Krayson didn't look up when the assassins spoke. He kept his hood up and his eyes lowered so as not to draw their attention. He wouldn't have minded too much if they roughed him up more— thunders, but he could hardly feel pain any longer— but early into the trek within the Senwood, they'd learned the swiftest way to compel his obedience was by threatening Moon.

    As Vintus said, he didn't need to kill someone to make them suffer. Killing proved to be a hindrance to suffering, actually. As much as Vintus needed Moon and her baby alive, he didn't need them whole. And so, Krayson kept his eyes down.   

    His ears, however, were always open.

    "Back to your corner, barbarian," Esra growled. "The horses don't like you."

    Joshuan Jak'm grunted a short laugh. "Prey knows to fear the predator."

    The black steeds tossed their heads as if daring the Tiger King to try them.

    It was dusk of the second day of travel, and the stars were coming out. The group had stopped to break for a meal, but it wouldn't last. No one made camp, and they'd traveled through the night before. Krayson was exhausted, though it appeared he was the only one who was. The assassins had their oren keeping them going, Moon could run for days whether she was pregnant or not, and the Teulites... Well, they were men of the Horde.

    Althandi and Teulites rested apart from one another in separate forest clearings. The mounts got on as poorly as their riders, and neither tiger lords or black hounds wanted to get caught up in a scuffle between fangblades and Gaulatian steeds.

    Whatever purpose had brought the Horde to Althandor, no one was saying. This was something even Maya was kept in the dark about, and her demands for Vintus to explain were rebuffed at every juncture.

    Vintus didn't yet fully trust Maya. He only told her what he deemed she needed to know, and the Tiger King making an appearance had been as much of a surprise to her as it was to Krayson. It appeared this outing was also something of her final test before being fully accepted into the coterie.

    Jak'm didn't turn back. He continued into the midst of the assassins. Esra rose to bar his path from where she sat near to the two captives.

    "I said to back off," she said.

    "Stand aside, woman," Jak'm said in a dangerous tone that allowed for no argument. "I will see this blood mage you claim to be of my flesh."

    Against his better judgement, Krayson lifted his head.

    Jak'm was big, six feet and two hands tall, and the furs he wore made him look even bigger. His arms were as thick as Krayson's thighs, and his jawline could serve as a blacksmith's anvil. His face was grizzled and weathered, with a month's growth of stubble near to becoming a full beard of chestnut brown hair. He no longer wore the white and scarlet warpaint of the tribe, but the skin around his pale tan eyes was stained dark with greasepaint. He came unarmed, but a man like him didn't need weapons to kill.

    Jak'm had always been a warrior. Now, he was also a king.

    Krayson would've been almost two feet shorter than him had he been standing. Sitting with his back to a tree, Krayson felt as if he were no taller than the five year old boy he'd been when he last saw his father. Jak'm could loom like no other in the world.

    The older male assassin, Maltus Algara-Dothraun, came to stand beside Esra. Krayson had learned that the gray-haired assassin was Vintus' father-in-law and Duchess Josenthorne's maternal grandfather.

    "His Highness is under no obligation to grant your request," Maltus said. "Turn back. Now."

    "No need for that, Father," Vintus said, approaching. "We're all on the same side here."

    Maltus inclined his head before taking a step back. "As you say, Highness."

    Jak'm turned his head just enough to look at Vintus out of the corner of his eye. His lip curled into a sneer.

    "You don't trust me yet," Vintus said to him, "though you still showed up."

    "To see the truth of your claims," Jak'm said in a bass rumble, "or to spill the Althandi king's blood. Either would benefit the Horde."

    Esra and Maltus bristled and put hands to sword pommels. Vintus merely smiled.

    Krayson felt as if his ears perked up like a dog's when hearing its master's call. He was very interested in how Vintus arranged for Teulites to come this close to the Spired City. And why.

    "I will provide all I promised and more," Vintus said. "So long as the Gaulatian legions don't prove too much for you."

    Jak'm gave a sharp tsk, making his opinion of House Marcel's forces clear.

    "I hear there are dragons giving you a spot of trouble outside Parnaia," Vintus said lightly.

    "The Jasper Knights are worthy foes," Jak'm said, and it was perhaps the greatest praise he knew how to give. "The Moonstone Knights, an honor to face in battle."

    Krayson blinked. He'd never heard praise that high given to foreigners before. If it was genuine, and there was no reason to doubt it was, the Corwyn likely had the entire Teulite Horde wanting to meet him in combat.

    "If you deny me the blood mage," Jak'm continued, "I would know our destination. My time would be better spent earning the prestige of slaying the mighty and the great men who ride them."

    "The Dragon Lord of the Jasper Knights is a woman," Krayson muttered.

    Jak'm's eyes fell on him, and Krayson could feel the weight of that stare without needing to meet it. But he did anyway. Krayson lifted his head and met his father's glare.

    "A quarter of these great men you respect are not men at all. You only prove that not one of your warriors has gotten near enough to see the difference and live to tell about it."

    Jak'm scowled. Krayson suddenly remembered that his father was prone to do that when he was flummoxed.

    "It shames you to be defeated by women, Father," Krayson said. "That has always been the folly of the Horde."

    It bothered Krayson immeasurably that Vintus chuckled.

    Jak'm pushed past Esra and Maltus to stand over Krayson. His scowl turned into bared teeth. "Do not speak with such familiarity, blood mage. I will have your respect as I am due."

    "You have no son to demand respect from. You killed Joshuan Krayson of the Jak'm. You abandoned him to Fate. I am Brother Joshuan of the Sanguine Fraternal Order now, and I owe you nothing. Especially not respect, you abject failure of a father."

    Jak'm knelt on one knee in front of him. His eyes hid thunder clouds within them.

    "Hypocrite," Krayson sneered. "You let the Jak'm cast me out for fear I was a demon, and here you stand, allying with the man serving the old masters."

    "Demons are myth," Jak'm spat. "Your words are those of a superstitious crone."

    "That didn't stop you when I proved myself a wizard as well as a witch. The only thing that kept you from putting me on a pyre was a promise made to my mother."

    Jak'm touched his fingers to the dark bruises over the break in Krayson's jawbone. His eyes dropped to the manacles clamped over Krayson's hands to prevent somatics. He saw a man prevented from using two forms of spellcraft.

    "I found out why I am what I am," Krayson said. "If you care. I had a twin brother who never left Mother's womb. His essence lives on in me. I have his magic as well as my own. You were wrong Father. I am no demon. You abandoned me for nothing."

    "I never believed you a demon," Jak'm said, "but it was not for nothing." He stood and turned his back on Krayson once again. "For the Jak'm."

oOo

    The big one left. He had a bad scent. A dangerous scent. Scented of blood from those he ended, but it did not make him ashen. The blood on his hands scented of more than murder. It was glory earned. Moon did not like that scent, of ended lives that did not sight their slayer as ashen. They were proud to have been ended by him.

    Rippling Moon was clouded. The thunder-scented were... weird. Weirder than most slayers, and that was speaking of much.

    She let herself relax once the thunder-scented empty one was gone. The god-sighted watched him go with fear-scent about them, then they also went away. It pleased Moon to know the god-sighted slayers feared something. She sniffed the air as the empty one left, caught his scent once more. Moon had no need to fear him. She could scent this easy. Her blood was the only blood around he did not want to take.

    Rocker, she thought at his back. She did not fear him, but she did not like him either. He sights me as white. For being blue and for carrying white one. He is clouded as to how black I can be.

    Soon, Jin's kin came towards the captives holding four bowls of food balanced in her arms. She gifted one to the older god-sighted blue Krayson named Esra. Jin's kin then gifted bowls to Moon and to Krayson before sitting on her heels near to them. Esra thanked her before turning over the duty of keeping their captives under watch.

    Jin's kin had a scent Moon thought she could spend days taking in. Was like scent of Moon's red. Scented of ash. Pain, but not her pain. Pride, but not her pride. Was like Ban's scent, but different, too. It was close enough to Ban's for Moon to recognize her scent for what it was. Jin's kin was ash-blessed.

    Ban was always clouded on meaning of ash-blessed. He was rocker, though a cute one and tried his best. Slayers did not think as kith and so did not sight true meaning of this. Ash-blessed was one made greater by their ashen hands. Ash could teach. Pain could bring growth. Suffering could uncloud. Ban learned those lessons. Jin's kin scented of one who had learned them, too.

    It was a good scent. Moon liked her, but Moon tried to ignore how Jin's kin sighted pleasing to her eyes. Very pretty, and pretty with good scent was Moon's most dire of weaknesses, be they blue, red, or anything else.

    Moon slurped the broth from her bowl as she watched Jin's kin out of the corner of her eye. The broth was salty and burned Moon's tongue, but she was growing fond of spicy slayer food. The rybka especially liked salty things, so Moon could take a little more heat if it was for the baby's benefit.

    Jin's kin sighted Moon sighting her. "What?"

    Moon grinned. "I sight her name."

    "Whose?"

    "Rocker," Moon scolded. "Yours."

    "My name's Maya," she said as if Moon was clouded.

    Moon waved her hand around dismissively. "This is word. Not name. Not name as kith name is name."

    Maya looked to Krayson helplessly. "Can you tell me what she's on about."

    Krayson still glowered after the thunder-scented empty one. "Not really, but I know enough to know you should be honored. The fey don't give out names to just anybody. I'm still just 'blood-scented'. I don't think they've even given one to Enfri."

    "Have," Moon said, affronted. "Is good name, too."

    Krayson turned towards her and blinked.

    "Enfri is Goose Kin. Is first name I ever gifted."

    Krayson snorted.

    Maya had so many clouds about her face, she was almost a bank of fog. "I don't want a name like that."

    "Is not thing she can speak she does not have," Moon said haughtily. "It has been sighted, so this is thing that is."

    Maya rolled her eyes. "Best put it out there, in that case."

    "I sight her as she walks at night," Moon said conspiratorially. "She stands with wolves, but she is not wolf as they are. She is more. She is greater hunter than they. Beneath stars, her prey sights her as theirs, but they are hers. She is Star Hunter."

    "I... see," Maya said slowly. "Well, I can live with that one."

    Krayson frowned, scenting of jealousy. Moon would have gifted him with a name, but was not her place to do this thing. He was a slayer no more, he was kith, so his name was his own to sight.

    Moon looked around and saw god-sighted slayers not far. They were close enough for words spoken to be heard, so Moon wondered if Star Hunter had placed privacy wards. But, god-sighted could see the Weave even more easily than Moon could scent it. They would sight a ward.

    When she spoke her concerns in a whisper, Krayson spoke of this.

    "Her Highness' wards are subtle. They'll not block all sound, but enough that we won't be overheard without us knowing and won't be noticed by ethersight."

    Moon nodded in understanding. She wished for her own magic to hurry and come out. Too often, she felt like she had nothing to add next to all these magic-blessed. The runes she tried to write still did not light. But, so long as her ether remained untethered to one of the five paths, the slayers would sight her as white and not seal her magic.   

    Thinking of her own magic reminded Moon of something else about Star Hunter's scent. Star Hunter scented of power, strange power almost like the scent of kith-spirits. Strong but caged, though Moon had sighted Star Hunter using magic. There could not have been seals on her. Perhaps it was that she was might-touched. That always brought new and interesting scents.

    The mighty was near, her place unsighted. The slayers were clouded and did not know of her. This was good, because Moon liked the scent of Star Hunter's mighty. Mighty scented of Star Hunter, not as heart-blessed but as one who sighted another as kith. Mighty did not let Star Hunter know this, and Moon thought this was funniest thing she scented in days.

    Moon was having a hard time controlling a sudden need to giggle over it when Vintus called for the walk down the black path to continue. Wrinkling her nose in distaste in Vintus' direction, Moon accepted the hand Star Hunter offered her and got to her hooves.

    "Do you need more rest?" Star Hunter asked in a low whisper.

    She scented of fear for white one. It was for the rybka she asked.

    "Is..." Moon pursed her lips, reconsidering how to phrase it. "No need to concern yourself with me, Highness. I'm alright. I'm not that far along yet."

    Star Hunter nodded and looked ahead. A moment later, her brow furrowed when she realized the switch in dialects.

    Moon was about to snicker over confounding her, but Star Hunter proved to be full of surprises. What she said next, Moon would not have expected in a hundred years.

    "You are remarkable," she said quietly without looking Moon's way. "I had it all wrong. It's Lord Bannlyth who doesn't deserve you."

    Moon turned her head and covered her cheeks with her hands. Blues were getting to her more and more often lately. She blamed it on ashen baby.

    It was not needed, but Star Hunter helped Moon into the saddle. Horse was old, scented of being tired all the time and of fear of thunder-scented beasts. Moon whispered white words to the horse, speaking to him that he would be safe while Moon rode him. Within moments, the walk down black path continued.

    Hours passed in silence. None spoke. Not god-sighted slayers or thunder-scented, though the thunder-scented wished to hear the answers they looked for from Vintus. What it was he offered Krayson's slayer kin, Moon did not know, but they must have wanted it more than they wanted anything if it meant they would follow him into this black forest to get it.

    The ride grew longer than Moon's backside wanted to endure by the time they stopped again. Vintus reined in and held up a clenched fist. Thunder-scented empty one rode his beast to the front, keeping a wise separation between their mounts.

    "What is it?" the thunder-scented demanded. "Why do we stop, Althandi?"

    Vintus turned in his saddle to face him and smirked. "We've arrived."

    Moon furrowed her brow and scented the air. Her attention had been on the slayers, and she missed a scent she was ashen for missing. She felt a cold chill like dead fingers running down her spine. This scent was... It was black, but not as most things were black. Black for what it meant, not for what it was.

    Krayson lifted his head, his eyes growing wide now that they were unclouded. "Convergence," he whispered. "All seven thunders, that's what he meant. A convergence of thundering ley lines."

    "Uncloud," Moon whispered. She did not know the words he used. All she scented was spirit-home. This was a scent she had only scented once before, and it had been black then, too. White Lady had set her on black path, a path Moon would never choose to not take if gifted with the choice to do so, but a very black path.

    "I can feel it," Krayson replied under his breath. "My ether's sealed, but I can feel it straining to restore itself. We're standing right where several cracks in the boundary between the mortal and spirit worlds converge."

    "Not quite, Blood Runner," Vintus called from up ahead. "We're not quite to the epicenter. We only stop here because of a slight bump in the road."

    Star Hunter rode up next to him. "What sort of bump?" she asked.

    It was thunder-scented empty one who answered her. His hand gripped the hilt of his sword. "Fiend."

    Krayson muttered something Moon could not hear, but it sounded of disgust.

    Vintus chuckled. "As His Greatness says, Maya. A fiend. They're not uncommon around convergences like this one. Some animal or another gets caught up in all that raw magic, and it twists them into something... quite unnatural."

    "It's an incidental fiend then?" Esra asked. "Not one of..."

    Vintus silenced her with a sharp look. "So it is," he said in a deathly calm tone that carried an unspoken threat.

    Esra fell silent and averted her eyes.

    The empty one turned to his blooded riders and spoke for them to ready for battle.

    "No need, Your Greatness," Vintus said to him. He dismounted his horse and drew his sword. "If you don't mind, I could use a warm-up for what comes after."

    Slayers began dismounting. The blackest of slayers, Dashar, he ordered Krayson and Moon to get off their horses as well. Moon did as told and kept near to Krayson's side as he walked forward.

    The slayers gathered in a line at the edge of the clearing, sighting Vintus' back as he strode towards the center. Moon did not sight any fiend, and she did not scent it either. These things, fiends, they were creatures she did not know of.

    The tribe spoke of them, black whispers of monsters that should not be. Twisted things, wrong things, creatures not fully of either world. Some were chosen by black spirits to become twisted, some were forged by black slayer magics, but all were... something the kith did not have a word for. The slayers had a word for this, a word they used often and freely, but it existed— truly existed— in the world so rarely that to use this word so easily should have made their tongues ashen.

    "Is evil," Moon said.

    Krayson glanced at her as if he was unwilling to tear his eyes away from Vintus. "You can smell evil?" he asked.

    Moon shook her head. "Nay. This is why it is black."

    She did not hear Dashar come up behind them. Did not scent him either. So much blood on his scent that it was easy to lose in all the noise. His scent carried the screams of all he ended. It was a frightening scent, so Moon had been trying to forget that it was there at all.

    "Quiet," Dashar said in a low growl. "Watch. Know what you face when you stand against the old masters."

    Krayson grimaced.

    "I do not speak idly, Blood Runner," Dashar warned. "My uncle is no longer a royal assassin. He is a blessed saint. Their saint."

    Black words, but Moon heard wisdom in them despite the source. Watch and know your slayer. She leaned a little forward and sighted after Vintus.

    To her eyes, he stood alone in a span of light forest growth, ivy and juniper beneath his feet. His stance was wide, sword held out and at the ready.

    "Come on then," Vintus said in a low voice, "I haven't got all day."

    It burst from the trees on the opposite side of the clearing in an explosion of screeching violence. Large and skittering, a mottled black and sickly green carapace, more legs than anything alive should have. Moon startled back a step at its sudden arrival.

    The fiend had once been a megarach, that much was unclouded. Its many legs, numbering sixteen, had joints bending the wrong directions and ended in appendages like clawed, mortal hands. Eight eyes like a viper were irregular and asymmetrical in their placement and size, none seeming to look at the same thing as the others. The fiend scrambled towards Vintus, screeching with a discordant voice out of its fang-lined maw.

    The demon-blessed laughed.

    Moon blinked and nearly missed the killing blow. She felt a touch against her growing awareness of spell echoes on the Weave. A strong echo, for her nascent senses to feel it. She scented essences of earth and wind, and she heard the fiend scream its agony. Vintus moved faster than a mortal should move, faster than Moon's eyes could follow, and his sword plunged into the fiend's body. Carapace cracked and shattered beneath his blow, and the sword sank deep. Vile, black ichor sprayed from the wound, coating Vintus' hands. A new echo, scenting of bone essence, then a sound like splintering wood. The fiend collapsed on itself, ichor and ooze bursting out of its shell as it was crushed by elder magic. It spasmed one final time before Vintus consumed the malformed corpse with spellfire. The fiend was reduced to cinders.

    Vintus clucked his tongue as he sneered at the mound of smoldering ashes at his feet. "Disappointing."

    Star Hunter breathed out through her nose. Fear-scent was upon her. "He's fast."

    Moon swallowed. "Star Hunter is fast," she whispered.

    "Not that fast," she said with a shake of her head. "Not that strong. I could've killed the fiend, but not in one blow."

    Dashar shouldered his way between Moon and Krayson to enter the clearing. "Now you know what opposes you," he said. "If you mean to fight him, be ready to die."

    Moon wrinkled her nose at his back. She heard Star Hunter grinding her teeth. Jin's kin scented of hate-scent when she sighted Dashar.

    Tentatively, Moon reached out her bound hands and touched her fingers against Star Hunter's wrist. She did not have the slayer words for this, so Moon did not speak. Star Hunter calmed and met Moon's eyes. Even without the words, she was unclouded as to what Moon meant to speak for the most part. Star Hunter gave Moon a nod and led them into the clearing after the rest of the group.

    Thunder-scented empty one led his blooded riders forward. He scented as one impressed, but he did not show it in his face. "A good kill, Althandi. However, I did not leave command of the Horde to my second just to take part in a hunt. If this is our destination, it is time you give us what was agreed upon."

    Vintus pulled a square of cloth from his belt and wiped his sword clean. "As you say, Your Greatness. I offered a way for your Horde to assault the Spired City itself. Allow me to show you how."

    Star Hunter tensed, and her hand gripped the hilt of her sword tight. Krayson frowned and shot glares at the thunder-scented.

    Moon narrowed her eyes. Thunder-scented walked blooded path to black city of the god-sighted. Enfri and Jin feared this, feared that old masters made this path for thunder-scented to walk. This was not good thing.

    "Everyone," Vintus said, raising his voice, "gather close. As convergences go, this is a minor one, and no more than a dozen can pass through at a time."

    Thunder-scented empty one bared his teeth. "A dozen cannot assault your city, Althandi."

    Vintus offered him the ghost of a smile. "A dozen at a time, Your Greatness. That means your Horde can't make the crossing all at once, but a sizable force can make the journey in short order. Within five hours, ten thousand riders can be within striking distance of the city before my brother is aware of your arrival."

    Krayson and Star Hunter had the furrowed brows, the leaning posture, and the ears turned towards what they were hearing. Mortal attentiveness was easy to sight. At least, it was easy for Moon to sight. God-sighted slayers did not sight how close Krayson and Star Hunter were paying attention.

    They heard the words Vintus spoke, thought on them, but this was thing Moon already knew. "Convergences" was word she had not heard, but she knew the thing that it was. Had walked path in one before. This was a place that was two places, a bridge and gateway, where mortal-home and spirit-home were same thing. Same as tower of White Lady. Only difference was that this bridge did not have great spirit to sight who walked through. A spirit to stop slayers who walked path for black purposes.

    Thunder-scented would walk path through spirit-home. Enter spirit-home in land of horse-scented, be taken through spirit-home to this bridge, and walk back into mortal-home in land of wind-scented. Many blooded riders walking in moments what would have taken days or weeks. This was thing thunder-scented empty one was wise to seek if he wished to attack black city of the god-sighted.

    "You will need to come through with us," Vintus said. "To find a location in the Ethereum, one needs to already know it. Come through, Your Greatness, and when you and your followers enter into a second location in Gaulatia that I will provide, you will be able to lead them straight to this convergence within the Senwood. What you do then is entirely up to you."

    Moon scowled. Was black. Was very, very black. She did not like this and wished for her red to hurry up already.