'Sander will lead you back,' Corryn told him. 'I'll send word to you at dawn.'

Outside the dining tent, his swords were as he had left them, and in the same order he removed them he began to re-arm himself. Then he turned fully to Corryn.

'I'll take Azura back from Zybar with or without you, but who else could entice her men to take up arms again?' He asked. 'I also happen to believe that her new queen is best served by someone as loyal to its previous one as you were.'

Corryn listened, appeared to be deep in thought, though offered no response. They took a different route back towards the pavilion, a meandering mud track past a cluster of animal-skin tents. Family groups sat huddled around small campfires, some women with babes in arms, fathers chastising small children. When they reached the raised tent in the centre of the camp Corryn spoke, finally. Facing Theodan, he let out a deep sigh.

'Even if you take the city and succeed in driving Torrik's forces into the sea; there is no guarantee you can hold it. No guarantee you will have Calate's support to help you take the rest of the realm back from Zybar.  All of it seems perilously uncertain to me, Theodan, and so would it have to the commander I used to know.'

How to tell him he had not been the commander he used to know for some time? Since he first looked into the large golden-brown eyes of Fara of Calate. Or did the look in Corryn's eye say he already knew that? 

'I'm not sure why I would risk my men, and my women, and my children to such uncertainty.' Theodan understood now that the route back had been a demonstration of all that he might lose should he agree to this.

'Then what else will you do?' Theodan asked. 'Do nothing and wait here for Zybar to find you.'

'It would take years for Zybar to find us: You're only here now because your Varveh carried you over the pass. My kin and I could wait it out right here. Let all of you kill each other down there so that when we finally come down from these mountains, there is no one left to fight.'

'There will be a victor, Corryn. That much is certain. I suppose the question is, who would you rather face when you do finally come down from this mountain.' He considers not saying the next words. What good could it do to remind Corryn of what he had lost; what Theodan had helped take from him? He decided the risk worth the taking. 'Arielle saved Fara of Calate's life. She likely gave her own life to ensure the princess lived. With Galyn and Sylvan already dead, I believe she knew what such a thing might mean for Azura. It was perhaps the second last decision Arielle ever made. What I do now only honours that decision.'

Corryn watched him closely, the moonlight gleaming in his black eyes. 'What is it with this princess? Galyn lost his life and his realm for her, Arielle too. Now you want to hand her a crown and you're willing to risk everything to do it. It makes no sense to me. Vala thinks you are a fool.'

Theodan sighed. 'Vala and I rarely agree on anything Corryn, this much has always been true. But she does not know Fara of Calate as I do.'

'Is that so?' Corryn's eyebrows raised.

Had he already said too much? Probably.

'She has a good heart, a powerful spirit, and a queen's resolve. The people will come to see that. They will see her as a far better proposition than Torrik of Zybar.'

'It still doesn't mean they will take up arms again and fight.'

'They'll be frightened, yes, afraid to lose what little they have left and may not want to risk their lives again. But if we can take the city, secure it and rally whatever men we can - I believe it will give them enough hope to raise their swords again.' He met Corryn's gaze directly. 'But they won't listen to me or even trust me. The same soldier who killed their soldiers and helped enslave their women. For this to have the best chance of success Azura needs leaders of their own kind. Leaders that they can believe in. Your name still means something here. Hadden's too. I'm nothing to these people. I'm an enemy; a beast of Leoth who they will likely see in their nightmares every night until they leave the mortal realm. You are what they need. Just as Fara of Calate is what they need.'

There was a light now in the raven black of his eyes and it seemed as the hair around his face had grown since the sun had set, aging him further. How old was he now, Theodan wondered? Forty-four name days perhaps, a few more or less. When had he last seen battle? He'd fought Sylvan's soldiers often enough, and other tribes who'd threatened his land or his people; he'd sailed with Hadden and battled plenty of marauders on the seas too. But had he ever seen battle like this?

'You're saying you will follow me? Let me command you into battle?' Corryn asked, eyebrow raised.

'If that is what it shall take to convince you, yes.' 

'And what of the Prince of Calate, what are your plans for him?'

After Vala's outburst, Corryn had asked what else Theodan had misled him about. So he'd offered him this. His boon.

What were his plans for Panos of Calate? He'd taken the prince from the cells of the Court of the Moon in the hope he could gain information about the coming war. Though perhaps really, it was that by keeping him alive and close to him, he could, in some removed way, remain close to Fara. That by returning her brother to her alive and unharmed he could further demonstrate his devotion.  He was a fool, certainly. Desperately and foolishly in love with a female who would never and could never be his.

'He is more use to us here in what we seek to do now than he would be in a cell under the Court of the Moon,' he said, aware he'd taken too long to answer.

'You are prepared to take his life if it should come to it?'

Theodan did not hesitate. 'Yes.'

There were a few beats of silence. Then: 'you will have my answer at dawn.' With a nod, Corryn strode toward the large tent without looking back. The young boy, Sander, was sitting on a stool just outside the entrance sharpening a blade. He jumped to his feet as Corryn approached him. In a smooth Azurian tongue he issued his command. The boy nodded and headed to where Theo stood.

'Your woman has already returned. She refused my aid,' the boy said. 'So she may well be dead at the bottom of the phantom pass, ain't no doing of mine if she is.' He gave a shrug and set off in the direction they'd arrived from. Theodan turned to follow, musing on how much worse he had expected his reunion with Corryn to have gone. He would take hope from that. It didn't mean he would agree to lead the attack, not by any means, but it didn't mean all was lost. Not yet, at least.

The vision came at him without warning. Painless and easy, like a key turning in a lock. It did not take over his mind and body as his visions normally did, but it was as simple to him then as recalling a memory, except it was not - it couldn't be.

He felt the weight of the steel around his wrists, his ankles, his throat. Stone beneath him where he lay in a cold dark chamber which smelled of the sea. Around him a group of females, muttering an invocation in a language he did not recognise, their lips hidden behind white lace. They wore cloaks as black as a moonless sky, and from within their hoods their eyes glowed like stars. He felt no pain as they opened his flesh with small white-gloved hands.  A presence then at the altar to which they had fixed him, before he felt someone climb atop him, straddling him. She was naked but for the collar around her throat, her thick chestnut coloured hair loose about her shoulders reaching past her hips. Her eyes glowed pure gold, her mouth painted the same dazzling shade.

Fara.

Need roared inside him, his claws and teeth pushing out from the want of her. She slid herself over him, wet and hot where her own need was, and lowered her mouth to his to kiss him. Her tongue slicked against his own, her lips scraping against the sharp extended tooth. Blood burst across his tongue, causing a ferocious growl to break free from his throat. He strained against the steel that held him. He needed to touch her, claim her, pierce her flesh and taste every part of her.  But the taste that dripped into his mouth was something else. Something wrong. Death and cold and hopeless. It choked him even as his body still raged from desire.

Around him, the chanting grew louder. A sweet female chorus which worked against his panicked mind, which stirred his blood and his desire still. The thing that was Fara slid and moved against him; a naked writhing temptress. Did her eyes grow brighter? Sweat glistened across her throat, her breasts; pink nipples hard and straining, starlight twisted through her hair, soft moans of pleasure escaped her throat. She raised herself up onto her knees and wrapped her hand around his member to position it against her opening. No No No. He tried to scream even as the pleasure scorched a trail through him, vaulting his body up off the ancient rock which still bound him. As she pushed him inside her, he heard a crack of thunder split the sky overhead, the voices around him reaching a screaming crescendo so they sounded like a clamour of harpies overhead. As Fara let loose a moan of deepest pleasure, so did they, as she moaned with wanton lust, so did they. 

Then the skies opened, and the rain poured.

The vision dissolved as it had come. Sand being washed away by a gentle tide.  Rain fell around them in fat droplets, and as he looked up at the sky, the moon shimmered back at him, a pale, deathly grey against the misty curtain of it.

He was still walking. The boy Sander still walked ahead of him. In fact, while he had been there, on that rock with the thing that appeared to him as Fara, he had been aware of this side of the vision too. Able to function here too. To be in both places at once. Was this what Thessalynn's gift would mean for him? The ability to receive these messages without the incapacitation he was used to?  Where they had once torn his body and mind apart with their power. Now they came to him with insidious ease.

They had reached the wooden bridge, and this time he followed the boy without hesitation, on the other side they clambered between a row of dark rocks, scrambled down the face of a one side of another before entering the copse of a small patch forest, trees half the size of any found in Leoth. This was not the way they had come before.

They crossed over a stream too, then crossed it again. He tried to keep track of the route in his mind, but it wasn't easy and he wasn't sure he could find it again on foot. If he could find a long enough stretch, then perhaps Nux could carry him there, but he'd fly in circles, tiring her out before he found Corryn's camp. Did it mean anything that Corryn wanted the boy to disguise the route back? Or was it merely the Sun Kins usual precaution?

Soon, they came to a stop in the middle of a valley. A grassy rise on one side, and the route back up the mountain on the other.

'If you stay directly under the moon and keep the forest on your right, you'll find your men at the bottom of the other side.' The boy pointed up the rise of the small hillock. He gave a curt nod, then turned to start back the way they had just come.

'You'll find your way back to them in the dark?' Theodan called.

The boy turned all the way around, still walking backward up the gravel path for want of another name. 'Will you, Leoth?' He grinned, turned back around and broke out into a run. 'See you at dawn!'

Theodan watched him disappear into the shadowy clutch of the forest before he turned and made his way up the grassy knoll. The boy's direction had been accurate. He saw the smoke first, rising from the ground it seemed, and followed the path that snaked around the side of the rock face and back into the roofless cavern.

The twins of Aphelion rested against the rock but stood to attention as he approached, fisting their chests.  He did the same as he passed into the camp where most sat awake staring into the fire. Vala had returned and sat cross-legged next to Ismene who lay sleeping; her head resting on a stone pillow. His spine stiffened at the sight of her. If Vala had told the others of his plan to put Fara on the throne, then it did not trouble them much, for Draden stood, relief pouring over his features.

'I was moments away from coming after you,' he said before glancing at Vala. 'But Vala returned and said Corryn had no immediate plans to kill you. I did not expect you to return this night.'

'He will bring his answer to us at dawn.'

Draden frowned, puzzled. 'His answer to what? What have you asked of him?'

Theodan gave him a serious stare, then looked around at the faces which looked back at him. He let his eyes settle upon Vala. Her mouth flattened to a thin line, her eyes scolding him. 'I have asked Corryn Vane to help us lead an assault on the Golden City,' he told them. Those who were resting, their eyes closed, blinked themselves awake at the sound of his raised voice, including the Primed. The prince of Calate sat up straight and watched him closely, curiously. Their eyes told him that Vala had not revealed his plan when she returned. 'The numbers Zybar have left behind to defend it are easily surmountable; and with Corryn's knowledge of it we will not only be able to take it in days, but we shall be able to hold it too.'

'How?' One soldier asked.

'By winning the support of the citizens inside it.'

'My question is not how, but why?' Draden shook his head, eyes narrow with confusion. 'What interest have we in taking the city back from Zybar? The city we gave them.'

Theodan looked at him. 'Because we gave them it. These people do not deserve a lifetime of servitude under Zybar's boot.'

Draden blinked, looking at him now as though he were a stranger.

'You want to take Azura back from Zybar?' He gaped, astonished. 

Theodan nodded, then he looked around the clearing at the others. 'I intend to see Zybar pay for their treachery against Leoth, see them crushed as they would seek to crush us. Before the Gods' Torrik will die by my blade and the Zybar dogs will return to their desert. We will help restore Azura to what she was before. I do not command you now to join me, I ask it. For Leoth's honour, for our honour as soldiers of Valka.'

'And what of Leoth?' Vala said, her voice cutting like a knife, sharp and cool across the clearing. 'What of those we left behind under Paeris's rule? What of the war that comes for our home as we sit here mounting the defence of another?'

He met her eye, then turned his attention to the prince of Calate.

'Zybar will have a choice to make; an ill-judged offense of Leoth, or a futile defence of their conquest of Azura. Calate too will have a choice... and if the princess's return has not been enough to convince them against war, then what I hold here in chains surely will.'

Panos of Calate smiled at him. The same smile he'd given him in the ship's hold. Calculated and knowing. However, he had not the time to address it now.

'What we do does not betray Leoth,' he continued sensing some of their doubts. 'It works toward defeating her enemies and strengthening our position across Ethis as protectors, not monsters. What say you?'

Draden glanced around briefly, then met his eye. 'We have always trusted you, commander, followed you. Believed that whatever you did, you have done for Leoth.' A pause while Theodan's heartbeat increased. 'Nothing has changed.' He brought his fist to his chest. Smiling with gratitude, Theo did the same.

'One thing has changed,' said Theo. 'I am no longer your commander; I forfeited that honour when I released Fara of Calate against the orders of the council. While we await Elyon's return that falls to you now.' Draden made to disagree, but Theodan gave him a heavy look of warning. 'When Elyon returns to us, we can discuss it again if you wish, but for now the matter is closed.'

'Very well...' Draden shifted, ruffled. 'Now what?'

'Now we wait for dawn,' he replied.

Draden nodded and moved to sit, the others settling into more relaxed positions too now he had returned. He turned and strode across the clearing toward where Vala sat with Ismene a short distance to her right. Reaching down, he grabbed the Primed's wrist and hauled her from the ground amid a squeal of protest.

'What are you doing?  Unhand me!' 

He dragged her back the way he had come, past Draden and the Twins of Aphelion, up the flattened dust path to where the Varveh grazed. She tripped and stumbled as he pulled her, but he did not stop to help her, did not assist her up, only continued to pull her along by her wrist.

'Theodan of Teredia, you will let me go at once!' She screamed. He could hear the tone of her protests change as they neared the edge; shock to outrage to fury and finally to terror. The drop was significant. In fact, he could not see even a hint of the foot of the mountain below. The night mist swam thick and murky, the rain clouding the drop further. Her slippered feet kicked out as he held her out over the edge, her cloak burling out into the wind and dark. One soft silk slipper slid from her feet and fell into the fog.

'I do not know what this scheme of yours is,' he hissed,  'or what outcome you seek but know that when I drop you from this mountain I shall spend only a moment lamenting your death.'

Her face was pale, slicked with sweat, dark eyes wide with panic.

'I.. why would you do this? I have done nothing to you... I saved you!'

He shook her hard and she slid, his grip loosening a fraction. Ismene screamed in terror.

'And for what purpose?!' He bellowed.  'You released me from the rock to submit me to some other hell?' He thought of the chanting, the masks, the female who appeared to him as Fara, just as Ismene had done in the cell of the Balck Rock. 'Who were those females?? What curse did they speak? What is it you plan for me?'

She blinked up at him, confusion overruling the fright. 'You had a vision?'

'Of you! Of her... but it was you. You appeared as her!'

Ismene breathed short, fast breaths, shook her head. 'Theodan... please... do not do this... It was not I... I swear upon His name, it was not I. Put me back on land and tell me what it was you saw. Theodan... please...'

He squeezed her tighter, doubt rising in him now.  The raid grew softer now, a light drizzle. She kicked her feet desperately, reaching them toward the safety of the mountain.

'It was not I, Theodan,' a soft pleading whisper. 'I swear it. Believe me.'

'Why should I believe you when I still do not know why you are here? You want me to believe you aid me? When I stole from you that which you coveted most of all.' He said this sneeringly in the hope it would force the truth from of her.

She gave him a wretched pleading look as she clutched at his hand. 'That was before... please... I will tell you all but please you must not do this.' She was slipping from his grip and he could not decide if he cared.

He narrowed his eyes. 'Before what?'

'Before I knew what you were,' she cried, panicked. 'Who you were!'

'You have always known who I was, Ismene, always! And you are here to lead me and these soldiers to our deaths. I cannot trust you - I do not trust you. Tell me the truth now, or Gods help me, you shall meet the ground you have this as my word!'

'I am your sister!' She screamed, just as he felt her slip from his grip.