OoOoO

Vinie bent low over the map laid out before her, studying it with the developing eye of a strategist.

"Danitesk's lawmaker will fight us every step of the way, if we try to use the town as our staging point. When I left Gideo, he said he'd keep working on Kuman. I doubt though that he's made much headway."

Lord Xolani and Lady Oesu stood on either side of Vinie, leaning over her shoulders to peer at the map. Meanwhile Kiiss, resplendent in vivd red, lounged comfortably in Oesu's seat on the other side of the Lord and Lady of Undor's crescent-shaped desk. Here, in their office in the State Hall of Moaan, everyone could speak freely concerning Undor's next move. That did not mean, however, that anyone was letting their guard down. Stationed outside the enormous, gold-embossed doors, a pair of Moaanese guards stood at attention with strict orders not to allow anyone near.

"The clearest route to the tip of Auli's Inlet is by way of the coast from Danitesk," pointed out Xolani. He tapped the little dot where the fishing village sat. "The jungle grows thick all around in that area."

"If we arrive in force, this Kuman will have little choice but to yield to our authority," added Oesu.

Vinie frowned, chewing the inside of her cheek. "With all due respect, Your Ladyship, you haven't met Kuman. He could make things much more difficult for us than they need to be. Besides, now isn't the time to go making enemies of our own folk."

Now it was Oesu's turn to frown. "This Kuman...do you suspect he might have loyalist sympathies to Mahir?"

Vinie thought long and hard, considering her answer. At length, she shook her head. "It's hard to say, but I don't think I want to go that far with guesswork. I think Kuman LawMaker is concerned with Danitesk...and only Danitesk. He was very upset by anything that risked bringing the king's attention to his home."

Kiiss looked up from Oesu's ledger book, which she had been perusing despite having already been told off by the Lady of Undor twice. "It takes a special kind of denial to pretend that one doesn't actually live in the real world. Perhaps a more pragmatic approach might be in order?"

Lord Xolani stepped away from the map to circle around the crescent-moon shaped desk. It had been weeks now since the Uprising, but Vinie still marked the tell-tale twitch of his right shoulder; the instinct to reach out with his severed, dominant arm very much alive. Instead, Xolani feigned having meant to reach up and adjust the patterned fold of his kente wrap over his stump. Then, with his left hand, he pulled out his chair behind the desk and sat.

"I'm afraid that the time for burying our heads in the sand is over and past," said Xolani. "Whether they like it or not, every body born on the southern seas has a stake in Undor. If Kuman thinks that crying 'Not I! Not I!' will mean anything to Mahir in the storm's eye, then he's heading for a very harsh awakening. It falls us – this group gathered here today - to plan for futures others might wish to ignore."

A pleased hum escaped Kiiss; she shut Oesu's ledger with a snap and leaned back, painted nails folded over one knee.

"Before I left Danitesk, Gideo and I talked about other ideas." Sliding the map out into the middle of the table, she pointed out the Rowun River, a narrow ribbon stretching all the way from The Teeth south of Falerik, past Moaan, to the sea at Auli's Inlet. "If Kuman refuses to allow us to use Danitesk to stage an attack on the shipyard, could it be done from Moaan instead? We could canoe down the Rowun from just a little north of the city walls."

Oesu's mental abacus was clacking almost loud enough for Vinie to hear it. "That will create a new set of challenges. We would need enough canoes for, say, two hundred warriors, and the Rowun has numerous rapids, as well as crocodiles."

Vinie pressed on. "Yas but, if you think about it, the river might be the faster, quieter route all around. Rather than send the raiding party by way of Danitesk, along the main road where they may attract attention, they could slip through the jungle along the Rowun and come upon the shipyard from behind."

"The guards will not like it," said Xolani, even as Vinie saw that she was winning. "Canoes are overturned and lost in the jungle every year."

"So much the better for the crocodiles," remarked Kiiss dryly.

"We will need to find experienced guides, perhaps hunters who know the river and can lead the party..." Oesu was saying, more to herself than anyone else. Circling around the desk, she leaned past Kiiss with a pointed stare. From within a drawer she produced parchment and an enormous peacock feather quill. "...but if that means dropping the cost of a dhow..."

"We should stay flexible though," cautioned Vinie. "Gideo was going to have hunters from Danitesk scout the shipyard. Once he knows the rumors are true, he'll send the fastest canoe Danitesk has to bring the word to us here in Moaan."

"If only Amenthere hadn't gotten the clever idea to start hawking messenger birds," lamented Xolani. "We could send out scouts to try and find Mahir's falconers, but they could be anywhere."

"Probably Syrinese, operating in pairs and camping in the trees." Kiiss no longer looked quite so pleased by her previous pestering of Oesu. The gold face powder on her brow sparkled as she frowned. "They've always been quite good at moving throughout the jungle from its northern borders, especially for non-southerners. I used to be acquainted with a few of them, back when their talents were for sport rather than war. Very clever people, with all the nerve of the Amentherians and the charm of the Vaelonese. They make the best of dinner guests...but also the worst of enemies. The king's current High Obad is Syrion-born, I do believe."

Vinie was about to ask more about the Syrinese falconers when, as if summoned by their conversation, a flutter of wings came from outside the window. Xolani and Oesu's office was at the very top of the State Hall, too high for the casual flight of a pigeon.

"Is that...?"

Xolani stood and went to the window. The air hung hot and humid beneath a rapidly-curdling sky; there would be rain tonight. Abruptly, a disheveled lump of green and orange feathers deposited itself on the sill.

"A messenger bird?!" exclaimed Vinie.

"And to our office no less!" Oesu's stately face blazed with wrath. "Somebody had better be dying for such a risk!"

"Someone may just be." Cradled in Xolani's hand, the bird – a yellow billed parrot – was in miserable shape. Her prettily curving beak had been broken, the tip cracked clean off beneath the nostrils and bleeding freely. Feathers had been viciously plucked all across her shoulders and wings, exposing wounds that could only have been made by the razor-sharp talons of a falcon. Breast heaving, eyes half closed, the little creature lay limp. Miraculously though, the little parrot had successfully completed her delivery; there was a note tied to one of her ankles.

Kiiss shook her head pityingly at the gasping bird. "Poor thing, it barely has any strength left to fly, much less reach this high window."

"Here, let me see." Coming to Xolani's side, Oesu reached in and retrieved the message. Then she sighed. "You should end the bird's suffering, Xolani. Can't you see it's in pain?"

Xolani, however, seemed quite protective of the creature. "Pain isn't a death sentence. Perhaps there is something the shamans can do for it."

Any argument to the contrary fell somewhat flat when one considered Xolani's own recent history with pain. Unwilling to naysay her husband further over the parrot, Oesu did not protest when he summoned a servant with the pull-cord and sent them away, shuddering bird in hand. Then, that settled, all attention returned to the message it had carried.

"Any seal?" asked Kiiss, craning her head curiously to peer over Oesu's arm.

"None." Dispensing with suspense, Oesu unrolled the scrap of parchment and read its contents silently to herself.

"Must be awfully important, for someone to have risked a messenger bird," remarked Vinie. Leaning against the desk, she tapped a finger anxiously against the knife scars marring her forearms. "I hope Gideo didn't discover anything so alarming about the shipyard that he felt a canoe wasn't fast enough."

"Oesu?" Xolani questioned.

The tighter the mask of calm became across the Lady of Undor's face, the more a feeling of unease rose in the back of Vinie's throat. She couldn't quite say why, but she had the sudden impression of danger. It was the same feeling which had come over her, years before, on that first escape from Utunma to Moaan. Only narrowly had Vinie managed to avoid running their little dhow aground on an underwater reef. Just as before, Vinie knew then that they were not alone. The misty silhouette of a man – one whom Vinie had known and loved in another life – came into view just behind Oesu. Something was wrong; she knew it, and so did Zaneo. Hand tightening instinctively on the hilt of her belawa, Vinie pushed off from the desk to stand alert.

"What is it?" she demanded.

Oesu glanced at Xolani. She ground her jaw (as if uncertain?), then held out the note toward Vinie.

"The news is bad. Very bad."

Vinie was already reading.

BlackPearl;

Your SkinPainter has been betrayed. By the time you read this, he and his captors will be well on their way to Amenthere.

I am sorry.

The world tilted beneath Vinie's feet. Before she even realized it, she had staggered backwards against the desk, knocking a pile of scrolls onto the mosaic floor tiles.

"No..."

Oesu's face remained an implacable mask, a tinge of sympathy creasing the corners of her eyes. Kiiss made a grab for the note, and Vinie barely even registered as it was pulled from her numb fingertips.

"Vinie...there's nothing can be done," said Oesu gently. "We have no allies in the capital. Gideo is beyond our help."

"No."

Xolani, having no doubt figured out or at least guessed the contents of the note by now, moved to approach Vinie. Vinie, hugging herself protectively, backed away around the desk, shaking her head.

"Gideo SkinPainter was-"

"NO!" Vinie shrieked. Eyes popping frantically, she lunged forward to seize Xolani by the front of his robe. "He's not dead!! Captured, not dead!! But they'll kill him!"

"He is alrea-" Oesu started to say.

"MAHIR WILL KILL GIDEO!!! HE'S ALL I HAVE LEFT AND MAHIR WILL KILL HIM!!!"

To his credit, Xolani did not fight back even as Vinie began to shake him violently. He did, however, catch her by the wrist with his remaining hand. The Lord of Undor looked deeply troubled, but whether more by Gideo's capture...or by Vinie's outburst, it was difficult to tell.

"What would you have us do?" asked Xolani.

Vinie, eyes streaming down her blazing cheeks, looked up with a glimmer of hope. "Take the warriors meant for the shipyard attack and send them to Amenthere! I'll lead them myself! Mahir won't be expecting an attack on the capital! We'll demand Gideo's release in exchange for-"

"In exchange for what?" countered Oesu. "Two hundred warriors will do nothing against the gates and guards of Amenthere. You'd all be killed on Mahir's doorstep...long after Gideo would have been put to death regardless."

"I DON'T CARE!! FIRST ZANEO, THEN SAHAR!! I WON'T LOSE GIDEO TOO...I CAN'T!!!"

"You can, and you will, because you MUST!!" Losing hold of his own control, Xolani shook Vinie hard by the wrist. "You are the General of Undor now! The BlackPearl of the Factionists! What do you think will happen to our people if you lead a suicide attack on Amenthere, all for the sake of one man?! When Mahir is finished with you, he'll attack Moaan next. And then Utunma, and then Danitesk, down to the last ReefFisher's hut! He will raze our country to the ground before it ever even existed!"

"Please, BlackPearl, think!" Oesu, by now the only level head left in the exchange, implored. "What will it do to your dad, to hear that his daughter was killed in a needless waste? And you have your friend's sons to think of now as well! What kind of life will they have if you leave Undor to Mahir's mercy?"

"I caaaaaaaan't!!" wailed Vinie, sagging in Xolani's grip. The white bones of her knuckles shone clearly through her skin as she dug her nails into her palms. Tears streamed down her face like waterfalls, falling to water the unyielding floor below. "I...I can't...I can't do it again. He's the last of them...the last of us...you don't understand!!"

"You must," repeated Xolani firmly. "For your people."

For a moment, it seemed that Vinie had given up. Head hung low between her shoulders, knees on the verge of buckling, she clung to the front of Xolani's robes. No one else in the office saw the pale, dreamlike figures which came from either side to whisper in Vinie's ears. Xolani and Oesu mistook Vinie's listening to Zaneo and Sahar's secret words for acceptance. The picture of a grave, sympathetic monarch, Oesu approached and laid a hand on Vinie's head.

"Gideo would not want you to die for him."

Vinie's head jerked up sharply. In her sharp, bony face, there was a sudden animation; a light in her dark eyes that burned like inner fire.

"You are wrong. Gideo knows that I am not afraid to die. He knows what I really fear. He knows that I would rather die a thousand times over than lose one more person to the axe."

Oesu tried another tactic. "General, we cannot allow thi-"

"Sharks take what you will or won't allow! I am not your puppet! Didn't you yourselves tell Mahir that any ruler who does not value the lives of their people is unfit to rule?!"

Oesu and Xolani's eyes widened in surprise. Then it was anger's turn to fill the space. Xolani's lips peeled back in a snarl.

"We value Undorian lives more than you do, or so it seems in this moment! You would see hundreds die for the sake of one man? One SkinPainter??"

"HIS NAME IS GIDEO! HE IS ALIVE! HE IS A LIFE!" Vinie's screams must have been clearly heard all the way down in the streets below the State Hall. Then, just as quickly as her rage had come, it calmed. With an eerie fluidity of motion, Vinie turned from the Lord and Lady of Undor to head for the door.

"Vinie PearlDiver! Whatever it is you are about to do, you will not take a single Moaanese guard from this city!" Xolani shouted after her.

"The city guard answers not to you, but to us," said Oesu.

Vinie stopped in the doorway. Without looking back, she answered.

"And I do not answer to you, but to my family."

With that, Vinie walked away, leaving the enormous office door swinging to shut with a bang behind her.

OoOoO

"Firebelly! O for SeaSons' sake...Vinie! Vinie, stop!"

A fistful of colourful skirts in each hand and significantly shorter of stride, it was nearly impossible for Kiiss to catch up to Vinie. Vinie had no intentions of stopping either. Clerks, LawMakers, LawKeepers, CoinCounters, and guards alike paused to stare in confusion. Some glanced at one another, uneasy. It couldn't be a good sign for the famed BlackPearl of the Factionists to come storming out of the office of the Lord and Lady of Undor, especially with Goran's first ever civil war brewing on the northern horizon.

They were nearly halfway down the spiraling floors of the State Hall when Kiiss finally got a hold of the back of Vinie's vest.

"Will you stop and listen?!"

Vinie came spinning about so fast, Kiiss was nearly thrown off balance. The younger woman's face was a mess of rage and tears. Years and experience had given Kiiss a discerning eye though; she could clearly see the raw terror swirling just beneath.

"Go back, Kiiss! I don't want your tasteless-"

"I'm here to help you, you silly child!"

"...What?"

Rolling her eyes so hard they nearly fell out of her head, Kiiss grabbed Vinie by the elbow and pulled her into the gilded recess of a guild master's office door.

"Just how do you think you're going to get to Amenthere in time, much less inside the city walls? There are bounties on your head worth even more than Gideo's!"

"I don't-"

"You should care, every detail matters in Amenthere! And just how are you going to save Gideo from royal custody, supposing you manage to get inside the city? The entire First Company is stationed in the capital; over a thousand highly trained soldiers, entirely at Mahir's disposal. If you try to get anywhere near Castle Armathain, you can be sure that they will cut you down in a heartbeat."

"You said you were here to help!" cried Vinie, anguish strangling her voice. Even now she shifted from foot to foot, her lean frame coiled and ready to start running again at any moment. "Doesn't anyone else here care that Mahir is going to kill Gid-"

The slap that Kiiss delivered to Vinie's face wasn't hard, but it was so unexpected that Vinie jumped and let out a yelp. Not even her own mum had ever smacked her, even when she might have deserved it.

"Now that I have your attention..." Kiiss went on, glowering up at Vinie with her hands on her hips. "Listen carefully. You cannot save Gideo without help, and you cannot do it without a plan. I don't know when developed a lone-shark complex, PearlDiver, but it's going to get you killed." Vinie opened her mouth to protest, but Kiiss raised a manicured hand in warning. "You need to get inside Amenthere without being seen. I have a carriage that, thanks to a few 'revisions', can do just that. You need allies once you're inside the city. I have contacts who are more than overdue to come out into the open against Mahir. Now, are you going to be reasonable, or do I have to hit you again?"

Cheek smarting, eyes still streaming, Vinie swallowed hard. Since reading the news of Gideo's capture, the world had been careening out of control around her, with no anchor to reality where Gideo would have been. Zaneo and Sahar had told her that there was no time to lose, that they would even help her when the time came! Fueled by the assurances of her dead loved ones and the overwhelming fear of losing Gideo, Vinie had fully intended to ride alone to Amenthere on the back of the first antelope she got her hands on. Kiiss's abrupt, sudden demand for control of the situation brought her careening mind back into a fragile semblance of order.

"Why..." Vinie had to clear her throat and try again. "Why are you doing this, Kiiss? You're a wanted woman in the capital now. There's nothing you stand to gain, and everything to lose."

A curious change came over Kiiss then. When Vinie had first met the ArtSeller, her first impression had been of a wealthy matron. Since then though, there had been very few moments when Kiiss had ever seemed soft or motherly. The change was almost imperceptible, but when Kiiss sagged slightly, her voice lowering and growing hoarse, Vinie glimpsed an old woman, rounded from years of childbearing and careworn beneath her makeup.

"If I was in this for money, I would never have sought you out in The Serpent's Tunnel over two years ago. Nations, like children, are birthed in bloodshed, pain, and tears."

"Kiiss..." Vinie spoke slowly, comprehension beginning to dawn. "...Where are your children?"

Kiiss, blinking hard, stared Vinie square in the eye. "Gone. All of them. Once, I was a proud mum to five boys, all more loyal than you and more beautiful than Gideo. I raised them in the family business...my greatest pride, and deepest regret. We commissioned the theft of art from Amentherian nobles and resold it to wealthy buyers across Goran. Yes, we were black market ArtSellers. I know you guessed as much about me already, after I gave you my family's old base in Falerik."

"What happened?"

"We were caught. Or rather, my sons were caught while I was away in Derbesh, romancing more clients from among the clansfolk. If there's one thing Mahir has never tolerated, it's disrespect for capital law." Kiiss continued to look Vinie in the eye, even as a single tear escaped to roll down her powdered cheek. "They were beheaded, all five of them. Even the youngest, who was younger than you were when Mahir took your first husband."

"Kiiss...I-"

"No, don't pity me! I will have my revenge! I will see the Amenthis dynasty brought down into the dirt if I have to give my last coin and breath to do it! When I saw you in the square, that day in Moaan, shouting for justice and fanning the first flames of rebellion, I knew my destiny was set." Reaching up, Kiiss ran a thumb along Vinie's cheek, which only moments before she had slapped. "Gideo is so like them, in so many ways. He trusts you, as my sons trusted me. This I swear to you now, Vinie; I will be damned before I let Mahir have another one of my masterpieces!"

Standing there, face to face in a doorway in the State Hall, Vinie and Kiiss understood one another as never before. Pulling in a deep breath, Vinie closed her eyes. When she reopened them again, her eyes burned with purpose.

"Alright. Tell me how we save Gideo's life."

OoOoO

Many, many leagues away, far upriver from Danitesk, Gideo sat alone in the hold of an unfamiliar boat. With one wrist chained to the bulkhead, he was unable to move around the tiny space in which he had been held captive for what he guessed to be roughly two days. By the time whatever drug Jalatu had slipped him wore off, he was already aboard, and thus had no idea what kind of boat they were on, or where they were. All Gideo knew was that he was in trouble.

He also knew with some certainty that there were only two other people aboard besides himself. Jalatu had come down to the hold once...it had not been a pleasant exchange. There was also another man, a bald man by the name of Enidu LawKeeper. Gideo recognized him from a very brief encounter in Amenthere. The man was a loyalist, thoroughly entrenched in the service of the Amenthis dynasty. That combined with his current accommodations only added to Gideo's anxiety.

Optimistic of his ability to escape from only two captors, Gideo had tried to find a way to slip his manacle early on. It was a small cuff though, and Gideo's hands were large. He tried everything from picking the lock with a nail (too large for the hole) to wriggling free (bloodying his wrist in the attempt), to no result. When Jalatu had noticed, he had threatened to chain Gideo's other hand as well. In the end Gideo had run out of time; he felt the soft scrape against the hull as their boat docked at its mooring.

Then there were voices. Muffled through the deck, they came to Gideo without any clear identity or words. Through the tiny porthole in the hold Gideo saw only cloudy grey skies and what looked to be the far shore of a lake. There came the thud of footsteps overhead, then a creak as the trapdoor to the hold was opened. Pale light came pouring in down the ladder, along with the first breath of fresh air Gideo had had all day. He stood up straight and still, one hand tugged out awkwardly behind him by the short chain tethering him to the bulkhead. Whoever came down that ladder would find a determinedly uncooperative SkinPainter, Gideo promised himself. Then a figure descended into the hold, and Gideo's chest tightened like a vice.

"Mahir," he growled.

The shadows of the hold played no tricks; the King of Goran himself had come to collect Gideo. Dressed for travel in dark, utilitarian garb and a blood-red cloak, Mahir moved even more like a swordsman than he had in Utunma. He kept one hand resting easily on the golden sword hilt at his waist, hawk-like brown eyes narrowed in triumph as he approached Gideo. Down the ladder, another person descended behind the king. Gideo recognized Arzai, the young High Obad, but neither her youth nor her beauty did anything to lessen his growing unease. If anything, Arzai's arrival only heightened Gideo's anxiety.

"Gideo SkinPainter, once again we come face to face. This time though, I think the outcome will be quite different." Mahir slid into the bench across from where Gideo stood.

In the tiny hold, Gideo could have easily reached out and touched the other man. As tall and strong as Gideo was, it was a risk that perhaps others might not have been so bold in taking. With the High Obad – eyes gleaming a predatory scarlet - standing to one side though, Gideo made no move...yet. Rather than reply, he simply narrowed his eyes at Mahir and remained silent.

"Do you know where you are?" asked Mahir.

Again, stony silence from Gideo.

"You are docked at Heart Lake, barely a day's ride from Amenthere's western gate. Outside, a cadre of Knights of Amenthis wait to escort us there. Once we arrive in the city, you will be declared guilty of high treason and sentenced to death. Your execution will be carried out three days from now in The Lair, for all Gorian citizens to witness."

Gideo had of course been expecting as much. That didn't make hearing his own impending death stated as fact any less jarring. Slowly, his manacled hand clenched into a fist. Arzai shifted subtly, and Gideo thought he saw a fiery glow spark to life behind her gaze. The High Obad also carried a whip, coiled like an inky black snake on her hip. Even though Mahir appeared to be sitting brazenly within arm's reach of his imposing prisoner, there was no doubt in Gideo's mind that the king believed himself perfectly safe. He was probably right.

"A shame for me, then." The words came out sounding far calmer than Gideo felt. "My death will make little difference to Undor though. One man does not make or break a country."

Mahir did not rise to Gideo's subtle jab. Raising his eyebrows, he pointed to the pearl which Gideo wore on a cord around his neck; Vinie's black pearl.

"To a country, perhaps not. But what about to a woman? How do you think Vinie PearlDiver will manage without her lieutenant...her precious second-in-command...her husband?"

So Jalatu had already blabbed. It was the one thought that Gideo had been trying above all else not to dwell on. He knew exactly what his death would do to Vinie...it would destroy her. To this day, Gideo remembered how fragile Vinie had seemed in those first early weeks after they had freed her from the prison in Utunma. Zaneo's death had shaken her. And then, much more recently, Sahar's death had unmoored her. To the casual acquaintance, Vinie had apparently recovered from the loss of Sahar with remarkable speed and resilience. Gideo knew the truth though. He had personally borne witness to the nights spent lying awake, sleepless in the dark, Vinie's eyes fastened on some unseen figure in the room. He knew that she heard them – Zaneo and Sahar – and while he did not doubt her, he also worried. Privately, only to himself, Gideo worried about how long Vinie's mind would hold up under the enormous strain of not only leading a rebellion, but also apparently straddling the boundaries between the living and the dead.

Whatever Gideo had previously believed about life after death, Vinie's ghosts threw everything into question. What if, after Mahir had his way, he himself ended up joining Zaneo and Sahar in Vinie's waking dreams? Was he doomed to play a part in driving the woman he loved to insanity? The prospect of his own death seemed a pale thing in comparison to that.

"You were always a shark, Mahir..." began Gideo slowly. "...but what was it that turned you cruel?"

Mahir leaned forward even further from his seat. There was no trace of a smirk on his face anymore, only pure, unfiltered disdain. "Oh, I think you know the answer to that question, StarGazer. An attack on myself alone, I could have accepted as simply part of all this. But for you to have attacked my son-"

"I did not! I would never have harmed your son," Gideo protested.

"Wouldn't you? What if Hithon had been five years older? Or ten? Would he have still been safe from you and your blade that night, if the prince of Goran had been a young man instead of a child?"

"Yas."

Mahir curled his lip. "So you say." Then he sat back, waving a hand. "That is all simply a matter of our own personal enmity. Either way, you are still a traitor to Goran and a danger to its citizens. The people of Amenthere will witness firsthand just what the price of such treason is. I will leave this world to my son just as it came to me; peaceful, prosperous, and unified."

"Oh, I think people know well enough just how unified your rule is." Turning his attention to Arzai, who up to this point had been standing still and silent as a statue, Gideo thought to perhaps sow at least one seed of discord in the king's inner ranks while he had the chance. "Members of your own Magicol doubted you enough to help your would-be assassin. Not that you gave them much reason to be loyal, seeing as you had Tomur and Margalee maimed without so much as a trial."

Arzai's angular red eyes narrowed slightly, dangerously. The golden ring of the High Obad glinted on her finger in the low light. Whether or not his words had struck any chord with the sorceress, Gideo saw no sign. Mahir was no longer interested in letting the conversation stretch on any longer regardless.

"There is a difference between appearances and truths, SkinPainter. If you and the other southerners knew anything about truth and loyalty, none of us would be in this disaster." The king stood and tossed his cloak back over one shoulder. "I will see you in The Lair in three days."

Gideo sneered. "And my tongue will still be cursing you even as my head hits the ground."

At that, Mahir paused, a politely confused look on his face that Gideo did not like in the least. Turning back from the ladder, the king chuckled and shook his head.

"You believe I intend to have you beheaded? For all that you have done to me, the legacy of Amenthis, and this nation? Oh no, not at all!"

Gideo's mouth went dry.

"I will see you burn, Gideo SkinPainter."

His pronouncement made, Mahir swept out of the hold and up the ladder without so much as a backward glance. Arzai however swept one last look over Gideo. Appraising? Pitying? Gloating? Her sculpted expression remained as inscrutable as ever. Then, smoke trailing from the tip of her whip, she too ascended the ladder and disappeared into the grey brightness of the outside world. The trapdoor clanged shut, leaving Gideo once more alone in the gloom.

A dull ringing began to build in Gideo's ears as he slumped down to sit. Burn. Serpents below...Mahir didn't actually mean to burn him alive...did he? The mere thought brought bile rising up the back of Gideo's throat. Even the oldest and most outdated of Undorian punishments – drowning in a weighted net – paled in comparison to such a horrific prospect. Gideo's hands shook...his face felt numb...cold sweat broke out across every inch of his skin.

"Vinie...Zaneo...Somebody! Help me!"

With that choked cry, Gideo's face fell into his hands, and his courage fell apart. Chained in the dim hold of a strange ship, alone yet surrounded by enemies, Gideo wept until the king's soldiers came to take him away.

OoOoO