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“If you did, you would translate it as traitor.”

Jemel looks at Xan, interested, tilting his face upwards. “You are a traitor? To Pluma?”

“In a way. My father was commander of the forces on Pluma who fought against the Imperial Army when they came to take the isle back. They ended up building that wall, but long before that, in one of the earlier battles, the Azurian Army attacked a large Plumian settlement. My home. My mother and both my older brothers were killed and I was taken as a hostage. Trysta escaped. She fled with my father. I don’t think she has ever forgiven herself for that.”

“And what happened to you?” says Jemel, feeling sickened.

“I was meant to persuade my father to lay down his sword. But of course he did not. I would never have forgiven him.”

“How old were you?”

“Four. Four turns. They kept me,” Xan does not sound emotional as he speaks, simply like someone reciting the dry facts of some historical account. “They kept me in a little cage in the parlour of the warden’s manor house. After some time his wife grew fond of me. Like a pet. She dressed me up and forced me to be a page.”

“Did they teach you Artemian?”

“They did not exactly teach me. I think they liked me mute and confused.” Xan laughs. “But I picked up a few words. Enough to survive I suppose. When I was ten years old I escaped. They had grown lax about my imprisonment and had long given up on using me as any kind of bargaining piece. I got back to my family. Long enough to fight alongside my father and my sister for a couple of years, before he was killed and she was captured and that wall was built. But once my father and sister were gone I was viewed with suspicion. I seemed Artemian to them, I suppose. I was named versun, it means, more exactly, under suspicion. The suspicion here of course was that I was somehow loyal to the Warden and his family, after spending so long there. Many thought it strange that I escaped. Thinking perhaps that I was released purposely. To spy.”

“But you were a child?” Jemel says.

“You think the Dareks would not use a child as a spy?”

Jemel shrugs. Truly, he does not know.

“I think, over the years, I became more respected. I worked hard for the glory of Pluma. Trysta escaped the Imperial Army and returned with a ship, but when her ship was found to be captained by one of the men who built the Ferric Wall and who had captured her. Well…” Xan made a sound like a brutal laugh, “it seemed being versun was a family trait.”

Jemel frowns. “Captained by… that was Damon. You met Damon Darekul?”

“I did not,” Xan snorts. “He knew better than to set foot on Pluma. It would have meant his death. But I was happy to see Trysta again. I had thought her long dead. But she chose not to stay. She did not want to live on Pluma as a versun the way I did. She had lovers aboard that ship and she wanted to continue to travel and see the wide world. She agreed to serve as an envoy for Pluma. That had been my doing. To send someone to Lunatum, to make contact with those who fought the empire. I had sent others over the years, but it seemed to suit Trysta. She was the most successful at it. She was the one who made contact with the Mortingales and returned to tell me they wanted to form a pact with us. It seemed my plan with the envoys was paying off. I wanted a way to remove some of the tarnish from my name. By finding a way to remove the Azurians from Pluma forever. So I hatched my plan.” Xan pauses, then says, “When I was invited here I did not know about Trysta. My plan was to pretend to negotiate the release of Elric Underlia, but really I was here to assess the best time and place for a new Mortingale attack on the city. When I arrived, nothing was as I expected. Selim was dead. The Mortingales were already making their way to the city. I have told them to attack the Ascension. It is my hope that they succeed, in some fashion at least and that it becomes known that Pluma aided them. Perhaps realising our two factions are united would create terror and also, perhaps, cause the people of Attar to rise up.”

Jemel says. “That is not a terrible plan.” He pauses. “Are you certain Trysta is safe?”

“I can only hope. I persuaded her to run only on the promise I would make sure you escaped the palace. She makes for the safehouse you spoke of. When we leave this place we can meet her there.” Xan exhales a long breath. “And now, Baraboo, I have told you the whole story of my life.” He pushes closer to Jemel. “You know me better and I hope you understand why I do the things I do. But now it is your turn, my Baraboo. Tell me your story. Perhaps the daily life of a Zai priest will quiet my blood and lull me to sleep.”

And Jemel thinks he could tell Xan a long tale about his life scribing for the Rose Council and the Justice. It probably would indeed send Xan to sleep. And then he would be alone, lying next to Xan’s pleasing, rousing body. All alone in the silent library.

Or he could tell Xan about his own boyhood. Being a child of Zai. But he has already told him much of that. Of Pershel and of Gelen.

Instead, he decides to tell Xan something he aches to tell someone. Thinking as he had once before, how Xan would have no choice but to keep his secrets with no knowledge of the Artemian tongue. Even more so now he plans to leave the Rose Palace.

“Zai is a demon,” Jemel says.

“I know that, Baraboo.”

“I mean truly. I think Trysta must know. It is why she bid you protect me. You know of the texts I translate? About a demon coming for the world of men. You thought them heretical. They are more heretical than you can have imagined. Sarelik Darek encountered one of the Bellator demons when he took the Ambolk’s secret fortress in the Amber Forest. And that demon gave him the power to overthrow the Hevelikar. In return Sarelik Darek built an empire to worship that demon. Zai. All the blood of your people that was spilt. And of all the people that have been killed or enslaved for the Azurian Empire and forced to worship Zai at point of a blade it has all been in the service of that demon. Ur-Durik.”

Xan raises an eyebrow, “Baraboo, you do not need to name a demon to explain Imperial conquest. It is the will of men.”

“I do not mean to excuse it. Or claim that men cannot do evil alone. Sarelik Darek agreed to the deal after all. But here, it is the truth. And that demon grew stronger in the Amber Forest these last two hundred years as more worshiped him under the name of Zai.”

Xan makes a scoffing noise. “You spin me a tale. Or one has been spun to you.”

“It is no tale. I wish it were. But it makes sense. Even that Sarelik Darek decreed that Azuria never take the Amber Forest, while growing its great strength to the East and to the South. It never went north.”

“What will this demon do now he has all these men kneeling for him?”

“He will free the rest of the Bellator from beneath the forest and take the world back for those demons who were defeated by the Five Fae Princes.”

“You believe this, don’t you. No wonder you are so fragile, jumping at shadows.”