Xerxes formulated a plan to continue his charade, but before he was able to say another word, Eskinder stepped forward and brought his sword down in the Wrath strike.

Xerxes gripped the hilt and pulled his sword up into the Bull guard.

Steel clanged.

Xerxes shifted backward and brought his sword into Longfacing. His heart raced: this was no sparring match. Back in the Institute, they had used wooden swords, and usually donned protective gear when sparring. This was a different situation entirely. Eskinder’s sword gleamed, the steel having been sharpened to a razor’s edge. The slightest misstep could lead to drawn blood or worse.

Eskinder grinned and went back into the Skyward guard, except with the sword nearly vertical across his shoulders. “You do know the Epitome. Who are you?”

Xerxes eyes swept the room at the end of the bridge. The guards were all hanging back. Three had short swords. One had a crossbow. The door was behind Eskinder. Lattice covered the windows.

The people forming the line to the other end of the bridge were backing away, spooked because of the clash of steel.

“I just want to cross the bridge,” Xerxes said.

Eskinder took a full step forward and made as if to strike. Xerxes danced to the side. Then Eskinder unleashed a combination of blows that came so fast Xerxes was sure he would have been killed if he was a normal person. Instead, his instincts kicked in. He blocked an upward strike, successfully predicted Eskinder’s followup blow, and then managed to counterstrike, aiming at his opponent’s neck, but holding back at the very last microsecond.

Eskinder lunged backward, his eyes wide. Then his lip curled a bit. “You don’t just know it. You’re good at it.”

I could have killed you, Xerxes thought. “You’re right. I’ve studied a bit. Look, longsword fighting is rare here on Jehannemid. But not unheard of. I took classes in the capital.”

Eskinder was still in a combat stance, although this time he had his sword in the Reaping guard.

“I don’t give a shit where you took your lessons,” Eskinder said. “It’s illegal to strike a mage, so put your sword down and submit to the guards. Then we can talk more about your background.”

Illegal to strike a mage? Xerxes didn’t remember hearing anything about that. “Like hell,” he said.

“Fine.”

He lunged, swinging the sword more like a club than a blade. It seemed he planned to use his enhanced Seer strength to knock the sword out of Xerxes’ hand. And if Xerxes had been an Unsighted, it would have worked. But he wasn’t. What was more, he had sparred extensively with High Seers, and even with his teacher, Mystic Rabya.

Because of that, he lazily leaned back, letting the sword pass. Then he stepped forward, grabbed Eskinder’s wrists, and shoved them. He used enough force to destabilize him and throw him to the side, but not enough to make it obvious that Xerxes was physically superior. Then, as the young mage lurched to the side, Xerxes pulled his foot back and kicked him.

Eskinder flew across the bridge, crashed into one of the lattice window coverings, and nearly fell out.

Xerxes didn’t sit around to see what happened after that. He burst forward, knocking aside the guard with the crossbow and then using his shoulder to crash through the door. The room beyond was smaller and had another door. He kicked it into splinters.

As shouting reached his ears from behind, he jumped out into the open. Similar to the other side of the river, there was a public square with soldiers. These ones wore uniforms of white and red. He also saw a woman with a conical hat standing off to the side, wearing mage robes of a similar color scheme. It made it more than obvious that this group was from the opposing faction.

He dashed forward two or three steps, then spun in place and held his sword out in Longfacing.

“Stop!” Eskinder screamed from the doorway of the bridge.

He had his sword in one hand, but his hat had been knocked off, causing a tangle of disheveled hair to hang off his head. He was panting, and his garments had a few rips and tears in them.

The female mage stepped into the middle of the square, placing her roughly perpendicular to Xerxes.

“Don’t take another step, Eskinder,” she said.

“He’s a mage, Yahel,” Eskinder said, trying to control his panting. “Unregistered. He could be a cultist.”

Keeping his voice as low as possible so that Eskinder couldn’t hear, Xerxes turned to the female mage Yahel and said, “He’s right that I’m a mage. I’m not a cultist though. I’m with the Black Jackal Company under Captain Gandash. I need to talk to High Seer Musaru.”

Yahel looked at him. “Noted. Mind putting your sword away?”

He shifted his gaze to Eskinder, who was gripping his own sword with two hands.

Yahel chuckled. “He won’t step off the bridge. He could win a fight against me, but not even High Seer Arshaka would forgive him for disrupting the status quo.”

Suppressing a frown, Xerxes flipped his sword around and rested it in the crook of his arm. “I’m Xerxes,” he said.

“Yahel, but you probably heard that.” Raising her voice, she said, “I’m taking him into my care, Eskinder. You might want to go home and change clothes. You look like a beggar.”

The soldiers behind them laughed.

“You should show some respect, Yahel,” the young mage said. “When Arshaka finally takes his rightful spot over Hatim, you won’t be laughing.”

“Goodbye, Eskinder.” She turned on her heel. “Come with me… Seer Xerxes?”

He cleared his throat. “High Seer.”

He followed her as she left the public square and set a stiff walking pace through the streets beyond.

“A High Seer. Very interesting. Mind giving me a quick explanation of what you’re doing here?”

“Sure,” he said. “I’m First Lieutenant Xerxes from the Black Jackal Company. Me and some of the others tried to get back to the Gateway complex to get help from higher starisles. But we couldn’t, so we returned here.”

“Watch your head,” Yahel said.

He ducked as she led him through a very low archway, beyond which was a low-ceilinged tunnel that went for about fifteen feet. Emerging from the other end, Yahel said, “Go on…?”

“Not knowing the political situation, we snuck into the city, but ended up on the other side of the river. I managed to make contact with Captain Gandash, and he said to find High Seer Musaru. I crossed the bridge, but then that fellow Eskinder started asking questions and things escalated.”

“You study the Epitome?” Yahel asked.

“Yeah. I’m not an expert, but I’ve done my fair share of sparring.”

“Eskinder has a reputation for being quite good. I heard the clash of steel before you burst out into the open. You fought him?”

Xerxes shrugged. “It wasn’t much of a fight. I knocked him aside and then ran.”

Yahel stopped walking as they reached a busy intersection. As they waited for a line of mules to pass, she looked at him with eyebrows raised. “You knocked Eskinder aside? He’s going to hold that against you.”

“Let him.”

She laughed. They went through the intersection and then into an alley filled with old ladies hanging laundry.

On the other side, they stepped out into another public square. Across the square was a large wall with a gate, beyond which rose the keep.

Yahel looked at him. “Earlier, you said ‘we.’”

“That’s right. I’m here with a few others.”

“Also mages?”

He nodded in the affirmative.

“I see.” She gestured at the looming castle. “You can see where we are. This is a side courtyard. I’ll go announce you. However… there’s a question you’ll surely be asked. You seem like a straightforward person, so I’ll pose it now to give you a chance to prepare your answer.”

“Thanks,” Xerxes said, wondering what she was getting at.

“According to Lord Hatim and High Seer Musaru, your Black Jackal Company was supposed to come here to escort Lady Erabu to the Gateway complex. We have quite a few mages here in Puabi, between the loyalists and the sheikists. But not many High Seers. Only five, in fact. Your presence alone will tip the scales.”

Brow furrowed, he nodded. What was she getting at?

“The question is why Captain Gandash would send a High Seer away right before entering the city. He knew there was a volatile political climate. And then there’s the Abhorrent. Why did he split his forces at the most critical juncture? He only got arrested because he ran into High Seers Arshaka and Levia together at the same time. If you’d been there, he probably wouldn’t be in that silly prison.”

“Like I said, he wanted us—”

She raised her hand to cut him off. “I heard. But that explanation strikes me as… incomplete at the very best. High Seer Musaru is over two hundred years old. She’s shrewd, and I bet she’ll press you on the subject. So be ready.”

He nodded. “I will. Thanks for the warning, Yahel.”

“No problem. Now, see those benches over there? Have a seat while I go make the arrangements.”

Xerxes went over to a circle of stone benches and sat down, putting his sword on his knees. His heart was still racing from the fight and the subsequent walking. As he sat there, it slowly returned to normal.

With nothing else to do, he considered the issue mentioned by Yahel, and also pondered his story in general.

There’s no point in dancing around things, he thought after a while. I’ll just tell the truth.

He’d assumed it would only be a minute or two before he was let into the keep. But after fifteen minutes, he was still alone in the courtyard.

He thought about the short clash with Eskinder. The young mage’s footwork. How he’d thrown his attacks.

Xerxes shuddered at the thought of how different it was to duel with sharpened steel and no protective gear.

The door opened and Yahel leaned out. “Ready, High Seer Xerxes?”

He stood. “Yes.”

“Follow.”

He entered the dark, cool hallways of the keep.

There were formalities. A further round of questioning by another mage, a High Seer named Simeon. Whether it was by chance or not, Simeon knew the Epitome, which led to a conversation on the topic.

Xerxes was asked to surrender his sword and his component pouch. They also required him to swear a blood oath, making him think back to Archon Shabadras’ words. Blood oaths are meaningless.

He cooperated with everything.

Only then did he find himself in an audience chamber with High Seer Musaru. If Yahel hadn’t told him she was over two hundred years old, he would have pegged her as being middle-aged. She had gray hair at her temples, freckles on her olive skin, and wide lips.

She was friendly but professional, plying him with questions that, for the most part, he had already answered in his conversations with Yahel and Simeon.

The main difference in this conversation came when she asked, “What is your purpose here?”

“I was never privy to the details of the mission,” he said. “Captain Gandash kept that to himself. I know we were supposed to come here and provide some service to the nobility. I suppose that means Sheik Hatim. Earlier, Seer Yahel mentioned someone named Lady Erabu? I guess it has something to do with her.”

“Why did you part ways with Captain Gandash?”

He swallowed. “We had some heavy losses on the way here. Captain Gandash agreed to let some of us go back and try to make contact with Sin-Amuhhu. Make a request for backup. As I told Yahel, that journey didn’t go well. More Abhorrent have arrived on Jehannemid, and we didn’t think we could make it to the Gateway.”

Musaru nodded. “You make it sound like it was a group of you who went back to the Gateway.”

“That’s right.”

“Were all of you High Seers?”

He wasn’t sure about the point of the question, but he knew it was relevant. She was digging for information. Dammit, Gandy, you would know what this is all about.

“Yes, all of us were High Seers.”

“How many?”

Xerxes felt like he was falling into a trap but couldn’t put the pieces of the puzzle together to figure out what it was. “There were five of us.”

“Five High Seers?” Musaru said, her eyes widening.

Of course, the balance of power. He felt stupid for already forgetting what Yahel had mentioned about the situation in the city.

Musaru’s eyes narrowed. “Wait. There were five? There aren’t five anymore?”

“Not all of us made it back.”

“I see.” Musaru took a sip of water. “I can tell you’re nervous about answering my questions. I think that’s understandable. I’d be nervous if I were in your place. So let me explain. Sheik Hatim is the rightful ruler of this city. He’s the most senior of all the High Seers, is over three centuries old, and has proven himself as a leader for decades. He’s called into question some of the decisions of the Mage Parliament. Because of that, they branded him a traitor and demanded he submit to being arrested and put on trial. He obviously refused.

“The loyalists in the city want to carry out the orders of the Mage Parliament. They outnumber us. They have three High Seers to our two. They have five ordinary Seers, and though we have an equal number of Seers, of those on our side, three of them only recently broke into that level.

“If we could get some High Seers on our side, it could really tip the scales. Of course, Arshaka, who leads the loyalists, knows that. That’s why he arrested Captain Gandash and the rest of your company as soon as they arrived.

“And thus, I’m curious how many of you there are. With enough strength, we could theoretically just walk over there and force them to free your captain.”

She stopped talking. Xerxes digested her words. Everything made sense. Except for one thing.

“What about the Abhorrent?” he asked.

“What about them?”

“Aren’t they coming here?”

“Reports indicate they are, yes.”

He tried to keep his facial expression even. “Wouldn’t it make sense to put your differences aside and fight the damn monsters?” he asked. “Who cares about the Mage Parliament if you all end up dead?”

She smiled. “A bunch of Abhorrent spawn aren’t going to wipe us out. We have more mages here in Puabi than any other single city on Jehannemid. If it comes to a fight, we’ll fight with the loyalists. But that doesn’t mean we need to break bread.”

He exhaled. Stupid people.

“So I’d like to ask again,” she went on. “How many of you are there?”

Xerxes pondered the question. He thought about Rabya’s lessons. What was the right decision?

“More than me,” he finally said. “I’ll tell you the specifics if you promise to arrange a meeting between me and Gandash. Today.”

She looked at him. “Fine. I can make that happen.”