“Did you really believe that anything could happen to the Deathguard that I would not
know about? Old friend, I am of the Deathguard. You are of the Deathguard.”
“Senestral thought he knew the Deathguard, too.”
Avrankes smiled, and the scar above his eye stretched and pulsed as he smiled. “I am not
Senestral.”
“You are not. “ I wanted to run him through. But something gave me pause. “These False
Deathguard. Are they truly Kaieles’ agents, or truly yours?”
Avrankes stood with his arms folded behind him, and as the desert wind whipped his red
cape, he shrugged. “Who can say? We have suborned so many of each other’s men over the
years. Double-agents, and triple-agents, and beyond. At our level, old friend, loyalty is a game. A
dance of a coin upon its edge.”
I could not argue with him. I did not even understand the game he was playing. What
Gebron had hoped to intercept was not only already going on, it had become normal. Perhaps it
had always been normal. And I knew that what I had envisioned for this matter would never
serve. Avrankes was as guilty as Kaieles. Both must be punished.
“I see,” I said.
“I know it offends you,” he said. “As it must. Officially, you must take exception to all of
this. But you and I both know that even if you punish everyone involved, it will only begin
again. This is the way of things. The way of us. We are not men of law. We are men of power.”
I let silence fall upon his words. He spoke only the truth, but within that truth was a
defiance. He thought this truth was protection from the emperor. Protection from me.
We looked upon each other and felt our stillness cry out. “How long has it been since we
matched blades, man of power?” I said.