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T hose closest to us don’t take long to come closer as she begins to speak. This history is not so ingrained among them that the tale has lost its impact.

“Anyone standing here today didn’t see the first attack of the skrill, not firsthand,” Syril says.

“Even those among the Savasci who weren’t directly attacked but who saw it occurring have left this place, at least for now, giving aid at the houses and villages along the border.

They’re uniquely suited to the task because of what they saw during the attack on the Eighth House, because of what they now know and cannot unknow. ”

She stares around at the group. “We believe that should a similar attack come again, our people will be ready, hardened, able to shepherd those they protect to safety in the mountains until sunlight comes again. But even that may be hopeful thinking. The warriors of the Eighth House and their Divhs were good, solid fighters. While it’s true that the best of them were given leave to travel to the Tournament of Gold, those who were left behind were well trained.

They just weren’t well trained for this. ”

There’s a murmuring through the group, which Syril waits out before she continues.

“First came the snakes, through and around and over the wall, which still looks solid, in case you’re wondering—at least to us. Maybe not to you.”

“What?” Fortiss demands, clearly surprised at this piece of news. “It has to have been breached.”

She shrugs. “I agree with you. As soon as I returned and understood what happened here, I organized a small team to investigate, but the wall appears to stand firm—the way it always has, to us. Like I said, skrill illusion magic can be directed at anyone who specifically needs to be deceived.”

“Blood and stone,” mutters Tennet.

“The wall was most likely compromised some twenty years back, we suspect, the only time that Lord Protector Rihad visited this house,” Syril continues.

“He never came again and nothing ever happened, so his actions that day slipped into obscurity, not even worth being remarked upon five, ten years later. Only when we cast a view backward in the wake of the skrill attack, did we recall he’d even traveled up to the wall, and even then, there was only the slightest aside about it, the stuff of children’s tales. ”

Fortiss leans in a little. “Lord Daggar…or the illusion we thought was Lord Daggar, spoke of that visit.”

“Lord Daggar.” Her lips twist. “There’s more you need to know about him and the warrior Nemeth. They were the only two who spoke to you, right? The only men who guided you into the Eighth House with actual words? There’s a reason for that.”

She exhales a gusting sigh. “The skrill didn’t just kill those two—we think they’ve been feeding on them.”

Beside me, Tennet goes very still. “What do you mean?”

“I mean exactly what it sounds like. When we reached the Eighth House, bodies were everywhere—none of them scarred with more than a few teeth marks and stripes of burned skin. The poison of the skrill can cause hallucinations in small doses, but in large enough doses, it’s clearly deadly.

Over the next few days, working fast and only in daylight, we emptied the Eighth of all its souls and burned them in a pyre.

But there were two men we couldn’t find.

Two men who had either been spared or, we quickly realized when a banded soldier came down from Merrivale to help us, were turned in some way.

The banded warrior saw Nemeth and Daggar on the ramparts of the Eighth, even when a whole company of Savasci could not.

It was only when he witnessed all the other bodies on the pyre that he accepted that what he saw couldn’t have been real. ”

Fortiss rubs his hand over his face. “You think Daggar and this other warrior, Nemeth…they’re still in there? Somewhere in the Eighth?”

He studiously doesn’t look at me, but he doesn’t have to. There’s only one place the men could be, I think. Daggar’s prophecy chamber.

But Syril merely shrugs. “We don’t know.

We didn’t search too deeply, for obvious reasons—but they were the only ones whose bodies we couldn’t recover.

The only ones the warrior saw, and who you’ve now seen and spoken to.

We’ve found no reference to the skrill creating shadow warriors of their victims in the books we’ve stolen over the years, so there’s no help there.

Then again, we never could get close enough to raid Daggar’s inner chambers. ”

She says this last to Fortiss, and he smiles grimly in return. “I was uniquely motivated.”

“And I’m glad of it. There’s doubtless more information in the books you recovered that will keep us alive.

But for now, you have to know—while much of what Daggar likely told you was true—some of it may not have been.

In the end, that illusion was simply a spider spinning a web to keep you in place until the skrill could attack again, like they did a month ago. ”

“At the close of the Tournament of Gold,” Fortiss says.

“That’s what we think.” Syril nods. “While the Divhs were busy protecting their warriors at the Tournament of Gold during the melee, the skrill rose up and swept with dark intent to the base of the mountains. The only thing that people at the Eighth House heard the evening of the attack was a mighty screaming up in the mountains and a crash to the earth that rocked the entire region. Rocks fell, the Eighth House shook, but then—everything quieted. According to the guards who survived—because they left on errands of their own after the first event—there was some talk of going up to the Unlit Pass to ensure the wall held firm, but nobody got the chance. The snakes came later that same night with their poison-oiled bodies. They flowed through the Eighth House as a silent, killing force. Those who slept, died quickly, we think. Those who resisted, fought valiantly, but in the end two hundred men, women, and children were dead. Only the horses remained, along with the men who slept in their guard stations outside the castle walls.”

“But why?” I protest, drawing everyone’s attention. “Why devastate an entire house in one night and do nothing more? We had no idea this had happened and that was a month ago.”

“Because they were awaiting orders, I suspect,” Fortiss says grimly.

“I think Rihad fully planned to call the skrill to his side after taking out all the Divhs at the tournament. He just didn’t plan on not still being upright.

Maybe…maybe that’s why it took so long for the skrill to show up to the First. He started the call to arms for these creatures but never completed it. ”

“So now, they wait.” I surprise even myself by speaking up, but the enormity of what Rihad has done staggers me. “He opened up the Unlit Pass. He invited the skrill into the Protectorate, but he’s no longer here to command them. Do they think he’s coming? Do they think we will give them direction?”

Fortiss and Syril lock eyes, then she turns to me.

“After that first killing sweep, there was only silence. No one remained in the Eighth House to kill—except for the horses—and the skrill returned to the mountains. They only came back last night, after you arrived. We found them stirring in the courtyard of the Eighth, and the farther we got into the house, well—you saw them. So yes, I think they are waiting for that direction, and they believe you’re here to give it. ”

I make a face. “But if they wanted us to serve as their leader, why did they attack us?”

“They didn’t, though,” Fortiss points out, reasonably enough.

“They were in the house, but it’s not like any of them tried to stop us.

They didn’t even stop Syril and her team, not at first. Then we opened the door to Daggar’s vault and immediately set them on fire.

I’m thinking we’ve got some pretty confused snakes right now, but they won’t remain that way for long. They’ll figure it out.”

“The dark shall draw the dark,” Syril murmurs, and Tennet, Fortiss and I all look at her sharply. She would have had no idea that Daggar had said those words to Fortiss less than a day ago. But something in the words pricks my attention in a way it didn’t before.

“If the dark draws the dark, then anything that’s not dark won’t draw it, won’t order it forward,” I say slowly.

“And anything that can’t or won’t draw the dark, is the enemy.

They just assumed we were what they were waiting for.

We show up directly in front of them, blithely follow them back to the Eighth House, accept their hospitality, and break bread with them.

Maybe they just assumed we understood who and what they were. ”

“While all along, we simply were idiots,” Tennet says. He winces and reaches up to pinch the bridge over his nose.

“Not idiots,” Syril protests quickly, then pauses.

“Well, somewhat idiots. But you learned something important too. The Savasci would never have gone into that house again. To us, there’s been nothing left alive in that house but snakes since Daggar and his family, staff and servants were all massacred.

Outside the house, there was nothing living except the horses in the stable—which we kept there since there was food aplenty for them and the skrill didn’t seem to mind us feeding them and leading a few off a bit at a time.

Then you landed in front of the Eighth House and saw a robust company of men and horses galloping out to greet you.

You believed what your eyes showed you, just as the horses did. ”

“Honestly, we really do sound like idiots,” I mutter.

Syril shakes her head. “Again, you’re missing the point.

The skrill illusion magic works against a specific target.

In the case of the wall—anyone around here, who knows the history of the place and what they should expect—sees an unbroken wall.

Fortiss, you may well see a crumbled one.

In the case of the Eighth House, the skrill needed to draw banded warriors into their midst to receive their direction.

For that they needed you and the horses of the Eighth to perceive them as real…

but no one else. That’s important. Maybe because the energy is so focused, the illusion holds more firmly for their targeted enemies. ”

“But not you?” Tennet asks. “Why? You’ve clearly proven yourselves to be a threat.”

“Maybe we’re neither enough of a threat or a tool to be worth their energy.

” She shrugs. “I don’t know. What I do know is that banded warriors can’t see what’s real at the Eighth House.

And given that the only people who are coming to help us tonight are banded warriors, you’ll need to keep some members of the Savasci with you in every fighting unit. Someone needs to see clearly.”

I grimace. “I was kind of hoping that I could band you and your warriors to Divhs before night falls. We’ll need all the help we can get. But if you need to see clearly in order to keep us from blundering into another illusion…”

Syril turns to me, her eyes widening. “You would band us? Just like that? Without…”

“Well, I’m the lord protector,” Fortiss puts in, his wry smile taking the arrogance out of his words.

“And so, I’m the ultimate arbiter of who gets banded, but Lady Talia has authority over her own Divhs by my decree.

That said, I understand both sides of this discussion.

You should be banded, yet we need your sight to keep us aligned.

But if you could choose, say, half your group to receive the band, and Talia’s willing, we could use the help.

We don’t know who if any of the other houses will be able to supply assistance. ”

I don’t miss Tennet’s grim expression, and intriguingly enough, neither does Syril. “You disagree,” she prompts him.

“The bands of the Divhs have been passed down from father to son for five hundred years,” Tennet says gruffly.

“We’ve been taught that that was the tradition of our forebears.

Now that tradition lays in ruins. We’ve also learned that the original delegation from the Imperium wasn’t made up entirely of warriors, but each to a one was banded to become warriors to fight in the Great Conflict.

That much we know is true, and that much explains why Talia could become a warrior with a Divh so mighty. Fair enough.”

“Your enthusiasm is breathtaking,” I comment, but he ignores me and barrels on.

“That said, should we not have some measure of decorum when it comes to awarding the band going forward? All in your company are worthy, undoubtedly,” he says to Syril, who regards him with a baleful eye.

“But is this a precedent we truly want to set, linking those who are not warriors to Divhs? I confess I don’t know.

And it seems that we don’t have the luxury of knowing.

So, perhaps I should hold my own counsel. ”

“Never that,” I murmur. drawing Tennet’s attention as Fortiss scowls at me.

“Warriors fight not only with their sword and staff, but with their minds. Still, you’re right enough—we don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing who our allies are.

And I know from previous experience that we could do far worse than banding the warriors of the Savasci. ”

I turn to Syril. “If they’re willing, I’ll band half your troop today and the guards among our number.

Anyone with any battle skill, honestly. Those who remain as lookouts should know that their time will come if we survive this.

For now, though, we need their clear eyes as much, if not more, than we need pairings with Divhs. ”

“We’ll need your healers too,” Fortiss says grimly. “There’s always a reaction to banding, and there’s no way to tell how severe it will be. We’ve got less than twelve hours before nightfall. That’s not a lot of time to band your people or help them recover from the shock of the experience.”

“I can take on the training of your warriors these next several hours,” Tennet says stoutly.

Even if he doesn’t love this plan, he’s clearly committing to it.

“That training, I’m afraid, will be simply honing your people’s willingness to command their Divhs into a battle none of us have ever fought before these past few days.

But from what I’ve seen, your people can handle that. ”

Syril smiles at him, the first real smile I think I’ve ever seen her share. “Then I will lead the sighted Savasci, Lord Tennet, and you will lead my warriors.”