Krayson was pushed to his knees. He snapped his teeth at the hand gripping his shoulder and received a backhanded blow to the face for his trouble. Agony swept through his broken jaw. Thunders, but he could've done without experiencing a fractured mandible for an extended period again.

His wrists and ankles were in manacles. His jaw was fractured. His ether was sealed by sorcery. Krayson was as powerless as he'd ever been, but that didn't stop him from making as much of a nuisance of himself as he could.

At least they'd returned him his robe. He just wished he knew where Moon was if she wasn't wearing it anymore. Krayson didn't find himself offering prayers to the gods often, but he beseeched any of them who might listen to keep Moon safe.

The woman who'd brought him here, the royal assassin named Esra, shook the hand Krayson had gotten his teeth on and glared down at him. She was a rather nondescript woman, black-haired and pale-skinned as most Algaras, and approaching her middle years. If she hadn't been wearing her armor and instead wore a dress, Krayson wouldn't have thought her anything but your standard sort of Althandi courtier.

She'd brought him from the dungeon where he'd spent the last— Two days? Three?— the last span of time. Few in the palace corridors gave comment as he was hauled across a skybridge to one of the towers. Krayson had lost all sense of direction and could hardly think straight for the pain, so he wasn't entirely sure which one it was. They all looked the same when his eyes were all but swollen shut from the frequent beatings.

Through his blurry vision, Krayson saw a modestly appointed solar. The floor was polished marble, the walls were granite. Black and white were predominant, a monochrome decor for an uninspired domicile. Boring, lacking any flair of decoration. Spartan and sterile.

Vintus sat at a dark wood desk and peered over steepled fingers at Krayson. That leer made Krayson feel as if his blood was turning to ice in his veins.

"What've you done with Moon?" Krayson demanded. It hurt to speak around his fractured jaw, and his parched throat felt like it was tearing itself to shreds with each word.

"I take it you refer to your pet freg," Vintus said in a bored voice. "I promised you, did I not? I've arranged that she will be well looked after."

"Thunders crash on your head!" Krayson shouted. "You've no right to detain us. I completed my contract. The king granted me clemency."

Vintus shrugged. "That was never made official," he said lightly. "Time and again, my brother used my son's talents to attempt to contact you through your dreams. He found you a broken wretch after the Sanguine Tower and declared your efforts wasted. As far as the Highest Court is concerned, you completed nothing."

Krayson hissed. "You're a bastard."

"Am I? I know who my father was, and I was never abandoned by him, either. A pity you cannot say the same." He leaned forward on his elbows and smirked. "Or will you now claim to have left the Jak'm by your own will?"

If Vintus thought he could needle Krayson with that, he was sorely mistaken. Krayson had put his banishment from the Horde in the past where it belonged. It couldn't hurt him anymore.

"Where is Moon?" Krayson growled.

Vintus smiled pleasantly and held his hands out wide. "On her way to be reunited with you," he said. "I anticipate a touching lover's reunion, so please don't disappoint. I've always been a secret romantic at heart." He rose to his feet and came around his desk. "But a freg? Really? As pleased as I am to have your offspring join my endeavors, I have to wonder. What ever possessed a man born of noble blood to rut with an animal?"

"Every word out of your mouth proves how foul you are," Krayson said. "May the demons you serve drag you to Hell."

Vintus bent at the waist and brought his face within a scant inch of Krayson's. "Ah, there we are. To the heart of the matter. I believe you might actually know something and aren't just blindly spouting random epithets."

"What have they offered you?" Krayson asked.

Vintus straightened. "Do you think yourself able to match their offer? I assure you, you're not."

"Only curious," Krayson said. "How much does the soul of a prince go for nowadays?"

Vintus chuckled. "You're starting to sound like Ambrose. A bit of him must've rubbed off on you while you carried his bloodsong all that time." He turned his back and strode towards a window on the wall to Krayson's left. Outside, Krayson could see nothing but mist and muted gaslight. "It was a shame, ordering his death, though it was satisfying to finally be rid of his meddling. The Cabal hasn't been nearly the threat they used to be since his passing. But Ambrose... There truly was never a finer general in all of history. I had Kastus Valdar, of course, but even he would be the first to say the Merovech had him outclassed. How glorious it could have been if Ambrose came to his senses and saw the light."

Krayson glowered at his back. "What light can there be in Hell?"

"The only light mortals have," Vintus said while gazing out the window. "The old masters are not demons. They are the true gods of this world and far greater than the pale shadows our minds conjured."

"There are five kingdoms worth of mortals who'd disagree."

"Fools," Vintus scoffed. "Livestock. An offering to a better world. The paradise the old masters seek to rebuild has no need of the mindless. Only the inspired."

Krayson felt his heart hasten by five beats per minute. The Law of Five manifested. "You expect me to believe they told you what they're after?"

"Am I not their most faithful servant?" Vintus asked. "Am I not their blessed saint, gifted with the whispers of our greatest lord?"

Krayson sucked in a hissing breath through his teeth. "You hear them?" he asked in a horrified whisper.

"I hear my lord's wishes this very moment," Vintus said, reverent and breathless. His back went rigid, and his words took on an eery quality. Drawn out unnaturally, as if he were reciting them from an old memory. "So often you have sought to thwart their designs. So odiously have you allied yourself to short-sighted filth. For a long time, they have desired your demise, Joshuan the Krayson. They saw in you... a threat."

Krayson snorted. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Vintus turned from the window to look at him. "More than you know. Why destroy what can be made to serve? This is a lesson I have attempted to pass on to the next generation of royal assassins, and I am pleased to say it has begun to take root. You need not perish along with this era, Blood Runner. By bringing me your half-goblin spawn, you've taken the first step towards earning the right to stand in the next one."

"And what era is that?" Krayson asked heatedly.

"The final step," Vintus said as if it were the only natural answer. "Era by era, point to point, inexorably drawing the world to what it was meant to be. The old masters are rebuilding Paradise, Blood Runner. They are guiding us back to the world that was taken yet can be again."

Krayson sneered. "And what will it take for you to live in their paradise? Your family? Your honor? Your soul?"

"And more," Vintus said. "They've demanded everything, and I've given everything. Hear this, Blood Runner, and never forget it. There is nothing I would not sacrifice to save my children."

Krayson bared his teeth. "Tell that to Josenthorne."

He couldn't settle on if he was more pleased or surprised to see the look on Vintus' face. Invoking Josy against him elicited a stricken look of profound pain. Within moments, it was gone, replaced by cold anger.

"Don't test me," Vintus whispered. "My lord demands you serve your purpose, but that will not stop me from making your time remaining in this world as unbearable as I can make it."

"I haven't even begun to test you," Krayson promised. "Whatever purpose you think you can make me serve, I would rather die."

"All you need do is live a little longer," Vintus said. "Only just until I bring your spawn to the Great Spider's prison. My lord is certain that even an unborn feyling will serve as the required key."

"Kumo," Krayson murmured. "What do you want with a forgotten god?"

"Forgotten?" Vintus laughed. "Hardly. Who do you think the goodfolk are preying to when they lament the cruelties of Fate? Such a powerful concept in mortal minds, the perception of which transcends even the walls of the Great Spider's cage. No, Blood Runner, mortals have not forgotten Kumo. They've merely forgotten the name and gave another. Whether it is Kumo or it is Fate, the Great Spider's web will belong to my lord. The power long denied to the old masters will be theirs, and in these final centuries, the path to Paradise will be assured."

Krayson didn't understand half of what Vintus was saying. What would a demon's paradise even be? The blasphemy about Fate and Kumo being one in the same was simple enough. Krayson had suspected it already, seeing as how both frequently made the same brand of trouble in his life. But it still didn't explain why, or more importantly, how.

Vintus dangled just enough of an answer to tempt Krayson but withheld the key parts. That might've even been his intent with this little chat. He sought to make Krayson ravenous for the answers he wanted, and the cost would be compliance.

The old masters were closer to final victory than he'd thought. The game they played hadn't just left the mortal world in check, it'd also left them bereft of nearly all their pieces on the board. There was so little left to fight them with, and they were preparing to flip their card to reveal the traitor and take more.

Unless I prevent it, Krayson thought, his eyes widening.

It'd be the last thing he ever did, and he'd damn himself in the process. One blow placed correctly, and Vintus would be denied his feyling. If Krayson forced Moon to miscarry...

Krayson shuddered.

What else can I do? Could I really let myself sacrifice her baby, even if it meant delaying the doom?

He'd barely even begun to ask himself the question before he knew the answer. That was something he would never do. Krayson blamed Saveen for destroying his sense of pragmatism. And thanked her. Krayson's body shook, partly from the horror of what he'd nearly asked of himself. Also from blood loss, but there was little he could do about that at the moment.

Krayson hung his head. "Why a feyling? Why is that the key to the Great Spider?"

Vintus smirked. He likely interpreted Krayson's tremors as fear. "Blame the myths of humanity. We always think of the gods as cruelly ironic in their punishments, so naturally, they were obliged to be what we believe them to be. The gods bound the Great Spider within a prison that can only be opened by the offspring of the creatures he so brazenly opposed the creation of. Kumo railed against the founding of more elder bloodlines after Inwé's, in particular warning against Mother Sun giving her chosen people the ability to forge lesser spirits into fey. Perhaps Kumo foresaw what my lord's fallen predecessor intended, perhaps Kumo was simply a coward, but whichever it was, the Great Spider's prison was built so that it could only be opened by the child of a mortal and a fey."

"And then you walk right in," Krayson said.

"Not at all," Vintus said with a smile. "You walk in. You see, Blood Runner, the prison has wardens. If you truly have thrown in with that vampire slut, I'm sure you know of whom I speak."

"The mighty," Krayson said. "The dragons who survived the death curse and now serve the Lord of Bones."

"Indeed," Vintus said, gratified. "Hasanvor, the Lord of Bones and god of death, was tasked with maintaining the prison, and true to his divine nature, must protect it to the best of his ability. Thankfully, for all their power, mortal gods are as imperfect as the mortals who created them. There's a way past his guard dogs. Tell me, Krayson, are you familiar with Nadian mining practices? Have you heard of miners carrying a canary in a birdcage into the deepest passages?"

Krayson frowned. "You send me in, and if the Eldest kill me..."

"Then we wait a little longer. I've no shortage of annoyances I can send in after you to test the air. Soon enough, the Librarian and the Vizier will be dealt with, and the prison will be unguarded. The only thing left in question is whether you will survive the testing."

Krayson furrowed his brow. "How do you expect to deal with thousand year old dragons?"

"Come now," Vintus laughed. "You can't expect me to tell you everything, but rest assured, all will be made clear if you get me what I want."

Vintus nodded to Esra, and Krayson was hauled to his feet.

"Chat over?" Krayson asked. "You didn't even offer me tea."

Vintus snorted. "You've certainly grown more free with your insolent tongue. It's time to go."

"Back to the dungeon? It's almost starting to feel like home."

"Not at all," Vintus said in a mockingly reassuring tone. "At least, not my brother's dungeon. When I said it is time to go, I mean all of us."

Krayson frowned. "We're going to Kumo's prison now? How in the embrace of hellfire do you meant to go there?"

"It'll be a bit of a trip, but not so far as you might fear. We only need go so far as the nearest convergence."

"The nearest what?" Krayson asked. "Thunders, speak plain."

"Pay attention, Blood Runner. You might learn something before your end." He gestured for Esra. "Come. We mustn't keep our eastern friend waiting."

Esra at last displayed a notable feature. She had the most hideous smirk Krayson had ever seen.

Krayson was dragged once more through the corridors. Vintus took him down a long steam lift ride, then across yet another skybridge. Just when Krayson thought his malnourished and dehydrated legs couldn't take him any further, they arrived within a quiet yard. There was a stable filled with black Gaulatian horses with snow white manes. Four armed men and women readied horses for travel while they awaited the prince's arrival. Royal assassins, all.

The battlefield coterie.

"Where is she?" Vintus demanded of an older assassin with shoulder-length gray hair.

"Coming, Highness," the assassin replied. "She is late."

Vintus' lip curled in dissatisfaction.

"You can stop worrying, Uncle," Maya called as she entered the stable yard. She pushed Moon into the yard in front of her. "I was delayed by a persistent courtier."

Vintus frowned at her. "Who was it?"

Maya shrugged with one shoulder. "Some seamstress with a somewhat famous house name. Lady Claryss, I think it was."

Krayson hardly heard what they were saying. He focused on Moon. She was dressed in House Algara servant's livery and didn't appear harmed, but one thing stood out. Her antlers had been shorn off close to her scalp. Her platinum blonde hair and the stumps of her antlers were concealed beneath a woolen shawl. Whether it was done to disguise that she was a goblin or to remove potential weapons from her possession, Krayson felt outrage bubbling up from deep inside him.

Moon caught his eye and gave her head a subtle shake.

"Ah. No matter, then," Vintus said in response to Maya. "We've nothing to worry about from House Deveaux."

"I could silence her just to make certain," Maya offered.

"Niece, you know I enjoy that blood thirst of yours, but do try to avoid starting a house war." He glanced to the others and grinned. "Not just yet, anyway."

The entire coterie chuckled.

"No handmaidens today, Cousin?" Esra asked Maya.

Maya brought Moon to stand beside Krayson. As she left Moon there and walked away, she jostled Krayson with her shoulder and nearly knocked him down. "I don't know how I am to survive," Maya said sarcastically.

Esra chuckled and shoved Moon and Krayson in the direction of a pair of horses. Neither were Gaulatian steeds. They were small in comparison and looked like they were about to keel over from age. It didn't seem like Vintus was going to just hand Krayson the means to escape.

Moon wrinkled her nose dubiously when it was made clear she was expected to mount up. She grabbed one of the stirrups and raised up one of her hooves, waggling the footrest beside it as if to illustrate for Esra that one wasn't designed to go with the other.

"Get on, freg," Esra sneered. "I don't care if you sit in the saddle or get tied up in a bundle, but you're riding."

Moon rolled her eyes and jumped up to the horse's back. The elderly horse didn't appreciate it.

"Winds, didn't know they could jump like that," Esra muttered.

"Horses are superfluous to goblins," Krayson said as he awkwardly climbed into his own saddle. The manacles weren't making it easier, but at least they'd unbound his ankles.

"Mind your tongue," Esra snapped. She went to Moon and Krayson once they were situated and lashed their feet to the stirrups. That would prove dangerous if either suffered a fall, but Krayson was fairly certain the thralls didn't much care if he got hurt during the ride. Moon, however, they should've been more conscientious of.

As soon as Esra moved on to join Vintus, Krayson looked down into his hands. When Maya jostled him, she'd passed something into his palm. It was a clay sphere, a pre-prepared alchemical spell. Krayson closed his hand over it and hid it from sight.

Moon scowled at her horse as she inexpertly guided it to stand alongside Krayson's mount. "Is white," she whispered. "God-sighted blue..."

"Is playing a very dangerous game," Krayson finished for her. "Are you alright?"

She looked up at her missing antlers. "God-sighted slayers are ashen."

Krayson looked ahead at Vintus. The prince cast a brief glance at him and offered a mockery of a smile.

"That they are," Krayson muttered. "I can't say what the plan is, but stay alert. Take any chance you can take when it comes."

"Blood-scented must not be afraid," Moon said. "I will protect him."

Krayson narrowed his eyes and gave her an incredulous look. He turned away and shrugged. Strange, but Moon's promise actually did make him feel a little better.

"They take your sigil bracers?" he asked.

"Aye," Moon sighed. "Would have wanted to practice lighting them."

"Your knives, too, I imagine."

She growled from deep in her throat. If those came through the teleportation and not her uniform, she must've been especially attached to them. "Your magic?"

"Sealed, and I can't use somatics or incantations in this state."

Moon eyed the dark bruises on his jaw and winced in sympathy.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed Krayson's reins. He startled and looked to the assassin that managed to sneak up on him so easily. Eyes as red as his own stared back at him. Prince Dashar, or rather, the doppler masquerading as him. Krayson was certain of it. No one but an enthralled shifter could give off an aura of such menace. The illusion was further dispelled when the creature spoke.

"Be mindful of what you say where others can hear, Blood Runner," Dashar One warned. "My uncle will not be as forgiving as I am."

Krayson scowled. "We both know he's not your uncle, doppler."

Dashar One smirked and walked on. He left Krayson wishing for Dashar Two to finish his business in Drok Moran and make his way back to the Spired City already. Krayson trusted Pacifica's estimation of the crown prince and had faith he might yet prove a deadly enemy to thralls.

"Black," Moon muttered at the imposter's back. "Black as black gets."

"He's got all the real Dashar's ability, and none of his humanity," Krayson whispered. "Try to steer clear of him."

Moon didn't respond and kept her eye on the doppler as he moved between the coterie's horses. If she'd been a cat fey instead of a deer one, her back would've been arched.

In the end, Krayson thought sardonically, I got her close enough to a Dashar to catch his scent. Huzzah. I deserve a medal.

With the four assassins who'd been waiting, Vintus and Esra, Maya, and now the doppler Dashar, there were eight black hounds gathered to leave the Palace of Towers. Seven plus one, thralls with an unsuspected enemy in their number. Krayson wondered if even the Eidolon could face odds like that.

"Unlucky," he muttered under his breath.

A stir swept over the assassins. Vintus jabbed a finger in Krayson and Moon's direction, and Esra ran towards them. Krayson flinched, fearing that his hidden alchemical spell was somehow detected. Even with his ether sealed, Krayson felt the spell echo coming off Esra. He nearly fell out of the saddle as he tried using his body to shield Moon.

It was a futile and ultimately unneeded effort. He realized the essences. Light and wind, with elements of abjuration. It was an invisibility spell.

Krayson logged that information away. Esra must've been more skilled an arcanist than she looked if she was able to manifest such a taxing spell for any length of time. Before Krayson could consider why Vintus would suddenly want him and Moon hidden, he received his answer as a second group came into the stable yard.

"What is the meaning of this, Brother?" Cathis shouted. He was followed by a cadre of royal guards and a royal assassin Krayson recognized. Heron Algara, leader of the intelligence coterie.

Heron had duskier skin than her fellow assassins, and Krayson knew from his earlier encounters with her that she was the only one of their number who wasn't a sorcerer. She was a witch, apparently coming into her spellcraft before she was adopted into the royal family. She'd told Krayson before that she was an illegitimate bastard, but that had apparently proven an insufficient barrier to her becoming the leader of one of the three coteries.

Cathis and Heron both passed by Krayson and Moon without so much as a glance. They only saw Esra standing by herself.

Krayson was momentarily tempted to start screaming at the top of his lungs. That'd surely cause an awkward situation for Vintus, but getting discovered by Cathis was hardly a step in the right direction. At best, he'd go right back into the dungeon. At worst, the battlefield coterie might attempt a regicide. That was unlikely to end well for Krayson and Moon.

Acting as if he was unconcerned, Vintus swung up into his saddle. "I apologize for not speaking with you, Brother," he said, "but I can't delay. The window we have is narrow."

"Window for what?" Cathis snapped. "Winds take you, Vintus, don't you know what's going on?"

"I do, and that is why we must move out immediately. Omolade's dead and the Crescent Legion is gone, but she gave us an opening."

Cathis frowned. "What are you planning?"

"The sky woman, Brother," Vintus said. "She's weaker than she's been since the Dunes, and I know where she is."

Heron frowned, and Cathis drew closer to Vintus.

"The sky woman?" the king asked. "We've gone over this. If we move against her openly, we lose what credibility we have left. Adeyemi defied me by attacking her. Don't you defy me, too."

Vintus frowned at his king. "I've no intention of moving against her openly. She's in the Reach, Brother. Separated from her legion and quartering with an enclave of Aleesh every bit as large as the one Father rooted out in Ejasta. I mean to assault this enclave and eliminate the girl as we should have from the start. The only one's who'll know of what I do are Aleesh filth condemned to die anyway."

Krayson didn't know if it was meant as a lie to explain Vintus leaving or if killing Enfri was yet another part of Vintus' schemes. Either way, it was difficult to listen to.

Cathis scowled and looked away from Vintus. His eyes traced over the rest of the coterie. He paused on Dashar before moving on to Maya. The Highest King looked surprised to find her there.

"Maya, why are..."

Maya faced forward and didn't meet her father's eye. "Need you ask?"

Cathis turned to Vintus, an angry frown on his lips. "I didn't give you permission to involve my daughter."

"Point of fact, Your Grace," Vintus said, "you didn't grant me permission for any of this. That doesn't change that it's necessary. There's no telling what horrors those slaving bastards are hiding in the Reach, so I need the best. You know as well as I do that Maya is as formidable an assassin as Gain and Dashar could make. I need her, and she needs to see the sky woman's contract through to the end."

Cathis gave his brother a guarded look as he walked to stand beside Maya's horse. He tentatively reached for her, but she shied her horse away.

"Maya," Cathis whispered. "Please."

"I'm going, Father," Maya said. She refused to look at him.

"I see," Cathis murmured, lowering his eyes. "Maya, to face the Dragon Empress..."

"I will put an end to the future seen in the oracle you were given," Maya said. "Whatever it takes, I will put a stop to her."

"Maya, listen to me," Cathis said. "I don't..." His voice faltered. He closed his eyes before speaking in newfound strength. "I don't care about the sky woman anymore. To face her means facing your sister."

Maya's eyes snapped to Cathis. Her expression was incensed.

Cathis kept his head bowed and eyes closed. "Bring Jin back, Maya. Whatever you must do, bring your sister home. Tell her... there will always be a place for her here. Tell Jin that her family misses her."

A stricken look was in Maya's eyes. It passed, and her face hardened. "My sister is my only concern."

Cathis backed away from her. "Winds go with you. Winds send I see you both again."

Maya was inscrutable as she watched her father sidelong and urged her horse forward. As she passed Heron, they exchanged slight nods.

"Your Grace," Heron said, "there is yet the envoy from Gaulatia to see."

Cathis nodded. "Let us go, then. Brother, winds guide you."

"And you, Your Grace," Vintus replied.

Heron led the Highest King out of the stable yard and into the palace. Once they and the royal guards were gone, Vintus chuckled.

"You lie easily, Niece. No second thoughts?"

"I told you the price of my cooperation," Maya said, her tone icy. "Father falls, and my sister stands with us in Paradise."

"If you can convince her," Vintus said with a smirk. "Manage that, and the mercy of the old masters can even fall upon one they've previously asked us to destroy."

"Don't think I've forgotten you ordered her death," Maya snarled.

Vintus laughed. "That served its purpose. Not as intended, but served all the same. If Jin proves amiable, I've no issue with you bringing her into the fold." He nodded to Esra, and the invisibility spell around Krayson and Moon unlocked. "Time to move out. No more delays. Our friend from the east isn't the most patient of men, and we've kept him waiting long enough."

Maya scoffed. "As you say, but I've another price."

"Oh? Do tell."

"I get to kill Garret the Merovech if he shows his face again. And Elise of Eastrun."

"Garret's all yours," Vintus said lightly, "if he shows himself. I highly doubt he has a further part to play in anything. As for Elise... I must ask you give it some time. She'll never be a true threat to us, but she's doing such good work in her wild flailing. I can't allow her removal from the board just yet."

Maya sneered and continued on in silence.

Krayson and Moon rode at the back of the coterie's column out of the stable yard. Krayson noticed something curious as the coterie proceeded onto a large steam lift down to the lower levels. The assassins proceeded to put on shawls, hats, and veils, and Krayson assumed it was to conceal their eyes. The unique eyes of House Algara weren't commonly known of, and they'd be likely seen as those of an inhuman monster than of the royal house. Only Maya deigned not to cover her hair, but even she proceeded with lidded eyes.

Old habits, Krayson thought, died hard. However, he was curious why Maya didn't wear the wolf's head cowl anymore. Maybe she didn't think it appropriate while the doppler was around.

Successive cracks of thunder echoed among the spires. The coterie started pulling out cloaks against the weather. Krayson frowned at the mist-clogged sky. He'd rather not ride through the lower levels in the rain. It had a tendency to come down in waterfalls down below.

The last echoes of thunder ended soon after, so the storm must still have been a ways off. Krayson breathed a sigh of relief that they might leave the city before the torrent started.

Oddly, Maya was looking upwards in satisfaction.

As the lift came to a stop on the lowest level of Northrun, Esra reached for Krayson and roughly pulled his robe's hood over his head. They must've wanted to cause as little of a scene as possible as they left the City of Althandor, and blood runners drew more attention now that the Order was gone than they ever had before.

"Dashar," Vintus called out once the horses moved off of the lift and onto the main boulevard of Northrun, "was it difficult leaving Kiir behind?"

"Should it have been?" the doppler replied.

"By your own admission, you inherit the attachments of your form. Do you mean to say my nephew cared so little for his son?"

"Once, perhaps," the doppler said. "If my predecessor ever did know fatherly love, it was taken by blood magic."

"How sad," Esra mocked.

"It truly is," Vintus agreed more seriously. "I can't stomach a man who neglects his children. Dashar might've been an asset if he hadn't chosen to become a blood-tainted beast." He glanced at Maya. "Something bothering you, Niece?"

Maya's knuckles had gone white from her grip on the reins. "Nothing. I only worry for Kiir."

"You shouldn't. The boy's vital to our plans."

"Is that why you pushed for Father to name him the crown prince?"

"Kiir will be Highest King after your father," Vintus said. "Althandor must act without a chance for divergence from what's needed to happen. Cathis acted in accordance with those goals for years, but he's too headstrong to be controlled forever. It's past time for a replacement, and having our Dashar here makes it even easier. He'll abdicate, as Gain has always thought he would, making Kiir the only real choice for ascension. Gain would've tried to guide Kiir, but now he won't overstep his boundaries if Kiir's 'father' is there."

Maya scowled at the doppler. "So that's why you sent shifters to Ecclesia."

"I'd rather Dagra had come away with the skin," Vintus growled. "I don't enjoy losing shifters. Now Dagra's dead, and this idiot is trapped in that form forever. I lost a potent tool because of it."

"Apologies, Highness," Dashar One said.

Vintus waved the apology away. "It couldn't be helped. I should've anticipated Dashar was still alive. He always was more trouble than he was worth. At least you can fight now. That will be of use very soon."

Krayson furrowed his brow. Vintus hadn't mentioned Lidya or that another skindancer had been in the Salt Stone Palace. Had the doppler neglected to report that? It seemed unlikely, so perhaps Vintus just considered it unimportant.

"They speak much," Moon muttered under her breath. "They speak and not care we hear. They will end us."

"Goes without saying," Krayson agreed. "Once they're done using us, we're dead."

Moon put a hand over her belly. Her eyes grew dangerous. "They will be ended. My red will come and end them all. They are black, but Ban is ash-blessed."

Krayson kept silent. Lord Ban likely believed Moon was dead. Even if he didn't, he had no way to find out where she was. Krayson didn't want to take Moon's hopes away, but no one was coming to save them.

Not from Shan Alee, at least.

As they rode through the gaslit boulevard towards the northern gates of the Spired City, Krayson became aware that their group was being shadowed. The presence flitted in and out of sight, and Krayson knew he'd only spotted her because she wanted him to. Zanda the Executioner had taken the form of a lithe calico cat. When Krayson first looked at her directly, the white in her fur waxed to pink and back in the blink of an eye.

Moon sniffed and caught Zanda's scent. She rode a little more confidently in her saddle.

It took an hour to reach the Spired City's walls. Beside the spires, they looked like little more than an afterthought, though they rivaled the walls of Drok Moran in their scale. The gates were open and would remain so until after sunset. The coterie rode out unnoticed among the throngs.

So many people, most on their way to and from the farmlands surrounding the city. With a large portion of Westrun in ruins, agriculture had become one of the highest priorities of the kingdom. Rumors said that a common day laborer could earn his weight in silver within a month by heading to the fields. Judging by the size of the crowds passing through the gates, a lot of the goodfolk were putting that claim to the test.

The rest of the day went uneventfully, and it was a welcome blessing that the storm he'd heard earlier didn't show itself. Vintus didn't allow the coterie any time to rest, even when the gray-haired assassin raised concerns of pushing Moon to the point of harming the baby. The prince drove them onward through the flat plains, citing this mysterious "eastern friend" whenever the question was raised.

It was after nightfall when the coterie came to a stop. The full moon shined above them. They were at the southern boundary of the Senwood, one of the three great forests of Althandor. Massive trees rose ahead, cloaking the land beneath their boughs in shadow. The undergrowth was thick with brush and tangled vines.

It was said that the Senwood was the most wild of the great forests, home to small clans of orcs, spriggans, and other races of unseely fey. There were also frequent rumors of fiends lurking in the darkest depths of the Senwood, and Krayson knew from his time in the Sanguine Tower that not all of those rumors were unfounded. The mad tales of ferocious breeds of megarachs, however, were too ridiculous to be true.

"Where are we going, Uncle?" Maya asked as the coterie allowed their horses time to graze. "The nearest village in this direction is Moorhaven, and that's days away if we don't take the road."

"We're not going to any village," Vintus replied. He pulled out a silver pocket watch and checked the hour. "Don't get comfortable. Our friend should be near, and I won't take any chances of him being seen."

Krayson looked around for any sign of others approaching. Though the Spired City still loomed behind them, there didn't appear to be anyone else for at least two leagues.

"Ah," Vintus called out. "It's an honor to finally meet you in person, Your Greatness. I hope you found little trouble making your way here."

Krayson felt as if his entire body turned to stone when he heard that form of address.

They arrived from out of the Senwood. The first sign of them was the dim, yellow light reflecting from the eyes of their beasts through the trees. They approached the coterie in silence, and Krayson would never have known they were there at all if not for the familiar scent carried from upwind.

Fangblades.

The beasts growled low in their throats, a deep rumble that promised savagery. Six of them padded out of the trees and into the moonlight. Their black and orange striped fur served as natural camouflage whether the undergrowth was green or red. The fangblades bared their sharp teeth, the pair of long tusk-like fangs on the upper jaw being the most prominent. But it was the men who rode them that had Krayson's full attention.

They carried spears and had round buckler shields strapped to their left arms. Each wore thick furs and wool over hardened leather breastplates and chain shirts. Their faces were painted in patterns of crimson and white, smudged from sweat in the northern late-spring heat. Their braided hair ranged from blond to light brown. Eyes had rounded shapes and were darkly colored. They had strikingly chiseled jawlines, often with a cleft chin.

Krayson knew them. Thunders take him, he knew each one of their names. He'd known them well once. The warriors of the Jak'm.

Jak'm Purat, the best knife-fighter in Teularon.

Jak'm Shinzen, who once taught Krayson how to butcher a deer.

The brothers Vur'k Jak'm, one called Staccato and the other Velvet.

Jak'm Jak'm, who was once shot twelve times with arrows in one night and proceeded to kill every one of the Gaulatians responsible.

Brutal, merciless warriors. Each of them had songs to their prowess. Each had brought great prestige to the tribe. None of them, however, were equal to the man who led them. The tiger lord of the Jak'm. Now, the Tiger King of the Teulite Horde.

Joshuan Jak'm, who Krayson once called Father.

Vintus looked from the Tiger King to Krayson, a vile grin plastered on his face. "You won't believe who I found for you, Your Greatness. I wonder if you'll still recognize him."

Jak'm narrowed his eyes and peered at Krayson through the moonlight. He grunted. "Should I know this blood mage?"

"I'd hoped so," Vintus said, "him being your son, after all."

Jak'm tugged at his fangblade's reins and turned around. "I have no son. Come, Althandi. The stink of your city offends me."

While the coterie mounted up and prepared to follow, Krayson remained in place. If not for his ankles being lashed to the stirrups, he might've fallen off his horse. Moon lowered her head to peer at Krayson's face under his hood. She wore a concerned expression.

"Thunders," Krayson muttered, stunned. "Didn't think it could still hurt that bad."

END OF ACT THREE