Upton Port had been taken.

There had been fighting. Loreamer forces had attacked and, despite some devastating new weapon, the soldiers of Kempenny Province had taken Upton Port with superior numbers under the command of Colonel Rafael Lambert. The people of Upton Port, those who hadn’t fled, saw them as invaders even though they bore the crest of Kempenny Province and Upton Port was firmly within Kempenny borders.

Devorah sat in the common room of a small tavern requisitioned as a command post. The owner served her a mug of beer and a chunk of overcooked meat. She ignored both, listening instead to Colonel Lambert and two other officers whose names she did not know.

“Have we made any overtures?” Devorah asked.

Colonel Lambert looked at her coolly. “Overtures, General?”

“We’ve taken the port. We’re firmly ensconced. The only way they’ll get us out of here is to burn the place down.”

Colonel Lambert nodded but frowned. “Alexander Gholen. I served with him once, long ago. He’s in charge of those infernal weapons Loreamer has conceived. That man with that kind of power is a dangerous combination. He may well decide to burn the place down.”

That gave Devorah pause. “We’ve sentries posted?”

“Of course.” Colonel Lambert paused, glancing at the other commanders, at the tavern owner, then back at Devorah. “General. I wonder if I might have a word in private.”

Devorah stood and followed the Colonel to the kitchen. He was displeased, but Devorah couldn’t tell why.

“You’ve come back,” he said quietly.

Devorah nodded. “I told you I’d be back.”

“You’re missing the point, Scamp. We took Upton Port with everything we had. But this is it. This is all there is. You took our leader, both of them, removed us from our fort, now we’ve got the port, but where does that lead us? Are we invading Loreamer Province as your aunt wanted or just patrolling our own borders as you wanted? We haven’t the soldiers for either.” The Colonel stopped and took a breath, embarrassed by his outburst but unwilling to give ground.

“You’re worried I’m going to lead you on a fool’s errand as my aunt did. Or that I’ll lead you on wonton destruction as Vahramp did.”

Colonel Lambert was unsurprised by her ability to read him. He only watched her, stone-faced, careful.

“I’ve made mistakes, to be sure. I’ve abandoned you. I’ll make no excuses on that point. But I’ve also made headway. In only a few days’ time, we should see an influx in troops. I’ve made an alliance with King Haland. Even better, I’ve made progress with the Heir, Isabel Loreamer. My goal was and is for Kempenny to govern itself under the laws of Khulanty.”

“And have you no other goals? Are you saying you will commit yourself to the running of this army and this province and nothing else?”

Devorah thought about Vahramp and the monsters she was directly responsible for, and she lied. “I have no other goals. I will commit myself to my people and my province.”

Colonel Lambert smiled only a little, relieved but stoic. “Good.”

“Colonel, as you’ve pointed out, our greatest disadvantage in this venture is that they’re big and we’re small. But that means that they’re slow and we’re agile.”

“What are you getting at, Scamp?” But he knew already, and he approved.

“Having a hidden fort was an advantage. Loreamer troops couldn’t just lay siege. We could engage them at the borders in elite groups. But now we have the port. I want to keep it only long enough to resupply and integrate the Mountain Kingdom men. Then we’ll station the bulk at the border. But I want to have small, mobile groups all over the province. We’ll look bigger than we are.”

“Moving troops all over the province will take time and resources.”

Devorah smiled. “Did you know, my dear Colonel Lambert, that I’m powered?”

He had suspected and was unsurprised by her pronouncement. “No one learns weapons as fast as you did.”

“There’s more. I’m what is called an umbramancer. I can control shadows. Even better, I can travel them. I can move troops through the shadows, Colonel.”

“Well now. That is interesting.”

“But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The Mountain Kingdom warriors will be our back up. First, I must see if I can work out peace with the Heir.”

• • •

Devorah stepped into soft rain. It was nothing like the afternoon rains she’d grown used to in the Empire. This rain did not pound, it misted; it did not thunder, it whispered; it did not drum, it danced. It was not the storm she’d dreamed of all those years ago, but its coolness was nice nonetheless. Several days into the occupation of Upton Port, she was beginning to feel steady in her aims. With the troops from the Mountain Kingdom, she’d be in a position of strength.

Dawn was not far gone.

A sudden pressure made her stumble. She put her hand on her sword, and though she did not draw, it filled her with energy. With her feet under her, she stretched her senses though the shadows. She felt a similar stretching of senses, the touch of a strong mind, one she recognized. Devorah wrapped her liquid shield around her tightly even as she smiled.

“Hello, big sister. I must admit, I’m surprised to see you here.”

“I’m surprised you can see anything,” Heir Isabel replied. She stepped from a darkened doorway.

“Are you here to talk of peace, big sister?”

“Peace? You just attacked my soldiers and occupied a city.”

Devorah was surprised. “Upton Port is well within Kempenny borders, Heir Loreamer. And, from all reports, your soldiers struck first.”

“Yes. I knew that.” The Heir rubbed at her temples, like she had a headache. “We had a treaty.”

“We still do.”

“Is it true you’ve allied with King Haland, that you’re moving foreign troops along the coast? Don’t you think that’ll make the councils think twice about our treaty?”

The sun was nearly risen. The dark of predawn had given way to the twilight of false dawn. Devorah took a deep breath, taking in the salty tang of the sea overlaying hints of morning dampness, tar, and sulfur. She pulled the shadows around her like a favorite book. Heir Isabel Loreamer’s silhouette, a slender girl with strong features and a commanding posture, stood against the coming light like a pillar of shadow. Devorah took a moment, closed her eyes, and entered the mindspace.

Immediately she sensed something wrong. She looked at the chessboard where, over the past several weeks, the white player had played her to a draw, twice. But this time, Devorah’s gambit, counting on the white player’s propensity for losing sight of the goal, had failed. She found her black royal placed on its side, a small slip of paper placed over it: a shroud.

She’d lost.

Devorah snatched up the slip of paper and read the note scrawled in a neat hand on the other side.

Black,

I’m curious, are you real, or are you just in my head?

-White

And she laughed.

Quite suddenly, it all seemed so very obvious. Books in her mindspace that she’d never read, that she hadn’t put there; a white player more concerned with protecting her pieces rather than winning the game; a pair of girls whose looks suggested they were sisters. They were sharing the mindspace.

And she was decided. She would prove Father Vytal right and the Kinswell Council wrong. She would station her Mountain Kingdom warriors at Upton Port and not beyond. She would remain steadfast in standing down only at the Kempenny border, but she would not be unreasonable about the time it would take for the evacuation of Loreamer forces from Pine Fort.

Her mood buoyed, feeling whimsical, she dashed off a reply.

White,

What is the difference?

-Black

P.S. Good game

And then, with a breath, she returned her mind to her body, knowing that for Heir Loreamer, her big sister and roommate in the mindspace, she had only blinked. She couldn’t wait to share the newfound knowledge though with a shrewd idea that Heir Loreamer would already know the truth of the matter.

Keep your focus on the goal. Every move is important.

She smiled at the Heir in the twilight. “How long have you known about our connection in the mindspace?” she asked.

She didn’t know if the Heir replied. Instead, she was struck by a blinding white light that evaporated her shield like it had never been. Someone screamed, a single, high, sustaining note. The note lasted so long, so steadily, that after a while she questioned whether or not it was actually a scream. The white light invaded her mind so that she could not see or think or hear anything but that scream that was not a scream. She blinked away tears, and when she could see again, she was in a white tiled room lit from everywhere and nowhere with no doors and no windows.

She was captured.