Jaedia and Nicomidi. Standing side by side, without a care in the world, as if they weren’t enemies. Maya put one hand on her haken and drew on deiat, threading it into her panoply. She could sense Tanax doing likewise, and Nicomidi must have felt it as well, because he turned to face them, taking hold of his own weapon. Jaedia didn’t move.
The Kyriliarch seemed to have aged a decade since Maya had last seen him, his thin face worn and unshaven, his eyes deep set with fatigue. A variety of emotions flitted across his features when he saw them—surprise, anger, and finally resignation. The smile he put on when he stepped forward was unconvincing.
“Well, Jaedia, you were right,” he said. “Your agathios has come to find us at last. But she brought some unexpected company.”
Jaedia remained still, facing the mass of plaguespawn. Tanax took a step forward.
“The Council has declared her an agathios no longer,” he said. “She is Centarch Maya Burningblade, as I am Centarch Tanax Brokenedge.”
“Of course they have,” Nicomidi said. “Without me, I’m sure Baselanthus the coward and Prodominus the dotard have had things all their own way.” He strolled forward. “I expected this stupidity from Maya, Tanax, but not from you. What are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here?” Tanax shook his head. “You were the one who taught me that loyalty to the Order comes before any other considerations. How could you just throw that away?”
“I’m sorry you were such a poor student,” Nicomidi said. “Our loyalty isn’t to the Order. It is to the ideals of the Order, to the Inheritance. Above all, to the Chosen, who have always guided our steps.”
Maya tore her eyes away from Jaedia’s still form and focused on Nicomidi. “The Chosen are dead and gone.”
“That is where you’re wrong,” Nicomidi said. “They live, hidden from mortal sight. Waiting only for us to make the preparations for their glorious return.”
“People have been searching for any hint of the Chosen for centuries,” Beq said, stepping up behind Maya. “They’ve never found anything. How do you know they’re still alive?”
“Because,” Nicomidi said, spreading his arms, “they speak to me.” He gestured over his shoulder. “This place, this mountain, is the last stronghold of the ghouls. The last remnant of their power. Once it is destroyed, the way will be clear at last for the return of our masters. The Republic and the Order have served their purpose. Now we will return to a golden age.”
“He’s mad,” Beq muttered.
“He’s a Kyriliarch,” Maya said. “Be careful.”
Tanax, ignoring her, took another step forward, putting him face-to-face with his former master. “I need the truth,” he grated. “Did you try to make me kill Maya, in the arena?”
“What if I did?” Nicomidi looked at Maya, and his lip curled. “She was a danger to the plan.”
“There was … no honor in that.” Tanax took a deep breath. “Kyriliarch Nicomidi, you have committed treason against the Twilight Order. I am detaining you in the name of—”
“I should have known better,” Nicomidi snarled, “than to argue with children.”
He drew his haken and attacked in the same smooth motion, a single sideways cut so fast the eye could barely follow. His blade, a blue-gray ripple in the air, slashed across Tanax’s chest, and an ear-splitting boom rang out, fading away to a rumble like distant thunder. Tanax’s panoply flared, blue-white and too bright to look at, but the force of the blow still picked him up and sent him tumbling across the rock.
Maya snatched her own haken from her side, blade igniting with a crackle. “Beq!” she said. “Help Tanax!”
“Throw down the weapon, Centarch, and I won’t have to hurt you.” Nicomidi returned his haken to his side, bending his knees into an expectant crouch. “For reasons I don’t understand, your master wants you alive.”
“Jaedia,” Maya said. “Stop this. Please.”
Jaedia, still looking down at the plaguespawn, did not respond.
“He’s all right,” Beq said, coming up behind Maya again. “The panoply held.”
“All right,” Maya said. “Ready?”
Beq gave a tight nod.
“I am a Kyriliarch of the Council,” Nicomidi said. “Do you really intend to measure your power against mine?”
In answer, Maya blasted him with a wash of flame.
Nicomidi snarled. A shield of rippling energy hung in front of him for a moment, and then he was coming forward at a run. Wild ripples of twisted air detonated around Maya, blasting her with ear-splitting sound from every direction. Beq screamed, nearly inaudible in the tumult. It was all Maya could do to focus in time to see Nicomidi draw his haken, his strike as fast as thought, cutting across his body. Her own blade was clumsy by comparison, moving to parry far too late, and in desperation she threw herself backward. She cannoned into Beq and sent them both stumbling to the rock. Nicomidi skidded to a halt, straightened up, and returned his haken to his side.
“I’m impressed,” he said. “You’re not bad. In another thirty years, you might be a match for me.” Smiling, he sank into a crouch again. “However.”
Chosen defend, he’s fast. That single strike, too powerful to stop, too quick to parry. Thunderclap. His cognomen suddenly made grim sense.
“Maya,” Beq hissed as Maya pushed herself up. “I’ll distract him.”
Maya gave a tiny nod, levered herself back up, and reignited her haken. Nicomidi sank deeper into his crouch, shifting on the balls of his feet. Before he could move, Beq suddenly rolled onto her stomach, sighting down the barrel of her blaster. The crack of the bolt rang in Maya’s ears. Nicomidi snatched his haken and intercepted it, then blocked another. By then Maya was already moving.
The Kyriliarch brought his haken around, stopping her downward cut, and lashed out with deiat. Maya countered, twisting lines of fire breaking up his sonic bombs as they formed, strikes and counterstrikes surrounding them like a duel of multiheaded snakes as blade slammed against blade. Maya pushed Nicomidi backward, putting all her strength into the blows, not giving him time to recover. His speed was astonishing, but she found that his footwork was weak, his parries predictable. A grin spread across her face. You’ve been winning too many fights with that first strike.
Nicomidi’s expression darkened into a scowl as he retreated, searching for a chance to counterattack and not finding it. His deiat tendrils retreated for a moment, and Maya hesitated, suspecting a trap. Nicomidi used that chance to leap backward, lashing out at the rock at his feet. A blast of twisted air detonated, strong enough to shatter the stone and send splinters spraying in all directions. Maya’s panoply flared, and she heard Beq grunt. Before Maya could recover, Nicomidi had turned in Beq’s direction, sending a rolling wave of detonations toward her. Maya reached out desperately, throwing fire, but not fast enough—
The blasts stopped, blocked by a wall of eye-twisting folds in space. Tanax, breathing hard, stood over Beq, his distorted blade in hand.
“You are going to drop your weapon,” he said, stepping forward. “And you are going to tell us everything. About Raskos, about Jaedia, about your plans and what you think you heard from the Chosen. Everything.”