Sanura’s head pounded in time with her heart, adding a tinge of misery to her victory over Einian. “But it wasn’t me,” she said.

            “Well, it wasn’t any of the rest of us. She died after you stuck the sword in her, which suggests it must have been you,” Arva argued.

            “But I don’t know how I did it!” Sanura said. “I barely remember fending off those boulders.”

            “The Nameless Sword doesn’t have a personality attached to it, does it?” the Cheldean asked Vancana the dragon.

            The crippled beast shook his head. “It is a tool, an object, nothing more.”

            “Instinct,” Tyla said.

            Sanura looked at the woman and wondered just how scrambled she had been during the fight. She could have sworn the white-skinned woman had been missing a large chunk of her upper body and been covered in gray dust. Now she seemed fully restored and her clothes were a pristine white. “What?” she asked the strange woman.

            “The unconscious part of your mind saw the potential of your new weapon and overruled your consciousness when the fight got desperate. You got lucky. Usually you have to use your consciousness to train your unconscious to make the best responses reflex. Of course, now you’ll have to figure out how to bring that unconscious talent forward so you can bring it under control,” Tyla said.

            “I don’t think I ever want to do that, again,” Sanura said slowly.

            “Good,” Vancana said. “I’m not in a shape to kill you if you did.”

            “She killed an enemy who was ready to kill her. Does using that sword to do it make it worse in some way?” Tyla questioned.

            “It is likely that the Destroyer of the Universe would need the Nameless Sword to repeat his feat. It would be better if it remained carefully guarded and unused,” the dragon growled.

            “You are hardly in a shape to see to that right now,” Tyla said.

            Vancana closed his eyes and sighed. “And that’s why I have agreed to leave it in your hands for now. Take it and heal your mate, young one. When my next molt has fixed my wounds, I will seek you out for its return.”

            “We might be able to get it you before that. Celeres is out on the mountain,” Sanura said.

            “No, he isn’t,” Tyla said.

            “What?”

            “You and Arva were missing and possibly dead. In any case, Chadder said you had been gone for days. I certainly couldn’t take care of him and still try to rescue you. So, I took him to the blood knights in Bluthafen.”

            “Bluthafen? We were trapped for a week and a half, right? That’s a pretty good pace even for you, Tyla,” the Cheldean noted.

            The Ai shrugged. “You just put one foot in front of the other,” she said.

            “Tyla, we were in a hurry to save his life when Arva and I got to this cave. Are you telling me you’ve taken him even further away?” Sanura asked, her tone dangerous.

            “He seemed to be getting better as we traveled. His skin was returning to a more heatlhy yellow color, anyway,” Tyla said reassuringly.

            “Yellow? But he was gray before,” Arva said, puzzled.

            “So Chadder said,” the Ai agreed.

            Vancana cleared his throat. “In any event,” he said, “I cannot guard the sword right now, so you must keep it for me. Take it and my good wishes for your mate.”

            “Thank you, On. Vancana. I will be very careful with it,” Sanura said while wondering about her husband.

            The dragon nodded, content.

            “I think we’ve lingered here long enough,” Arva announced. “Vancana, do you need anything before we go?”

            “No, thank you, little ones.”

            The travelers took their leave and made their way out of the cave. Chadder fussed over Arva’s wounds, but they did not seem to hamper the Cheldean’s movements. Sanura bugged Arva about Celeres, although he could only reassure her that his proxy indicated the young man was still alive. In part to distract her, Arva had Sanura disable Einian’s proxies as they came to them. The soldier voiced a concern that Vancana might need thee traps to stop intruders, but the Cheldean told her that few things could harm a dragon in molt.

            “How long will his molt last?”

            “Good question. I’d say being Einian’s prisoner kept him from it for quite a while. Between that and his injuries, it could be anywhere from a few months to over a year. That’s assuming he survives the molting process itself,” the Cheldean said.

            “So, even if we heal Celeres quickly, we’ll still have to look after the sword.”

            “I’m sure the college will agree to hang on to it until Vancana wakes again. The Cheldeans should be able to protect it,” Arva said.

            “Even from the Firstborn?” Tyla asked. “They’re likely to be interested in it. That would have been why the dragon hid it in the first place.”

            “Hmm. Well, we’ll just have to burn that bridge when we get to it,” he said.

            Finding the exit was much easier than exploring the depths had been for any of them. Snow greeted them at the entrance. Several feet sat on the ground and more fell from the sky in fat, fluffy lumps. Arva and Sanura looked at it in some distaste, but Tyla seemed unperturbed. She pushed out with the white light, clearing a path before them and shielding the travelers from the worst of the wind. Still, it was a hard, wet slog through the cold to reach their buried campsite. Sanura half-expected Arva to proxy the site clear, but he seemed content to allow Tyla to dig out what she could. The soldier examined the shivering Cheldean closely, wondering what the problem was. She was debating whether to ask him about it when the roar reached them.

            It came from up slope, drawing their eyes to the source. Like a hideous wave of white icing, an avalanche of snow bore down on them. High on the slope behind the wave stood a figure in gray, its six arms waving in an intricate dance.

            Chadder launched himself into the air to avoid the attack entirely. Tyla quickly threw up a curved shield around the up slope side of the camp and braced herself for the impact. Like a wave of water, the snow crashed around them, leaping high over the shield before falling to the ground further down slope. Arva began singing, ready to respond with proxies if Tyla’s shield broke.

            The travelers were so intent on the rushing snow that they missed the two gray shapes rising within their pocket from the snow behind them. Twelve arms shifting sinuously, the figures struck at the travelers with proxies of fire and lightning.

            Even with her back turned, Sanura could feel the magic rushing at her. She pulled at the Nameless Sword with the intention of parrying the proxy. Even with those paltry instruction, the sword responded, blunting the power of the strike even while half-drawn. Propelled by the magic, Sanura plowed into the snow, disoriented but unharmed.

            Champion of hundreds of encounters, Arva faired better. The figure above the wave of snow warned him that this was not an act of nature, so the first thing up was his defensive proxies. His opponents behind him seemed unsurprised by the Cheldean’s survival of the flames pouring over him and redoubled their efforts, leaving him barely any time to examine his opponents. They were a man and a woman with red skin and dressed in gray robes with red embroidery. Arva did not recognize their clothes but found their skill in magic more than enough to challenge him. In fact, having to extend his defenses to protect Tyla from a stream of explosive disks they launched kept him from preparing a counterstrike of his own.

            Fortunately, he did not have to defend Sanura. Lurching to her feet warned the gray-robes that their first attack had not finished her. They threw wave after wave of not-colors at her, striking so fast that the soldier could barely see them to disassemble the proxies. Still, Sanura survived their attacks.

            The battle briefly settled into a stalemate. Their many-armed attackers hammered at the travelers with energy sickles and poisonous clouds and unstable spike of steel, illuminating the flakes drifting into the bubble from the snow hurtling by overhead. Arva and Sanura fended them off with proxies and sword. Up slope, Tyla held off the avalanche, grunting as boulders within the snow bounced off her shield. Fueled by that third attacker far up slope, the cascade continued for minute after minute. In those moments, defenders and attackers were perfectly balanced, each desperately trying to tip the fight in their favor.

            Their attackers had lost track of Chadder, dismissing the bug as harmless. Still, having see almost as much combat as Arva, the wasp took pains to make sure the many-armed man directing the snow did not see the insect sneak around behind him. Locking his wings, Chadder glided silently down on his victim. At the last instant, the wasp reared back and extended a wicked stiletto from his tail. The barb snapped through the back of the man’s skull, killing him.

            Tyla could feel the weight against her shield ease up and prepared to shift her attack. She mistook a lull in the wave for the final gasp and dropped the shield. Spinning around, she snapped out with a whip of light. A last wave of snow washed over them all, but it came too late for the gray robes to avoid decapitation from her attack.

            Luckily, the last of the avalanche only threw the combatants a few steps down the slope before releasing them. Sanura pulled herself out of the snow and helped Tyla pull Arva out. The Cheldean sat down on the pile he had just been in, breathing hard.

            Sanura followed Tyla down slope to examine one of the corpses. “What’s wrong with him?” she asked, gesturing to the Cheldean.

            “Arva? He’s just winded from the workout. Probably maintaining some proxies, too. Cheldeans can feed some magic with their own energies. Let’s them keep them up without having to sing all day long. Arva’s tough. Just give him a couple of minutes to breath.”

            “Maintain proxies. Like knowing Celeres is alive? And keeping us fed while we were trapped in the cave?”

            “Yep,” Tyla grunting, pulling a decapitated body from the snow. “They were both red-skinned. Islanders, or at least descended from them. Do you recognize these clothes?”

            “No. Wait, the Cheldean with Prince Emhyr wore robes like this. She had red skin and cast proxies with multiple arms, too.”

            “Prince? I assume for the Zonne empire. What is he in the line of succession?”

            “He’s the heir to the throne.”

            “Arva! Come here!”

            “What’s up?”

            “Kid says she’s seen someone like this before. Working for Prince-what was his name?”

            “Emhyr,” Sanura supplied. “Arva, we told you about our meeting him.”

            “Still, I have never seen anyone cast proxies by manifesting multiple arms before,” Arva said.

            “How do we know they aren’t natural? This one still has the extra arms. After all, not everything that looks human is. Just look at me,” Tyla argued.

            Returning from up slope, Chadder settled on Arva’s shoulder.

            “The Cheldean with the Prince cast proxies with multiple arms without saying anything, like these guys did,” the soldier said.

            “You didn’t mention that,” Arva frowned.

            “Didn’t I?”

            “How many arms did she have when she wasn’t working magic?” Tyla asked.

            “Just two. I looked pretty close after the fight.”

            “Chadder, what did our third attacker look like?” Arva asked.

            “Like these. Gray clothes. Red skin. Too many arms for a human.”

            “So, why would Cheldeans attack us?” Tyla asked Arva.

            “They wouldn’t. These aren’t Cheldeans.”

            “Humans who cast proxies are a pretty short list. It’s pretty much you and the wood folk, and I’m pretty sure these aren’t wood folk.”

            “Cheldeans haven’t developed an elaborate gesture system for casting proxies. It would have taken generations to discover how to cast those battle spells. If any Cheldeans had worked out such a system, I would have learned about it years ago.

            “But I think you’re right. These aren’t wood folk, either. These are something else,” Arva said.

            “And they’re involved with the imperial family,” Sanura said.

            “And tried to kill us after leaving Einian’s cave,” Tyla added.

            “Break me. I hate mysteries,” Arva complained.

            Tyla looked at him in confusion, then burst out laughing.

            “Oh, be quiet,” Arva growled, annoyed.

            Tyla smirked. “You’ll feel better after a night’s rest.”

            “That could be kind of hard. The camp’s gone,” Sanura noted.

            “Right. The tent’s probably a total loss at this point. You two start heading down, and I’ll see what supplies I can dig up,” the Ai said.

            “Wait, these guys probably had a camp around here,” Sanura said, pointing to their attackers.

            “Probably booby-trapped it with proxies, too,” Tyla guessed.

            “And that would bother us, how?” Arva asked.

            “Might even make it easier to find,” Sanura said, looking around with her second-sight.

            “Fine. You two track it down, and I’ll join you with what I can salvage,” Tyla said.

            The camp turned out to be on the far side of the mountain in a cave not too far from the entrance to Einian’s lair. It was hidden by an illusion that cloaked the proxies on it. However, it was insufficient to hide it from the determined search of Arva, Sanura, and Chadder.

            Their attackers had apparently been stationed at the cave for a long time. To the experienced eyes of Arva and Tyla, the cave looked like it had been inhabited for centuries, every inch of it shaped by the passage of time and for the comfort of humans. In addition to a well-stocked kitchen and the personal rooms of the inhabitants was a large stable. Much to Arva’s annoyance, his antelopes had made their way here. They mingled in a proxy-maintained field with the lovers’ mounts and a small number of other beasts.

            Arva fumed for a bit at the further proof of a proxy-casting group that had managed to hide themselves from the Cheldeans for a long time. He ate a snack Sanura prepared for them without really tasting it and went to bed.

            “He’s not taking this very well,” Tyla smiled from the floor where she sorted through the things recovered from their old camp.

            “Well, Cheldeans do enjoy a reputation for knowing everything. It’s got to be annoying to find out there’s another group that’s been hiding itself from them,” Sanura said.

            “Oh, that boy lives for new things. He’ll be tearing this place apart for answers in the morning,” Tyla assured her.

            “Is any of that stuff going to be useable?” the soldier asked, gesturing to the items on the floor.

            “Once it dries out, probably. What isn’t, we should be able to replace from here.”

            “Tyla?”

            “Yes?”

            “This cave is well supplied. What if there were more than three of them here?”

            “There are only three beds,” Tyla pointed out.

            “Oh.”

            “Get some sleep. I’m going to put some stuff together so we can leave tomorrow.”

            “Okay. Good night.”

            “Sleep well.”

            In the morning, Sanura woke to find Arva puttering around the caves, looking through the belongings of their deceased hosts. Tyla was saddling and loading the antelopes.

            “Breakfast is on the table,” Arva said distantly as the soldier entered the room.

            “Have you found anything interesting?” she asked, grabbing a handful of dates.

            “Nothing. Not a proxy book, not letters from home, not even a pen and paper. I’ve even listened for magical objects, but if they have any here, I can’t find them.”

            “Hiding holes maybe?”

            “I cast a proxy to look for empty spaces everywhere. There weren’t any,” Arva said, picking clear a scab from his hand.

            “Antelopes are ready,” Tyla announced, coming in from the stable.

            Arva sighed and looked around the room mournfully.

            “Only Cheldar knows all the answers,” Tyla comforted him.

            “Not even him, actually. Ah, well. Let’s get going. The sooner we get to Celeres, the happier Sanura will be,” Arva said.

            That was certainly true, so it took only minutes for the travelers to find themselves under the sky again, their numbers swollen by the appropriation of their hosts’ antelopes. The road to Bluthafen took a week and a half. Tyla could have made it faster but declined to use her extra speed and endurance when it would have uselessly left her friends behind.

            So, it was with a much less spectacular approach that she again reached the southern gates of Bluthafen. The blood knights waved them to a stop before the entrance to look them over. Arva cheerfully introduced himself, but the knights focused mostly on Tyla.

            “On. Cheldean, I’m afraid I’m going to have to detain you here for a few minutes. One of the men has left to fetch our Commander. Your friend made quite an entrance a few weeks ago, and he’ll probably want to talk to her,” their leader said.

            “Of course. I believe she left one of our companions with you then. Do you have any idea how he is?”
            Sanura’s stomach knotted.

            “I’m afraid I don’t. The Commander took charge of him at the time. He should be able to tell you more,” the knight said.

            “Excellent, excellent.”

            The Cheldean chatted with the knight while they waited, drawing from him the gossip of the local area. The listeners learned that the local harvest had been plentiful; that an invisible screaming monster had disturbed the town a month ago; and that Prince Emhyr had briefly visited a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, he could gather little more than speculations and guesses about the last two.

            Supreme Commander Vuon seemed unsurprised by their arrival and unconcerned with Tyla’s odd appearance. He escorted them into town, politely declining to answer their questions about Celeres until they were in more private quarters. That irritated Sanura a great deal, but she decided threatening him would not usefully expedite her reunion with her husband.

            Once they were seated in a sitting room within the Commander’s house, Sanura pressed about Celeres’ whereabouts. The knight blinked twice and squeezed his eyes shut, his expression vaguely pained.

            “He is healthy and safe enough, although I doubt you’ll be delighted by his current situation. Circumstances got away from us, and I was not able to protect him the way I wanted to.”

            “That doesn’t answer my question,” Sanura said sharply.

            “He’s with Prince Emhyr, traveling up the north-out arm,” the Commander said sorrowfully.

            “What?” Sanura cried out, unconsciously resting her hand on the Nameless Sword.

            She may not have been aware of it, but Commander Vuon certainly was. He put out his hand, hoping to sooth her. “Please, there were complications,” he said. “In fact, the situation was slightly different than you thought it was.”

            “Explain,” Sanura demanded.

            “A hirudin’s bite does not inflict diseases upon its victim. In truth, it turns them into a hirudin.”

            “But Celeres was sick. Shells and shit, he was almost dead when we had to leave him!” Sanura protested.

            “But the healing proxies wouldn’t do anything for him,” Arva said with comprehension.

            Vuon nodded. “The transition is difficult but never permanently harms those that receive the gift. We have hidden that truth from the general population. They’ve always been confused about how little a risk we are to them, so it’s judged much safer to let them think Zonneshin’s gift is rare and hard to spread.”

            “You are a hirudin?” Tyla asked.

            “Yes, of course. But I hold no allegiance to the Prince beyond what is forced upon me by my knighthood, so I sought to help Celeres as best I could. I explained the true nature of his condition to him and was going to send some knights down south to find out what happened to you.

            “What did happen? Einian is not a creature to approach lightly.”

            “We survived,” Tyla said. “Why don’t we get back to Celeres.”

            Vuon blinked, then nodded. “Celeres woke the day after you left him here. Transition is rough, but recovery can go quite quickly, especially with blood.”

            “And who did you have my husband kill for it?” Sanura asked coldly.

            “No one. There are some pretty severe restrictions about killing normal humans in our community. Any blood will do, so we use animal blood. If we don’t do anything strenuous, merely eating our meat a little undercooked will suffice for our daily needs.”

            “Must be tough if you’re too poor to afford meat everyday,” Arva said.

            “Most of us are nobles, which safely shields us from that problem,” the Commander answered.

            “So, Celeres is up and kicking. When did the Prince show up?”

            “Dawn, a day later. We could sense him, so we knew he could sense Celeres. That did not leave us much time to come up with a way to shield him.”

            “Because the Prince would come after him,” Sanura said.

            “And did. Running seemed insufficient, so I decided to initiate him into the Border Army of the Reformed.”

            “That’s your idea of avoiding the Prince? Putting Celeres under the command of the imperial throne?” Sanura asked, incredulous.

            “Where the Prince would be able to keep and eye on him and order him to keep his mouth shut. Actually, not a bad idea under the circumstances. Although, if Sanura decides to carve out your life, I could rather understand that,” Arva said.

            “I would prefer to avoid that.”

            “So the Prince did what? Chase him through the initiation passage across the desert?” Arva asked.

            “No. He questioned me about Celeres. Reasonable, since we can detect other gifted. Unfortunately, that meant I had to tell him what I had done.”

            “Why? Why didn’t you just lie to him if you don’t like him,” the soldier demanded.

            Vuon shrugged, “My oath. I am bound to the throne by proxy. All blood knights are.”

            “So the Prince set out to meet him at Nguyen,” Arva guessed.

            “Yes. He took me and set out for our sister city that morning. Traveling up the Red River and along the Northern Sea is much faster than crossing the desert on foot. I returned here from the trip only yesterday. Prince Emhyr took Celeres with him.”

            “Where did they go?” Sanura pressed.

            The Commander blinked and sighed. “They’re headed up the north-out arm. I don’t know where they planned to land, but I do know that they were expecting to have to ride up along its length.”

            “Still chasing the Isole?” Arva asked.

            Vuon shrugged.

            “The Isole?” Tyla asked sharply.

            The Cheldean nodded. “It was stolen from Gawlchmai’s temple months ago. The Emperor ordered the Prince to recover it.”

            “That’s not good. Last time it escaped, it took Brendis to contain it,” Tyla said.

            From the way she snarled his name, Sanura guessed the Ai was not too fond of Brendis.

            “Then it’s probably a good thing that the Prince is looking for it. We wouldn’t want something that bad getting loose,” Arva said.

            Tyla nodded briskly. “We’ll have to make sure it’s contained even if we get Celeres from the Prince.”

            “And if the conversation is heading in that direction, I’m afraid I’m going to have to excuse myself from your company,” Vuon announced solemnly.

            “Of course,” Arva agreed. “If you could direct us to an inn for tonight? We’ll want to head out in the morning.”

            The Commander gave them directions and said, “I’ll send you a writ of passage in the morning. It will get you through blood knight territory safely.” He nodded at Tyla, “With her in your group, you’d probably get attacked every five minutes by my people without it.”

            “Thank you,” the Cheldean said and lead his companions out to the street.

            “If he’s bound by oaths, won’t he send someone to stop us from interfering with the Prince’s activities?” Sanura asked when she thought they were safely out of earshot.

            “Nope. I was listening pretty close while we were talking. He was ordered to tell us how to follow them,” Arva said.

            “Joy,” Tyla said dryly.

            The Cheldean smiled in bemusement. “At least we know Celeres is alive and healthy.”

            “Except for being a hirudin and a blood knight,” Sanura said bitterly.

            Arva shrugged. “We can still probably use the sword to remove both of those. All we have to do is catch up with them.”

            The writ of passage reached them in the evening after the travelers had gotten supplies for their journey and were eating supper at the inn. Along with the writ came a map of the north-out arm. The southern portion of the peninsula contained detailed notes on the hazards of the area, notes that diminished greatly toward the north. Arva poured over the details, making pleased noises as he read and tisking as he made note of things the blood knights did not know.

            That night, Sanura lay awake for hours, too frustrated with having missed Celeres to sleep. So she was awake as the door to her room silently slid open just enough for someone to slip in. Cursing silently, she reached for the Nameless Sword and turned on her second-sight. Sword secured, she waited for a figure filled with odd true names to make its move from where it stood by the doorway.

            “Well, girl, you should be proud. Not many people who spot me while I’m sneaking up on them. I must be getting old.”

            Baffled, it took Sanura a few moments to understand the words and place the voice. “Khenet?” she gasped when it sunk it.

            “Although, maybe not that old. Bluthafen’s a pretty hard town to sneak into. Blood knights know their business, after all. Although that business includes things for the imperials like the Prince. How did you end up here in one of his centers of power, girl?”

            “Do you want to light this candle for me, or am I going to have to fetch a taper from the main room?”

            Khenet grunted and spat out a few words, sparking the candle to flame. The old, blue-skinned woman looked the same as she had a few months ago. In the dim light of the candle, her brown robes appeared almost as black as the shadows. “I’ve been tracking you for almost a month now. You kids have really moved around. Where’s the boy?”

            “He’s a hirudin now.”

            “So you didn’t find a way to remove it? And he’s what? Sleeping elsewhere to protect you?”

            “You lied to us. The Prince lied to us about what the bite does, and you backed those lies. Why?” The soldier asked dangerously.

            “Hirudin are scum, my dear. It’s not a condition I’d wish on anyone. Calling it a disease is true enough, and it usually is fatal in wood folk territory, even with the treaty.”

            “I’ve been told they need blood, but not much and not human. Is this true?”

            “Yes, but they often feed on humans, even with the treaty.”

            “So, we risked our lives to satisfy your prejudices,” Sanura said coldly.

            “There was the little matter of the Prince and his cronies,” Khenet said dryly.

            Sanura seethed but could not argue with that statement.

            “So, are you going to kill me, or are you going to put down that pig-sticker?” Khenet said drolly.

            Sanura considered the naked blade in her hand and sat it on her lap.

            “Now, why don’t you tell me everything you’ve been up to?” the old woman said reasonably.

            It took quite a while to fill in all the details, but telling the story cooled Sanura’s temper.

            “Hmm,” Khenet said meditatively. “Don’t see much you could have done differently. Risky in spots, but understandable.”

            “Thanks,” Sanura said dryly.

            “I assume we’re going after the boy.”

            “We?”

            “I have nothing else to attend to for the moment. Even with a Cheldean and a Nidani, the north-out arm is fairly dangerous. It wouldn’t hurt to have me along.”

            Sanura resented her presumption but again could not fault her logic. Reluctantly, she agreed to Khenet’s presence.

            “I’ll meet you in the morning. Outside of Bluthafen, I think. Blood knights are too nosy for me.”

            The soldier was up for more hours after the old woman left, wondering about Khenet’s altruism. Tyla’s interest had seemed to shift from Celeres to the Isole. Arva wanted to talk to the Prince’s mysterious mage. Everything seemed to be shifting away from the lovers now that they knew Celeres was alive and okay in a way. Khenet had perked up when Sanura mentioned Prince Emhyr and the Isole. Who knew what business the old woman had attended to in her months away? The soldier wondered if she was the only one truly interested in the fate of her husband.

            Sanura found very little sleep that night.