by Ryan Kirk
“What do you mean?”
Regar didn’t answer for several heartbeats. “What do you think is the greatest flaw of the empire?”
The question brought Brandt up short. He’d not really considered such thoughts before. The empire took good care of its citizens. So long as people were willing to work, their basic necessities were always taken care of. Of course, there were small things he would change, but were there major flaws?
Alena’s voice came to him again. She had a complaint, and although it didn’t bother him quite the same, it would serve well enough for this discussion. “It relies too much on secrecy.”
Regar looked surprised. “You believe the emperor should tell more of his secrets?”
“I do. People should know about Palagia and the queen.”
“And what would they do with that knowledge?”
Brandt didn’t have an easy answer to that. “Prepare?”
“How?”
Brandt didn’t have any answer to that either. All reasonable preparations for an invasion were already being made. The army didn’t know the true reasons, but they drilled harder than they ever had before. Then he had an idea. “The more people who know, the more who can work on the problem.”
“Conceded,” Regar replied. “I’m not certain the benefit outweighs the cost, though. How well would people react if they knew an invasion was coming? It’s not hard to imagine chaos in the streets, costing innocent lives.”
Brandt saw the point. “If not secrecy, what is the empire’s greatest weakness?”
“Stagnancy.”
“What?”
“In what meaningful ways has our empire changed since Anders I?”
Brandt found he couldn’t think of a way.
“That is why it’s so hard for us to think like the Falari. Anders I imposed an order on the empire that has lasted for two hundred years. How often has my father invoked the first Anders as the reason something must be?”
Brandt could think of a few times, off the top of his head.
“The Falari believe the only constant is change. They fight because they seek to test new weapons and new strategies against us. When I was a captive, they tried questioning me in several ways. Some were violent, some were kind, but all were tested. I was tested.”
Brandt noticed a hint of something surprising in Regar’s voice.
Respect.
“You sound thankful.”
“I am.” Regar turned to him. “I’ve learned something of your own history. Do you think you would be as strong as you are today if not for the conflict you’ve faced?”
“That doesn’t mean I would seek conflict out.”
“Perhaps you should. My captivity taught me what I am capable of. The Falari seek that challenge, but throughout their entire society. Whereas we allow only a small number of individuals to protect us all. Only one or two of every ten in the empire knows how to wield a weapon. But every Falari is armed and eager to defend their land.”
Brandt joined Regar in looking out into the distance. “And all we have to do is convince them to let us control one of their most powerful weapons.”
Regar’s smile was grim. “If it was easy, my father would have sent someone else.”
14
The next day, Alena, Jace, and Sooni’s family packed their camp and made their way toward Cardon, the final destination of Alena’s journey. The trip took a little less than three days. When the tent city first came into view, Alena pulled her horse to a halt.
This visit marked her fifth to Cardon, but she’d never seen it so small. Jace stopped beside her. “I thought you said it was a city.”
“It was.”
Her last visit had been in response to the Lolani invasion. Clans from throughout the land had gathered. Now only a few dozen tents clustered around the main tent, a structure Alena had never before entered. None but elders and the guardian clan of Cardon were allowed entrance.
She’d never even seen the tent before today. It wasn’t taller than any other, but its length and width far surpassed the others. Sooni joined them. “Most of the clans have left. Only the guardian clan and a few of our own clan are here.”
“Why so few?” Alena asked.
“You’ll soon know for yourself,” Sooni answered. “But the elders asked me not to say more.”
This tight secrecy seemed more like the empire than the Etari. “Why not?”
“It’s a problem at the heart of Etar,” Sooni said. “The elders fear the reaction the news will bring, though it will inevitably spread. It is not a secret we keep lightly.”
Sooni urged her horse forward and Jace and Alena followed. Jace kept his horse beside hers. “Worried?”
Alena nodded. “Secrecy is unlike them. And I’ve never seen Cardon half so empty.”
They pitched their tents near the current outskirts of the city. On previous visits, such a location would have been considered an inner ring, a place of honor. Now nothing but trampled grassland stood beyond their camp.
The ground showed plenty of evidence of habitation. No grass grew around Cardon, every green plant trampled into dust by years of people walking and living in the same places.
Alena had just finished raising her shelter when a messenger entered their camp. She approached Sooni and spoke quickly. Sooni glanced their way, indication enough of a summons. Alena threw her gear haphazardly in the tent and walked to Sooni.
Jace followed, but Sooni held out a hand. “Where we go, I’m not even sure Alena will be welcome. For now, you must remain here.”
Jace gave Alena a questioning glance.
“I’ll be fine,” she said. Some part of her had worried Azaleth’s death would carry repercussions, that something would be required of her. But her actions had harmed only her relationships. If Sooni or the Etari had planned anything more, it already would have happened.
Jace acquiesced, although he didn’t seem pleased. Ligt approached, and the two young men went off to train. Alena silently thanked their grouchy guide. At least Jace would be distracted.
Alena followed Sooni deeper into Cardon. They entered a tent halfway between their camp and the center of the city. Inside sat an old woman, with long gray hair braided down her back. She welcomed them formally with a gesture and invited the two to sit.
She didn’t speak at first, instead studying Alena.
Alena didn’t shy away from the examination, instead returning the look. Etari didn’t have any compunctions about staring, and over time Alena had grown past her discomfort. The woman was clearly an elder, but she possessed a vitality many would be jealous of.
After about fifteen heartbeats, Sooni made introductions. “Alena, this is Dunne. She is the head elder of our clan. She is the one who summoned you.”
Alena bowed deeply, offering her respect.
No imperial pleasantries were exchanged here. Dunne’s voice was lower than Alena expected, and it held a tone of confident command. “Sooni tells us that you are a soulwalker. Is this true?”
Yes, she signed.
A hint of a smile played across Dunne’s lips. “How strong are you?”
“I have little to compare to,” Alena answered. She thought of the power of the two Lolani that now coursed through her blood. “But I believe I am strong. Twice now I have confronted the Lolani queen, and twice I’ve survived.”
“You are as strong as their queen?” Dunne couldn’t hide the surprise from her voice.
Or her hope.
Alena’s stomach sank. She’d expected her summons to have something to do with the queen, but knowing it to be true still frightened her. “No,” she said. “I have survived, which is all the achievement I can claim.”
“Their queen is strong?”
“Beyond imagination.”
Alena thought she saw fear lurking behind Dunne’s eyes. “That is troubling.” She looked around the tent, considering her next question. “What do you know about gates?”
“There are four known on
this continent. Two imperial. One in Falar. One in Etar, I imagine within the tent at the center of Cardon. The Etari gate is shattered and is the source of all gatestones. I know little else about the shattered gate.”
That same hint of a smile played across Dunne’s lips. “Gates might be almost unknown to the imperials, thanks to Anders, but they are hardly a mystery to us.”
Alena realized her mouth was hanging open, and she felt a fool. She had puzzled over the mysteries of the gates for years, but she learned little useful. But she’d forgotten the Etari didn’t have the same break in their history the empire did. Of course they would know more about the gates. She should have returned years ago, if only to visit.
“What do you know?” Alena asked, unable to keep the curiosity or eagerness out of her voice.
“There is much knowledge that could be traded,” Dunne said.
Alena held up a hand, sensing the direction of the conversation. No, she signed. “There is no trade. Not for this. If I may aid you, I will. I ask for nothing in return.”
Dunne shared a glance with Sooni. Though Sooni’s posture had barely changed, Alena thought she detected a hint of pride there.
Agreed, Dunne signed. “Sooni raised you well.”
“The credit is hers,” Alena replied. She felt her own flush of pride. Something about this family of hers made her want to impress them. She wanted them to know she was worth the risk they had taken with her so many years ago.
“Our gate is failing,” Dunne announced.
Alena took several heartbeats to work that statement out, but she couldn’t unravel Dunne’s meaning. “Isn’t the gate shattered?”
“Shattered and broken aren’t necessarily the same thing,” Dunne replied. “Perhaps it would be easier to show than to tell.” She came to her feet smoothly, moving like a woman half her age.
Dunne led Sooni and Alena deeper into Cardon, toward the tent at the center of the city.
Alena’s heart raced. She’d seen one gate in person and it had changed her life. The objects were the most powerful in the land, and few even knew they existed, at least in the empire.
Another bit of pride made her grin. Not bad for a child from Landow. All she had ever wanted was to escape, and now her emperor knew her by name and she was summoned by the elders of the Etari. She had done well for herself, and if she learned more about the gates, there was no telling what she might accomplish.
She squashed the thoughts before long. Her brother was near, and her actions had torn his life into shreds for years. Accomplishment meant nothing if it required such sacrifices.
Dunne passed the layers of guards around the tent without slowing, Alena and Sooni having to step faster just to keep up.
Alena whispered to Sooni, “Have you ever seen it?”
No, she signed. Alena wasn’t surprised. Sooni would be an elder one day, but hadn’t earned that honor yet.
The three women entered the tent together. Two men sat within, but Alena barely noticed them. The broken gate at the heart of the tent claimed her entire attention.
That the gate was here had been nothing but a guess on Alena’s part. In her years with the clans, no one had mentioned it. But Cardon made sense. It had been Alena’s guess from the moment she learned the Etari possessed a gate. Cardon was the only permanent settlement in Etar. One clan was always responsible for guarding Cardon, though the responsibility shifted between clans. When she’d lived among the Etari, she’d assumed Cardon had some cultural or religious significance.
But it was always the gate.
The shattered gate.
At first glance, it had much in common with the one outside Landow. It was made of diamond, lit by a dim blue glow.
The glow surprised her.
The gate was active.
Even though it had been shattered.
The gate outside Landow had been an arch, a shape shared by this one. But only a fragment remained here, jutting from the ground at a slight angle. Where the other foundation of the arch should have been there was nothing but a hole.
A hole that glowed with pale blue light.
Alena glanced over at Dunne for permission. The elder gave her an affirmative hand sign.
Alena stepped closer, looking down into the hole.
It was deeper than she imagined. If she climbed in, it would have swallowed her and then some. At the bottom of the hole she saw the now-familiar glowing blue diamond.
Alena took a step back and kneeled down. She closed her eyes and brushed the world of souls. She sensed the gate, bright against her senses.
Alena opened her eyes and looked over at Dunne. “It’s not an arch. It’s an oval.”
Dunne grunted and turned to Sooni. “Is she always this observant?” The jest was made without malice.
Sooni chuckled.
Alena defended herself. “The one I encountered before was embedded in stone. I never imagined it was anything more than an arch.”
“A closed loop is more powerful than a broken one,” Dunne replied. Her words sounded like something she’d memorized long ago.
The light in the tent suddenly dimmed. Again, it took Alena a heartbeat to understand. Then she saw the glow had faded from the gate.
Dunne spoke before Alena could ask a question. “Try to use your gatestone.”
Alena frowned but obeyed. She focused on the stone embedded near her navel, focusing her affinity through it.
Nothing happened.
The light in the gate returned.
Alena felt the power in her gatestone return with the light.
She turned to Dunne. “Your gate is failing.”
The elder arched an eyebrow. “That is what I said.”
Alena had a dozen questions, but she started with the easiest. “How?”
“If I knew the answer to that I wouldn’t have had Sooni summon you. Soulwalking has been outlawed from our land for generations. This is a problem far beyond our skill.”
Alena forgot herself and nodded. Her mind was already working on the problem. As much as she wished otherwise, it had to be the queen. Somehow she attacked the Etari as well as the empire.
“Can you repair it?”
“I don’t know,” Alena admitted. “But I’ll try.”
15
The mountains of Falar reached for the sky before them. During their breaks, Brandt stared at the pristine peaks, considering it a pity that such a beautiful sight only pulled terrible memories from his past.
He’d been sent to the Falari border as one of his first assignments, long before his acceptance as a candidate for wolfblade training. He’d been young, filled with both excitement and fear, like nearly everyone in his unit.
The empire rotated almost all its troops through service at the border. The army believed it important for all active warriors to possess battle experience, and on a largely peaceful continent, the Falari border was the only real option.
Brandt remembered chasing after a Falari unit that had ambushed a farm close to the border.
He had thought himself the hunter that day, not realizing until too late that his unit was acting exactly as the Falari expected. The Falari sent a small raid, then attacked in force when imperial soldiers pursued the raid back over the border. The Falari ambushed his unit and Brandt nearly died alongside his warriors.
He’d returned to the border several times since. Once he became a wolfblade, several of his missions took place deep in Falari territory. Most of those assignments ended successfully.
But the fear from that first experience still remained, a slight twisting of his insides whenever he thought of Falar.
In his mind, the mountains ahead of them were more intimidating than majestic. Brandt’s heart beat a little faster as he looked at them. Others no doubt felt the same. The friendly conversations that had broken the silence on the journey thus far faded away the closer they came to the border.
Their first stop was an outpost hugging the border. The structure was small, built fr
om stone from the nearby mountains. It housed nearly a hundred soldiers, though. Brandt had never visited this particular location, though he’d slept in similar outposts in other parts of the border.
They passed through checkpoints quickly and left their horses in care of the soldiers stationed at the post. The prince, Brandt, and Ana met with the commander in his quarters.
The commander was a type Brandt was well familiar with, one of dozens Brandt had crossed paths with over the years. Clean and orderly, Brandt suspected the officer bathed twice a day. He ran his outpost well and was determined to prove it to the prince.
Brandt smiled to himself. When he’d been a wolfblade he’d received no such welcome. Wolfblades were a part of the army and yet separate. Other soldiers and officers were polite enough, but a wolfblade didn’t often make friends on their assignments.
Their briefing with the officer was short and to the point. The Falari had increased their activity over the past few months, but that same increase had been seen across the border. The officer insisted he’d been zealous in his duties, punishing any incursion.
Brandt saw Ana’s fist clench at the pride in the officer’s voice.
He understood her gesture.
Most imperial units now understood that pursuing the Falari into the mountains was a fool’s errand. Smart commanders kept to the border and developed cavalry units that could respond immediately to incursions. Foolish commanders who believed themselves tactical geniuses threw their troops into Falar, often to disastrous results. This commander was one of the latter. Brandt suspected that if he asked the troops for their thoughts he’d receive a very different report.
If Regar understood any of this, he said nothing. He accepted the commander’s information without question. Then he announced his intent to leave the next morning.
The commander offered more troops, but the prince declined.
That decision Brandt approved of. The number of troops brought across the border wouldn’t matter. In his own experience, it was easier to travel in Falar with smaller numbers. As it was, Regar’s guard was large enough that stealth wasn’t an option.
