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"Whatever happens," Xilya said, approaching the window to watch the sun disappear below the horizon. "Whatever happens, keep me and Nar in the know. And don't lose yourself, Nihl Ryziel."

"My Drega is under control," Ryziel said.

"I mean, don't lose yourself to your brother."

Ryziel looked over at her, confused, but she didn't bother to explain what she meant. The sun slipped away and brought the night. The lanterns were lit, and Ryziel and Xilya snuck out of the room and went their separate ways.

One hour. He had one hour till the sun rose again, but he knew he wouldn't need that much time to find his uncle and defeat him. Ryziel started for the east stair. As soon as he made it to the east terrace, he knocked out one guard and hid the body then slipped around a set of servants setting up a table. He weaved his way through passages, climbed around the side of one building, and slipped through another window then up a small stair.

At the end of one hall, he saw several guards stationed at his uncle's door. He crept into a spare room and climbed out another window and onto the roof till he hopped over onto a balcony. Another guard was there, but he knocked them out before they could even draw breath to shout. He placed them behind a bush then slunk over to the set of wide-open windows and peeked inside. There, he saw his uncle bent over coughing and Azil, his cousin, patting him on the back while two of the human women sat nearby crying.

"It'll be over soon enough," Azil said.

"Can't you shut those two up? I'm sick already of their wailing," Ryziel's uncle growled.

Ryziel watched as Azil tried to pull the women up but they wouldn't go, wouldn't separate from one another.

"I don't want this," Ryziel’s uncle said. "Why would Nihl do this to us? Were we not his firstborn, his favorites? Why has he forced these creatures on us?"

Azil gave up trying to pull them away. "I don't know. But it must be for a reason."

"We know the reason. But it sickens me. I cannot be happy for it, I cannot."

Azil gently led the older man to a chair on the far side of the room. "I'll be back." He left him there alone, and if it were not for the women, Ryziel would think it a perfect moment, having his uncle to himself. Carefully, he entered the room through the window, and the two women spotted him right away. They gasped and cried out, and he gestured for them to be silent. His uncle looked over and, when he saw him, he scowled. "I knew you would come someday. I knew." He coughed and wiped his mouth, smearing blood on his hand. " I still believe you were the cause of all our suffering. The ill omen of a future that brought us deformed children and barren women. I truly still believe it. Your kind were supposed to be extinct. It was a sign from Nihl of our end. And you come now to finish it, don't you? To finish us." His teeth rattled in his mouth. "I knew I should have killed you when I had the chance."

Ryziel stepped over to him and unsheathed one of his blades. "Yes, you should have."

He struck fast, and his uncle didn't even flinch. The knife cut clean across his throat, blood spilling over his neat clothes. His eyes glazed over, and his body fell forward.

The women screamed behind him. A connecting door from one side opened, and Azil stood in the doorway, his golden skin turning ashen. Blade still in hand, Ryziel took a step toward him, and his cousin let out a strange sort of bark before bolting back into the adjacent room. Ryziel went to follow but the door leading into the passage beyond smashed open, and several guards rushed through.

"Nihl Kyzier, are you—" one of the guards stopped as he saw Ryziel. "Nihl—Nihl Ryziel?" His eyes dropped to the chair, where Ryziel's uncle now lay limp, then to the blade in Ryziel's hand.

"He is dead," Ryziel said. "Take me to Korzien now."

The guards were frozen, uncertain whether to obey his request or to seize him.

"Guards! Guards! Come quickly, there is someone on the roof!" Zyr's voice called down the passage. He stopped at the open doorway. "Some kind of demon is running along the—what the hell are you all doing in here?" He stomped into the room then staggered back when seeing Ryziel, a hiss escaping from his mouth. "You...you are supposed to be exiled to..." His eyes fell on his father and to Ryziel's blade, and when realization hit him, he let out a roar. "Take him!"

Hesitant, the guards drew their weapons, a few choosing curved blades and others, their shooters. Ryziel unsheathed another of his blades, preparing himself. It might have been a few years since he had fought, but he remembered everything well. The guards tried to circle him, but before they could get around him, Ryziel threw one blade into the neck of a guard holding his shooter. It went off in bursts, and Ryziel dodged to slice the thigh of one guard standing with a sword raised. As one guard fell limp to the ground, the other screamed and fell to his knees. Brilliant white light flashed across the room as a pair of guards tried to blindly shoot at him, only to be quickly cut down, one sliced in the belly, the other stabbed in the chest. They went down, and a sword-wielding guard charged him, blade raised. Ryziel kicked out, catching him in the stomach. His sword sliced part of Ryziel's leg, but he barely noticed. Ryziel rushed at the guard as he staggered back and caught him just under the jaw, ripping his blade away as the guard fell. A sudden sharp pain hit Ryziel's side, and he growled, pulling back to see Zyr with one of the shooters. Zyr's hand shook as he pulled the trigger, grazing Ryziel's shoulder as Ryziel leapt to one side then threw his blade, slicing Zyr's hand nearly in half. Zyr dropped the shooter and clutched his hand, screaming.

Ryziel picked up his blades then lunged over and grabbed Zyr by one of his receptors, pulling his head back.

"Where is Korzien?" he yelled.

Zyr bared his teeth at him, and Ryziel cuffed him hard across the face.

"Where?"

Blood trickled from Zyr's nose. "The main terrace," he spat. "But you won't defeat him, even in the night."

"I don't mean to defeat him." Ryziel let Zyr go. "He will listen to what I have to say, and he will lift all charges against me. Your father is dead and so Korzien will rule First House and unexile me."

Zyr let out a low, blood spraying laugh. "You've been away too long, Ryziel. Since your father's death, Korzien has already taken over. You killing my father changed nothing."

Ryziel stiffened. "That's a lie."

"No, truth. My father was too sickly to rule, everyone knew. He gave First House over to Korzien not long after Nihl Bizen's death. Korzien never meant to release you right away. Perhaps not at all."