"Reyn, are you well?"

    She intended to respond, but all that came out of Reyn's mouth was something that sounded like a croak. Her gathered papers dropped back to the floor.

    Jin's blush deepened. "I should have put it more delicately."

    Abandoning the documents, Reyn jumped to her feet and backed up a step. "Your Highness, I must have heard wrong."

    Jin stood. "I need you to kiss me."

    "Gods, Innoh ask yah t'encore." Reyn clamped her hands over her mouth once she heard the dreadful drawl coming out of her. The problem with Old Gaulatian and Althandi was that a bilingual tongue had a tendency to mash words and inflections into the most horrific cant an ear could be subjected to.

    Jin's eyes widened with amusement. "Now, there is something I've not seen from you before."

    Reyn swallowed. "Your Highness," she began, feeling out of breath, "can I assume you mean to ask me to bestow Breath as a..."

    Jin glanced over her shoulder to confirm they were alone. "As a selkie. Yes, that is what I am asking. I wish to be, as Pacifica put it, inoculated from the effect of your Voice."

    "I was under the impression your imprint cannot be influenced by external forces. The oren would already render you immune."

    Jin pulled her lips into a line and hesitated before answering. "It would."

    Reyn blinked rapidly, her brow furrowing in confusion. "Your Highness, I do not understand. Are you saying you... have stopped using the oren?"

    "No." Jin looked off to the side with a frown. "It is complicated, but I believe I do owe you an explanation for my actions."

    "I am willing to listen," Reyn said cautiously. She lowered herself back to the floor to pick up the papers once again. This time, she went about it with more care, seeking out the proper page to go next in the stack.

    Jin began to pace. She appeared more agitated than Reyn could ever recall seeing her. "I have not stopped taking the oren. Doing so would cause my body to shut down. It grants royal assassins enhanced strength, durability, and ether, but we become dependent on it. If my supply runs out, I will not survive."

    "Yes, I am aware," Reyn said, "which is why the empress made obtaining the oren formula a priority."

    "My supply is limited," Jin continued. "Without taking drastic measures, I've less than a week before I run out. I will succumb to the withdrawals days later, but I will steadily weaken over that time."

    Reyn shook her head in denial. "I was told you had enough for longer."

    "Without taking drastic measures," Jin repeated. "Maya required oren while she was with us, and Josy still requires it. However, Josy is not..." Jin swallowed. "She has not been forced to learn as I have how to resist the need for it."

    "You have been stretching out your doses," Reyn said. "Every third day, extending your supply."

    Jin stopped pacing around the table. "That is no longer the case. Each time I take the oren, I hold off from the next as long as I can. Each time, I can hold off a little longer. I now go five days between doses, but it is still not enough."

    "But Her Majesty has the means to make more. You need not..."

    "How much more?" Jin interrupted sharply. "A few vials. A few days of life. The fact remains, there is no guarantee we can acquire more of the mineral any time soon. It will take time, and that is something I do not have to spare. I have no choice but to extend what little I have as far as I am able, and I will not ask Josy to sacrifice herself for my sake."

    Something in Jin's manner suddenly struck Reyn as familiar, and she could have kicked herself for not seeing it sooner. The agitation, the shaking, the signs of discomfort. It wasn't dissimilar from the behavior of a bruise dust addict. Jin was strung out, and she suffered it days at a time.

    Spirits take me, that's torture. How's she managed to endure it?

    Looking closer with this new information, Reyn could see further signs. Jin's fingers were rarely at rest. They twitched as if grasping for something they desired but couldn't find. Her pale skin had a hint of sallowness to it, and her hair lacked much of the luster it'd had when Reyn first met her.

    "The spells the oren places on me," Jin continued as she turned to face Reyn, "they do not lock. They cannot last for as long as I need them to. Without them, I find my eyes following you as you pass. When you speak, I see you when I close my eyes and not..."

    She grit her teeth and looked away, ashamed.   

    Damn it all, she's dealing with all that, and my Voice is putting strain on her she can't afford.

    "I am sorry, Your Highness. Were it in my ability to suppress my Voice completely, I would have done so long ago."   

    "I believe you," Jin said, eyes on the floor. "With your new position, you will be around Enfri even more than you have been. You see, Reyn, I am a deeply selfish person. I am jealous and, it seems, a hypocrite. Like a child, I've kept Enfri from asking of you what I am now asking, even though she does not receive the brief reprieve the oren gives me once I take it."

    Reyn held back from scoffing. "Is being attracted to me truly so terrible?

    "I don't mean that," Jin said hurriedly. "That is to say... I wouldn't call it terrible in and of itself, but..."

    Reyn chuckled and picked up the last of Krayson's maps. Jin certainly was charming when she grew flustered. Reyn set the maps aside and began sorting through Starra's reports on foreign politics. "A selkie's Voice does not create attraction. It cultivates an obsession that only grows as time passes. Yes, Your Highness, I would call that terrible."

    Going to her knees beside Reyn, Jin helped sort through the last of the pages. Her eyes didn't seem to be looking at the papers but at something far away.

    Reyn saw her, truly saw her and not the ideal she'd built up of Princess Jin Algara. What she saw now was... a young woman, in pain, frightened, and in need of help. Before Jin could question it, Reyn raised a hand to her chin and turned Jin to face her. Reyn gave her Breath.

    Her mouth over Jin's, Reyn closed her eyes. She tried not to focus on how soft Jin's lips were, perhaps the only soft thing about her. Jin held herself still, though Reyn could feel a tremor inside her. One that spoke to Jin's desire to kiss her back. She did not, and Reyn believed that spoke well of Jin's devotion to Enfri. Exhaling gently, Reyn passed a glimmer of life from her body to Jin's.

    Pulling away, Reyn saw that Jin's eyes remained closed.

    "And if it does not go away?" Jin asked. "The obsession?"

    Reyn felt a wry smile coming on. "I would not place a wager on it, Your Highness. There is no doubt in my mind. Anything you may have felt for me was born purely from my Voice."

    Were I so fortunate, Reyn thought with a measure of melancholy.

    Jin opened her eyes. Her pupils contracted into thin slits.

    "You see?" Reyn asked.

    "I think you underestimate yourself," Jin said. A small smile appeared at the corner of her mouth. "But you may be correct."   

    "Fortunate for me. I cannot say for certain you truly are the jealous creature you claim to be, but I know Her Majesty is." Reyn dropped the tone of levity. "Truly, Your Highness, I apologize for the strain I have put on your relationship. I am not blind to it. Though I do not share your romantic ideals, I realize how precious they are to women such as you and Empress Enfri. You give yourselves fully to only one other, and to have that challenged by an uncontrolled primal magic must be painful. Obsession is the dark side of devotion, anathema to true love."

    Jin turned from her to stare straight ahead, her smile fading. "You are right. When next I have a chance, I will speak with Enfri. I will encourage her to request you grant her Breath as well."

    "I assure you, Your Highness, I will make it as chaste as possible."

    "I would appreciate that." Jin nodded to her, then a distant look came into her expression. "My childishness has caused her hardship. I promised Enfri long ago I would never harm her. That is a promise I intend to keep."

    Reyn nodded and picked up the last of the pages. She tapped them against the floorboards to make them even.

    "I've made many promises to her," Jin said in a low tone, "and to others. It isn't possible to honor every oath I've made."

    "You speak of your family?" Reyn ventured. "Of your father."

    Jin breathed out a long sigh. "Since before I was twelve, I have trained to become one of his royal assassins. I was told I should abandon those ambitions. My ether stores were never large, almost nothing compared to my sister's. Being an osteomancer does not necessarily make one an assassin, and so I was encouraged to pursue a different path."

    Reyn tilted her head to the side, curious.

    "I would not," Jin said. "I admired my father and my uncles. I admired Dashar. I wished to be as they were, so I begged my mother to teach me to fight. When she refused, I begged Dashar. I badgered him until he agreed to show me the basic forms. Then, once I'd learned just enough to become prideful, I challenged my mother to a duel with her agreeing to train me as my prize."

    "You challenged Maebh Algara to a duel?" Reyn asked, incredulous. "One of the premier blademasters on the Continent?"

    Jin winced.

    "I see. How did that work out?"

    "Once I was thoroughly humiliated, Mother scolded me for being reckless. She then commanded I report to her every morning before dawn until I knew enough not to injure myself with my 'thrice-damned flailing'." Jin looked down at her clenched fist. "I learned from her. I trained hard. Knowing I would never be equal to another assassin in sorcery or osteomancy, I focused on honing my body and my swordplay. Before I realized, Uncle Gain ordered me to join his coterie, and I followed him on my first contract to quell a blood cult in Leyrshore. I knelt before my father in front of the Highest Court to give my oath as a royal assassin."   

    Jin looked up to the rafters.

    "I've abandoned that oath which once mattered to me above all else. I once thought I could uphold it and remain devoted to Enfri— the two promises could coexist. As my father fell further away from the great king I once thought he was, I was forced to admit I'd made a choice when I went to her. I chose Enfri over House Algara."

    Reyn swallowed and looked ahead. "Do you regret that choice?"

    "I should," Jin whispered. "Winds take me, but I should. Yet never once have I felt regret for loving her. The stolen moments we claim for ourselves, the days we've spent at each others' side, I would not trade them for anything. They've been precious to me. She taught me that I could truly be... happy. The least I can do in return is keep my promises to her."

    There was no missing the tightness in Jin's voice. She may not have felt regret for choosing Enfri over her family, but it still exacted a toll on her.

    "Your Highness," Reyn said firmly, "it is important you not resist."

    Jin blinked. "What do you..."

    Reyn grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her down to her side, her head pillowed on Reyn's lap. "Be still. Would that I had not given you Breath just yet. You could do with a selkie's song to take these cares from you, if but for a moment. This will have to suffice."

    It became necessary to hold Jin down. She lay on her side, facing away from Reyn, and kept trying to pull herself back up to a sitting position. Reyn nearly needed to light a sigil on her amulet to manage keeping her in place, but Jin stopped resisting before it became a struggle.

    "Reyn, this is inappropriate."

    "Hush. A sky woman sees to physical hurts. A first minister sees to emotional ones."

    "I don't think that's actually..."

    "It is," Reyn said. She bent down and spoke softly into Jin's ear. "This has been difficult for you, has it not?"

    Jin tensed, and the breath caught in her throat. Reyn sat up straight and ran fingers through Jin's hair as the princess began to tremble. A thin whimper leaked through the widening cracks in Jin's stoicism.

    "I'm afraid for her," Jin said, and her voice broke. Teardrops landed on Reyn's leggings. "What she must become. What she must do. I run after her as hard as I can, but I feel like I can't keep up with her."

    "It is alright," Reyn said gently. "Tell me."

    Jin sobbed. "She's strong. I don't think anyone knows how strong. Not even her. With Fen and Nkeoma, she didn't seem to see how she terrified them. Or why. And I'm afraid she did."

    Reyn continued to stroke her hair, the other hand resting on her shoulder. To let Jin know she was heard and not alone.

    "Then I see her. I see my sky woman who wants to save the world. The girl I made my promise to." She laughed through her weeping. "Bashful and clumsy. Makes the worst pork stew I've ever had in my life. So gentle. I loved her from the first moment I laid eyes on her. I'll always love her, as long as I live."

    Jin clutched her hands over her heart as she lay in Reyn's lap. At last allowed to cry.

    "As long as I live."

oOo

    The spellcraft was silent from Reyn's perspective, but she could see the armsmen nearby jump and cover their ears. Teleportation caused a sound like thunder to outside observers, all that displaced air desperately seeking a place to be. Appearing inside an empty pavilion tent set aside for the legion's few teleporters, Reyn blinked away her disorientation.

    A select few had been taught the spellcraft for this lost magic. Only wizards and sorcerers for the moment. Starra had taught the somatics to Krayson, Pacifica, Deebee, and Lord Thaan. Jin had observed with her sorcerous ethersight to learn and recreate the spell as a manifestation. As was inevitable, rumors spread of the lost magic Shan Alee possessed, and its spellcraft was being considered a guarded secret for the time being.

    Arrived and whole, Reyn breathed a sigh of relief. No matter how many assurances she received, she always worried she'd come out missing an ear or find that her right and left arms swapped places.

    Reyn hastily pulled her arm from around Jin's waist and stepped back. "Thank you, Your Highness. It would have been a long walk otherwise."

    "No, thank you, Reyn," Jin said. She took Reyn's hand and bowed to kiss her fingers. "You are far more kind than you are given credit for."

    Damn it all, Reyn thought behind her blushing. She felt she could now move beyond her misguided infatuation with Jin, but that didn't seem to erase all vestiges of her attraction. Whether it was resolved or not, Reyn decided she would always have to be careful.

    The blush abruptly became one of indignation. "Than I am given credit for?"

    Jin smirked as she straightened. "You have a reputation for being acerbic."

    "Slander," Reyn muttered. "I am nothing if not personable."

    "As you say," Jin said as she left the destination tent. She said it in that most infuriating of ways that suggested she was simply putting an end to the conversation rather than agreeing.

    Growling, Reyn followed her. "In truth, Highness, I only hope I was of some assistance."

    Jin slowed so Reyn could fall into step beside her. "Immeasurably. I needed to be reminded of what Shan Alee is to me."

    "Which is what, Highness?"

    Jin's slight smile was unreserved. "It is home. Not for what it represents or for what it aims to do. But for who leads it. For me, home is a person."

    Reyn hadn't realized it was possible to be pleased for and envious of someone at the same time. She just couldn't get it straight whether it was for Jin or Enfri. Both, in all likelihood. Reyn was gratified to see Jin looking more confident and assured— back to her normal self.

    "And you, Reyn?" Jin asked.

    "Hmm? Pardon?"

    "What is Shan Alee to you?"

    Reyn looked ahead. She could all but feel Garret's presence in the stockades nearby. "Nothing so noble, Highness. A means to an end."

    Jin raised an eyebrow.

    "I wish to see justice served on Garret the Merovech," Reyn clarified. "He and Elise were the reason I was in Altier Nashal when we met. After they killed my master, I contacted diviners until I learned where they were heading. I wished to kill them both."

    "I know little of your past," Jin said. "Only that you were there to witness Krayson return Elise's bloodsong to her using the Imperial Diamond."

    Reyn held her breath.

    "I am not a fool, Reyn," Jin said. "One does not need to be a hydromancer to put two and two together. You were part of the Courtesan cell that stole the Imperial Diamond five years ago from the Lady Tarlen."

    Coming to a stop, Reyn felt ready to run for the hills.

    Jin turned around to face her. "Do not worry. Winds know, I've come to realize there are legitimate grievances towards my father's rule.  Your master was a Courtesan. I imagine your parents were Courtesans if they apprenticed you to him. It is no wonder you would become one also. It was the life you were raised to, much as I was raised to mine."

    Reyn narrowed her eyes. Every muscle remained tense. "You know?"

    "I understand why my learning this would worry you," Jin said. "Courtesans murdered my brother. Though you once counted yourself among their number, I cannot imagine a two year old would have taken part in that crime. I cannot blame you for Roan's death any more than I can blame Krayson— any more than I can blame Enfri for the atrocities of the old empire. What I can hold you responsible for is how you all have chosen to move forward. Enfri wishes to heal the wounds caused by her ancestors, Krayson seeks to rebuild the stability his house endangered, and you... You now work against your former associates. You are no longer a tool of demons, if you ever were."

    Reyn kept her eyes on the ground between them. "I do not believe Ham was ever a thrall to the old masters. By stealing the Imperial Diamond, he unintentionally jeopardized their plans for Elise. That may not have been his aim— he merely wished to deny such an abomination from being in Althandor's possession— but he nearly prevented Elise from ever being unleashed on the Five Kingdoms."

    "A tragedy, then, that he was discovered. Vintus is to blame for that."

    Vintus isn't to blame, Reyn thought angrily. Her blood felt ready to boil from the burning shame coursing through her.

    Jin raised her chin to peer down her nose at Reyn. "You know, then, what the Imperial Diamond truly is?"

    "A repository," Reyn said. "The Order could use it to store bloodsongs indefinitely."

    "But that is not the whole of it," Jin said. "Your master would not have risked so much to steal a storage device."

    "We learned from where it was recovered."

    "From the Imperial City," Jin said. "Pried from the corpse of Emperor Shoen."   

    "It caused the death curse," Reyn said. "Rather, it gave Shoen the power he needed to cast the death curse. Thousands of bloodsongs, released all at once by his lifeblood, fueled his final sin. That cataclysm destroyed the known world."

    Jin watched her with new consideration. "And so you must realize the true reason the secret history was made a secret. The Queen Founder and her vassal kings determined that should anyone learn of the powers waiting to be claimed in the ruins of Shan Alee, the world would suffer. And so history was buried, records were burned, and the race who might be the key to awakening those powers again was condemned to genocide."

    "Pragmatic," Reyn said. "And monstrous."

    "You and Enfri are not the only ones with ancestors to atone for," Jin said with a nod. "I believe we understand one another, Reyn. For what it is worth, I trust you."

    "As the Althandi put it, likewise, Your Highness." Reyn grimaced. "Not something I ever expected to say to an Algara."

    "Perhaps not the last time," Jin said. "Come. I am curious about the Espallans."

    Reyn kept glancing sidelong at Jin as they walked. Try as she might, she couldn't get a proper handle on what she was feeling. She'd have thought she should be more nervous than she was. An Algara knew she was once a Courtesan. But instead of anxiety, Reyn felt relief in its stead.

    It bothered her to think Starra might have a point about revealing herself.

    Reyn wrinkled her nose as an unpleasant scent found her. It was like a stable that hadn't been mucked in a month. There was an almost sulfuric twinge to the stink, cloying, that clung to the roof of her mouth.

    "It has been a long time since I smelled that," Jin said, covering her mouth and nose with a hand. "Camels."

    "Reminds me of horse," Reyn mumbled, "but I think I prefer horse."

    "Do not provoke the beasts," Jin warned. "They spit, and you would be best served by burning any clothes their saliva gets into."

    They passed a line of tents, and Reyn got her first look at a camel. From the smell, she'd expected horrible, ugly monsters. Instead, she saw approximately fifty of what may have been the most elegant animals she could imagine. They strode about the grass on long, graceful legs as they grazed.

    "They're lovely," Reyn gasped.

    Jin sounded surprised. "You think so?"

    Reyn nodded. "Such handsome creatures. They look like what I always imagined a kirin would look like."

    "Kirin?" Jin asked.

    "A fanciful creature from Gaulatian folklore," Reyn explained. "Grace given the form of a beast, the tallest of creatures whose neck is long enough to reach the highest boughs of a tree."

    Jin peered at the camels as they passed. "These things are rather tall. I wonder if they are the source of your kirin legends."

    Reyn couldn't keep her eyes off them as they walked in search of Enfri. She let Jin lead the way while she kept watch on the camels. They captured her attention so thoroughly that she hardly noticed the strangely dressed people caring for them.

    Espallans wore odd clothes— duster coats over light cotton shirts and thick leather trousers, wide-brimmed hats, and woolen scarves wrapped about the lower halves of their faces. A few had their scarves undone, allowing Reyn to see their features. They had weathered faces from living out in the sun and sand. Quite striking, for the most part. Austere features, she would call them. Stately and handsome. Reyn's first impression was of a stern and hard people.

    Their skin was a deep umber tone, almost as dark as the Melcians. Every one of them appeared to have black hair, but their eyes came in a wide variety of colors. The vast majority had brown or hazel eyes, but Reyn spotted a few with blue, green, or even silver.

    The Espallans seemed determined to look unthreatening. They went about tending the camels with quiet diligence, rarely raising their eyes to look about them at the Aleesh camp. On the few occasions the shadow of a dragon passed over them, they snapped their gazes to the ground as if trying to pretend they hadn't seen.

    "Curious," Jin murmured.

    "What is?" Reyn asked.

    "I am undoubtedly wrong in my assumptions about the Espallans, but they are known to us as aggressive warriors. These are armed and are surely Espallan hallah, but they do not appear to be barbarians. If anything, I would call them... timid."

    "They are strangers in a strange land, Your Highness," Reyn said. "See how they gawk at the grass? I expect the Moran Valley is as alien to them as an ocean. They look at the leyr as if it is a goddess made flesh."

    "I think you are right." Jin stopped short and put her hand on Reyn's arm. "And who would you be?"

    Reyn looked away from the camels to see that an Espallan man had placed himself in their path. He was the same height as Jin, just as muscular. He looked over the pair of them with a studious look in his silvery green eyes, but his scarf hid away most of his expression.

    "Khajarha khem rhot, amah'e," he said, then his eyes settled on Jin. "Hajakha shushro tambak cennah."

    The man inclined his head and turned his back before walking off.

    Reyn scratched her head. "Do you think he asked us to follow?"

    "It did sound polite," Jin agreed. She went after their presumed guide, her hand hovering near to the hilt of her sword.

    Following, Reyn tried to get a look around the Espallan man and see where he was taking them. There was a circle of reclining camels ahead, and there appeared to be a number of Espallans standing in the middle.

    A silver woman in a green gown, as well. Deebee stood with her arms crossed while Enfri sat on the ground with her legs folded beneath her. Jin saw them in the same moment and hurried her pace. She overtook their guide and crossed the circle of camels to get to Enfri. Reyn paused outside the ring to get a closer look at one of the camels' faces.

    "You are quite the dashing fellow," she murmured, daring to scratch the animal's chin with her fingers. The camel crooned a deep, guttural sound as he tilted his head to accept Reyn's scratching. He closed his big, warm brown eyes, clearly pleased by the attention.

    "Etho shak vhett, amah," a woman tending the camel said. There was a note of amusement in her tone. "Ash'tah sohvem kam thraraht nishai."

    Feeling a little embarrassed for not knowing what she was saying, Reyn bobbed a quick curtsy before scurrying on to join Enfri, Jin, and Deebee. As she walked, she noted that she'd gotten some of the camel's spit on her palm when she petted him. It was vile and thick with mucus. She paused to scrub her hand clean on the grass and resolved to wash her hands thoroughly before her next meal.

    "He says he wants to thank you for speaking with him," Saveen said, translating something Reyn had missed. The blue dragonet was in her tiny form, sitting on her haunches beside Enfri on the grass. "And he said this man who just showed up with Princess Jin and Minister Reyn is the last first warrior of their group."

    "And what's his name?" Enfri asked.

    Saveen spoke to one of the Espallans in their own language then translated the reply. "His name is Hagen of the Amak'talan. The graybeard doing the talking is Rohsh of the Sha'shara, the burly one with all the muscles is Chamek of the Hohk'ita, and the woman there is Lita of the Harkh'alash."

    "Are those family names?" Enfri asked.

    "They are tribes," Jin said. "Espalla is home to more than forty different tribes, each with their own ways. It is unusual to see more than one or two gathered together."

    Enfri noticed Reyn walking up. "We've just begun. I'm afraid I haven't learned much yet."

    "I will be of what assistance I can be, Your Majesty," Reyn said.

    The woman, Lita, bent down to murmur something in Rohsh's ear. Perhaps she was translating what they'd said to him.

    Lita was a striking woman. She had a hooked nose with a scar across the left side which deformed her nostril, dark eyes, and a rosebud mouth. She, like the other first warriors, was armed with an odd-looking sword, curved like a half-moon sickle. Their weapons were concealed for the most part beneath their duster coats and hung from their thick belts by a loop of leather and iron. Reyn noted with some apprehension that the weapons had blue blades— made from orichalcum. Swords like that could cleave through plate armor like pudding.

    Saveen translated as Rohsh began speaking again. "He says the warriors aren't here to look for the Dragon Empress. They're here to open a road to her?"

    "Are you certain you understood him correctly?" Jin asked.

    "Pretty sure, but I'm not good with their idioms. I think it loses something when translated."

    Rohsh nodded and spoke at a more deliberate pace.

    "Oh, I see. It's not them who's looking. They're escorting someone who is."

    "Who are you escorting?" Enfri asked Rohsh.

    The older Espallan stood and nodded to the man who'd met with Jin and Reyn. Hagen removed his scarf, then his hat. Reyn blinked as she noted how his hair had traces of blond in it.

    "Shailura fahn koma tem ga'shir, amah," Hagen said. "Dunahvai tem Aleesh."

    Saveen gasped.

    "What'd he say?" Enfri asked.

    "He says he's 'old blooded'," Saveen said. "That means his family line began in Shan Alee. He's part Aleesh." She listened as Hagen continued. "The Espallan holdfasts have many people with Aleesh blood. As many as a thousand throughout all the tribes. Some, like he is, are old blooded and have lived in Espalla since the fall of Shan Alee. Others are the descendants of refugees from the far east who fled the Highest King. He tells you this because he wishes you to know Espalla does not fear Aleesh as the... the steam men? As the steam men do."

    "The steam men are the Althandi," Jin explained. "That is their term for us, referring to our steam engines."

    Once Lita translated Jin's words, Hagen added something further. The first warriors snorted and Rohsh made hushing sounds at Hagen.

    "Not sure I get it," Saveen said, "but he said it's more for how steam comes out their ears in the deep sands."

    Jin let out an amused scoff. "Yes, well, I cannot say that is inaccurate."

    Hagen grinned and didn't bother hiding how his eyes traced up and down the length of Jin's body. He seemed particularly interested in her biceps, and Reyn felt she could relate. Enfri squinted with disapproval at Hagen until Lita nudged him with an elbow.

    "Hoerna," she said under her breath.

    "She called him a camel arse," Saveen translated.

    Hagen cleared his throat and resumed talking.

    Saveen waited until he'd spoken a few sentences before repeating his words in Althandi. "They bring a visitor of the greatest importance. This person is... I'm afraid I don't know that word. Ecksah'kuhtor?"

    Deebee uncrossed her arms. "Executor?" she breathed in shock.

    Hagen and Lita both nodded.

    "The eastern executor," Saveen went on, furrowing her brow as she attempted to translate unfamiliar terms. "The daughter of... Coo? Eldest child of glory and empires?"

    "The Ku Dynasty," Jin said, appearing shaken. "Eldest daughter of Ku Jun Seo, Glorious Emperor of the Jade Empire."

    "Aha!" Saveen exclaimed. "So they were mixing in the Tongue of Jade. Alright, that clears a lot of that up. Let me try talking in that."

    Saveen began speaking in an entirely different language, one of elongated vowels and soft consonants. A lyrical language that sounded like music to Reyn's ear.

    "You speak the Tongue of Jade, little one?" Deebee asked in surprise.

    Saveen nodded. "Of course. Trell taught me, and he had scrolls from the far west in his lair. Can't you?"

    "I should say not. Dragons avoid traveling beyond the Li Lung Mountains as a matter of course. It's quite desolate for our kind, you know. Little better than a mortal lost in the desert."

    Reyn was uncertain of what Deebee meant by that, but there wasn't an opportunity to ask for clarification.

    Two new people approached the gathering. Enfri stood as soon as she saw the Espallans remove their hats and bow low, gestures of deep respect. The newcomers were a diminutive woman and a tall man. Reyn's blood turned to ice when she saw them, but her heart burst aflame with anger.

    It was not the woman who caused Reyn's reaction. She was small and almost seemed ethereal. From head to toe, she was completely enveloped in white silk that billowed behind her in the light breeze. Her elaborate headdress included a veil that obscured her face, and her long sleeves went well past her fingertips. The executor of the Jade Empire appeared more like a white wraith than a woman of flesh and blood.

    It was the man who caused Reyn to seethe. He was Nadian, tall and handsome. His olive complexion was beautiful, as were his eyes. They were steel gray with the slightest traces of yellow and violet within their depths. Soulful eyes of the kind that could ensorcel anyone who stared into them too long. His short cut hair was a sandy brown, shorter on the left side than on the right. He possessed an elegant aquiline nose, a sculpted jawline, high cheekbones, and the most beautiful smile of any man on the Continent. He was, without question, the most brazenly gorgeous man Reyn had ever known.

    And she did know him. The most zealously guarded secret of the Courtesans. Darian Teranor of House Teranor, the silver tower, the rightful king of Nadia.

    Reyn recalled his final words to her at their last meeting in Rosewater.

    "I will guard this with my life," he said. That winning smile she so admired arrived on his lips. She would do anything for that smile. "Your trust is not misplaced, dove."

    He kissed her, holding her by the waist and caressing her lower back. Reyn melted into Darian's arms and kissed him as passionately as she knew how, wishing beyond any hope he wouldn't have to leave. But of course he must. As the last remaining heir of the Teranors, his life was forever in jeopardy. The Algaras commanded his bloodline eradicated, and the royal assassins were nothing if not persistent. He couldn't stay in one place for long, always on the move, keeping seven steps ahead of the black hounds.

    For a few rapturous weeks, his exile led him to Rosewater to be hidden by Hamish Folio's cell. Reyn fell in love with him, and he'd fallen for her. Had Fate been kinder, she'd have left everything behind to go with him.

    Before she knew what she was doing, Reyn stepped forward. Her teeth were bared, and her heart hammered in her chest. As she stalked towards him, Darian saw her. Recognition came immediately, and he beamed.

    "Is that you, Reyn? Stones take me, dove, but am I glad to see you."

    Distantly, Reyn heard Enfri and Jin calling her name. She didn't care, no more than she did for the Espallans leaping towards her.

    "You look well. Lovely as ever."

    Reyn socked Darian on the nose right before getting tackled to the ground.

END OF ACT ONE