Being less tral had left Segurado vulnerable, lower priority meaning fewer resources and weaker troops. The same thing affected the more isoted messenger groups, making them ripe for Jason and his panions to strike. The team had zigzagged down the Pallimustus equivalent of South America, hitting targets of opportunity fed to them by the Adventure Society.

  Their navigation tio prioritise sightseeing over efficy as they left the ti behind. Although their path would take them to the southern tip of what, oh, was Africa, they chose to take a wide curve over the south pole rather than a more direct route.

  The Pallimustus version of Antarctica was not the icy wastend it was oh. Known as the Dragon Lands, it was the native nd of the rge, scaled humanoids known as draians. Rather than the popuce, however, the isnd ti was named for its signature geological features.

  Where Greenstone had many apertures to an astral space that provided the desert with water, the Dragon Lands had subterraneaures to a realm of fire. The result of this was a nd filled with active voloes, steaming hot springs and the fme geysers known as ‘dragon mouths,’ for which the region was named.

  The whole team came out to watch as the sky ship approached the coast, giving them their first look. Mountains of dark stoted from verdant, green lownds, a mix of sprawling forest and vast agriculture. From altitude, they could make out the outline of fields as if the nd below them was a giant map with borders drawn onto it. The pnt life was very different from the tropical and subtropical climates they had been passing through, reminding Jason more of Sd or Irend.

  “There are a lot of active volht?” Jason asked. “Do they have an ash cloud problem?”

  “We’re definitely going to see them,” Zara said. “But the magic leaking out of the astral spaces has earth affinity, along with fire. It draws the ash from the sky, and absorbs it into the group, creating the famously rich farmnds. If you want gold-rank cooking ingredients, there’s no pce better than here. It’s how they make a lot of their money.”

  “I thought the draians were all isotionist,” Jason said. “They do a lot of trade?”

  “Exports,” Neil said. “Agricultural products from the Dragon Lands are the sed-rgest trade that passes through the Greenstone port, after low-rank spirit s. They use proxies outside their own nds, though, and aren’t very weling ters.”

  “Their goods are heavily tariffed by most nations due to political issues,” Zara expined. “That makes it even more expehan high-rank produally is. The quality is what gets people buying it anyway, but obviously that falls uhe luxury food market.”

  “I did hear the food they produced was good,” Jason said.

  “Jason,” Neil asked. “Why did we e here again?”

  “It’s a tour,” Jason said. “We decided on this route when we left Rimaros.”

  “Before fifteen years of war with the messengers made an already xenophobic people even more wary of outsiders. Is this about anything other than you getting a line on cheap ingredients? ’t you just make as much money as you want and buy this stuff somewhere more hospitable?”

  “There’s a value in farm fresh,” Jason said defensively. “It’s going to be fine.”

  ***

  Astral kings rarely miheir forces, to avoid fusing the most critical element of messenger culture: hierarchy. Wheing on a rge scale, like a pary invasion, cooperation was mahrough regur meetings between Voices of the Will, the anders of each astral king’s local forces.

  Navise Den Rigal’s astral king was a minure, pared to the cil of Kings, aly one of the Unorthodoxy’s rare astral kings. Every Voice of the Will paid close attentiohey met with others of their kind, but Navise was especially sensitive to any ge that might signal a dao her king’s true allegiance. Slipping Boris Ket Lundi into Vesta Carmis Zell’s service had already been more risk of exposure than she or her astral king liked.

  When she arrived at a messeronghold, she went straight for the meeting room. It herical chamber accessed through a hole in the ceiling, and the group met by floating in a circle. She noticed a number of missing attendees, all Voices belonging to members of the cil of Kings. Looking around, she saw that others had noticed the same thing, and shared her wariness. It did not take being a secret traitor to be cut down by other messengers.

  As the discussion began, it quickly became evident that this wasn’t reted to the Unorthodoxy, but to a much more localised threat. The Voices stood around a proje showing a zigzag pattern across the lower half of one of the p’s tis. Navise listeo a pair of her fellows argue without interje, as did the rest of the group.

  “There is no reason for us to not put together a ford strike them down. They are being allowed to rampage through our territories unabated.”

  “They have left our territories. They are someone else’s problem now.”

  “Yes. Our failure to quash a handful of insignifit locals will be a stain on our names forever.”

  “I would hardly call the Heretig insignifit.”

  “That is a fool’s title to keep the pawns from getting fused.”

  “It’s not w. There is talk of a traitor astral king and of what that means. That is the kind of thinking that leads to the Unorthodoxy. My astral king will not be happy if I have te most of my forces again.”

  “The’s kill the source. If we destroy his avatar, we won’t have to deal with him again until we are doh this p.”

  “Killing him has been tried before, when he was far weaker. More importantly, the cil of Kings had specifically instructed us not to provoke him.”

  “And none of our astral kings belong to the cil. My king proposes that we collect our forces, set a trap and crush Asano.”

  The pair were uo reach a sensus and would not let it go until each of the others said their piece. Most of the group advocated letting it go, moving any forces out of the Heretig’s path to minimise losses. When pushed, Navise took her usual path of following the group to avoid standing out.

  “I say we simply allow the king to pass,” she said. “In the end, the issue is one of being insequential.”

  The main advocate for killing Asano scoffed.

  “If he is insequential, then what harm is there in killing him?”

  “I speak not of him, but of us,” Navise said. “He is not insequential to us, or we would not be having this meeting. We are insequential to him. He strikes at us ially, as opportunity presents. We should minimise his opportunities, reserving our forces, and simply let him pass. We resume our operations once he is gone, having lost fewer people and revealed less information.”

  As Navise looked around the circle, all now staring at her, she realised she had made a mistake.

  “We are insequential?” One of the others asked.

  Anything resembling humility was not the thinking of an orthodox messenger. A wave of power flooded from Navise, smming the others into the wall as she bolted for the hole in the ceiling.

  ***

  Anna took the coffee from the street vendor and started trudging back to her office. Once again, she was running on not enough sleep, but felt no for her safety as she took a shortcut through an alleyway. She might not have bat training, but she was silver rank. Anyone who could brirouble wouldn’t o use an alley.

  “You aren’t as safe as you think,” a voice said, stepping out of the shadows, startling her.

  “There are people watg me, you know, Mr Remore.”

  “No, there aren’t.”

  “Oh. Will they live?”

  “By silver-rank standards, they’re practically unharmed. It’s bee hard to have a discreet versation with you, Mrs Tilden.”

  “Everyone wants to know what’s going on in your territory. We’ve seen your people reg the area, but there’s only so much that the many, many satellites pointing at your territory show us. Then there’s the vampires ag up, globally no less. Presumably in respoo whatever happeo the vampire army formerly occupying your territory. An army that seems to have vanished entirely during some manner of surveilnce bckout. Then there are the ongoing s about the System and Asano’s potential return.”

  “Not potential. Six months to a year is the current timetable.”

  “How solid are those numbers?”

  “Things happen, especially with Jason. But he seems fident.”

  “He always does. You’re in regur tact?”

  “His prows, and he reach out to us with ease, now. Wheurns, it won’t be like st time he was here.”

  “If he’s strong enough to settle old grudges—”

  “That’s not what he wants. He wants to e home without making things worse. For his return to be peaceful. He believes that you help make that happen.”

  “And how does he expect me to mahat?”

  “He is aware that his uanding of the political realities he’s walking into is shallow. He wants to hire you to be his senior political advisor for Earth affairs.”

  “Does he have someone doing that for the other world’s politics?”

  “He does.”

  “I don’t know what you expect from me. hornton vanished into the Asano d didn’t e out.”

  “He wao. He siders himself to have an obligation to you, which I respect. But the moment he shows up in an airport, someone or other will try and take him into custody. They’d try to do the same to me, thus my discretion.”

  “How badly did you hurt the people following me? I’m not sure ‘practically unharmed’ means the same thing to you as me.”

  “What have I ever dohat you would think me a savage?”

  “I saw what your world did to Jason Asano.”

  “And I saw what yours did. At least on mine, we stab people in the front. I did less to the people following you than I would have in my world. More than if they were here to protect you, instead of to watch for someone like me tag them. But silver rankers heal well.”

  Anna shook her head.

  “I o retire.”

  “Perhaps just a ge of employer.”

  “That’s what you want? For me pack up my wife and move to the middle of vampire-ied Europe?”

  “You did it before. You were the first UN liaison to the Asano .”

  “Yeah, and that position fell apart ohe French realised the had no iion of giving back the k of their try they took. I don’t see the UN or anyone else being more aodating once Asano is back.”

  “Which is why Jason wants your help. France hased for almost two decades. You talk about govers in exile all you like, but the reality is that your world has undergone a fual ge. The soohe people who rule it uand that, the soohey stop fighting over the ashes of a world that no longer exists. It’s time to look to the future, and Jason wants to help this world uand that.”

  “Is that his iion? To e bad fix the world acc to his standards? It’s certainly in character.”

  “You will find that Jason is not the blunt object he once was. That he wants yuidance should tell you that, but yes, he’s the same in many ways. He has power and wants to use it food, and that hasn’t ged in all the time I’ve known him. What has ged is his realisation ‘good’ is a more nuanced cept than he uood when he was younger. He wants your help figuring out how to act responsibly, and that starts with how he returns. The first job he would have you work on is figuring out how he es back without the world deg to go to war with him.”

  “He could give them the things they want.”

  “Tell that to him, Mrs Tilden. I’m just a messeoday.”

  Anna sighed.

  “My experieells me that he wants me to smooth things over because he wants to keep his toys to himself. That he realises he ’t fight the whole world to keep them. But that’s not who he was, when I knew him. The man I knew would fight the whole world, if it came to that.”

  Rufus chuckled.

  “It seems that you do know him. e to Europe, Mrs Tilden. You don’t have to make any decision now. Talk to Jason. Talk to Nigel.”

  “Even if I was willing to sider it, you know I’ll o clear this. I’m not going to sneak off with you in the night.”

  “It’s ten-thirty in the m, Mrs Tilden. And I suspect that your people will be more than happy to get some eyes on the inside.”

  ***

  The sky ship accelerated rapidly out on Lands airspace. Clive scurried down one of the airship’s hallways, casting anxious gnces behind him.

  “CLIVE!” Humphrey’s voice roared as he stormed around a er and into the hall. “What in the goddess of pain’s needle pit where you thinking?”

  Clive stopped a out a nervous ugh.

  “Did we get away?” he asked.

  “Yes. And we’re not being chased, thanks to Stash being an actual dragon. Why did you go into that temple?”

  “It wasn’t an actual temple. They vee dragons rather than gods; there’s no divine power there. It’s more of an academic hall dedicated to draic magic. I didn’t know they’d get so angry about me going in.”

  “They had a sign out front that read ‘outsiders strictly forbidden!’ In adventuring circles, Clive, that is what is referred to AS A CLUE!”

  “I actually went in at the side, not the front. And it wasn’t a big sign. More of a pque, really.”

  Humphrey jured his sword and Clive bolted down the hall, Humphrey chasing after him. Jason, Sophie and Belinda watched them go, having been drawn by Humphrey’s yelling.

  “I’m just gd it wasn’t my fault,” Jason said.

  “I’m not,” Sophie said. “My money was on you getting us chased off on the m of the sed day. How did you st a whole week without causing trouble?”

  “I’ve been w on my diplomacy. Belinda, did you make a betting pool again?”

  “Yeah, and Clive made me a bundle by beating you out. And if he’d just asked me, I’d have gotten him in there without anyone being the wiser.”

  “You know,” Jason said, “people always accused me of getting us into these things, but I’m starting to suspect that all of you are the real troublemakers. Except Zara. I’m not the biggest fan of royalty, but at least she was traio have some de.”

  Jason watched Belinda and Sophie share a look.

  “What aren’t you telling me?” he asked.

  “So,” Sophie began, “there was this draian prinot much of a prince. One of those eighty-seventh in line for the throypes. He decided that Zara was going to be his fourth wife, and didn’t see much point in sulting Zara on that decision.”

  “What happeo the prince?” Jason asked. “When things happen to princes, it tends to get around. I ’t tell if not having heard anything is good or bad. Is this what it’s like running around with me?”

  Sophie and Belinda nodded in unison.

  “Let’s just say that we were on the way to suggest we skip town when Clive got in trouble,” Sophie told him.

  “Yeah, that imprisoning ritual is going to hold the prince for another day, tops,” Belinda said. “And that’s assuming no one finds him. I assume someone will be looking for him.”

  “Not his first three wives, if his personality is anything to go by,” Sophie said. Belinda snorted a ugh.

  “What’s this about an imprisoning ritual?” Jason asked.

  “Well,” Belinda said, “I wao disappear the guy, but Stel thought killing him was a bad idea.”

  “I’m very fident it was.”

  “I don’t know. Leaving him alive might be worse, after Zara’s respoo his proposal. I didn’t even know you could put storm magiside someone’s—”

  “o talk about that,” Zara said, stig her head out of a door. “Humphrey doesn’t o hear anything about it.”

  She retreated into the room, only for her head to immediately shoot back out.

  “her does my father.”

  Jason sighed.

  “Her father is definitely going to hear about it, isn’t he?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Belinda said. “She left stains in that room that I’m not sure crystal wash could get out. Why he had so much—”

  “Let’s skip the details,” Jason said. “For now, at least, while I go talk to Danielle about this. I expect we’ll want all the grisly details ter.”