the worms remained. If they did, they had stopped moving.

The girl mumbled and raised a shaking hand to her chin. Leitos debated pummeling her again, but decided against it. He donned his robe and stuck her sword in his belt. The girl grunted when he slung her over his shoulder again, but did not struggle. He had not taken a first step when a low hissing sound alerted him to something rushing up from behind.

Leitos spun, drawing the sword. A seething mass of Mahk’lar filled the corridor, some driving toward him on misty limbs tipped in cracked yellow claws, other coming on webbed feet, or pulling with thrashing tentacles covered in weeping boils. Scores of eyes pinned him, orbs dead-white and dusky amber, or sunken pits filled with glints of baleful scarlet. Beneath all those hues flashed glimmers of dull silver.

Leitos turned and ran, the girl’s weight forgotten. For every pace his legs took him, the demons gained ten. He ran harder. Their rank odor, like acrid smoke and decay, poured over him. His lungs revolted, refusing to draw in that taint. His chest ached for breath, his vision darkened at the edges. If they caught him, so much as touched him, he would-

Frigid, crackling fire raced over his neck and down his spine. The held breath gusted from his lungs, as a waving tentacle thrust through his neck, as if his flesh were no more substantial than vapor. The ebon tendril waved before his face, dividing even as he sprinted along, became a hand crossed with raw fissures. Things moved within those red-rimmed folds, much like the worms that had savaged his skin. As that hand dropped onto his face, the darkness of the Mahk’lar’s essence was blasted away by surging veins of blinding silver, as if lightning were flashing within his skull. The host of Mahk’lar overtook him in a blinding rush, enveloping him, making him part of their whole. An involuntary shout erupted from his throat, and a high-pitched shriek sounded from the girl.

And then the demonic spirits were past him, rushing down the passage. His head cleared quickly, and the tingling cold faded. Chest heaving like a bellows, he ran on.

The girl shifted on his shoulder, but whatever she had suffered at the touch of the Mahk’lar kept her docile. Distantly, he hoped she had not been driven mad … unless that madness kept her from wanting to slice him to ribbons.

Not much farther along, Leitos stumbled to a halt before a handful of Yatoans strewn across the shimmering floor. Some had curled into tight balls, weeping softly, or were babbling gibberish. Some stared straight ahead, jaws slack, strings of drool wetting their lips.

Damoc, looking stricken but not incapacitated, leaned over a girl propped against the wall. Leitos swallowed dryly when he recognized Belina.

“Let the visions pass from your mind,” Damoc murmured, using the corner of his cloak to wipes sweat from her brow.

Belina’s eyes flickered to her father’s face and away. Her gaze skipped over Leitos, then swung back, widening. Her mouth worked. A rattling came from her throat, and she tried again. “Leitos?”

“Forget him,” Damoc said irritably.

“He is alive,” Belina gasped. “He brought Nola back to us.”

It took a moment for Leitos to comprehend that the girl on his shoulder was Nola, the same girl who had battered him unconscious the night he met Belina.

By then, Damoc had turned to glare at him.

“What have you done to my daughter?” he demanded, drawing his sword. Before Leitos could answer, he commanded, “Put her down, and move away.”

More than happy to be rid of his burden, Leitos did as bidden, and saw that Nola suffered from the same shock as her fellows.

When he turned back, Damoc had closed the distance. Rage shone in his eyes.

“I am not your enemy,” Leitos said, hesitant to use Nola’s blade to cut down her father. Damoc did not suffer the same hesitancy. His sword whickered through the blue light, and Leitos threw himself out of reach. “Can none of you see that I am your ally?” Leitos shouted, backing away.

“I see only a walking corpse,” Damoc growled, slashing his blade at Leitos’s face.

With no other choice, Leitos caught the elder’s blade against his own. The clang of steel rang through the corridor, and Belina screamed. Damoc pressed the attack, forcing Leitos to fight for his life.

In moments, one or the other of them would fall, and Leitos did not intend to lose any more blood.

Chapter 30

Leitos settled into the hammering rhythm, thinking to lure in Damoc as he had Nola, and dispatch him in the same way. “You’ll have to do better than that,” he said, offering a taunting grin.

Damoc refused to answer, driving Leitos back with every vicious sword stroke. Leitos parried a sudden thrust, twisted hard to one side, and slammed his forearm into the elder’s jaw. The Yatoan staggered, even as he swung a backhand slash at Leitos’s belly. Keen steel whispered by, parting fabric an inch above his belt.

Leitos danced back, his concern growing.

“Cease this madness,” he said, wasting precious breath.

Damoc answered with another thrust, his blade shrieking down Leitos’s, until it collided with the cross-guard.

Leitos pressed in hard, twisting his blade in a tight circle around Damoc’s. When the elder’s sword swung high, Leitos drove his boot into the man’s chest. Damoc floundered back and crashed against the wall. Leitos rapped the flat of his blade against the man’s wrist, and Damoc cried out and the sword flew from his numbed fingers. Before the blade struck the floor, he had drawn his dagger, and stabbed it at Leitos’s throat. Had Leitos not expected the tactic, he would have died.

“You cannot win this,” Leitos warned, giving Damoc room enough to realize that he did not mean to kill him.

Damoc refused to accept the chance to reconsider, and came on in a rush. He lunged and slashed, parried and thrust, always seeking to bury his blade in a part of Leitos that would mean certain death.

Leitos avoided the strikes, ceaselessly looking for an opening to put the man down without taking his life. He scored a few blows-a fist to the temple, one to the nose, and a chopping blow to the man’s neck-but Damoc, bloody and dazed, failed to yield.

Sensing that he was growing too weary to take any more chances, Leitos reversed the momentum of the struggle and went on the attack.

Belina had come to her feet, and Nola stood at her side. “Father, stop!”

“Stand away, girl,” Damoc answered, narrowly missing an opportunity to sever Leitos’s neck.

Leitos scampered back. “One chance more I give you,” he snarled, as much for himself as for Damoc.

The elder laughed. “I will gut you where you stand!”

“Your daughter made the same threat,” Leitos said, feinting a thrust at Damoc’s unprotected middle.

The elder’s dagger swept down, blocking a strike that never came. Before he could right himself, Leitos abruptly whirled his blade down and around. What had been a thrust toward the belly, became an overhand attack against a bowed and undefended neck.

“No!” Belina screamed.

Somehow Leitos checked his strike, but could not avoid crashing against Damoc, one of his knees crunching against the elder’s cheekbone. With a stunned grunt, Damoc collapsed to his back, his dagger skittering across the opal floor. Leitos came up at once and, chest heaving, poked the tip of his sword against the elder’s throat.

The rest of the Yatoans, who had shaken off the horror of the Mahk’lar, stood ready to attack. Belina jumped between her people and Leitos, beckoning for calm with upraised hands. Neither Leitos nor the Yatoans relented, and the rising tension became oppressive.

“Should an arrow pierce me,” Leitos warned, “I will end your leader-I do not wish it, but I will.”

“Lower your weapons,” Belina ordered, her voice cracking.

Damoc blinked, clearing the glazed look in his eyes. “Do as she says.”

One by one, the archers lowered their bows, but all seemed ready to raise them again at a moment’s notice.

“Throw them aside,” Leitos commanded.

Only after Damoc nodded did they acquiesce, if reluctantly.

Feeling somewhat safer, Leitos withdrew his sword, thought about how many times mercy had gotten him into trouble, then offered Damoc a hand. “If I had wanted to kill you, I would have. But-and I hope you finally believe me-that was never my intention.”

Damoc gazed at the proffered hand, covered with dried blood and angry welts from the biting worms, and grudgingly accepted. Leitos hauled him up, but took the precaution of putting a few feet between them.

“He … he could have left me,” Nola said, her previous fury replaced by bemused wonder. “Had our positions been reversed, I would have left him. But even after I tried to cut him down, he carried me from that awful place and … and away from the Faceless One and his hordes.”

Leitos held his breath a moment, certain she would mention that the only way he had been able to take her away from danger had been to strike her. Even knowing there had been no other way, it troubled him to have struck the girl who looked like Zera.

She is not Zera, he told himself forcefully, still finding it difficult to separate the image of the woman he had loved, from the girl who now stood in his defense.

“I cannot trust you, not yet,” Damoc said slowly, “but I do trust my daughters. On their word alone, I grant you peace. But know this, outlander, it is not finished between us.”

“It is over,” Belina said with a exasperated snort, “or there is no reason not to let you two start chopping at one another again.” She eyed Leitos. “He may be young, but you are a fool if you believe he could not have killed you a dozen times over-had he wished to.”

That seemed to sting Damoc’s pride, but he abruptly laughed it off. “As well, I could have gutted him where he stood, more than once.”

Belina favored Leitos with an imploring look. After brief consideration, he decided no good could come from humiliating Damoc in front of his daughters and his clan.

Leitos fingered the cut in his robes, and put on a humble grin. “This one did come very close.” It was the best he could offer, and that seemed enough. The Yatoans began chuckling, as if they found brushes with death amusing-in that, they reminded him of the Brothers.

While the others were distracted, Damoc’s wry mirth fell away, and he leaned close to Leitos. “This trust you have earned is thin. Betray it, and I will dip your naked shanks in waters brimming with fangfish.”

Now I know where Belina learned her manners, Leitos thought, holding back a weary grin. “Just so.”

After a time, the elder asked, “What did you see beyond the corridor?” His tone spoke of an interest in something other than the Faceless One, and considering what Belina had told him about stealing women to breed changelings, Leitos thought he knew the deeper question.

“I saw nothing of humankind,” he said.

Damoc considered that in brooding silence, then turned to his people. “Mahk’lar do not idly wander these islands, for there is nothing here for them to seek. Let us find where so many went with such haste. In knowing that, we may learn why they have abandoned the Throat.”

Chapter 31

The Fauthian guard returned, his gaze devoid of emotion. Of the captives only Adham, Ba’Sel, and Halan remained kneeling amongst the hall’s central pillars. After looking between the trio, the guard dragged Halan to his feet. Adu’lin seemed to take a perverse pleasure in allowing Adham to watch the Brothers being led to their doom.

The guard walked Halan into the other chamber, from which screams would soon echo for a short time, before a heavy silence fell. The big man did not protest, as some of the others had, nor did he fight, as fewer had. He walked with his blindfolded head hanging, resigned to whatever fate awaited him.

Adu’lin met the guard at the doorway. “We are nearly finished,” he called to Adham, and ushered Halan out of sight.

Like a sheep to the slaughter, Adham thought, his churning insides sour.

As the guard took his place beside the doorway, Adham looked to Ba’Sel, whose eyes were blindfolded, and hands bound behind his back. Sweat coated his skin, and an occasional tremor shook his limbs.

What is he thinking? Why does he not dispute the poor treatment of his men? The temptation to despise the man for his weaknesses fell over Adham, but he resisted.

“Can you guess what they are doing?” Adham asked in a low voice.

“I barely know where I am,” he admitted, sounding tired, out of breath. “The last clear memory I have is the first morning after coming to Armala. After that, all is as dreams seen through smoke.”

“That bloody fruit wine stole your wits,” Adham growled, thankful once more that he had not partaken of the filthy Fauthian drink.

Ba’Sel nodded slowly. “I remember it, a ghastly nectar, like spoiled honey and rotten fruit. But after a few swallows it … it took away cares that had been with me for so many years.” In a whining tone that Adham found unnerving, he said, “I felt free for the first time since that repugnant princeling strode from the crumbling temple in the marshes, his eyes gone white, and his skin hanging like a man suffering from a wasting sickness. Little did we know that many of us had been changed.” He paused again with a shudder, then went on hollowly.

“That boy changed inside the temple, gained dark powers. He laid waste with strange fire, burning my kindred to ash in a blink. He summoned a serpent from the mud, a creature of wood and bark and flesh. Kian ordered us away, and so we fled … even knowing he could never survive alone. But he did survive. Kian was not man to die easily. He was a true leader, a king.”

“My father never chose to wear a crown,” Adham said with fierce pride, “but he did serve his people.”

Ba’Sel did not seem to hear him. “Some days after we regrouped, Kian returned to us. Ishin, our leader then, gave him a bowl of snakefish soup. All but Ishin gagged on the taste. Kian fared no better. Ishin was offended, which was nothing novel.” Ba’Sel went quiet again, then spoke in a fearful hush.

“That night, my cousin Fenahk came from the forest … but he was my kin no more. He had become something else, and the creature inside him-the demon, the Mahk’lar-tore him apart from the inside, like a moth emerging from a cocoon, ripping his flesh and bones to shreds. Kian and my brothers fought the beast, as did Ishin. In fear, I remained apart, using my bow. Kian destroyed the creature, seemingly with his voice alone … but not before it had killed Ishin.

“After that, it fell on me to lead the Asra a’Shah. It was a task I never hoped for, but it was mine to do. Perhaps I was too young, or maybe I was never suited to lead. A madness came over the world in the early days after the Upheaval. It broke some part of me that has yet to heal.”

Uncomfortable with the revelations, Adham set himself to planning a way to escape, or at least a way to kill some few of his captors. Until my last breath and drop of blood, he thought, taking solace in the stark and unbending ways of his ice-blooded kinsmen.

Try as he might to turn his thoughts, a question kept arising in the forefront of his mind. Would I have behaved any differently than Ba’Sel? He wanted to believe that he would have shouldered the task as his father had, but was not sure.

Kian’s entire life, from his time as a displaced orphan scrounging for crumbs on the deadly streets of Marso, to his rise as a coveted mercenary, had shaped him into the man he needed to become in order to defeat a depraved princeling with the stolen powers of a god, and to cast Peropis back into the Thousand Hells. Even his later rise to rule over the fractured kingdom of Izutar, and his unceasing resistance against the Faceless One, seemed preordained.

Adham shook his head, unsure if he could have prevailed, had he stood in place of his father or Ba’Sel.

Halan’s sudden howl destroyed Adham’s brooding counsel. Fresh beads of sweat showed on Ba’Sel’s brow, and he began muttering to himself.

“Unless you want to suffer whatever nightmare Adu’lin has planned for us,” Adham urged, “you better find the strength that made you the leader of the Brothers of the Crimson Shield.”

“To what end?” Ba’Sel pleaded. “We are as good as dead-the same fate that has befallen all my brethren these long years.”

“I should wring your coward’s neck,” Adham snapped.

“What cowardice is it to accept that which we cannot alter? Better to make your peace with the Silent God of All, and pray for a sleep of serenity to fall over you before … before they begin.”

Loathing churned in Adham’s throat, and for a moment he thought he might scream in rage. Somehow, he kept his voice low, and asked, “How can you go willingly to your doom? You were an Asra a’Shah, a man born and bred for battle. Is there none of that man left inside you?”

“So many years,” Ba’Sel sobbed. “Four lifetimes of men have I trod the face of the broken world. I have seen the death of thousands at the hands of Alon’mahk’lar, and those who bent their knees to the Faceless One. Longer than you have been alive, I have fought, when I would have rather raised good, tall sons, and tilled the soil of my homelands in peace.”

“ ‘Tilled the soil?’ ” Adham snarled, losing all patience.

The guard glanced their way.

Adham bowed his head, and said from the corner of his mouth, “You are a man of war, and have been all your life. There are no crops for you, and there never has been. The only soil to till lies in the black hearts of all who would destroy humankind at the behest of a soulless demon. If there is any hope for those who come after us, you must resist the Faceless One.”

“What do we know of souls, I wonder?” Ba’Sel mused, head turning one way and another, as if looking at a world behind his blindfold that only he could see.

For a long time Adham stared, understanding coming slowly.

Abruptly Ba’Sel laughed, a giddy, childish squeal of delight. “Mother?” he cried. He nodded his head eagerly, and began rocking on his knees. “Oh, yes, I am hungry.”

“May Pa’amadin grant you peace,” Adham murmured, his scorn fading. The fabric of Ba’Sel’s will had torn, and the delusion that now held him might never relinquish its grip. In that moment, Adham felt pity in his heart not for a vanquished warrior, but for a simple man forced to a path he had never been suited to travel.

But how many of us are suited to stand against those who would destroy us for no more reason than that we live? Adham was not sure anyone, even himself, could stand against the enemies of humankind, but he had to try.

He glanced at the guard, now staring straight ahead. All the other guards had gone elsewhere, ordered so by Adu’lin, who no doubt believed that he had cowed his unruly prisoners to absolute submission.

Soon that lone guard, confident that he would meet no resistance, would come for Ba’Sel. When he did, Adham intended to make him pay for that confidence.

Chapter 32

Damoc’s clan, some three score strong, marched quickly through the night toward Armala. With dawn still an hour off, the forested path to the black city lay under a dewy pall of darkness and impregnable quiet. Leitos wished that same calm would settle over his heart.

After learning from the Yatoans who had been held in reserve outside the Throat of Balaam that the demonic swarm had made for the Fauthian city, all Leitos could think about was the safety of his father and the Brothers.

The doubts he had stubbornly nurtured about Belina’s account of the Fauthians had vanished. With the Throat of Balaam and the Faceless One so close to Armala, Leitos could not believe that Adu’lin was unaware of the place, or the dark entity that sheltered within its depths. He found it troubling that all the Brothers, himself included, had believed that the Fauthians were a decent, peaceful folk.

How could we have trusted them? Leitos’s only answer was Ba’Sel’s assurances. Disagreeable as it was, their leader had led them into a terrible trap. It pained Leitos to admit that he could never allow Ba’Sel to make such an error again. Once the Brothers knew the truth, they would turn from him, and join swords with the Yatoans. What happened to Ba’Sel after that, Leitos could not guess.

Coming to the edge of the forest, Leitos spied the road he had taken up the mountain the night he crept from Armala. The city slumbered nearby. On its wall, no movement attracted any eye. If not for the lights brightening the palace, Armala might have been a bone-town.

“How will we attack?” Leitos whispered to Damoc.

“There,” the elder said after a time, pointing at a section of wall that projected in sharp angles around a cluster of buildings with tall, pointed roofs. “We have watched Armala for a season, and the Fauthians never post a proper guard along that part of the wall. Our archers will cover two or three climbers who, once they reach the battlements, can make it safe for the rest to follow.”

“If the Mahk’lar have gone to Adu’lin, then he will know we are coming.”

“There is nothing for it. We must attack.”

“I need weapons,” Leitos said, glancing at Nola, who crouched next to Belina. “Unless Nola wishes to lend me her sword again.” He meant it as a jest, but the girl scowled, much the same as she had just before she tried to murder him. It seemed her gratitude for hauling her out of harm’s way had diminished. Belina, however, flashed him a shy smile, which he found disconcerting. Yatoans, he decided, were a strange lot.

From the leafy darkness, a familiar voice said, “There is no need to borrow a blade, when yours is at hand.”

“Ulmek?” Leitos gasped. Around him, the Yatoan company moved into aggressive postures, and Leitos flung up a restraining hand. The Yatoans froze, poised to attack.

The hard-faced Brother emerged from a nearby cluster of brush. Behind him came Sumahan and Daris. All three were burdened with haversacks and as many swords, daggers, and bows as they could carry.

“I believe this is yours,” Ulmek said, pushing a bundle into Leitos’s hands.

Leitos pulled the haversack’s straps over his shoulders, then accepted the sword Ba’Sel had presented to him the dawn after his testing. A dagger with a spike-like blade came next, and finally, Ulmek supplied Leitos with the short, double-curved bow Adham had helped him fashion, along with a leather quiver stuffed with arrows.

While Leitos secured his weapons, Ulmek’s eyes widened at the sight of Belina. When his gaze shifted to Nola, his mouth fell open, and he danced back with a curse. “How can this be?”

His sword seemed to spring into his hand, and the Yatoans surged forward in response. By the thinnest of margins, Leitos managed to convince them to hold fast.

“She is not who you think,” he said in a rush.

Ulmek went still, as Sumahn and Daris spread around him in a protective fan. He thrust his face forward. “She could be Zera, as I first knew her.”

Nola and Belina went rigid, and Damoc looked as if he had swallowed a stone. “How do you know that name?” the elder demanded.

“My brethren and I took Zera in. We trained her. At one time, she was one of us.” His dark eyes cut toward Leitos. “Then she betrayed us.”

“She is alive?” Belina breathed.

Still looking at Leitos, Ulmek shook his head. “No, she is not.”

“How did my sister die? When?” Belina asked. If not for Damoc’s arm blocking her path, she might have leaped at Ulmek.

My mother and eldest sister were the last in our clan to be returned. Icy sweat sprang from Leitos’s pores at the memory of Belina’s words. Twice, now, he had witnessed that volatile reaction to Zera’s name. He glanced at Nola. Eldest sister … my sister.… Sisters. He should have guessed it before now. He swallowed, dryly, wondering how they would react if they knew he killed Zera?

Ulmek looked between Belina and Nola, to Leitos, and finally Damoc. “We can speak of that matter at another time.”

Leitos let out a slow breath.

“Agreed,” Damoc said stiffly, as if that were the last thing he ever wanted to discuss. “For now, we must concentrate on destroying the Fauthians. This night, our oppressors will pay for their crimes against us.”

Ulmek grinned darkly. “I must say, Leitos, I grow rather fond of your new friends. As such,” he said, looking to Damoc, “I warn you that attacking this city will not be so easy as you think-but then, what joy ever comes from a simple task?”

Chapter 33

“Bring him,” Adu’lin called from the chamber.

“I am ready,” Ba’Sel said agreeably, by now caught fully in the throes of his madness.

Within the first few moments after they had taken Halan away, the big man’s screams ended. So it had been for all the Brothers. Adham could not guess what horrors they had faced, or if they yet drew breath, but he did not intend to become one of them.

The guard came forward. There was no fear in his posture, no caution whatsoever. He smirked when he glanced at Adham. For show, Adham cringed away. The guard turned to haul Ba’Sel to his feet.

Adham leaped up, wrapped an arm around the guard’s neck, and rammed a knee against his spine, driving him forward. They crashed to the stone floor, and Adham reared back until the Fauthian’s spine crackled. Adham pulled harder, tightening his grip, and the guard died with a shudder.

“Bring him!” Adu’lin shouted, now sounding impatient.

Adham drew the guard’s sword. Preparing to free Ba’Sel, he heard Adu’lin’s approaching footsteps.

“Spring is such a beautiful time, don’t you think?” Ba’Sel asked.

Adham did not waste breath answering the senseless question, but instead slashed the man’s bindings, and then tore off his blindfold. “Can you stand?”

Ba’Sel blinked owlishly. “This is not my village, not Salgo.… What is this place?” His black eyes grew wide, and he flinched when he looked to Adham. “Where am I, and … who are you?”

“You are in danger, and I am a friend,” Adham snarled, unable to hide his frustration. “If you want to live, we must flee.”

“Orest, what is taking so long?” Adu’lin sounded one step beyond the threshold, and coming closer.

Adham caught Ba’Sel’s shoulder, and began pulling him to the door Ulmek and the others had used to escape.

Ba’Sel gave a terrified squawk and jerked free. “I do not know you!” he shrieked. “Do not touch me!”

At a sharp curse, Adham spun to find Adu’lin glaring at him.

“I grow weary of your mischief, Izutarian,” the Fauthian said. He made no attempt to produce a weapon. “So weary, in truth, that I can no longer see the benefit of keeping you alive.”

“So be it,” Adham growled, and charged.

Adu’lin’s assuredness broke under Adham’s battle cry. He wheeled and disappeared into the gloom beyond the doorway. Adham followed.

Two paces into the next chamber, Adham slid to a halt. In the darkness beyond the doorway, many pairs of silvery eyes glimmered from the silhouetted heads of men, telling him they were men no more.

The Brothers, men he counted as friends, had been forcibly possessed by Mahk’lar. Those unblinking gazes turned his way. More shapes, malformed and hideous, flitted behind the Brothers, seeking living bodies to take for their own, if only for a short time before their presence destroyed or changed that flesh.

“Kill him,” Adu’lin cried. “Kill them both!”

The shadowed Mahk’lar host and the possessed Brothers moved as one. Adham whirled and ran.

When he returned to the hall, he discovered that Ba’Sel had fled. Cursing, he debated only half a moment before deciding that Ba’Sel, in all his demented madness, would have to fend for himself. Leitos was lost, and when the choice lay between his son and a madman, Adham saw no choice.

He sprinted from the hall, the Fauthian long sword in his hand ready to cleave the spirit from any enemy who came between him and escape.

Rounding a corner, he met a startled guard. The Fauthian recoiled, instinctively raising his spear. Without slowing, Adham lopped off the burnished tip, spun in a flashing circle, and sent the snaky bastard’s head rolling.

Before the thrashing corpse struck the floor, Adham was off again, seeking a door or window, any portal he could use to get into the open.

When he saw the broad double doors at the end of a branching corridor, he knew he had found what he sought. As soon as he turned, a pair of Fauthians moved into view.

Bellowing like a madman, Adham snatched a torch from an iron sconce, and flew into the midst of his enemies. The first fell with a garbled screech, sliced groin to sternum. The next warrior blanched and backed away. Adham pursued, alternating his attacks with torch and sword. The guard fended off the initial strike with his spear, but Adham made quick work of reducing the weapon to kindling. The Fauthian tried to ward against a last blow, but Adham thrust the torch through his weak defense, jabbing the sputtering flames against his face. The Fauthian screamed, and Adham ran him through, then batted him aside.

He flung up an iron locking bar, and thrust the doors open. Expecting to meet resistance, he was surprised to find none. The first hint of the coming dawn showed as a gray aura over the eastern mountains. He headed that way at a sprint, and rapidly escaped the palace grounds.

Wanting to distance himself from Adu’lin’s horde, he kept to that street until he came to an intersection. Taking the one bearing off to the east, he ran at a slower pace.

A few more twists and turns led him to a great square with a central fountain fashioned into a horror of scales and coiled limbs. Given the Fauthian alliance with the Mahk’lar, he now understood their appreciation for such grotesque works.

Going slower now, he kept to shadows and what cover he could find. Alleys served well to keep him hidden from any searching eyes. In zigzag fashion, he discovered that, despite its level appearance, the city had a slight upward tilt. By the time he reached the city wall, he had a fair vantage point from which to survey the way he had come.

Hidden deep within the lingering darkness of a wall, careful to make no sudden movements, Adham straightened to his full height. Under a brightening sky, he searched for but saw no followers. He knew they were there, somewhere, stalking him.

Turning the other way, Adham froze.

Across the southern tip of Armala, beyond a tall watchtower, he saw two men standing on the wall. One faced inward, a bow held at full draw. Another bowman looked outward. By their proportions, they could not be Fauthians.

He waited, unsure what they were up to. His answer came a moment later.

Between the two figures, another man stood up and moved off to one side. In rapid succession, a score of warriors had mounted the wall, all armed with bows, and all seemingly intent on making sure no one within the city could launch a surprise attack.

Yatoans, he thought sure, and wondered if they would accept him into their ranks, or kill him outright.

He had decided to give them a wide berth, when another figure stood up. Adham’s heart began hammering. Even at a distance, and without clear sight of his face, Adham knew he gazed upon his son. Briefly it crossed his mind that Leitos might be a captive of the bloodthirsty Yatoans, but Adham did not think so.

A surreptitious movement drew Adham’s eye back toward the heart of the city. Though still some distance off, Adu’lin’s forces crept toward the Yatoans. Fauthians came bearing longbows; Mahk’lar wove through and around buildings, shapeless fiends of oily black smoke; the forsaken Brothers of the Crimson Shield marched stiffly, with swords and bows at the ready. He spied yet another group of men, who scampered with an odd rolling gait. Kelrens. Adham had forgotten all about them, after the Brothers gave them into Adu’lin’s hands.

Knowing time was short, but knowing also that he must determine Adu’lin’s strategy if he were to be of any help at all, Adham continued his survey. In doing so, he saw a sight that chilled his flesh. Mingled throughout the advancing force strode dozens of Alon’mahk’lar, their heads turning to show the outlines of curving horns.

By now, the advancing force had spread out in a large half-moon circle, with one end anchoring at the western watchtower, and the loose end swinging around to the tower nearest Adham. The Fauthian element, some two score, broke from the main body and began vanishing into the watchtowers and the tallest buildings, those that would provide the best places from which to rain down arrows upon the Yatoans-

And my son! With that thought, Adham was off and running. He gave no thought to strategy or avoidance. There was little even the hardest, most skilled soldiers could do against such an overwhelming force, save retreat. But before the Yatoans could know that was their only choice, Adham had to deliver the warning. And to do that, he had to break through a line of inhuman warriors that knew not fear or remorse, but only a hunger for death and blood.

Chapter 34

Feeling exposed atop the city wall under the brightening dawn, Leitos searched Armala. Shadows lingered, made sharper and deeper by the rising sun, but otherwise all lay still and quiet. A flicker caught his eye, and he glanced at the same watchtower he had climbed before escaping the city. Its upper windows stood empty.

“They are out there,” Ulmek promised. “Somewhere, they wait.”

“You think we are walking into a trap?” Leitos asked, keeping his voice down.

“All battlefields are littered with traps.”

Leitos put that aside in favor of another question. “Why did Adu’lin capture you and the others?”

Ulmek shrugged. “I do not know, but considering the way he plied us with that fruit wine, it must have always been his intention.”

“And my father?” Leitos asked. He had kept that concern to himself, until now.

“It was Adham who set us free.”

Leitos felt a tingle of pride, but worry outweighed it. “So Adu’lin still has him?”

“I cannot see how it would be otherwise. But if any man of us could find the wherewithal to escape, it would be Adham. A pity we do not have a thousand such warriors within our order.”

Leitos nodded mutely, wondering if a thousand Izutarians remained in all the world. That idea made him feel alone, isolated, a man without a people or a land.

“Within the hour, Armala will be ours, and our longtime enemies will be crushed.” Damoc announced, after the last of the Yatoans had scaled the wall. He stood tall, seemingly unconcerned about watchers. His daughters mimicked his stance, as did all the Yatoans.

“I would suggest we take cover immediately,” Ulmek said.

“Neither I nor my people fear anything that hides within this city. Long have we prepared for this day, and we will not come slinking like whining curs, but as conquerors. Let the Fauthians see our approach, and tremble!” Damoc finished with a shout, earning a hearty cheer.

“Do not let your confidence betray your judgment,” Ulmek cautioned. “If it has not yet entered your mind, consider that this breach has been too easy. Such tells me to beware.”

“If you do not wish to risk your skin,” Damoc said, “feel free to leave us.”

“You speak to no coward,” Ulmek bristled. “And neither are my men afraid to die this day-but not needlessly. I tell you once more, you need to go forward with your eyes and ears open.”

“In open battle, the Fauthians are weak,” Damoc scoffed. “And the Kelrens they will set against us are few.”

“If the Fauthians are so weak, how have they subdued your people so long?” Ulmek asked, not bothering to disguise his scorn.

Damoc rounded on the stone-faced Brother. “My forefathers mistook them for blessed beings, gods among men. It is a mistake I once shared. No more. This day, the Fauthians will be scoured from memory!”

Another cheer went up, along with the brandishing of bows and swords. Belina gave Leitos an unreadable look, but he sensed her apprehension. Nola seemed no less hesitant than her father.

“So you mean to march straight into the heart of the city,” Ulmek asked with a mystified snort. “That is your plan?”

“My only strategy is to chop the Fauthians into stew meat,” Damoc boasted. “After that, I mean to break my fast on the fare of my oppressors. The sooner done, the better, for I grow hungry.” Damoc clapped hands with his warriors, celebrating as if the battle had already been won.

Ulmek cast Leitos a sideways look. “This fool will may well win the day-Pa’amadin, on occasion, will favor idiots with a bit of luck-but after that you and I, along with Sumahn and Daris, and all the Brothers we can free, will leave these Yatoans to their fate, and make for the shore we landed upon.”

Leitos glanced at Belina, and Ulmek caught his arm, drawing his attention. “We cannot be divided on this. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Leitos answered reluctantly.

“We will attack in three separate lines,” Damoc was saying to his attentive warriors. “Do not stop until every Fauthian and Kelren is dead. And trust that whoever finds Adu’lin and brings him to me alive, will be well rewarded.”

Sumahn and Daris had come closer to Ulmek and Leitos, and Sumahn shook his head. “We should just leave them, here and now. We know where Ba’Sel and the others are being held, and should go to them straight away, and then-”

“What is that?” Daris interrupted, pointing toward the east. Four heads turned to observe a man running in their direction, frantically waving a Fauthian sword overhead. A shout drifted across the distance, and though the words were indistinguishable, the voice was not.

“My father!” Leitos cried. He jumped to his feet, as the Yatoans spun to peer at the closing figure. Those with bows nocked arrows, and made ready to fire.

“Hold, damn you!” Ulmek growled. “He is one of us.”

“Perhaps he was,” Damoc said tensely, “but we do not know if he is now in league with Adu’lin. Feather him.”

“No!” Leitos shouted.

Closer now, Adham’s voice pierced the morning quiet, but was still indistinct.

Head cocked, Sumahn’s eyes suddenly went round. “Ambush. He said ambush!”

Damoc looked over his shoulder, doubt written over his features. “I did not hear that.”

“Then you are as deaf as you are stupid,” Sumahn snapped, nocking his own arrow and aiming it at the elder. “Tell your people to hold, or I’ll stick a feather in your throat.”

“Treacherous dog!” Damoc roared. Nola joined him, sword poised, green eyes afire. Belina shook her head and backed away. Those Yatoan bowmen closest by, abruptly turned their arrows on the four Brothers.

Where relative calm had held, now confusion reigned on the wall. Ulmek began shouting furiously, and Daris joined Sumahn in bending his bow. Leitos counted at least half a dozen arrowheads aimed directly at his chest. There was nowhere to go, no way to escape.

Belina moved between Leitos and her people. “Stop! To kill him, is to destroy hope for us!”

Spittle flying off his lips, Damoc raged, “I’ve heard enough about your accursed visions, girl. Stand aside.”

“I will not. If you kill him, then you might as well kill me, and all the rest of us.”

“Heed me, daughter, or by the gods of old I will-”

A hissing sound, followed by a seemingly insignificant thump, cut him off.

Leitos whirled to find a young, dark-haired woman with an arrow lodged in her throat topple off the wall. An instant later, a hail of shrieking arrows sliced through the Yatoan ranks.

“Archers in the watchtower,” Leitos warned, at the same time Ulmek shouted, “Take cover!”

Sumahn and Daris followed Ulmek in jumping down to a slate-roofed storage shed built against the inside of the wall, and then they bounded off that and rushed into the shadows of a nearby building.

Leitos did not hesitate. He caught Belina around the waist, and together they dropped to the shed, rolled off the roof, and crashed against hard-packed dirt. Leitos took the brunt of the impact, with Belina landing mostly on top of him.

He groaned as he got to his feet, ribs aching. Above them, as his people died in droves, Damoc cursed and flung himself off the wall. Other Yatoans followed, some missing the shed to sprawl on the ground. Too many to count, pincushioned with arrows, did not regain their feet.

Leitos pulled Belina toward Ulmek. Damoc yelled some command, but Leitos kept on until he reached the safety of the building and his Brothers. Only then did he let go of Belina.

Damoc ran toward them, eyes bright with fury. An arrow jutted from one shoulder, and another from the opposite thigh. He did not seem to feel his wounds, and rushed near with his sword raised. “Betrayers! You led us into this trap!”

With blurring speed, Ulmek spun and batted away Damoc’s blade, caught the man’s throat, and slammed him against the building. His free hand ripped out the shaft buried in the elder’s man’s shoulder, then jammed the barbed head half the width of a finger into the skin above his heart. “Your enemies wait in the city, not among us, and the only trap is the one you stepped into with all your proud bluster.”

Unsure which enemies to address, the remaining Yatoans split ranks, half focusing on their surroundings, the other half aiming at Ulmek’s back.

“Call off your warriors,” Ulmek advised, “or I will end you before you see the deaths of your people avenged.”

The veins in Damoc’s neck bulged, and he flung his head back and screamed. His grief washed over everyone who heard it, and Leitos shrank back, knowing too well such pain.

When that cry cut off, the elder’s agony fled him all at once, and he went limp. Had Ulmek not still held him, Damoc would have collapsed.

“Call them off,” Ulmek urged. “Set them to defend us, or we are all dead. Do you understand me?”

With a pained expression, Damoc looked from Ulmek to his few remaining clansmen, and finally to his daughters. “Belina?” he whispered. “Nola?”

“We are alive,” they said together.

“The time to grieve those you lost will come,” Ulmek said, “but that time is not now. You must command the living. Fight, Damoc, and bring judgment upon those who would end your clan.”

Damoc looked over the Brother’s shoulder to his clan. “Heed this man in all things.”

As Yatoan bows began to lower, Adham skidded to a halt at the edge of the building, eyes wild, face dripping sweat.

“We must flee,” he said. “Adu’lin has archers ringing us about. Sea-wolves and Mahk’lar advance, tightening the noose, with the aid of Alon’mahk’lar-two score, at the least. As well….” He trailed off, glancing between Ulmek and Leitos, Sumahn and Daris. In a grave voice he finished, “As well, your brothers march with the enemy. They are men no more, but demons sheathed in the flesh of the men they once were.”

Leitos and the others stared in open shock at Adham’s revelation.

“What can he hope to gain by that course?” Ulmek seethed.

Damoc’s eyes lit up, as if discovering the answer to a puzzling riddle. “That is why Adu’lin so eagerly came to your rescue! He knows that Mahk’lar cannot possess us, and so serve no purpose in defending Armala against our attacks. The Kelrens are a threat, but no more than any man. As well, Alon’mahk’lar can be killed.”

“What has any of that to do with my brethren?” Ulmek’s dark eyes never stopped moving, but the elder held the largest part of his attention. By now, the Yatoans had taken up defensive positions to secure their bare scrap of ground.

“Had you not come,” Damoc said, “it was only a matter of time before we would have destroyed the Fauthians. But now these Mahk’lar can harness the deadliest skills of your men. With such warriors-those who can do us great harm, even in small numbers-he hopes to crush our rebellion.”

“How could Adu’lin have known we were more than just another group of slaves caught by the Kelrens?” Ulmek asked.

“Adu’lin, as does most of the world, serves the Faceless One,” Damoc said. “It is likely that he found out where you were, and sent the Kelrens to capture you, intending to use you against us.”

“There must be a way to force the demons out of our brethren,” Daris said.

Adham shook his head. “Once a Mahk’lar entrenches itself within living flesh, that flesh dies or is transformed, and the soul which controlled that flesh passes beyond the mortal realm.”

That truth pressed in on Leitos, but he fought despair by thinking of those yet alive. “What of Ba’Sel? You spoke of freeing him … is he with you?”

“After cutting Ba’Sel loose,” Adham said, “I went after Adu’lin, intending to slay him. That’s when I discovered what he had done. When I returned for Ba’Sel, he had fled. I had no choice but to leave him.”

“Ba’Sel was many things,” Ulmek said, “but he was no craven wretch. If pressed, he would have fought.”

Adham took a deep breath, collecting himself. “Doubtless that is true … but in the end, he was not himself.”

“What are you saying?” Ulmek questioned.

“It is a rare thing,” Adham said hesitantly, “but I have seen it before.”

“Tell us what you are going on about, Izutarian!” Ulmek demanded.

“The father of your order has lost his mind,” Adham said bluntly. “He began raving about his homelands, of his mother. If he survives, maybe he will become again the man he was. But last I saw him, he was as a fearful child.”

“We must find him,” Ulmek said, searching faces for those who might join him. Daris nodded eagerly, but Sumahn narrowed his eyes in unspoken refusal. Leitos recalled Sumahn’s talk of Ba’Sel’s uselessness aboard the Bloody Whore.

Of the Yatoans, none so much as batted an eye. Ba’Sel was unknown to them, and their fealty rested with Damoc and their clan.

Adham gave Ulmek a pained look. “Have you heard nothing else I have said? We are besieged. In moments, Adu’lin’s horde will fall upon us. Ba’Sel, whether he lives or not, is lost. We must flee … or we must fight.”

“If we flee,” Damoc said, “it could be months-if ever-before Adu’lin lowers his guard enough for us to attack again. And now that he has turned your brothers into the weapons he needed, he will fortify Armala, and eventually destroy my people.”

“Why Armala?” Leitos blurted. “What is so important about an empty city?”

“It is Adu’lin’s fortress,” Damoc said.

“That is not what I mean,” Leitos said with a shake of his head. “Why does Adu’lin not simply leave Yato? He would find many other lands safer, without the constant threat of the clans looming over him.”

Damoc gave him a quizzical look, but Belina’s face brightened. “It is not Armala he wishes to protect, but the Faceless One.”

“The Faceless One is here?” Adham barked, his voice mingling with those of the other Brothers.

“I have faced him,” Leitos admitted, “but he is no man.”

“As he is without flesh and thus unassailable,” Damoc added, “I would say his spirit alone resides within the Throat of Balaam.”

“Then we must destroy the Throat,” Ulmek said decisively, “in order to keep Adu’lin from him.”

“This is all well and good,” Adham said, “but we still face the same choices as before. Fauthian archers watch the wall, and worse foes are drawing nearer. Our death is all they seek.”

“Then we fight,” Damoc said with quiet ferocity. “For those taken from us over long generations,” he said, voice rising, “for those ravished by Alon’mahk’lar, for those who have died this day, and for ourselves, we fight.”

Chapter 35

After Damoc’s defiant words rolled over those gathered about him, the elder looked to Ulmek. “Your order is known, even in Yato, as men of war. How can we push past our enemies?”

“You five,” Ulmek snapped, rapidly pointing out those he wanted, “will join Leitos in drawing the attention of the archers. While the Fauthians and their allies are distracted, the rest of us follow Adham back the way he came.”

Robis, one of the chosen Yatoans, shook his head. “I will be no sacrifice.”

“You will do as ordered,” Damoc snarled, “or I will cut you down myself.”

Robis swallowed, tried to speak, but no words came. He reluctantly nodded under the stares of his fellows.

Satisfied, Ulmek glanced at Leitos, silently conveying to him the leadership of the small band. Only when the Yatoans had turned their attention to Leitos, did Ulmek lay out his plan.

“Once the Fauthians have turned their attention on you, you will have only moments to find cover. I will position another handful of our archers to watch over you, then wait for a twenty count for you to rejoin the rest of us. If you are not there in time, you are on your own. Do you understand?”

Leitos swallowed his doubt. “We will be there.”

“Very good,” Ulmek said, and picked out another five archers from among the Yatoans. When he finished, he glanced at Leitos, and bared his teeth in a stony smile. “Noise, little brother, will work best to attract our enemies.”

Understanding what Ulmek meant, Leitos nocked an arrow to his bowstring, took a deep breath, and burst from cover with a crazed shout. The Yatoans came at his heels, screaming like demons escaped from the Thousand Hells.

Leitos had taken three long strides before the first volley of Fauthian arrows rained down. A shout became a shriek behind him, then another, but he did not falter. Still howling, he aimed at a shadow lurking within an arched window, a hundred paces distant and four stories above the ground. For a single instant between strides, his bobbing arrowhead steadied, and he loosed the shaft. Before the arrow ripped into that darkness, before the shaded figure dropped from sight, he had nocked another arrow and drawn the bowstring to his cheek.

No longer focusing on targets, he sought an opening in the wall flashing by at his side. Of windows there were plenty, all boarded over. Midway down the side of the building, he found a wide stair rising to a portico before a set of massive wooden doors. Pitted and splintered with ancient rot, they slumped on their hinges.

He loosed his second arrow at another figure, then darted up the stairs, taking them three at a time. Running full out, Leitos cradled his bow protectively, and tucked his shoulder. The impact was harder than he expected, and despite looking ready to fall apart at the slightest touch, he bounced off with a stunned grunt.

Three Yatoans came barreling up the stairs, all hollering, Robis loudest of all. The big youth did not slow or try to avoid Leitos, but instead rammed into him, driving them both against the doors. The other pair added their weight, and the latch gave way with a screech of tearing metal and shattering wood. The foursome tumbled into dusty gloom, just as a flight of arrows streaked into the spot where they had been.

Leitos bounded to his feet, and tore off through a hall littered with old furnishings and fleeing rats. The Yatoans came at his heels.

Beyond the hall waited a corridor lined with staggered doors, the walls hung with tapestries fouled by coats of greenish mold. Wild cries and curses from outside the building drove them from the corridor into another hall. Leitos made for a set of double doors twice the size as those they had crashed through. Ulmek had said he would give them a twenty count to get through, and while Leitos had not bothered keeping count, he knew they had plenty of-

The doors burst inward with such force that they flew off their hinges, and crashed to the floor. Backlit by the golden dawn, two hulking shapes with horned heads rushed through the doorway, their guttural howls shaking the air.

Leitos and Robis dodged to one side, both colliding with a stack of benches. The other Yatoans changed course too late.

Desperately trying to untangle himself from the heap of shattered wood and stinking fabric, Leitos gave a warning shout, as the first Alon’mahk’lar swung a spiked cudgel the size of a small tree. The weapon found its mark, and the Yatoan fell, his skull broken. The second Yatoan collapsed with a drawn-out scream, as the other Alon’mahk’lar raked its talons across his chest and belly.

For all his earlier fearfulness, Robis proved his deeper courage by flinging Leitos aside, and attacking. His sword hacked and slashed with no great skill, but with an immense, desperate strength.

Leitos reached for an arrow, only to discover that his fall had snapped the bow in his hand. He flung it aside, and in the same motion drew his sword and dagger. He stalked forward, looking for an opening.

Robis chopped his blade against the first Alon’mahk’lar’s bloody cudgel, sending chips of wood flying from the haft. He swung again, and the Alon’mahk’lar answered the attack with its own. When the two weapons met, Robis’s blade shattered. The youth fell back, hands clutched to his belly.

Before the demon could finish its deadly work, Leitos’s arm flashed, and his dagger sank into the creature’s throat. As the Alon’mahk’lar stumbled backward, blood boiled from the wound and flowed over its chest. In an effort to pull the dagger free, the demon-born savaged its own flesh with its talons. It tripped and crashed to the floor, kicking and clawing.

Leitos spun to face the next Alon’mahk’lar, barely in time to deflect its great sword. Even that glancing blow rocked Leitos to his heels, left his arms and shoulders numb. He staggered, trying to bring up his blade, but instead the hilt fell from his tingling fingers.

With a deafening roar, the Alon’mahk’lar lunged, sword falling. Leitos threw himself into a forward roll. The demon-born’s blade slammed against the floor, spraying a shower of sparks and broken tiles. Moving with terrible agility, the Alon’mahk’lar wheeled and came after Leitos before he could get to his feet, leaving him to scramble on all fours.

The demon-born’s sword fell again, and just missed cleaving Leitos’s spine. Another stroke clipped the sole of his boot, and sent him tumbling across the floor. He collided with one thick leg of a massive table, twisted himself around, and dove headlong underneath it.

The falling sword disintegrated a section of the tabletop. Torn nearly in half, the table collapsed, pinning Leitos. Fighting for breath, he struggled to get free of the tremendous weight. The Alon’mahk’lar laughed, and eased around for a killing blow.

From the corner of his eye, Leitos watched the demon’s sword sweep upward, and then pause before its lethal descent.

In that moment of hesitation Leitos imagined his father, and Belina, and what remained of the Brothers, all standing over his mutilated corpse. In his mind they did not wear expressions of grief or anger, but looked on him with blank eyes and smooth faces, as if they, too, were dead.

“No!” he cried, throwing up a hand between him and the Alon’mahk’lar. The demon-born unexpectedly staggered back. Its glittery eyes swelled wide in the shadow cast by the cliff of its brow. The creature caught itself, shook its head, and abruptly laughed again, its terrible voice watering Leitos’s eyes.

Robis abruptly landed on the demon-born’s back. He caught hold of a horn in one hand, and used the other to rake his dagger across the Alon’mahk’lar’s neck, the keen blade passing through its hide to grate over bone. The Alon’mahk’lar’s laughter became a bubbling gurgle, as a torrent of blood poured from the wound. The sword fell from its spasming fingers, and the demon-born pitched over with Robis still sawing away, and smashed through a pile of chairs.

Robis rolled to his feet, and ran to heave the shattered table over on its side. Gasping, he gave Leitos a hand up. Instead of letting him go, Robis dragged him close and rasped into his ear, “She is not for you, outlander.”

Dazed by the skirmish, still trying to catch his breath, hurting head to toe, Leitos could only stare in bewilderment at the big youth.

“Belina,” Robis clarified. “She is not yours.”

Leitos jerked free and took a cautious step away, remembering how easily Belina had persuaded Robis into clearing out the Yatoan camp in order to free him. Now he understood she had used his love for her against him.

“Belina will decide in her own time, and in her own way, to whom she will give herself.” Leitos had no worry that she would chose him, nor would he want her to. He had loved her sister, the woman he had killed. Once he revealed that to Belina-as he must do, at some point-he could not expect forgiveness.

“We’ll see, outlander,” Robis said, shoving Leitos away.

Trusting that Robis would not stab him in the back, Leitos caught up his sword. Next he moved to the first Alon’mahk’lar, plucked his dagger free of its throat, and wiped the blade clean on the demon-born’s studded leather kilt. The last thing he did was to take a bow and quiver off one of the dead Yatoans. When he straightened, he realized the yelling back the way they had come had gone silent.

“Come on,” Leitos ordered, glancing sidelong at Robis. “If we do not hurry, we will end up fighting alone, until we are both dead.”

Where nothing else might have, those words gave Robis a violent start, and brought him around to what really mattered. Surviving.

Chapter 36

After Leitos and the Yatoans began their diversion, Ulmek led the others into an alley. Before they reached the end, a hulking man stepped into view. Behind him came others, a handful, all dressed as Brothers of the Crimson Shield, snug robes the color of sand and dust. Some carried scimitars, others straight-bladed or curved swords; others held daggers fashioned like long spikes.

Ulmek stepped smoothly into a guarded stance, his sword held before him. “Halan … it is good to see you, old friend.”

“He is a friend no more,” Adham warned, standing abreast Ulmek. “None of them are. Look at their eyes.”

In the shade cloaking the alley, the Brothers’ eyes glinted silver.

“I had hoped you were wrong,” Ulmek said with quiet regret.

“Behind us!” came an alarmed shout.

Belina spun to find that way blocked by horned Alon’mahk’lar. They advanced, fearless and cruel, their guttural murmurs rumbling within the tight space. They bore massive cudgels with spiked heads, huge and crudely forged swords, axes and mauls.

“Where is your son, Izutarian?” a possessed Brother asked in a croaking voice that made Belina’s skin creep.

Adham faced the demon-infested men with a brittle smirk. “You sound sick, Ke’uld. Perhaps you should lie down and rest?”

Ke’uld stared at Adham with eyes as blank as a dead man’s. All the demon-possessed wore the same expressions. Yet, besides the flashes of dull silver, there was life in those eyes, an unholy life escaped from the deepest reaches of the Thousand Hells. Hunger and hate radiated from their stares.

“Slaughter them all,” Ke’uld grated. “Spare only the Izutarian. The reward for his blood will be great.”

Belina fired an arrow without thought, and it glanced off the man’s chest, as if striking stone. For a moment everyone, human and demon alike, stood stock-still.

“The flesh of some demons are near invincible to mortal arms,” Adham cautioned. “We cannot know which can withstand us, until it is too late.”

“Then we fight those we know can and will die,” Ulmek growled. Without warning, he whirled and charged the Alon’mahk’lar. Damoc joined him, then Adham and Belina, Nola and Sumahn, then all the rest.

In heartbeats, enraged howls filled the alley, joined by the reverberating clamor of steel meeting steel.

Under it all was another sound-one Belina would never forget, if she survived the hour-the sound of the dead striking the ground.

Chapter 37

“Do you know where you are going?” Robis called.

After running a little farther, Leitos halted. He cocked his head, and took a few deep breaths to quiet the blood rushing in his ears. “Do you hear that?”

Robis mimicked his posture. “What do you-”

Leitos cut him off with a sharp gesture, and he slowly turned his head, listening. As his heartbeat smoothed, he heard it again. Shouting. A moment later, those shouts became a din of hellish screams.

He was sprinting before he registered the racket of steel beating against steel. Behind him Robis protested, but Leitos kept on. There was only one reason this day for fighting in the black city of Armala.

Down one wide street and up another he ran, each step faster than the last, his pace dictated by the nearing clamor of hard-fought battle. Inhuman roars told him the foes he would find, before he skidded around a corner.

Alon’mahk’lar, five or six at the least, stood bunched together at the end of an alley. The muscles of their immense backs knotted, as they fought against a hidden foe. Whomever the Sons of the Fallen counted as enemies, Leitos counted as friends.

Just as Robis caught up, Leitos loosed an arrow into the base of a demon-born’s skull. The creature straightened as if poleaxed, made a half turn, and fell into one of its companions. With a throaty growl, the second Alon’mahk’lar tripped and went down under the first creature’s weight.

Before any others could react, Leitos quickly sent two more arrows into the throng. One more Alon’mahk’lar fell, but the other jerked the offending shaft from its shoulder with a deafening roar. The rest turned to face the new threat.

“A little help?” Leitos said to Robis, drawing the fletching of another arrow to his cheek.

Whatever Robis said was lost to the sharp twang of the bowstring slipping off Leitos’s fingertips. The shaft buried itself in the eye of the Alon’mahk’lar still clutching the arrow it had yanked from its shoulder.

Before the creature toppled, the remaining demon-born charged. In their wake, scattered across the breadth of the alley, Leitos saw men and women, sprawled in death. Yatoans.

Robis made a strangled sound at the approach of the demon-born. Leitos did not bother looking at him. The bow dropped from his fingers in favor of grasping his sword and dagger. Bracing his feet, he made ready.

“Jump clear before they reach us,” he warned sharply, “or they will trample us under.”

He had no chance to notice if Robis understood, before the Alon’mahk’lar fell on them, cudgels and swords and axes whipping the air where he had just been. Leitos tumbled over the paving stones, and hastily bounded to his feet. He swung his sword backhand at a flashing blur, felt the steel bite hard and deep, then he was rolling clear once more.

Catlike, Leitos sprang up, and raked his sword across the Alon’mahk’lar’s blunt snout. Howling, the creature flung back its horned head. Scarlet droplets fell like a hot rain upon Leitos’s face. He swiped an arm across his eyes to clear them. The effort was wasted.

Vision gone red, he tracked his foe’s movement. The bulky shape charged, and he threw himself out of reach. The demon-born closed again, growling. An instant later, Leitos heard a rush of wind. He ducked, just avoiding a spiked cudgel aimed to tear off his head. The Alon’mahk’lar swung again. Leitos leaped back, sucking in his belly. The beast pressed the attack, and this time Leitos’s evasion failed. A spike clawed into his scalp, and threw him. Leitos flayed at the air in a bid to right himself, but landed in a jumble.

He lay gulping air. A ringing buzz filled his ears, muting the tumult of battle. He felt the thudding tread of the closing demon-born in the paving stones beneath him. Writhing like a slug, Leitos rolled to his side. Imagining that cudgel falling against his skull, he heaved himself up and staggered away, slashing his sword to keep the Alon’mahk’lar at bay.

Stinging tears had cleansed most of the blood from his eyes, and the demon-born’s triumphant gaze battered Leitos’s confidence. He was weak, and his limbs refused to work right. The Alon’mahk’lar advanced, unscathed, save for the slash across its snout.

The demon-born rushed in, face contorted, teeth bared. Lurching drunkenly, Leitos ducked under the beast’s swing, and ripped the tip of his dagger across the Alon’mahk’lar’s belly. His sword followed that raw scarlet line, plowing a deadly furrow that instantly sprouted a crop of coiled innards.

Leitos spun past the Alon’mahk’lar, hamstrung it, and then chopped his blade into the back of the creature’s neck. The blow was weak, but the sword was sharp, his aim true. Silent and stiff, the demon-born fell limply to the ground.

Before Leitos could savor his victory a voice, worse than even the heart-stilling tongue of the Alon’mahk’lar, filled the air. “Take the Izutarians!”

Leitos turned sharply, taking in a tableau of butchery. All the demon-born were down, hacked to pieces by the few remaining Yatoans. Adham and Belina stood over a twitching Alon’mahk’lar a little way off; Nola and Sumahn, pressed back to back, held their swords at the ready; Damoc, his face bloodied by a cut running from his temple to his nose, was down on one knee, with Daris hovering protectively over him. Despite one arm hanging lifelessly at his side, and blood dripping off his fingertips, Robis went to Damoc, and helped him stand.

Ulmek strode purposefully toward the alley, and the gathering of Brothers. Even had their eyes not flashed silver, Leitos would have known they were his brethren no more.

Ke’uld and Halan hesitated only a moment before advancing to meet Ulmek, while the rest of the Brothers spread out in an expanding crescent at their backs. They noted Ulmek’s approach with disdainful glances, but ever their eyes rolled toward Leitos and Adham, their desire to take captive one of the last of the Valera line palpable.

Every part of his being told Leitos to flee. But Ulmek was his leader now, and Ulmek showed nothing of taking flight. They would either survive together by steel and blood, or they would die together.

“For the Crimson Shield!” Leitos shouted abruptly. He raised his sword and dagger, and charged.

Chapter 38

“Give the command, Fauthian,” urged the Kelren shipmaster. The grotesque brands covering his shaven skull flushed in anger at Adu’lin’s reluctance to let his band join the fight. “The Alon’mahk’lar are down. Why do you wait?”

When the time comes for you to enter the fray, Adu’lin thought, having already decided the fate of the sea-wolves, you will not be so eager. Neither did he waste a moment acknowledging the bow-legged brute at his side, or any of the Kelrens waiting on the flat rooftop at his back. Ever had they been unthinking weapons, crude and loathsome, barely worth keeping alive.

The Faceless One’s reliance upon them and other humans had always troubled Adu’lin. He understood the reasoning behind his master’s strategy of using humans to rule over humankind, but did not agree with it. Of late, the making of kings and courts made less sense than ever, for even if they desired it, there were not enough humankind left in the world to mount a resistance against the Faceless One. Better to destroy the last of them, and be done with the age of men.

Of course, that could not come about either, for the Faceless One had chosen to keep the race alive, at least for a time. Some few of them, like the Yatoans, carried within their bloodlines the ability to resist Mahk’lar. And where humans could never hope to rise against the Faceless One, there were those of the Fallen who had turned against their rightful master, and were using humans and other creatures in the building of secret armies, all across the face of the world. To counter those forces, the Faceless One sought the blood of those humans imbued with the Powers of Creation, in order to make stones of protection for his own armies. Since the Upheaval, Adu’lin concluded, the tiny remnant of humankind had become more of a problem than they ever were before.

A smug grin touched his lips, though, as he counted the few remaining Yatoans and Brothers of the Crimson Shield. At least some of them would face his judgment. They had crushed his Alon’mahk’lar, true, but they had paid a dear cost to do so. Now they faced a wholly different foe, and their chances had markedly declined.

“What are you waiting for?” the shipmaster demanded again, his fingers throttling the short haft of a double-bladed axe. “Are you afraid?”

Adu’lin’s lips pressed into a bloodless line and he closed his eyes, struggling not to rip away the slaver’s life. Had he that option with the Yatoans, that of harvesting the energies of life from the spawn of his own ancestors-Adu’lin shied from this thought, not relishing the idea that he too, at one time, had been human-he would not have been forced to tolerate the sea-wolf and his lice-ridden crew. But there was nothing for it. For now, circumstances required that he rely on these base creatures-

The shipmaster caught his arm. “Damn your skin, answer me!”

Adu’lin shuddered, as he fought for control … and failed.

He turned sharply, reaching as if to close his hand over the man’s face. He stopped short, with only a bare inch separating them. The shipmaster tried to flinch back, but invisible bonds held him fast. Adu’lin’s fingers curled and flexed, as he began to collect the threads of life spreading from the man in a gossamer shroud. The ability was unique to him among the Fauthians, a rare and precious gift bestowed upon him by the Faceless One, long ago.

As living power filled him, the vibrancy of the world’s colors vanished to his sight, becoming shades of black and gray, overlaid with webs of glowing silver. He embraced that radiance, drew it into himself. The sea-wolves staggered with sudden weakness, their bodies robbed of strength that poured into Adu’lin.

“Demand nothing of me,” Adu’lin said.

“I … I.… Forgive me, I beg,” the Kelren stammered, choking on his tongue.

Expressionless, Adu’lin curled his fingers. By fractions, the shipmaster’s skull began cracking. By the time Adu’lin’s hand became a fist, the bloodied sea-wolf was no longer recognizable. A few shattered teeth dribbled over his quivering lips. Still he tried to plead … until he made no more sounds at all.

Adu’lin unclenched his fingers and took a precise step back, allowing the shipmaster to fall on his mutilated face. Enlivened as he was by the flood of life filling his veins, Adu’lin dispersed it back into the sea-wolves.

To a man, they gasped in relief, and knelt before him. None looked to their fallen leader. They did not look anywhere, save at their bent knees.

“You march at my command,” Adu’lin told them. “Not before, and not at your choosing. Are we in agreement?”

The sea-wolves nodded in answer, but as with the shipmaster, it was their hands Adu’lin watched, the way their knuckles grew white as they gripped their weapons. At the first chance, they would seek to destroy him. He had always known the Kelrens were untrustworthy, loyal only to themselves. That had never been so true as now. That made his abrupt decision all the easier.

Adu’lin glanced at the gathering darkness behind the men, summoned by his commanding thought. His next silent order to the coalescing Mahk’lar left no room for misunderstanding. Take them.

As the wall of darkness separated into unspeakable shapes, Adu’lin turned back to the low wall encircling the rooftop. He heard the sea-wolves shifting in preparation to assault him, like the cowardly rats that they were.

“Very good,” he announced, as if he had no inkling of their intentions.

The sounds of possession came swiftly. A few startled shouts, grunts of surprise, and the ineffectual whooshes of swords hacking through demonic spirits. Next came fearful whimpers, shrieks, screams, and the running of feet, before the spectral host slipped into living flesh and gained control.

Then silence.

“Join me,” Adu’lin invited, after the flurry of resistance ended.

His smile widened when the youngest of the Valara line suddenly cried his defiance in the distance. The Fauthian leader laughed aloud when Leitos ran to face the foes from which he should have fled. Men were not only fickle, they were stupid.

Chapter 39

Ulmek dragged Leitos to a stop before he could rush past. “This is not a fight for steel,” he said, voice pitched low.

At their backs, the few remaining Yatoans had taken up Leitos’s battle cry, and the sound of their running feet told that they would pass by in heartbeats.

“Hold!” Ulmek shouted over his shoulder, his command slowing but not halting the Yatoans.

Unsure what to expect, Leitos watched Halan and Ke’uld stride closer. Neither mercy nor fear nor doubt shone in their dead eyes.

Leitos’s sword and dagger wavered. “How do we defeat them?”

In answer, Ulmek drew off his haversack and hurled it at those who had once been men. The sheer unexpectedness of his actions drew the Yatoans up short, and gave pause to Ke’uld, Halan, and the rest of the Brothers. In the sudden relative quiet, the muffled crunch of pottery breaking within the haversack was loud. The demon-wrought Brothers jerked at that sound, the memories of the men they had possessed as real to them as their own. Understanding dawned and Leitos cringed back, shielding his face.

Silence held.

Halan glanced warily at the rumpled haversack, and a mocking sneer flitted over Ke’uld’s face. “It seems the God of All has at long last chosen to favor the firstborn of this world-”

Faster than thought, the haversack swelled into a bloated sphere, shafts of cruel purple-black light lancing from rupturing seams. The radiance expanded, disintegrating the haversack, becoming a blinding indigo flash of tremendous heat and pressure that knocked Leitos off his feet. Roiling fire engulfed the possessed Brothers. The agonized screams that followed came not from the throats of men, but from demons made flesh … flesh that perished as all flesh did, when steeped in the purifying heat of the Nectar of Judgment.

Ke’uld alone burst through the flames, scattering everyone. Charred meat rained down from his body, but still the Nectar of Judgment burned, freeing a horror that had made itself into a being of living flesh while locked inside Ke’uld. In three strides, it had grown twice the height of a man.

A Yatoan ring formed around the whirling demon, intent on not letting it escape, but wary of the creature’s dozen lashing arms. One of those limbs flashed near Leitos, and he met it with his dagger, hacking off a trio of bony fingers tipped with scythe-like claws. Intense heat stiffened those ghastly fingers, blackened them. The demon fared no better. It faltered and collapsed with a breathless howl, its body of interlocking plates shattering like crystal upon the paving stones.

“What did you do?” Leitos asked, staring at the smoking remains.

“Daris thought it up,” Sumahn answered. “You place a wax-sealed vial of water into a jar filled with the Nectar of Judgment, throw it where you need fire, and…” Instead of finishing, he swept a hand over the blackened carnage. “On Witch’s Mole, we did the same thing against the Kelrens and their changeling wolves.”

The Yatoans cried their approval, but Ulmek cut them off with a gesture. “The day is not won yet. We must still find and destroy Adu’lin, and any who stand with him.”

“Once he knows that we have crushed the largest part of his forces,” Damoc advised, “he will flee.”

“And we will follow,” Ulmek said. “There can be no rest until he is dead.”

Chapter 40

Adu’lin stared at the distant scene with a shock so deep he forgot to breathe. The demon-filled Brothers were supposed to have destroyed Damoc’s clan. There were other clans spread across the islands, but upon learning of Damoc’s death, they would have fled as far and fast as their boats would take them. In time, Adu’lin would have sent his Kelrens coursing after them, and they would have returned with holds filled with breeding stock.

Adu’lin had laid his plans carefully, never doubting success. Yet now, the most powerful of his forces lay in ashes. How can this be?

The intense eruption of strange fire lingered behind his eyes. He had never seen the like, and he feared what else he did not know. Who were these Brothers of the Crimson Shield, that they could conceive such deadly weaponry? Was it some power forgotten long years, something from before the Upheaval?

Another thought overrode all the others, and infused him with dread. Do they have the means to destroy the Faceless One?

It seemed inconceivable, impossible … but what if it were true, what if the Faceless One was not invulnerable, as all his loyal subjects believed?

Adu’lin backed into the midst of the newly possessed Kelrens, and looked around at their faces with far less confidence than he had ever felt. For the most part, many hours must pass before the demonic spirits within their shells of human skin could fully reform themselves into living flesh.

But he did not have hours.

The Yatoans and the few Brothers who were still human would come for him. Doubtless, they already plotted his capture … or even his death, for what reason did they have to keep him alive?

Adu’lin’s gaze rose above the city, to the mountains beyond the city wall. If he had any hope, it waited within the Throat of Balaam. The Faceless One will protect me, he thought, refusing to heed the doubts of his master’s supremacy.

“Go,” Adu’lin commanded the sea-wolves. “Destroy them.” He meant to project an air of strength, but the words came out as a whisper. Despite that, his newest creations obeyed.

Moments later, they burst from the building and spread out upon the street, racing toward their foes.

Adu’lin did not linger. He took the stairs down to the street, fled to the city wall by way of quiet alleys, and abandoned Armala. Never slowing to catch his breath, he made for his last refuge, and the birthplace of his transformation. Every step of the way his fear grew, reducing him to that which he loathed most in the world: A frightened man.

Chapter 41

Leitos and the rest of the company whirled at the shouts of the Kelrens charging up the street. The slavers looked much the same as they had when they attacked Witch’s Mole, swarthy skin branded head to foot, loose breeches fluttering with each step, weapons waving above their heads like a steel hedge.

But they were not the same.

Their flat expressions told him that, even if he could not see the dull, silvery glints of their demon-possessed eyes in the light of day.

Sumahn and Daris, along with the Yatoans armed with bows, began firing arrows, thinning the enemy ranks, but not slowing them a whit.

“We cannot fight so many,” Damoc called.

Adham squinted. “I do not see Adu’lin among them.”

“Nor do I,” Ulmek agreed, cutting his eyes toward the elder. “You said he would flee. Where?”

Damoc thought but a moment, and in that time the Kelrens had halved the distance. In heartbeats, they would be upon them. “He will go to his master. There is nowhere else he can find safety.”

“Then we will follow him, and destroy the Throat of Balaam.”

“What of the wounded?”

Ulmek took in the downed Yatoans. “Gather them, and follow me.”

While a handful of Yatoans kept up a steady barrage of arrows, the others hoisted the worst of the wounded onto their shoulders, and aided the rest in trailing Ulmek.

The Yatoan archers came behind, slowing the Kelrens with coordinated volleys. In that way, the withdrawing company moved toward the southern edge of Armala, while at the same time forcing the demon-possessed sea-wolves to rethink their brazen attack.

At each turn, Ulmek gauged the pursuit of the enemy, until finally gaining enough ground to lose sight of them. After ducking down another alley, he bustled everyone into a building overgrown with climbing vines and thick moss.

Almost before Leitos could pull the last hobbling Yatoan into the musty gloom, Ulmek pressed the door shut, then barred it with a timber near to hand. If it came to it, neither the door nor the wooden bar, both rotted, would thwart the sea-wolves for long. Knowing that silence was their best defense, all remained quiet.

Ulmek joined Damoc at a shuttered window, and peered through a crack in the wood planks. “They missed us,” he said in a satisfied voice.

“Your trick will not fool them long,” Damoc said, facing his people.

Most of slumped against walls, or were stretched out on the floor. In the darkness, it was hard to judge their wounds, but Leitos could smell blood, and hear the labored breathing of those in severe pain.

“My brothers and I will give them a trail to follow,” Ulmek promised. “That will keep you safe.”

“What of Adu’lin?” Leitos asked.

Ulmek gave him a hard smile. “The trail we leave will, by necessity, lead to Adu’lin and the Throat of Balaam.”

Belina stepped forward, showing that she meant to join them. Nola moved beside her, just as resolute.

Ulmek studied them. “You will remain behind to protect your people. If this is the day of destruction for the Brothers of the Crimson Shield, then we will make it a day for songs of remembrance. It will be up to you to sing those songs.”

“My daughters and I will join you,” Damoc said firmly.

“You will remain with your people,” Ulmek insisted.

Damoc shook his head. “I will not allow another to bring justice upon Adu’lin, or to destroy the Throat.”

Ulmek seemed about to protest, then shrugged. “So be it.”

They divided the limited weaponry amongst the two bands. Those who would pursue Adu’lin each carried a dagger, sword, bow, and a quiver with a dozen arrows. Afterward, Damoc instructed his people to wait until dark before leaving the city.

“Fauthian archers may still lie in wait,” he warned. “Avoid them if you can. Destroy them if you must.”

Grim nods met his words.

Leitos sensed among the Yatoans an air of grieving, as if they knew in their hearts that the two bands would never see each other again. He silently promised them that the end they feared would not come. But in the still of his mind, he knew that promise was a frail hope.

“Come,” Ulmek said, leading his band through the crumbling building and out a rear door. “They Kelrens may have discovered by now that they no longer follow us,” he advised. “If so, they will have spread out to search. If we are not careful, they may surround us before we can escape.”

“And if they do?” Nola asked, the strain beginning to crack some of her fierce confidence.

“We fight free, and then make for the wall,” Ulmek said. He set off, sword in hand, casting about for any sign of ambush.

Adham shot Leitos a sidelong look. “Until our last breath, and our last drop of blood.” Leitos nodded, and his father added, “For the sake of gods good and wise, be careful, my son.” Before Leitos could answer, Adham ran after Ulmek.

Leitos made to follow, but Belina turned him with a touch. “Heed him,” she admonished. Not waiting for his reply she, Nola, and Damoc, raced after Adham and Ulmek.

“If she has anything to do with it,” Daris quipped, “I foresee children in your future.”

Leitos’s face reddened at the thought, and he spun away to chase after the others. Sumahn and Daris, chuckling amongst themselves, took up the rear.

The small company made it all the way to the wall without seeing the sea-wolves, or any lingering Fauthian archers. The ramparts were empty, and the broad gates stood closed and barred. A postern, set in one gate, hung ajar, creaking in the breeze.

“We were to draw our enemies away from the city,” Damoc reminded everyone. “Having failed that, we must attract their attention-”

Sudden shouts cut him off.

Leitos looked back the way they had come, as a Kelren foursome sprinted up the street, sounding the chase with urgent cries. More demon-possessed sea-wolves joined them, spilling from buildings and alleys and cross streets.

“I think that accounts for all of them,” Ulmek said dryly. “Come. We must keep them after us, but we cannot allow them to get too close.”

They squeezed one at a time through the postern. Daris, the last through, slammed the narrow door and jammed a rock under the bottom edge to wedge it shut. “Won’t hold but a moment,” he laughed crazily. “Run!”

Chapter 42

By the time they climbed the mountain and reached the glowing entrance to the Throat of Balaam, even Sumahn and Daris had abandoned their banter in favor of filling their lungs with enough breath to keep the blistering pace through the stifling green forest. Far behind them, the possessed Kelrens crashed heedlessly through the forest, bawling obscenities in a demonic tongue.

Damoc dropped to one knee, and his daughters joined his side. “A moment,” the elder gasped.

Leitos moved between Sumahn and Daris to watch their back trail. The sea-wolves had come closer, but were still lost to sight.

“There is no time for rest,” Ulmek warned, his granite features sheened with sweat. “You must take cover, while my Brothers and I go after Adu’lin. Once the sea-wolves follow, seal us all in.”

Sumahn traded glances with Daris, then peered hard at Ulmek. “Are you mad?”

Ulmek threw up his hands in exasperation. “That we have lived so long has been a gift. We will repay that gift with our lives, here, this day. In doing so, we grant the Yatoans a chance, slim as it may be, to build again the lives stolen from them. For those who come with me into the Faceless One’s lair, this is our last fight.”

“I did not come here to die,” Leitos said. “Nor did I come for Adu’lin, but to defeat the Faceless One.”

Belina gave him a stricken look, but for once did not say a word about him needing to stay alive for the fate of the world.

Ulmek smiled wanly. “Then you are a fool, little brother. A brave fool, but a fool nonetheless.” He took a deep breath and stood tall. “Be that as it may, I am honored to have you at my side. The rest of you must-”

“Where my son goes, I go,” Adham interrupted. The look in his eye brooked no argument.

“Very well,” Ulmek allowed, and glance back to Damoc. “You can seal the Throat, yes?”

Damoc stood with Nola’s help. “I cannot seal the Throat of Balaam with you in it, not unless there is no chance that you will return. Give the rest of us your arrows,” he said, eyes running over Sumahn and Daris, Belina and Nola. “My daughters and I will lead the sea-wolves into the Throat after you, thinning their ranks as we go. Sumahn and Daris will wait until they are sure the last of them have entered, and attack from the rear. Between us, we will crush them.”

“This is a dangerous game you play,” Ulmek said, having to raise his voice over the shouts of the closing Kelrens. “Even the smallest failure will mean the Throat of Balaam remains open, and your people will have gained nothing for your loss.”

“Such is the price we all accepted when we vowed to break the hold of the Fauthians,” Damoc said. “Besides, even if we fail, there are those among my people who will destroy the Throat-without Adu’lin and his forces to hinder them, theirs will be an easier task than ours.”

There was nothing left to say after that.

With a sense of unreality, Leitos handed over his arrows without looking at anyone, especially Belina. In his mind, he was already racing headlong through the blue radiance, on his way to meet the Faceless One. How he would strike down the Bane of Creation from his obsidian throne was a matter for which he had no plan.

“Are you ready?” Ulmek asked intently, and Leitos realized it was not the first time he had spoken.

With that same sense of apartness, he nodded. Ulmek did not bother questioning Adham, who had strode deeper into the brightness of the corridor.

Without a word of farewell or a backward glance, the trio set out at a trot, passing under the grim face carved into the cliff above the archway.

As before, Leitos could not gauge how far they had traveled by any landmark, only by the length of time. Ulmek and Adham stayed at his side, keeping their thoughts trapped behind tight lips.

Sooner than he expected, they came to a part of the corridor that was brighter, blindingly so.

“We are near the veil,” Leitos said, his tongue as dry as a bit of old leather. They gave him curious looks, but kept silent. Leitos wondered if they felt the same oddness of being that he did.

Soon after, they halted before the barrier of solid light. When before he had come to the veil, it had looked a curtain of made from frosty mist. Now it roiled like blue-white vapor, as if it possessed a mind, and was aware of those who had come to destroy its maker.

“We must pass through,” Leitos said, suddenly uneasy. Beyond this point, a tyrannical entity sat upon a ebon throne, the Faceless One, who wielded the powers of fallen gods, and who had ruled the world with iron control for near on two hundred years. Who am I to face such power?

Instead of finding an answer for that question, Leitos’s mind went blank, and his feet carried him through the veil.

Chapter 43

They came in a braying rush, the corridor wide enough for four men to run abreast.

Belina took an involuntary step backward, caught herself, and drew the fletching of an arrow to her cheek. The bowstring rolled off her fingertips. The string snapped, speeding the shaft into the teeming horde of once-men. Where that arrow went, or if it struck true, she could not tell. She did not wait to find out, before firing another arrow, and another.

To either side, her father and sister mirrored her actions. Arrow after arrow flashed into their foes. A Kelren stumbled and went down. Those at his back trampled him without pause.

More arrows flew. More sea-wolves fell. But as a whole, the attackers closed swiftly. After another volley brought down two more Kelrens, Damoc raised his voice above that of the bellowing slavers. “Fall back!”

They wheeled and ran deeper into the harsh blue light of the Throat of Balaam.

After a hundred paces, Damoc ordered a halt, and he and his daughters whirled. The Kelrens had narrowed the distance. More arrows thinned their numbers, but not enough. There was no telling if Sumahn and Daris were faring any better behind the sea-wolves.

As Belina’s fingers darted for another feathered shaft, she hazarded a quick glance at the quiver hanging at her hip. It was already woefully bare. At best, it held a dozen arrows.

She fired and reached for another shaft, praying not for herself, but for Leitos. He was the world’s hope. Her visions had told her so since the first. He was the world’s hope, and she was his shield. Unless it had all been a lie, a cruel fancy born of her imagination….

They are too close!

She nocked another arrow, drew, fired at a sea-wolf’s nose. The arrowhead struck lower, smashing through his bared teeth. She reached for another arrow, her movements jerky with panic, and then the Kelrens were on them, swords flashing. They howled with the throats of neither men nor wolves, but creatures loosed from the Thousand Hells. All they sought was the blood of the living.

Nola leaped back with a pained shriek, blood splashed across her face, her eyes wide with horror. A fist, wrapped hard around a sword hilt, crashed into Belina’s temple. She tumbled backward, and landed on her rump. Dazed, fumbling for her sword, she heard Damoc bellow. Heedless of the danger, he jumped between his daughters and the horde, slamming his bow into one monstrous face after another.

Then Sumahn and Daris were there, slashing through the Kelrens. Where they walked, death followed.

But there were so many foes.

Belina struggled to her feet, head spinning. She swung her blade, chopping off a reaching hand. More groping fingers sought her, the tips of swords and daggers stabbed and slashed all around. Inhuman faces leered, pressed forward.

So many.

Too many.

Chapter 44

The veil wrapped around him as it had before, caressing him, pressing in like jellied ice. And as before, his skin tingled. But this time, whatever protected him from the strange, prickling pressure building inside him shattered like an eggshell, allowing that cold ooze to pour into his muscles. It sank deep, past his bones, until filling his marrow. Fire and frost warred for dominance within him, and Leitos’s mouth stretched around a scream-

He fell through the barrier, his knees striking the floor of the Faceless One’s domain. Shaken but still upright, Adham and Ulmek stepped through, then rushed to help Leitos up.

“What is this place?” Ulmek breathed, the hollows of his face ghastly against bleached white skin.

Leitos hastily dragged his gaze from Ulmek. The man’s ghostly appearance stirred the hair on the nape of his neck.

“It is the enemy’s throne room.” Leitos’s voice sounded strange to his ears, heavier, thicker. Groggy, his bones feeling cracked by the icy cold filling them, he looked across the lightless plane. Gone were the lurid flames of before. In their place, shadows danced. But of his enemy, Leitos found him seated upon his obsidian throne.

“We should not have come here,” Ulmek said, all strength gone from his voice. Fear and dismay swept through the trio like a windborne sickness. All three retreated a step back the way they had come, then another step.

Leitos was first to gather himself. He caught hold of Adham and Ulmek. “We cannot turn back.” The peculiar timbre to his voice sank into the ears of his companions, and they turned toward him.

“Gods good and wise,” Adham blurted, lurching away. Ulmek jerked back as well, his sword waving uncertainly between him and Leitos.

When Leitos looked at them, his breath caught in his throat. Both were pale as specters, not just Ulmek. Gossamer strands of light rose from their skin, making undulating auras. The Faceless One had known they were coming, and had laid a trap of some sort. “What’s happened to you?”

“Us?” Adham and Ulmek said as one.

“Not us, my son,” Adham said, sounding near to tears, “but you. You alone.”

Laughter rolled like thunder across the gulf between them and the Faceless One.

The icy sludge within Leitos came alive at that voice, poured through his veins, gathered at the center of his being, compressing into a knot harder than steel. It fought to reach its master, threatening to take him along. He resisted the pull, but then he was shambling across the lightless plane toward the Faceless One.

Adham wrapped his arms around Leitos, trying to hold him back. “Help me!” he cried to Ulmek.

The Brother hesitated, shaking his head.

“You craven wretch,” Adham shrieked.

That broke Ulmek’s resistance like a hard slap, and together they threw their weight against Leitos, but still he crept forward, their efforts distant to him, insubstantial, the fluttering of a moth’s wings.

The ball of ice in his guts swelled larger, filling him up, pushing beyond him. Adham and Ulmek abruptly staggered back, hands held before them like penitents. Their fear seemed to feed his strength, and he drew it in until they dropped to their knees. Then he was past them, seeking richer fare, a pillar of it, not blue as before, but black as pitch and seemingly miles across. Within that darkness he sensed the weapon he needed … a power he desired above all others.

Each step came quicker than the last, until he was running. Faster he ran, until it seemed as though he soared through a starless night, his hair whipping behind him. The closer he came, the greater his longing grew, until there was nothing else. Fire sprang up where the knot of ice had resided in his middle, burning away the cold in his marrow and veins, filling him more deeply than the ice ever had. In his ears, in his heart and chest, in every limb, storm winds raged.

His hate for the Faceless One surged like floodwaters. When it burst from him, it was as though his skin covered not bones and muscle and sinew, but a red sun, leaving him to shine like a beacon-fire atop a mountain so high that the eyes of all men and every crawling beast could gaze upon it. He was the mountain, he was the storm, and more than all else, he was death.

Lost in the tumult of power, he stretched out his hand, and marked his foe. A crackling stab of lightning struck the Faceless One, cutting off his laughter, and from that impact flared an expanding ring of brilliant azure.

Leitos halted abruptly, eyes pinched to slits. The ring raced toward him across all that darkness, and before its silent assault, he detected a fleeing figure. The light burned brighter, and he recognized Adu’lin, his narrow Fauthian face stretched in terror.

In a single instant, that luminous burst scorched away the man’s flesh and bones, leaving a swirling drift of ashes, then setting even them alight, and reducing them to less than dust.

Leitos trembled, fearing such a fate for himself, his father, and Ulmek. At the same moment, he found his answer to that consuming ring of light, and reached out to the power locked within the Faceless One’s oblivion. Somehow, he drank in the endless night around him, becoming one with the boundless black.

The vast chamber rang like a struck bell. The darkness began to twist and swirl, and poured into him like ink into a vessel. With a thought, he swept a wing of protection over himself and his companions, knowing that shield would withstand all threats.

The chamber began to fade to gray, and then to crumble. From far, far above came the grinding crunch of granite hills smashing together. Fire erupted from rock, molten rivers flowed. Burning pieces rained down, large as houses, palaces, some larger yet. They crashed against the glass-smooth plane, and exploded into dust and smelted ore. Others punched through the surface like fists, leaving rough holes in their wake. Cracks and widening fissures spread outward, releasing living shadows of such hellish forms that Leitos could not bear to look upon them. But where his eyes revolted, his soul devoured their being, taking them into himself, erasing them from existence.

The ring of light continued to widen, roasting all before it. Yet his only thought was to quench his thirst for the surging energies cascading through the decaying chamber. He hungered to take his fill from the purest source of all that darkness, from the Faceless One himself.

As the light bathed him in its immeasurable heat, he fortified his shield, and then reached out, his desire manifesting as a clawed hand passing through the searing radiance, reaching to the Faceless One.

The dark and sustaining pillar of energy abandoned the enemy of humankind, and stretched out to meet Leitos. When they touched, the motion of life ground to a sudden, violent halt. The world Leitos knew, the chamber, all ceased to be.

Chapter 45

Leitos stood before the obsidian throne, not sure how he had gotten there. The chamber’s destruction had ceased … but that was not quite true. The devastation remained, but frozen. Massive stones had ceased their plummet, and the cracks in the chamber floor no longer spread. All was stationary within a clutching gray mist.

He remembered trying to take the Faceless One’s power, reaching out to catch hold of it. Storms continued to rage inside him, and his veins rushed with dark energies that threatened to unmake him. By his will alone, he withstood those forces.

To one side, Ulmek lay on his back. His unblinking eyes shone with fear, and a dribble of foam flecked his lips. To the other side knelt Adham, hands clasped in his lap like a child taking instruction, his gray eyes locked on the figure upon the throne. Both men resembled wraiths, their skin bleached and haggard.

Leitos slowly looked to the one he had come to destroy. The man slumped in the magnificent obsidian chair, the fingers of one hand idly tracing mysterious shapes engraved in the arms of the throne.

“Show yourself to me,” Leitos commanded.

“You should not have come,” answered the same tired voice he had heard the first time.

Leitos could have offered up innumerable condemnations, hurled curses, made demands, but when he spoke again, he begged the simplest question. “Who are you?”

The man slowly raised his head. Inch by inch, his features came into view. In place of roiling blue fires, a rugged, craggy face peered at him through ropes of lank hair. Stubble bristled his hard jaw. Pale blue eyes, the whites shot through with blood, locked on Leitos, a stare that was at once harsh and unforgiving, yet captivating.

Leitos’s heart seemed to freeze solid inside his chest. While there were differences, he knew well this man’s likeness, for he had seen its legacy written in the bones of his own face.

“Father?” Adham rasped. “How have you come to be here … why-”

“Adham, my son,” Kian Valara said, his face twisting as if another presence lurked under the skin. “I did not expect to find you alive, let alone here. But you cannot stay. Return to Izutar, and warn the others that-”

“No!” Adham was on his feet now, trying to claw his way up the black stone pedestal to reach the throne. “Why are you here … why are you serving the Faceless One?”

Kian’s features writhed, his teeth clamped together in a grimace. By shuddering fractions, he went still. His icy stare began dancing with blue flame. “I serve no one,” he said, a murderous grin pulling his lips tight.

The fires of his eyes began to spread, licking out over his cheekbones, puffing from his nostrils and mouth. More sprang from his skin and clothing. Above him, the black pillar of energy burst once more into existence, and all that had been still, again fell into motion.

Over the thundering roar of destruction, Leitos’s grandfather, the legendary ice-born king who was said to have rallied his people against the Faceless One, declared a different truth. “I am the lord and master of this world. I am the Faceless One.”

Adham scrambled away with an agonized sob, but Leitos stepped closer. Whoever Kian had been, he was no more. He had proclaimed himself the greatest adversary to humankind, and Leitos needed no other reason to attack.

As the blue fires engulfed Kian, Leitos reached out to the black pillar of bound power that gave strength to his foe, and stole it into himself. The pillar withered and paled, like a vine stricken with pestilence.

“No!” cried the Faceless One, leaping down from his seat. Where his feet struck, the plane cracked like rotten ice. A crimson blade came into his hand, and he stalked forward.

At a thought, a rippling sword sprang from Leitos’s fist, its length black and cold, a weapon forged from the souls of the thousand and more Mahk’lar he had taken within himself.

As the Faceless One drew near, Leitos swung his blade. The two weapons clashed with the shriek of damned souls, and swirling sheets of fire erupted between them, driving them apart, forming a barrier. Before those crackling flames burned out, Leitos sought his father.

Adham knelt at Ulmek’s side, attempting to help him to his feet.

“You must flee,” Leitos warned, the resonance of his voice shaking the chamber.

“No,” Adham said, his face twisted with misery. “You are all that I have left in this world.”

A shout jerked Leitos’s head around. The Faceless One’s sword ripped a burning line through the air, and Leitos barely deflected the attack. Again, an impenetrable wall of fire burst between them, and Leitos danced back to stand over his father and Ulmek.

Beyond them, the now pale plane buckled and heaved under the falling ceiling. No safe passage showed itself … and so he made a way, though he did not know how, save that he desired it, and it was so.

One moment the way back was blocked, the next a gleaming passageway of transparent gold led to the distant blue point. Where blocks of molten stone slammed against the arched pathway, they bounced away or shattered.

“Follow it to safety,” Leitos ordered.

Adham shrank away from the power of his voice, but did not heed him. “Not without you!”

“Go, and I will follow. Do not slow or stop, no matter what happens.” As he spoke, he could feel the heat from the clashing of swords diminishing behind him, and knew the Faceless One would attack again at any moment.

Adham wrapped Ulmek’s arm around his neck and hoisted him to his feet. He glanced once more at Leitos, an unsettling awe lighting his eyes, then turned and carried Ulmek into the gleaming passage.

Leitos pivoted to meet the Faceless One’s next assault. Instead of crossing blades with him, Leitos ducked low and lunged, stabbing his black sword at the burning figure’s heart. The Faceless One easily avoided the strike. Leitos flung himself out of reach, then braced his feet.

The Faceless One laughed. “Fight as you will,” he said, “but you do so in vain. Better to attempt the capture of the wind in your hands.”

As he spoke, he changed from a man into a shapeless figure with a hundred arms, each bearing a flaming sword. As Leitos retreated after Adham and Ulmek, those blades twirled, creating whirlwinds of fire. Leitos inched back, and when a sword snaked out, he blocked it and retreated farther.

“Have you lost the will to fight?” the Faceless One mocked. “Has your hatred turned to cowardice?”

With a shout, Leitos lashed out, slashing and stabbing, but his black blade cleaved only empty space where the Faceless One had been. He tried again, but his foe shifted faster than his eye could follow. Tendrils of worry gripped his heart. If he could not even touch this creature when he wanted to, how could he believe a chance existed for victory?

“You have no hope of defeating me,” the Faceless One admonished. “No matter the puny power you have taken for yourself, you are still but a man.”

“And what are you,” Leitos said, resuming his cautious retreat, “if not a man with those same powers?”

Laughter boomed. “I am a god.”

“A god?” Leitos glanced over his shoulder at his father. Ulmek now tottered along at Adham’s side, keeping one hand on his shoulder for support. The Throat waited not far ahead. He turned back. “Kian Valara, my own grandfather, a god? Long years I spent grubbing in the sand and rock of Geldain, all the while listening to tales of your deeds. Only one story my father ever mentioned spoke of a god-in it, you destroyed the one who named himself so. Is it not strange that you now take that mantle for yourself?”

The many-armed figure drew up short. “Prince Varis Kilvar was a petty fool who did not know his proper place. He thought his gift greater than it was, believed he could challenge and rule over all, even the makers of the world. His pride and ambition destroyed him … as will yours.”

“What pride can a former slave have?” Leitos retorted. “I have no wealth, no station, and no desire for either.”

The fiery shape of the Faceless One leaned near in a posture of curiosity. “Then what do you desire?”

Leitos frowned. The voice was still Kian Valara’s, but the tone had changed, a subtle difference-

“Hurry!” Adham cried.

Leitos looked around. His father waved frantically from the threshold of the Throat of Balaam. Ulmek had already stepped through.

“Tell me the longing of your heart,” the Faceless One urged, as Leitos turned back to face him. “Tell me, and I will bless you with those wants. Tell me….”

Leitos’s smile hid the tumult building within him. Powers beyond reckoning surged, an instant from breaking free. It was all he could do to keep his voice from shaking. “In all the world, only your death matters to me.”

He said it so calmly, so quietly, that the Faceless One did not respond. Leitos filled his mind with an image of the obsidian throne, and upon it the Faceless One, and then imprisoned both within a pillar of black-

Where the demon had been, now only what Leitos had pictured stood before him. Muted shrieks filtered through the opaque cage.

But it was not finished. Not yet. Leitos feared that what he had done, all by means outside his understanding, could just as easily be undone. He must erase the Faceless One from Creation. But who do I destroy … the creature, or my grandfather?

His hesitation did not last long. He made his choice and focused on creating a vision of Kian Valara sitting within the pillar. His grandfather, a man he had never met, until now. Despite the worthy deeds of his youth, he must have fallen to the lure of power at some point, and become the betrayer of all the world. And upon him, upon that throne, upon the chamber in which it sat, Leitos unleashed all the dark powers caught inside himself.

In a single, focused blast, the Powers of Creation, those never intended for the hands of men, turned all in its path to dark, smoking glass. At the same instant, Leitos swooned drunkenly, for a moment his mind and body seemingly in two different places-

When his mind caught up to the rest of him, the darkness of the Faceless One’s chamber fell swiftly away, as if a curtain had been torn back from a window that opened on a world of pure white.

Squinting against the sudden glare, Leitos fought to stand against a screaming gale, its breath colder than anything he had ever known, cold enough to turn tears to ice. Wind-driven snow stung his cheeks, pricking his skin like ground glass.

Where am I? The thought filled him with terror. He did not know if what he had done to destroy his enemy had failed. And if he had failed, then the Faceless One, the Bane of Creation, had won.

“No,” he murmured in disbelief, his voice swallowed by the white storm. Louder, a shout of outrage and regret. “NO!”

Then, straight ahead of him, carried on the back of the shrieking wind, he heard a dwindling shout.

He bent his head against the storm and struggled forward, each step sinking to his knees in feathery snow. He avoided thinking about the white cold, about where he was, and about how he had gotten there.

Out of the storm materialized a sprawled shape. A man, facedown, clad in leathers and furs. Beyond him, almost lost amid the shifting white gale, stood a black stone tower of graceless construction.

Of their own volition, Leitos’s feet slowed, and his hand sought his sword. A memory flitted through his mind when he touched the hilt, of how the weapon had looked while in the Faceless One’s throne room, black as the demonic souls of its forging.

But this was not that accursed blade, and the power to forge it had fled him.

He yanked at the hilt of the blade given him by Ba’Sel, and found that ice had welded it into the scabbard. He tried again, but it was no use. It did not matter. He would not need it.

Leitos halted above the still figure, working his cold, stiffening fingers to keep them supple. He kicked the figure onto his back, and found that he was again just a man. Kian Valera.

Leitos stared into the unconscious face of his oppressor, a face so like his own, and thought of Zera’s sisters, Belina with her visions, and of Nola, who looked so much like Zera. He thought of his father and the pain of revelation that must be, even now, crushing his spirit. He thought of Ulmek and Ba’Sel, of Sumahn and Daris, of Halan and Ke’uld, of all his lost brothers and dead Yatoans. And he thought of all the lands and peoples this man before him had crushed under his heel, slaying and enslaving, simply because it was within his power to do so. For those who yet lived, and for those who were not yet born, Leitos passed his silent judgment upon the Bane of Creation.

Teeth bared in a rictus snarl, Leitos knelt in the snow, wrapped his fingers around his grandfather’s thick neck, and began to squeeze.

Content

James A. West
Shadow and Steel

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45