The climb down to the shoreline was treacherous. The hexagonal basalt columns were deceptively slippery and didn't provide good footing or handholds. Josy gave up on being graceful and let herself drop the final twenty feet. As she fell, she assumed an osteoform over her legs. The bone plates began as spurs that grew out from between the loose lacings up the sides of her leggings. The plates widened to encase her limbs and absorbed most of the impact.

That trick was one of Dashar's, and Josy was pleased with herself for learning a similar osteoform. Like Jin, Dashar rarely utilized his elder magic. When he had, though, he used it in clever ways that left Josy Algara in amazement.

Dashar and Jin, of all Josy's relations, she tried to emulate them the most. Tried and failed. They always kept so calm, so stoic. That was something Josy couldn't match. Wild, Uncle Gain called her. Unrestrained, when he was feeling generous. Feral, when he wasn't.

"Don't try to be something you aren't," her father always told her. Once, Josy took comfort from those words. Upon learning who her father truly was— who he served— those words of comfort turned to ash. "You will be a weapon for our house, my daughter. My fierce berserker."

Josy grit her teeth as she waited for Maya to join her on the shoreline. She didn't want to be a weapon. Not anymore.

I just want my family back.

No one ever got everything they wanted. Josy knew in her heart that whatever world could overcome this demonic doom, her father couldn't be a part of it. He'd chosen his side, and Josy knew it to be the wrong one.

I wish I would've just stayed in Ecclesia with Jin, she thought miserably. I made everything so much worse. Maya might never forgive me for lying to her.

She hadn't been herself. Who could be after suffering domination as she had? The touch of Garret's magic still lingered within her, just as she could still feel the caress of his fingers on her skin. Josy felt her heart beat faster and her muscles tense up. Her breaths became labored as they came out between clenched teeth.

Domination offered a surrender. Everything that plagued her had been replaced with the will of another. There was something of a release to what Garret did to her. No thought but for Garret. No purpose but his. No desire except to please him. It made Josy sick to remember what it felt like.

She'd been overjoyed when she learned that Master Deveaux wasn't part of the group Elise sent to Sholis. That meant she wouldn't have to face him again. Be confronted by how she had disappointed him. Yearn for his magic to touch her again even as she feared it. A part of her would always belong to him, the part of her he'd stolen, and she didn't know if she could ever get it back.

Josy hated herself for missing him.

I deserve it after what I did. If there's any hope for absolution, it's in stopping my father.

She'd gotten control of her breathing and calmed herself when Maya's boots crunched in the volcanic sand next to her. Maya didn't waste any time and strode towards their destination.

A thin cleft in the basalt rocks led into a darkened sea cave. A narrow ledge lined the cleft's wall, just above the water's surface, and it was wide enough for a single person to traverse if they pressed up against the rocks. Maya led the way into the darkness.

"We're just scouting," Josy whispered as she stepped onto the ledge. "Once we get a count of who's in here, we should go back to the others."

Maya didn't respond.

Josy held back a sigh. Maya had changed dramatically since Dashar's death, and not just by taking on his cowl. It was hard to imagine, but she seemed to be even more reckless than before. When Dashar got like this, it felt like the measured and deliberate manner of a wolf. Stalking his prey, considering the alternatives, mindful of the consequences. He'd earned that trust.

With Maya, Josy felt like she needed to brace herself for something terrible about to happen.

Does she even have a plan, Josy wondered, or is she just lashing out at whoever she can?

The natural rock walls of the sea cave were rough and jagged. The cleft was little more than five paces wide, so Josy wondered how a full-grown dragon fit his body through here. Polymorphy seemed the most likely method, or perhaps getting small like the sky woman's dragon.

It was already too dark for normal sight to function, even with the sunset coming in through the opening. Josy's beast-like eyes adjusted. It remained dim despite her inhuman sight, but she could see where she was going. Her sight was aided by a growing light from up ahead. It wasn't lanterns or gaslight. It was steady and shone cold and blue.

Maya reached the end of the narrow ledge and stepped into the lair of Almo the Rampart. Josy followed and held back a gasp of wonder as she took it all in. She'd expected a cave and found a palace.

It was spellwrought stone, the lines perfectly straight and unbroken. Comparable to the work of the finest Althandi architects, the lair was carved from the living stone of the mountain. Phosphorescent pigment lined the first chamber at the seams between walls, floor, and ceiling. The details of the lair were picked out in glowing blue light, lending a surreal quality as if the assassins stood within a dreamscape. The pigment spiraled up stone columns and traced across the convex ceiling in a fantastical mural. The pigment was uniformly blue most everywhere except for the mural. A hundred different shades that glowed with dim light were used to depict two blue dragons standing together in a verdant field. It was lovingly crafted, the work of a master artisan.

Both dragons had a rune glowing with blue etherlight written above their heads. Josy only recognized one of them as Sateem because it was the same rune used in the heraldry of the Home Legion. Her grasp of the Aeldenn Tones wasn't all it could be, but she was reasonably certain it meant "fortification" or "haven". A mixture of both.

Bastion, maybe, like Saveen, Josy thought. Blue dragons seem to like naming themselves after castle features. Penny against a mark, the other dragon's rune means rampart.

Josy lowered her eyes from the glowing masterwork. Large archways led deeper into the lair, wide enough for one of the mighty to pass through unhindered. The sweeping staircases up to the second and third stories had steps taller than she was. Everything was enormous, a hidden palace built up over centuries for the sole use of a dragon. It was beautiful and left Josy thinking herself a mouse in the home of a giant.

"I recognize some of this," Josy said quietly. "It's almost like Marwin. What hadn't burned down by the time I got there, at least. It's like who made this was trying to recreate something they saw once."

Maya walked on. She didn't give their surroundings more than a cursory glance. Striding towards the largest archway set into the opposite wall, Maya drew her sword and wove a strength-enhancing spell around herself.

The next chamber was pentagonal, an archway on each wall, and smaller than the last though the ceiling was still high enough to fit a five story tenement inside. An antechamber of some sort, perhaps, but Josy felt it had a more lived-in quality. Enormous mounds of steel sat in each of the five corners, and they looked as if they had been melted down into formless lumps. Each was contoured as if something large and heavy had pressed down on them as they cooled.

Then one of the mounds moved.

"I expected the empress' thugs would finish me off," the dragon slurred in a scratching tenor. "I would not bend. I would not break. And so, my tale ends here at the hands of Althandor's assassins. As I always expected it would, one day."

Almo the Rampart lay sprawled on the furthest of the five steel mounds. With a start, Josy realized the mounds must've been the equivalent of chairs.

The dragon was similar in appearance to Saveen except that he was far larger. He'd have been tall enough to reach the ceiling of this chamber had he stood erect. His broad head sat at the end of a short neck, and a thick tail draped listlessly behind him.

"Do not make me linger, Children of Algara. Do what your brethren were born to do. Allow me to meet my mate in the Beyond. I will consider it a kindness."

Josy sniffed the air, sensing the heavy scent of blood. It pooled around Almo's mound, dampening the metal and rock in puddles that looked violet in the blue light. The Rampart's hide had nearly been flayed from his body. Scales and tattered flesh were flung about the chamber as if he'd been repeatedly raked with massive claws. His limbs were deformed from his bones being broken, and his jaw hung unhinged on one side.

"Winds and storms," Josy breathed. "What did they do to him?"

Maya looked around the chamber, her question evident in her posture.

"You will not find my captors here," Almo sighed. "They've gone to face their pursuers, of whom I assume you are a part."

Josy stepped up and touched Maya's arm. "The others. We need to get back."

Maya didn't respond. Instead, she pulled away from Josy and approached where Almo lay. Kneeling down beside the pools of blood, she touched a finger to the floor.

"What are you doing?" Josy exclaimed. Without thinking, she grabbed Maya's wrist as if that could stop her from using osteomancy to finish Almo off.

Maya turned the cowl's empty gaze on her.

"We came here to stop Elise from killing the Rampart," Josy said, though she noticed with some embarrassment that her voice trembled. It was the cowl. She could hardly stand to look at it anymore.

Maya frowned and shook her head. They hadn't come for the Eldest of the blues. They'd come to do harm to Elise.

Josy tightened her grip on Maya's wrist. "No, Cousin. You've got it all wrong. It's not Shan Alee against Althandor. It's demons against humanity. We chose our side, and like it or not, that means we're siding with the sky woman."

She wouldn't forget the look of utter, incredulous shock that plastered itself across Maya's face for as long as she lived.

Mustering her resolve, Josy forced herself to meet the cowl's eyes. She made her voice steady and strong. "My father used me, Maya. He sent the bastard that dominated me, then convinced me to lie to you and your father about it. I'm sorry, but I have to make it right. I'll start by saving this dragon from you if I have to."

Maya was still for a long moment. She scoffed, then burned the blood from her fingers with a flash of spellfire.

"Come off it," Josy admonished. "You knew what we were signing up for. Now, stop dawdling. We need to get back to the others if Elise's goons are ambushing them."

Maya's lip twisted in dissatisfied agreement.

"Forgive me," Almo rasped, "but is she saying something and I just can't hear it?"

Josy looked up at him and shrugged. "You get used to her. What about you? Can you move?"

Almo shook his head as yellow eyes flickered between Maya and Josy. He didn't seem to know what to make of them. "The Inamorata placed seals upon me once I was weakened. This has also removed my ability to change forms, otherwise I would use polymorphy to seal my wounds." His nostrils flared. "Royal assassins travel with a dragon? The scent lingers on you."

"We do. A blue dragon, like you."

"Daleur the Tower. He and I are the last blues in the Five Kingdoms. I thought he flew south to answer the Storyteller's mad summons."

"No," Josy said, brushing past Maya to inspect Almo's injuries. She used blood to start knitting his broken limbs back together. She wasn't particularly good at it, but she was reasonably sure she was mending them correctly. If not, Almo could polymorph them into proper shape once the ether seals were unlocked. "Her name is Saveen the Bastion."

"Impossible," Almo snapped. His voice had enough bite to it that Josy took a step back out of reflex. "It couldn't be her. I burned her body. My mate died twenty years ago at the hands of Teulites."

Josy looked to Maya. Her cousin looked away, uncaring. "It can't be the same dragon," Josy said while returning to mending Almo's bones. "Our Saveen's still a dragonet."

Almo bore Josy's administrations in silence, but his eyes darted around the antechamber as he considered what she said. Once his dislocated jaw and the most severe of his fractures were healed, he tested his weight on his front leg. Almo winced, but he endured the pain enough to rise.

Impressive. He's ethershocked and lost a lot of blood, but he can still stand. Blue dragon toughness is on an entirely different level.

Almo worked his jaw open and closed before speaking again. "Where did you find her?" he asked.

"You could say she found us. Saveen escaped Elise of Eastrun, the same Dragon Empress that ordered this done to you."

"She was bonded?"

"Still is, but her knight's also with us. We were on our way to the other Dragon Empress when we detoured here."

Almo took an unsteady step off of his mound. "I don't wish to pledge to either empress. I've lived in seclusion here in my lair since the death of my mate, but I would meet with this new Saveen. I won't let those beasts take her as they would me, and I'd like to learn of where she comes from."

oOo

"Signal circle formation," Ban called to the armsmen. "I want them surrounded. Disembark troops and take air superiority. We're not letting them slip out of our net."

Below, the smaller and faster dragons were already on the ground. They formed a ring nearly a half-mile wide as the armsmen and goblins piled off and formed up in squads. A detachment of dragons led by Grimdar remained in the air, their crews strapping onto the harness and readying crossbows. Paladin Rav on the Constable formed up on Deebee's starboard side as they dove together towards the skirmish playing out on the ground.

"I see her, Ban," Deebee shouted. "I see our Huntress!"

"Put us down a ways off from her to disembark the armsmen. Who's the big ivory?"

"Draxa the Inamorata," Deebee said. "Only Adar is older than her."

"We'll try to free her, too, but Kimpo's the priority."

"As you say, Marshal," Deebee said. She beat her wings as they reached the ground. The armsmen were ready and piled off of her. Many had moved below to her belly and only needed to detach themselves. Others slid down her legs and even her tail. The goblins simply jumped.

Their strike force had few arcanists among them, even among the bonded knights. It was the goblins who brought the bulk of their arcane power to the mission. The armsmen formed up in an experimental formation that spread out their numbers in case of dragon fire, and the goblin witches placed fire wards over as many of the squads as they could manage.

Ban detached his harness and Reyn's. He gathered her up in his arms before jumping off of Deebee, flaring his sigils as he struck the uneven slope of the ground. Reyn grit her teeth but bore the rough treatment without complaint. Moon landed in an adroit roll alongside them. Once Reyn was on her feet, Ban unslung his full blade from his back and stepped forward.

"Kimpo!" He only had eyes for his Huntress. Ban could almost feel her presence as a spell echo. He'd longed for this moment when they were reunited, and now she stood before him. At last, she was within his sight again, and she appeared as she always had to his eyes. Kimpo was as powerful and beautiful as a goddess of war, her truest form striking him with awe and wonder. "I said we'd find you."

Dragons soared overhead. Squads of armsmen surrounded them all. While the ivory dragon arched her back and growled, Kimpo's attention was locked on Ban. Her green eyes were wide, and her mouth hung open. Kimpo lifted up the claw she'd been using to pin a blue-skinned girl to the ground and took a hesitant step towards him.

"My Huntress," Deebee said. "It's over now, my love. We've found you, and you can come home."

"You are the Storyteller," Kimpo said, her voice faint. "And you..."

"It's me, Kimpo," Ban said, coming closer. He was within thirty paces now. "You're my red dragon, and I'm your Ruby Knight."

"Huntress," a young man in white armor and a fedora shouted. He was engaged with another youth he was easily overpowering. "They follow our beloved's niece. They're not Aleesh!"

Kimpo's eyes were glassy and distant, much like mother's would become when her fantasies were challenged. She turned them once more upon Ban, and there was something deep within them. A glimmer of recognition like starlight.

"I am Ban Karst of House Karst," Ban called to her. "I'm the bonded knight of Kimpo the Huntress. Don't you remember? You chose me as your Ruby, and Enfri forged our bond."

The ivory scoffed. "My ethersight reveals your lies, pretender. You are bonded to nothing and no one. Kimpo, don't listen to his delusions. You were never bonded to anyone but our beloved. That honor is yours."

Ban didn't stop walking towards her. He could feel something calling him, a part of him that remained within his Huntress. The part of him Elise tore from his soul.

"Kimpo, the bond is you and I, together. Please, come back to us, my Huntress."

"The stars," Kimpo whispered. "The promise of stars and hearth."

Ban turned his head to glance behind him where Moon was shielding Reyn from danger. The scribe pulled something tiny from her belt and held it clasped within her fist. Her Dekaam spike was ready.

Elise's knight threw down the young man he'd been fighting. He planted a foot on his opponent's chest and shouted to his dragon. "Draxa, get Kimpo out of here!"

"We must escape," Draxa roared. "Our beloved needs her Huntress, Kimpo. Only you can protect her!"

"You aren't taking her anywhere!" Deebee shouted. Her tone had a fair bit of snarl to it. "You aren't being coerced at all, are you. You follow that beast willingly, Draxa the Seductress!"

Draxa's black eyes darkened even further. She bared her teeth and lowered her long tusks as if to charge forward and spear them through Deebee's chest. "Shan Alee must be led by the pureblooded. My beloved holds the bloodsong of her people and is a hundred fold more powerful than your half-breed usurper. Elise will deliver the mighty from Althandor, not her!"

Deebee tore her eyes from Draxa. "My Huntress, Enfri is waiting for us. She needs you. Ban needs you, and so do I, my love."

Kimpo grimaced as if pained. She held a claw to the side of her head.

"Don't listen to them!" Elise's knight shouted. "You're bound to the Dragon Empress of Shan Alee!"

Fear. That was what came into Kimpo's eyes and stole her starlight. Kimpo raised her head to stare past Ban towards Deebee. "The mighty exist to serve our beloved. I will not go with you, Storyteller. You must join us and take my place as our beloved's bonded dragon."

"Never," Deebee gasped.

"Then you must die."

Kimpo pounced, her massive body sailing over Ban's head to leap at Deebee. A gust of wind accompanied her passing, bowling Ban over onto his back.

Deebee tensed, astonished to see Kimpo flying straight at her with fangs and claws ready to rip at her scales. She hesitated.

Before she reached Deebee, Kimpo kicked off of the ground and shot straight into the air. Her powerful wingbeats sent her hurtling upwards like an arrow leaving a bowstring. Draxa leapt into the air to follow her.

Ban pushed himself to his feet and ran to Deebee, who was still standing in shock. Her disbelieving eyes followed Kimpo's flight.

"Take the wind!" Ban shouted. "Don't let them escape!"

A blast of spellfire crashed against his side, sending him hurtling head over heels across the gravelly mountainside. Blistering heat scorched him within his armor; he'd taken the hit while his warding sigils were dark. Ban rectified that error and forced ether through the lines on his armor. He got to one knee and waved towards Moon and Reyn.

"Mount Deebee and follow her," he shouted. "Save Kimpo!"

Reyn backed up towards Deebee. She nodded before turning and breaking into a run. Moon was more hesitant. She looked ready to come to Ban's aid.

"Go, lasichka. I'm the bell."

Moon's lips drew together before she followed Reyn to Deebee.

Another blast of spellfire broke over Ban, but this time his ward was in place. The flames swept around him but didn't burn. He got to his feet and turned towards the Moonstone Knight, holding his full blade in a high guard. He held his ground as wind buffeted him from Deebee taking into the air in pursuit of Kimpo.

High overhead, Kimpo and Draxa were trying to break through gaps in the net, but were driven back by superior numbers. The surrounding dragons didn't pursue them, only slowly moved inward to force the quarry into more and more confining airspace. They left their knight behind, and perhaps the Moonstone believed himself capable of escaping on his own.

None of them are getting away, Ban resolved.

"All squads," he shouted, flaring the sigil on his helm to make his voice boom over the mountainside. "Hold and contain. Dragons, maintain blockade. Constable, Gladiator, Architect, Executioner, and Delver, focus on the ivory and force her down to where the army can subdue her."

They only needed to keep Draxa and Kimpo's attention away from Deebee and Reyn. Once the Dekaam spike was placed, Kimpo would be free of Elise and they could begin to help the Huntress shake off whatever hold that harpy of a woman had on her.

Whistles blew in acknowledgment of his orders. Ban spared a glance to see a black, a red, a yellow, a rose, and a slate converge on Draxa. Those five were the strongest warriors of Enfri's dragons, and all but Grimdar had bonds with paladins of House Karst.

The Moonstone Knight pulled his foot off of the other boy's chest and stalked towards Ban, crouched low and ready. He was Aleesh. His skin was closer to olive than brown, and his hair was more brown than blond. But, there was no mistaking the emerald green in his eyes. He was mixed blood, like Enfri, though his other half appeared Nadian rather than Althandi.

That chainmail and breastplate were of light make, easy to move in and wouldn't slow him down. By the looks of that knife, he was a close-in fighter, and the fedora suggested he'd learned to scrap on the streets with the ruffers. Ban expected underhanded tactics, some good and dirty fighting.

The kid he was wiping the floor with, Ban thought. His eyes moved to where the Moonstone's opponent was crawling towards the blue-skinned girl Kimpo had been pinning down. A dragon? And the youth had the look of Teularon about him while the woman now tending to the dragon girl was definitely Irdish. Something strange was going on, but Ban couldn't waste thoughts on them right now.

If they're enemies of Elise, they're alright by me.

Ban charged, pulling his full blade back for a downward slash. Three steps from the Moonstone, the knight vanished into thin air.

"Waves, not this again," Ban growled just before spellfire crashed into his back. He'd been better prepared for it this time and turned to face that direction. Just as the flames dissipated, the knight broke through the spellfire and thrust his blade at Ban's face.

Ban swept the attack aside with his left gauntlet, punching forward with the hilt of his sword in the right. The blow should have taken the knight in the stomach, but he vanished again right before he made contact. An instant later, he was at Ban's side and driving his long knife towards the weaker armor in Ban's armpit.

Barely thwarting that attack, Ban tried another counter. Then another. Each time, the knight paused as if willing to take the blow, then vanished before reappearing elsewhere. Ban flared his sigils and forced himself to move faster, but his opponent matched him easily. Popping in and out all around, he was everywhere and nowhere at once, and Ban couldn't keep up. It was like fighting an entire squad of knights rather than a single opponent.

Continuously missing each strike was tiring Ban out. He'd come into the fight knowing he'd be slower than his opponent, but he was being outclassed in ways he'd never imagined before. This teleporting spell he first saw from Elise was altogether different from anything Kastus had trained Ban to fight against.

No, Jin said this spell isn't teleportation. Something to do with light essence. Waves and tides, but I should have asked her to elaborate on that before we set out.

Ban swung and thought he had him this time. His blow struck steel, but it was the Moonstone Knight blocking and holding the strike on his knife's crossguard. They young knight was a sorcerer, and he must have been using self-enchantments because he was as strong as Ban with his sigils flared. How large were his stores that he could be hopping about like a hamster and making himself this strong without going into ethershock inside of five minutes?

"Your imprint is ruptured," the Moonstone said, confident to the point of being cocky. "How much longer can you keep this up before you start puking all over the ground?"

"As long as I have to." Ban redoubled his efforts. His flared sigils sputtered, but he managed to keep them going. Waves, but just holding them like this was taxing his diminished abilities, let alone coaxing more power from them.

The Moonstone smirked as he held Ban back while only holding his weapon with one hand. His other hand reached up and tugged at the collar of his breastplate. "See, that's just not respectable. You don't know it, but you already lost."

Around them, Karst and Yora armsmen were coming forward. Ban shouted for them to remain in position. Rescuing Kimpo had to take priority, even if he was losing, and he wouldn't let them risk the mission by coming to his aid. The squads obeyed his orders, but Ban wished they'd keep their eyes on the sky rather than on him getting his arse handed to him.

Before the bond, Ban felt like a titan on the field. As a Ruby Knight, he believed he could pull apart mountains with his bare hands. Now... he was weak. Lost. His sigils sputtered one final time before going dark.

Ban was tossed aside. He landed flat on his back, the air leaving his lungs in a pained grunt. The wind was knocked out of him, and his chest ached with the effort of drawing the tiniest breath. The Moonstone jumped forward and landed on his knees on top of Ban. Ribs cracked, and the point of that long knife sought out the slit in Ban's visor.

Two voices shouted out as one. "—Celestial Maiden, grant your embrace!—"

The youth and the dragon girl hurled a unison-linked lightning bolt at the Moonstone. It struck but was thwarted by a ward at the last moment. Even so, the burst of light and thunder staggered and disoriented him. Ban, warned by the incantation, managed to force a measure of ether through his sigils to protect himself. He shoved the Moonstone off of him and scrambled to his feet.

Ethershock wasn't setting in. Ban still had ether left, it was just that he couldn't sustain his sigils like he used to. The exertion of investing sigils itself was proving too much for him, but even so, his stores were dwindling quicker than they ever had before. He had another few seconds of etherlight at the most.

He looked towards his saviors just in time to see the Irdish woman use a somatic. With a second snap of thunder and burst of light, she vanished. That had to have been real teleportation.

Ban took up his full blade in both hands and swung it in a horizontal arc. Without his sigils, the floundering thing was almost too heavy to lift, and his cracked ribs were trying to murder him. Shouting in exertion, Ban smashed his sword into the disoriented Moonstone, bashing him off his feet and sending him rolling to a rest five paces away.

Cheers rose from the armsmen.

Floundering dolts. Eyes up!

Collapsing to a knee, Ban panted and held an arm clamped over his middle. He'd meant to take his opponent's head with that strike, but he just couldn't lift his sword that high without his sigils.

The young dragon became her truest form and sprinted over the ground towards Ban. She went right past him and charged the Moonstone. She slammed her front claw onto his chest, holding him down. "Cardin, stop this," she cried. "You're not like Elise, and I don't want to hurt you."

The knight blinked the dazzling lights out of his eyes. "Still can't believe you're a blustering dragon," he groaned. "You don't get it, Saveen. Elise saved us. We owe her our lives. You say I'm not like her? Maybe not, but I want to be. I'll do anything to be the slightest bit like her."

The dragon made a sound that almost sounded like a sob. "Please, Cardin. You were kind to me. You're not evil like she is."

Cardin frowned and grabbed Saveen's claws with his hands. He forced her off of him though he strained to do it. "Evil? Flames, but you don't even know what the word means. Evil is murdering families and turning children into daanmen. Evil is killing people because our skin is too brown."

Saveen allowed him out from under her. "And killing thousands of innocents is better?"

"It is when they're Althandi. None of them are innocent."

The dragon backed away, shaking her head in horror. "I was wrong. You're every bit as bad as she is."

Cardin got to his feet. He held out his hand as if asking for hers. "Come back with me, Saveen. I'll ask Elise to give you to me instead of Draxa. I'll be your Sapphire, and I'll help you understand what we're doing."

"And torture me if I disagree? Like she did with Kimpo? Never. I will never go back to her. I'm Saveen the Bastion, and I'm the only one who decides what happens to me!"

Ban snorted and immediately regretted it for what it did to his ribs. Even so, he liked Saveen already. She reminded him of someone else he knew, another dauntless blue who knew her own value.

Cardin let his hand drop to his side. "I'm sorry to hear that."

The two faced each other, but Ban saw the knife moving before Saveen noticed the danger. Ban was weakened, but not yet ethershocked. With a loud cry, he used his last measures of ether to flare his sigils and launch himself forward. His shoulder drove into Cardin, sending them both sprawling over the loose gravel. Exhausted, Ban was unable to stand and lay on his stomach.

Cardin swore by spirits of earth as he stood back up. He retrieved his fedora and put it back in place. "You Altieri don't know when to lie down and die. Stand back, Saveen. I'll give you one last chance to either run or come with me, but if you... Flames, what is she doing here?"

Thunder and lightning flashed over the mountainside, but Ban was too spent and disoriented to see where it was coming from. The roar and heat of spellfire filled the air. His vision blurry from all the lightning and head swimming from the ethershock setting in, Ban looked up to see the impossible.

That's Dashar, he thought in disbelief, but he couldn't think of who else would be wearing a wolf pelt as a mask. On second thought, he didn't remember the crown prince having an hourglass figure. The other royal assassin was easier to recognize. Josy's intimidating, full-body osteoform wasn't something Ban was likely to forget.

The assassins charged in to join the fight, throwing out spells in a storm of fire and lightning. Josy reached Cardin and struck at him with her spiked gauntlets, but he vanished before the blow landed. Maya— waves, but that was Princess Maya— was able to see where he'd end up and had a lightning bolt waiting for him. The astramancy caught Cardin full in the chest, blasting him off his feet.

Cardin snarled as he tried picking himself back up, but Josy slammed her foot onto his back.

"Don't move if you want to live, Aleesh," Josy growled, her voice muffled by the bone plate over her face.

Cardin was subdued, the royal assassins were victorious, and neither of them seemed at all perturbed that dragons were all around them. Ban wished for some vex sprouts, because he'd need all the ether he could get for his insight to make sense of all this.

An arm took Ban around the chest and aided him to his feet. The Teulite boy was short and thin, but he was surprisingly strong. Ban was forced to let him take on more of his weight than he'd like. He removed his helmet and turned to nod his thanks. Ban caught sight of the boy's eyes. Althandi eyes, but that wasn't the half of it. He was a floundering blood mage.

A pulsing came from the boy, like a spell echo but stronger and constant. He carried a bloodsong.

"A blood runner," Ban murmured. "What in the name of tides are you doing here?"

"Short version, I'm contracted to deliver untold arcane power to your empress. Is that agreeable?"

Ban looked to Maya and Josy. The princess was leering at Ban, the duchess was sheepishly avoiding his gaze, and the dragon— if anything else made sense, this certainly didn't— was fretting over Josy like a mother hen.

"No arguments here," Ban said.

The blood runner let out a heavy exhale. "You've no idea how long it's been since I've heard that."