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The captain led me inside. The hallways were marble, protected by a lush red carpet, and the doors along the plastered walls were made of rich, shining cherry. We walked in silence for several minutes. The farther into the palace we went, the more richly decorated the hallway became. Little niches built into the walls displayed paintings and busts of important, long-dead politicians on short stone columns. The doors grew wider, and they were carved with bas-relief designs that indicated who worked in each office. A battle scene for the governor’s general, a scale weighted with gold for the chief tax collector, three stars for the governor’s personal Oryon confessor and advisor.

The door we stopped at had a single mark engraved in the wood: a circle with a lopsidedTspilling out from it. The first rune of alchemy.

These were the chambers of the Lord Commander.

FIFTY-SEVEN

Nedra

The Emperor’s Guardcame in a red lacquered boat. The priest and the others who’d come to my island had been quick to report us. But I had spent the night preparing.

I waited by the door, watching through the crack as the captain pulled out a vocal horn. “By order of Emperor Auguste, you must surrender your person for trial.”

I could still hear the boots of the Emperor’s Guard when they had come for Master Ostrum. They beat him bloody and dragged him away. I had hidden in the darkness, and even though most of the emotion had been cauterized from me with my parents’ death, I still had the capacity to fear.

I was not afraid now.

My revenants stood behind me. They could sense my plan, and they awaited my command. The living who’d come to my island were nervous.

“What are you going to do?” Dannix asked. “The Emperor—”

I shook my head, not bothering to hide my smile. How could Dannix be afraid of a little boy hiding in a tower when I was right in front of him?

“The Emperor sent a whole ship to capture me,” I said. I looked back at my revenants. “It will not be enough.”

“This is your last chance!” the captain on the boat shouted up tome. I didn’t move. I had learned from Tomus that the gravest insult to most men was simply to ignore them.

A plank lowered from the ship to the stone steps, and six men walked onto my island, rifles at the ready. They called up at me again to surrender.

My eyes cut to Dannix. He clutched his son. I refrained from rolling my eyes. He had no reason to fear.

I pushed open the double mahogany doors and stepped into the light.

The Emperor’s men cowered beneath me. Behind me was a troop of the undead.

I felt drunk with power.

“We’re here to arrest you,” the captain called up at me.

I couldn’t help but smile.

Come out,I whispered in my mind.

My revenants moved as one, an unstoppable force descending upon the soldiers. I laughed aloud as the men with rifles panicked. They fired their weapons, but it did no good, and soon enough they turned tail and fled.

The captain shouted for the retreat, and the few brave men who’d tried to stand their ground raced behind him, up the plank, and back on the ship. The captain’s eyes drifted up to me at the top of the stairs. I relished his terror.

Let’s play with them,I told my revenants.

As one, every single revenant turned to the captain. Eyes wide, teeth bared, lips snarled up. Staring at him.

“Go!”the captain screamed at his men. They fumbled with the oars, trying to push away from the stone steps.

I want the ship.

The revenants drew closer. It didn’t matter that the captain hadthrown away the gangplank. The revenants moved with superhuman strength, leaping at the boat, grappling up the smooth lacquered sides, scrambling onto the deck.

“Abandon ship! Abandon ship!” the captain screeched. The crew raced for the lifeboats on the other side. They let the pulleys drop before everyone had gotten inside, and some crew jumped from the ship, landing in the water as the lifeboats crashed into the waves. The men in boats pushed off, rowing as fast as they could, and the men in the water screamed for them to wait, come back, save them.