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S napping fingers. Wet, splashing his face, cold as ice. Pressure upon his chest, a shove , shove , shove that made his ribs creak.

Lips, upon his own. Breath, pushed in, hot and moist. The healing spell, constant, flooding white over his chest.

He jerked, spluttering, and saw the Speaker staring down, his dark eyes wide with concern. Other bald-headed men and women peered from behind.

Jai sat up to find himself in a strange place. A large nest. There was no other way to describe it. He was in a hollow of woven branches, lined with feathering, grasses and fur. They were nestled in the hollow of the mountainside, in a space large enough to fit all the Caelite, though their beasts seemed to be away, perhaps resting in their individual nests, as they were wont to do.

‘Fool boy,’ the Speaker snapped, even as Jai coughed, more of the world swimming into focus. ‘Do you have any idea how close you came to death?’

Jai ignored him, instead looking within. And breathed in glorious relief.

For his core... was different. It had blossomed indeed.

Gone was the pearlescent, ornate marble that had been. In its place was an ivory conch-shaped cornucopia, replete with swirling channels, spiralling indents, all leading to a great hollow at its centre. And it was larger. Perhaps three times larger than it had been before.

It lay empty, but was no less beautiful. It might have been a living thing, found amid the corals at the bottom of the ocean. And there was intelligent design behind it. Not random, not symmetric, but somehow perfect in every way.

Still, a swift jerk of his arm brought him up to his feet, before he was pushed into a kneeling position by the Speaker’s iron grip.

‘You are a seventh-level soulbound,’ the man said, somehow angry and impressed all at once. ‘You have the right to join the Caelite. Do you choose to?’

‘I do,’ Jai said with no hesitation.

‘Will you return to defend our fortress and our flock, should an enemy choose to invade us?’

‘I will,’ Jai said.

‘Will you follow our rules and customs when you remain in our sacred places?’

‘I will,’ Jai said.

‘Then rise and ask your favour, Jai,’ Eko boomed, standing head and shoulder above the rest of the Caelite.

Jai stood on shaking legs, his head swimming. He had just been brought back from the brink of death. Advanced to one of the hardest levels one could achieve, such that no man could join the Caelite without it. And even though he had already accomplished what he needed to here, he also, somehow, wasn’t ready for this. But he had to try.

‘As a new member of the sect, I bring a warning,’ Jai said, addressing the strange, silent bald men and women among them.

‘Then give it,’ one growled. ‘And be on your way. We know your commitment to our cause is weak.’

‘His father’s son,’ another muttered. ‘All take. Nothing to give.’

‘Do you blame me?’ Jai snapped back. ‘After what you saw the other night?’

They had no answer for him. Because how could they?

‘Your stronghold is not hard to find,’ Jai said. ‘You know the Gryphon Guard covet it. Only the fragile truce between the Sabines and my peoples kept them from crossing the border, to reach you. Now that truce is over. Even at this moment, they are distracted with the dragons of the Dansk. But when they are done with them, ask yourselves: what is stopping them from descending upon this place?’

‘Then we will beat them!’ another sect member cried, a Phoenixian woman with a cherubic face. ‘On home ground. But we will not strike the first blow, far from where our roqs fly, far from the source.’

Jai let out a deep breath, trying to still the rage within him.

‘Why wait until they are done with the Dansk, with us? Why risk this sacred place? Why not fight them by our side?’

Again, a question that evoked silence.

‘Years ago, your forebears allied with my people. And while they lost much, in the act of their defiance, in exhausting the might of the Sabine Empire, you preserved this place.’

‘Eko has told us of your intentions,’ the woman said. ‘Our minds are made. Ask your question so that we may end this charade.’

Jai felt the tiredness of these last days. His core was empty of mana, and exhaustion was setting in with nothing to keep it at bay.

He was close to swaying on his feet, but knew he would show these men and women no weakness. Standing tall, he made his request.

‘I will not ask you to join me in war.’

The woman – and many of those around her – looked shocked by this. He pressed on.

‘No, I ask a different favour: fly far and wide. Gather the tribes of the steppe, great and small. Summon a High Council for me, to forge an alliance between the tribes. And attend too. If you are to abandon us, then say it to all the Sithians, not just one khan.

‘Not just to Rohan’s son.’

Eko blinked with surprise at Jai’s words. The corners of his mouth tugged, just a little, and Jai knew he’d played this right. The Caelite muttered in their strange fluting language, one Jai imagined he might learn, in time, if he chose to stay.

‘This, we can grant you,’ the Speaker said finally. ‘When? And where?’

Jai hesitated. He knew of only one landmark in the Great Steppe. Where his mother had been buried.

‘How far lies the Blue Mesa?’ Jai asked.

‘Two weeks’ ride from here,’ Eko said, swiftly. ‘Or a day’s flight.’

‘Most of the tribes have moved east; they will be close,’ Jai said. ‘Two weeks, then.’

He summoned Winter with a thought, feeling her relief at his return to consciousness. He felt too her reluctance to leave Regin’s embrace, even as she had lain in terror, watching Jai’s soul waver between the land of the living and the dead. The two dragons were ensconced in his lair, not far beneath them. But loyal beast that she was, she came.

Jai stalked to the great nest’s edge, waiting for her return.

‘Two weeks,’ Jai said, as they stared at him, brows furrowed as they tried to understand what game they played. ‘To prepare your explanation for your cowardice to the peoples of the steppe. Your brothers. Your neighbours.’

He caught Winter’s outline, gliding up to meet him.

‘You have till then to find your mettle,’ Jai said.

Then he leaped... and was flying.