Chapter List

e’re waiting in the dark for a Scribe Arcanist?” Kenesh Drun’s henchman hissed. “Reina is called Vicereine as far north as Kulnas. There are none in Aventar who even lived when such a title was last granted!”

“I’ve been given one opportunity to join the Blade, Nako,” Kenesh replied very quietly. “Her chains are worth a fortune in gold monarchs.”

“More likely you’ll end up worse than dead.”

In the distance, they could hear the tapping sound of the Vicereine’s staff and the sound of her dusty, tattered robes dragging on the dock as she slowly walked around an empty flax cart. On her shoulder was a mangy black bird that resembled a horned owl except for its red eyes.

The Scaled One dared not move. He had almost become the shadow that concealed him. A massive smooth-bladed knife dripped with lethal poison at his side. The flat aroma of a cooling potter’s kiln hung damply in the air and mixed with the briny stench of the weatherbeaten loading platform. The surf washed against the platform’s support beams below. The air was hollow with thin-blooded anticipation.

Reina slowly came into view and Kenesh took immediate note of the twin iron chains around her waist. They were the rare and unique badge of the Scribe Arcanists. He also noticed her Alchemist’s Dagger and Shadebane, the great twisted staff she carried for support.

Kenesh Drun had one chance.

“Donation for the food, er, for the poor, my lady?” Nako stammered, rattling two small coins in a cup with one hand and pretending not to be able to see as he wandered across the Vicereine’s path. The bird on her shoulder shrieked, then froze, wings spread. It faded into an inky puff of dark vapor.

Kenesh Drun struck with both speed and savagery. He reached around Reina’s head with his right hand, and his heavy metal claw raked across the Vicereine’s cowl. It was an attack meant to blind his victim and expose her to his blade. But Reina did not turn, nor did she appear affected by the slashing of four razor sharp hooks across her face.

Something was wrong.

Kenesh had no time to change strategies. He drove his knife into Reina’s back. It was a great, sweeping heroic strike that obscured his senses. He failed to notice the subtle change in the consistency of his opponent’s robes until a grotesque snapping sound jarred his single-minded focus. A screaming lightning bolt of pain shot up his left arm as he lost his balance, stumbling to one side. The two pieces of his poisoned knife clattered to the ground as he fell.

Nako panicked. He howled his best attempt at a battle cry and attacked frontally, holding his much smaller knife over his head, blade down. Reina reached out with her free hand and caught Nako’s arm at the wrist as he drove his knife down towards her chest. Reina turned slightly to one side and twisted her grip. The turn pulled Nako off balance and very nearly broke both bones in his wrist. The knife fell out of his hand as Reina threw him forward. Stumbling and off-balance, Nako crashed face-first into the warehouse door, knocking crates to the ground and scattering the tin plates stacked on them.

By now Kenesh was back on his feet. He hesitated for a moment in alarm, realizing the darkness splashed across his left hand was not blood, but his own poison. Before he had even a moment to be grateful for the protection of his gloves, his nemesis turned.

Continue to Chapter Nine