Eleia pummelled Kaim, but he swept her up in his arms as if she weighed no more than a newborn. She screamed all the obscenities she knew at him, slapping at his head, tugging at his hair. Tears poured down her face, blurring her vision until everything was a hazy grey and green. Blood drummed in her ears.

Eishet's face flashed before her mind's eye. Eleia recalled that day in the cells beneath the palace at Falnash when Cazadia Delnargin had lashed that Karman girl raw in an effort to make her speak the insurgents' names. The injuries would have killed any person of her build, but before Eleia's amazed eyes, the unconscious Karman girl was engulfed in white — which Eleia had hurriedly covered with shredded pieces of fabric to avoid the guards noticing — and several hours later, Eishet awoke as if she'd never been anywhere near death's door. It was mind-boggling magic. Eleia had seen Karman magic before with their peculiar designs and lack of soul, unlike Hannan summoning. Whatever Eishet had, it was nothing Eleia had ever seen nor anything she'd read about. But it brought Eishet back from certain death.

If only she were here. She could save Okin.

Kaim set Eleia down gently at the centre of the chamber. She sat up, numb, eyes sweeping slowly over the sky-high ceiling, the delicately interweaving ancient Hannan designs swirling from the centre and spiralling down the four corners of the huge hall. Tophalite bathed the place in a gentle yellow glow, reminding Eleia of dusk during long, dry summers with rippling ochre sand tinged with crimson and sweeping, empty skies. Peculiar light flickered in the air. A fullness pulsed just beneath the skin in her hands. The atmosphere was so saturated with magic.

She jumped when something hit her leg. Kaim had thrown her bag of summoner's dust at her feet. It must have fallen off during the scuffle.

"Summon Apollinon," he ordered.

Eleia glared back at him, gritting her teeth.

"No," she said, ensuring her response was as curt as her trembling arms could muster.

"If you don't call him, Fautos will get here and we're all dead."

"I will not summon the royal daemon at the cost of our friends! You're a scoundrel. I couldn't believe I trusted you—"

"No, you listen to me, Eleia." Kaim's face contorted in a manner she'd never seen before. Darkening with anger, a scowl erased all the pleasant features from his face. Veins popped out at his temples and on the surface of his neck, the skin of which turned scarlet. He stopped signing at her but she could still read his lips. "People have died for this. The entire insurgence waited for this moment when we would get the right arsenal so we can demolish the Daemonium and Fautos. We waited years for this and it's now in your hands — and you're saying no? You have the audacity to say no?!"

His words distorted as he became increasingly furious, his enunciations uncoordinated. He spun around, still yelling, but Eleia could no longer read his lips.

"—told me we should have just left you to die," he snarled when he turned around again. "For three years, I wondered if I should have taken you in. You couldn't fight. Your daemon was weak. You couldn't even run or hear. You had no contribution to our strength. But it was Princess Gerta's last wish and she had been good to my family and to many of the others. Have you any idea how risky it was harbouring you? When Fautos knew his crippled, deaf sister was out there in hiding and we had to stay in Falnash to know what was going on — but you were so easy to spot?"

Eleia attempted to speak, but Kaim stormed over and she stopped, shrinking back and half expecting him to strike her like Fautos had done in the past whenever she'd wronged him — which was often.

"You'd rather all of us die despite all we've gone through?!" he yelled, spraying her with spit. Eleia averted his gaze, her heart galloping away. He licked his lips, furious. "Okin knew what he was signing up for. He'd agreed to sacrifice himself after I told him what was here. His family depended on him and now he's gone — just so you can get Apollinon. And Cornello? He left after those Karmans because you wanted to help them to Magus so much. We couldn't spare even a single knife, but I sent him anyway. For you. For us all. Just for this moment when we could finally have strength in our hands."

Kaim stepped back, shaking his head, running both hands through his black hair. The air was thick with his anger and sweat and it stifled Eleia.

"So that's it. We're done. We'll all die — whether it's here for by—"

His words were cut short. Something dark flashed by. Eleia gasped. She hadn't noticed the figure creeping up behind Kaim. Kaim yelled, but his mouth movements were blurred by his struggles and the attacker. Numbed, Eleia could only watch as the two men wrestled, the attacker on Kaim's back with Kaim's head in a headlock and Kaim kicking back like a wild stallion. Behind the two, a small group of steel-clad soldiers blocked their only way out, the metal of their armour gleaming in the Tophalite's glow.

One kick in the small of his back and Kaim crashed to the floor. His head struck the stone ground and he went limp. The attacker gestured at the Hannan soldiers, who threw him rope. Bound and stunned, Kaim was rolled onto his back, eyelids fluttering as he clung desperately to consciousness. The other man grinned. Eleia recognised the easygoing face and the smile that crinkled the edges of his light green eyes.

"You were never the fighter out of us two, Kaim," purred Leviat Havris, straightening the long silk sleeves of his robe and adjusting his belt. He swept the parting of the bottom half of his robe, revealing loose, dark blue silk trousers over sheepskin boots, and casually stamped his leg on Kaim's stomach, resting his elbow on his knee so he could peer down at Kaim. "Can't fight. Can't summon. A joke to House Havris. But thank you for being so kind and releasing Solidor's spell. We'd consider taking the old man from Leitholm and whipping him into decoding that magic, but you'd done the job for us! I knew you were predictable, but not this naive, charging straight to Traquair the moment you hear His Holiness was heading this way? We could see the sand flying in the air after you tore out of Leitholm."

"You were—following us—?" Kaim gasped, face reddening from the foot on his abdomen. Leviat increased his pressure nonchalantly.

"The Daemonium have eyes and ears everywhere. I thought you'd wait here to ambush His Holiness, but to ready Apollinon for us... I guess I owe Oerse a bag of gold coins!" Leviat threw his head back and laughed. He lifted his leg, to Kaim's relief, and shouted something over his shoulder before turning around and, with all his might, kicked Kaim in the ribs.

Kaim's eyes almost popped out of his head. Blood drained his face before flooding back. Veins popped out at his temples and he coughed, reeling from the impact and curling into a ball.

"That's what you get for attempting to play the hero and upstage me, baby brother," Leviat hissed, wearing a scowl that contorted the entirety of his face. "Inferior rat."

Eleia's breath hitched in her throat when Leviat raised his head and met her eyes.

"Well, well," he said, eyes narrowing, the hatred replaced by contempt. "You've evaded us long enough, Eleia Tophalis."

Her blood turned to ice. He knew?

"Clever, really." He faced her fully, advancing on her with calculated steps. She shuffled back on stiff, trembling limbs. "Cripples are aplenty in the capital, but deaf cripples are quite the rare combination. But you pretended you weren't deaf, didn't you?"

She glared back at him.

"I imagine His Holiness will be quite happy to be reunited with his little sister." Leviat's eyes gleamed. Eleia shivered. Covertly, Castiel hugged her ribs. His tongue flicked in and out. She mentally urged him to stay out of sight. Against Leviat's Iramiah, a monstrous, muscular creature with a long jaw that could crush rock, Castiel had no chance. "Alas, he's occupied out east at the moment—"

Eleia's eyes widened. This was a ploy. Fautos went to Bairnkine after all. The Karman twins were right. Her gaze darted to Kaim, who panted with pain.

"But Kaim already knew," Leviat said, tilting his head with interest. "He wanted power — my little brother always thought power was might. He's not wrong, but there needs to be people behind that power, and that's his pitfall. Silly, little Kaim thought a little girl like you would be easy to manipulate, you who bring might and power, but is too innocent to wield it. With you on the throne, he and his friends control Hanna — assuming you can bring down His Holiness. He'll dispose of you just as he's disposed of his men when it was clear they couldn't bring him what he wanted."

"What..." Eleia dropped her hands. Leviat didn't know sign language and she would never let Castiel touch Iramiah. Her expression must have made her question clear.

"You didn't know? He knew the assassination attempt on His Holiness at his name day banquet would mean everyone caught will die but him. Oerse's quelled more than enough of his attempts on His Holiness's life. Each time, we let him go — a voice to tell the tale, to stop other little heroes like him pulling similar stunts. But Kaim's not one to give up unless you beat it into him."

As if to illustrate his point, Leviat swung another kick at Kaim. Kaim's eyes bulged and he let out a scream, spitting out blood. Eleia whimpered.

"And your little Karman friends — oh yes, we've monitored them, too. You might have escaped our cells, but you don't escape our eyes. The moment you left Leitholm, Kaim had already made up his mind he couldn't help them any more. I suppose after they smuggled the bomb in for him, they've more an exhausted their use. They're probably dead, now."

Eleia shook her head slowly in disbelief. Impossible. Cornello would never—

For Kaim, though. The insurgents would do anything for him.

Eleia's eyes dropped to Kaim's face. He'd gone pale — and not from the pain.

"Is this true?" Eleia said with shaking hands. Kaim pressed his lips together and said nothing.

"You know how to see if my brother's lying?" Leviat said. "His tongue — it goes lick, lick, lick. Ask him that question again."

"Did... did you send Cornello after the Karman twins to kill them?" Eleia said, not daring to take her eyes off Kaim.

Kaim met her gaze with desperation. Leviat pressed down on Kaim's stomach again and Kaim shook his head, once. Between his half-open lips, his tongue flicked ever so slightly.

Eleia sat back, dumbfounded.

"Please, Eleia," Kaim said, wincing. "I can explain... don't believe Leviat. The Daemonium can't be trusted. You know that."

Leviat waved a hand to catch Eleia's attention, a grin on his face once more.

"Who you trust less is the question, isn't it? The Daemonium who have been honest about supporting your brother Fautos and has never deceived you? Or the man claiming to support you but is quite happy to dispose of allies whenever it conveniences him — and lies to your face? Who knows — perhaps all the things he's told you about us were lies as well. Summoner's dust never changes its scent — neither do liars' true selves."

Eleia's heart rammed against her ribcage. Her head spun and the air left her lungs, almost like when she was thrown off her horse and bounced down the hill. Her peripheral vision blurred and tears prickled in her eyes. She lifted her hands, failed to find words, and dropped them back onto her lap.

"Summon Apollinon, Eleia, please," Kaim begged. "I don't care if you despise me for all I've done, but they mustn't get Apollinon. Please."

She stared at him, frozen. Something small and hard struck her knee. She jumped, glancing down. A sheathed dagger lay beside the pouch containing summoner's dust. It had a plum-coloured hilt and a snake, the emblem of the Tophalis family, carved at the joint between the handle and the blade. Eleia raised her eyes to Leviat again, who appeared to not have heard Kaim's words — perhaps Kaim had only mouthed them and not vocalised.

"You have two choices." Leviat stepped off Kaim's stomach and spread his hands before him in a matter-of-fact manner. "You can kill Kaim Havris, or I can. You have that right. It's how we deal with traitors, after all, as Hannans. If it's too much for you, I don't mind the honours."

Her trembling hand curled around the cold wooden handle and she ran her fingers over the polished silvery snake. The metal gleamed in the dim light when she unsheathed the dagger. Kaim's eyes begged her silently, in despair.

"It's your choice, Princess."

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