As Gurice recited the words, Shyla traced the two sword blades on her shoulder.
“As a member of the Invisible Sword, I swear I will not betray the location of our headquarters or the identities of our members to our enemies and would give my life to keep its secrets.”
“Our enemies? That’s new. Before we didn’t tell anyone outside the organization.”
“It’ll be hard to recruit people without telling them about it.”
“Good point.” She repeated the second phrase while Shyla traced the two curved lines of the symbol.
“As a member of the Invisible Sword, I swear not to harm or kill another unless it is absolutely necessary or in self-defense.”
Gurice raised her eyebrows but echoed Shyla’s words. Shyla drew a big circle in the oval shape.
“As a member of the Invisible Sword, I swear allegiance to my fellow Invisible Swords.”
When Gurice recited that sentence, Shyla met her gaze and the truth of her oath blazed through Shyla. She channeled it into the stylus and colored in a smaller circle in the middle of the oval.
“Ow!” Gurice jerked away, covering her shoulder with a hand. “Did you just stab me?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“If you put your hand down, I’ll tell you if it worked.” Although she was pretty confident the oath was genuine.
When Gurice uncovered the symbol, it now glowed with Shyla’s eye. “It worked. Congratulations, you’re now a member of the new archive of the Invisible Sword.”
“Should we hug?”
“Do you need a hug?”
“Who doesn’t?” But Gurice rolled her shoulders. “I don’t feel any different.”
“Good. Then you can get back to work.”
She huffed. “And after all I’ve done for you.”
“You have my gratitude. And you’ve earned a gold statue of Tamburah. We’ve lots.”
“Ugh, I’ll pass on the statue.”
“He’s not naked in all of them.”
“Still no.”
“Yeah, I don’t think they’re going to be popular.”
Shyla wanted to get everyone sworn in right away, but Mojag still slept and she didn’t have the heart to wake him. Plus, if she was being honest, the effort to open Mojag’s magic had used up quite a bit of her energy. Instead, she decided to wait until after she returned from the city. She planned to go into Zirdai at angle one-eighty to sell one of Tamburah’s crowns to the professor. It had been about nine sun jumps since their last meeting and the woman could have decided to leave early. Also they needed the coins to buy the platinum from Zimraan. And, since she was being honest, she might catch a glimpse of Rendor. It was pathetic, but she missed him.
Ximen elected to accompany her when Jayden chose to remain at headquarters with Mojag. Elek and Jaft also tagged along. They were scheduled for a water run. In order to keep the jugs filled, teams of two had been making trips to the bowels of Zirdai with the velbloud bladders every five or six sun jumps.
Right after the group climbed to the surface, Jayden called up to Shyla. “Mojag’s awake.” His face creased as if he was in pain.
She waited.
“He moved the sand with magic.”
Relief and joy swirled in her heart. She hoped Mojag recovered from the ordeal, but it seemed her plan to expand their number of wielders worked.
“You know he’ll be impossible to live with now,” Jayden said.
“And how is that different than before?”
Jayden just shook his head. Shyla joined the others. She walked beside Ximen, striding easily through the sand as if she were a velbloud ready to lift into the sky. Her thoughts focused on how to find others who had the potential to wield magic.
When they reached the city, Elek and Ximen headed for a different entrance than Shyla and Jaft. They planned to meet up once inside. There were a few deacons watching the people returning from the desert. Some of them wore protective torques.
Ximen created a small whirlwind of sand. It buzzed through the one-story buildings. Sand whirls were a common enough occurrence to not be viewed as suspicious, but interesting enough to provide a distraction for Shyla and Jaft to get inside.
“Handy,” Jaft said once they were through. “Will Rae be able to do that?”
“Depends.”
“Wow, that’s vaguely specific.”
“It’s up to Rae if she wishes to access her magic and, if she does, it will depend on how strong she is and if she even has the ability to move sand.”
“Oh.”
Thankfully, Jaft didn’t ask any more questions. They rendezvoused with Elek and Ximen. After agreeing to meet Elek and Jaft back at the same location on level ten at angle three-fifty-five, they split up. Ximen headed to the markets to determine the time—or as close to it as possible—that Zimraan’s caravan was scheduled to arrive while Elek and Jaft took Rendor’s route to his water source. Shyla kept to the edges of the city as she descended to Professor Emeline’s quarters on level forty-two. When her and Ximen’s tasks were finished, they would meet back at Orla’s.
Shyla waited in the same dark nook for the professor to return from third meal. The temptation to seek Rendor with her magic pulsed in her veins. She had found if she kept busy, the memories of his kiss and the longing for his touch wouldn’t ambush her as often. To keep from thinking about him, she focused on the people in the tunnels nearby. Students mostly, but a few professors and a couple of guards patrolled. Not the guards who had helped her when Utina had accused her of murdering Banqui and stealing The Eyes from him. She wondered if those two would be receptive to changing their allegiance. Probably not, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.
Emeline arrived at angle two-forty-five and Shyla stepped from the shadow.
The woman startled but recovered with a nervous laugh. “You certainly like to make an entrance. Do you have something for me?”
“Yes.”
“Come on in.” Emeline unlocked the door and swept out a bony arm, indicating Shyla should precede her.
She entered the dark room and waited near the door while the professor uncovered the trol lanterns, then slid the glass panel closed.
“Did you recover Gorgain’s crown and torque?” Emeline’s eyes glowed almost as bright as the lanterns.
“No, but I found something better.”
The woman deflated. “There’s not much that’s better.”
“Oh, I think you won’t be disappointed.” Shyla removed one of Tamburah’s crowns from her pack. This one resembled a ring of vines with berries interspersed throughout. The leaves and stems were made of gold, and rubies provided the vivid red color of the berries.
Emeline sucked in a breath. “Whose is that?”
“King Tamburah’s.”
“But his tomb and vault were looted thousands of circuits ago.”
Shyla told her about Tamburah’s increasing paranoia and the existence of a second vault.
“May I?” She held out her hand.
“Of course.”
The professor brought it to her desk and examined it under the light. Then she put a glass monocle to her eye and peered at the rubies. Fascinated, Shyla watched as the woman brought out a set of delicate tools and tested the gold by trying to scrape off the color. Emeline performed a few more assessments before weighing the crown.