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“I have,” says Xan. “But I do not know and I cannot imagine how I would find out.”

“Perhaps,” Longwise says drily, “You should not seduce this man into death until you know the answer to that question.”

“If we set the question of Pluma aside,” says Longwise, lifting his cup, "Trysta is our concern. And I cannot help wondering if we could find another way. You have a position in that palace. Could you not rescue Trysta from those dungeons without involving a man who may be innocent? It is well known that the Rose Palace sits high on a great rock and that there are many ancient structures and passageways beneath it. Do you know anyone in the palace who could teach you its secrets and help you find a way into the tunnels beneath?” He takes a long drink, eyeing Xan over the rim of his cup.

Heb leans forward, “Perhaps you could ask the next whore they send you.”

Xan shakes his head. “The whores speak no Plumian. And my Artemian is weak. The only man I speak with in that palace is the one who translates for me. The same man Atticul wishes me to seduce.”

Does Jemel know the secrets of the Rose Palace? If he does perhaps it will save his life.

“Then,” says Longwise, “to save Trysta the road is simple. You will make use of this Azurian priest one way or another. You will either take him to your bed or have him take you to Trysta.”

As Xan leaves, Heb catches his wrist, making a sweet offer with a simple raise of an eyebrow.

But Xan shakes his head.

11

JEMEL

After the shameful weakness he showed in the bathhouse with Xan, Jemel attempts to bury himself in his work for the rest of the day.

He is not asked to attend any meeting to translate for Xan. Perhaps whatever Atticul said to Xan after Jemel was sent away has resolved the negotiations. Although Jemel cannot think how Atticul communicated with Xan to do so. He isn’t even sure Xan is still in the Rose Palace. Perhaps he left as a result of his private discussion with Atticul, however it was conducted.

That encounter in the bath house, when Xan offered to kiss him, could have been his last word before leaving. He should have asked him about what Atticul had wanted, but Xan had been naked. He had been far too distracted to think of such things.

The evening comes after another short, dark day. It feels as if the sun barely kisses the horizon before it sinks away again.

He has done his duties for Gelen Zain, copying out many documents in small neat letters. A few of them decrees to be sent to dignitaries and wardens in every corner of the Empire, outlining what Atticul declared during Selim’s Commendation to Zai, that the laws of Azuria will still align with the Book of the Rules, but that the Book of the Rules will be rewritten by Gelen Zain to mark the dawn of a new Azurian Empire, giving little detail of how the rules will be rewritten and what, exactly will change. Announcements that Jemel knows are causing unrest throughout the empire.

But that is done now, so Jemel pulls out the scrolls from the linden box.

As the night grows darker, he works on his translation of the writings of Batreous. He has been mired for some days in a long digression about the horrors the Bellator will wreak. Lines and lines about children born with the faces of dogs, and dead roses, heavy with maggots, falling from the sky.

He sighs, will Batreous ever reach his point? He suspects Batreous enjoyed writing this imagery a little too much, forgetting the purpose of his tract.

But at some point he must return to his tellings of what they must do to defeat this creature. The last thing Batreous said of any value was that Ur-Durik will rise in the Amber Forest. And that, Jemel translated before Doroth left.

Doroth had said he would investigate this when he was in Ceruleum. Prince Rafus had come to Attar and informed Chancellor Vindar that Tobi Darekul was in the forest. And if Atticul is correct he is still there and Damon Darekul is with him. Could they be with Ur-Durik at this moment?

Jemel turns the page and finds only one more sentence, the rest of the papers are blank. Jemel frowns. He flicks through the last pages, but there is nothing more. He translates the final words. The Five Fae Princes reborn will do as was once done and destroy the creature as the first princes did.

So that’s it. The work is completed and Batreous has given no details of how the demon must be defeated. Only that it will be done as it was done before. But without the Books of Alios they do not know what was done before.

Jemel blinks at that final sentence, written in his own hand in Artemian. The project that has taken him years is done. And with Doroth gone there is no one to tell about the anti-climactic end to the story.

Perhaps he ought to search the library again for more of Batreous’s writings. But he is certain he has found all of it in his many, many sweeps of every shelf, every hidden place. And in any case, there is no chance of getting into the tunnels beneath the palace tonight.

Jemel's lamp starts to flicker. His daily allotment of oil is almost done, but he decides he will not waste the remaining light. He will use it for his own work. Something no one has bound him to do. The work he plans to do just for himself.

Pershel the Moon Truth had not only been Zai Mother, she had been the closest thing Jemel had to a mother of his blood. As a child of Zai, Jemel had been entrusted to her care until he was eleven summers. She had raised him until he was given to Gelen to be trained for the Order of the Enforcers.

The last thing Pershel did before she died was read some of the runes on Damon Darekul’s slave when he was imprisoned after the Justice.

Jemel was never allowed to see those runes. Even when Lyr was brought back to the Rose Palace dungeons when he was captured by Atticul. The only time he ever saw them was at the Justice, when Lyr had stood before the court in only a hip cloth.

Jemel had been sitting too far away to make out much on the dais, and pre-occupied with making sure Damon Darekul’s reckless taking of stead had not led to his death in the Punishment Square.