Inevera shrugged. 'It is not as I would have it, either, husband, but the dice are clear. I have cast the dice for thousands of men, and never found another with your potential.'

There. It was clear in her aura, shining like a beacon through her mask of dama'ting serenity.

She was lying. There was another.

Anger filled him. Who was this man, or boy? Why was she protecting him? Did she mean to supplant him if he should prove too difficult to control?

He embraced the feeling as quickly as it came, showing no sign. He was not a manipulator like Inevera or Abban, dissembling with half-truths, omissions, and leading statements, but he was learning to keep his thoughts to himself, giving them no thread to spin, much as he denied opponents energy to turn against him in sharusahk. He set aside the concern for later. For now, he had more pressing questions.

'How can I throw back my enemies in the coming Waning?' he asked.

Again Inevera wet the dice with his blood and cast the bones to the floor. She saw something that made her aura become one of sharp concentration, crawling on her knees to study the pattern from all sides. Her gossamer clothing pulled tight, presenting her much as she was in lovemaking, but her growing aura of fear drove such thoughts from his mind. She was seeing something she did not wish to tell him, and was searching for a way out of it. He wanted to shout at her, to demand what she was seeing, but forced himself to remain calm.

At last she looked at him. 'The Deliverer must go into the night alone to hunt the centre of the web, or all will be lost when Alagai Ka and his princelings come. But even if you survive, there will be a heavy price.'

He looked at her, seeing the fear in her aura reach out and clutch at him. She did not want him to risk himself. Was it born of love, or was her replacement simply not ready? There was no way to know. He hated himself for considering the latter, but she had already deceived him more than once.

'Princelings?' he asked instead. 'How many? What web?'

'Seven will rise, one for each layer of Nie's abyss,' Inevera said, 'but only three will strike at Everam's Bounty.'

'"Only", you say.' Jardir shook his head. 'Everam's beard. One nearly proved our undoing.'

'You were not prepared then,' Inevera said.

'It infiltrated the palace, Inevera,' Jardir said. 'Slipped past the work of our finest Warders like it was nothing.'

'We have added protections since,' Inevera said. 'The alagai princes will not penetrate our warding so easily now, and I will cast the dice to find the weakest points of our net and bolster them.'

Jardir nodded. 'And this web?'

Inevera shrugged. 'Of that, I can tell you nothing.'

'No attempts to dissuade me from this course?' he asked.

His Jiwah Ka shook her head sadly. 'It is inevera. Sharak Ka is yours to win, husband.'

Or lose. Inevera did not speak the words, but they were clear in her aura. His success was by no means assured.

'Where will the demons strike hardest?' Jardir asked, his most pressing question. 'Where should I position my forces?'

Inevera cast again, staring for a long time at the result. At last, she sighed. 'I do not know. There are too many variables. I will try again in the coming days.'

'Every day,' Jardir said. 'A hundred times if you must. Nothing is more important.'

Inevera bowed slightly, lifting the dice one last time. 'We will cast now for the coming day.'

Jardir nodded. This was a practice they had done nightly for almost twenty years. Some days, the dice told him nothing at least, nothing Inevera chose to share but others they warned of hidden knives and poison, or when to be ready to seize an advantage.

Inevera tipped the last of his blood onto the dice and shook as she said the words Jardir had heard countless times. 'Everam, giver of light and life, I beseech you, give this lowly servant knowledge of what is to come. Tell me of Ahmann, son of Hoshkamin, last scion of the line of Jardir, the seventh son of Kaji.'

She threw, and the dice scattered wide, symbols pulsing in patterns he could not hope to comprehend.

'You will give the dama'ting a powerful gift today,' Inevera said.

'Kind of me,' Jardir noted. He saw no deception in his wife, but that did not mean his gift would be a willing one, rather than something duped from him.

Inevera gave no indication she had heard him. 'You will gain warriors tonight, but lose others on the morrow.'

'Gain at night?' Jardir asked. 'Lose during the day? How is this possible?'

'I do not know,' Inevera said, but Jardir could see in her aura that her words were only half true, and had to suppress a flash of anger. What secrets was she hiding? How was he to lead their people to victory when his own wife kept secrets about his warriors?

As they had frequently in recent weeks, his thoughts turned to Leesha Paper. The woman could be vexing in her own ways, but he did not believe she had ever lied to him. He wished she was here by his side, not this ... tunnel asp.

'Not long after sunrise tomorrow, an unexpected Messenger will bring you ill tidings,' Inevera went on.

'That happens every day,' Jardir said, hardly caring any more.

Inevera shook her head. 'This one has passed through death to see his missive delivered.'

That got Jardir's attention, and he looked up at her as she squinted at the dice. 'His message will bring you pain.'

He saw no deception in her, but as she spoke the words, her aura pulsed. There was nothing in her expression, no outward sign, but to his eyes it was plain as day.

Empathy. Without even knowing the cause, her heart had cried out for him, when she realized he would be hurt. His pain was her pain.

He reached out to her, his anger gone, and gently touched her face. She looked at him, and her aura had never shone so bright.

Whatever else she might feel, wherever her loyalties might lie, she loved him.

Oh, my Jiwah Ka, Jardir thought sadly. How I have wronged you.

'The Deliverer is not to be disturbed, khaffit!' Jardir heard Hasik's growl even through the covered walls and door of Inevera's pillow chamber. With the crown atop his head, he could hear the wind buffeting the wings of birds high in the sky, and his ajin'pal was not a quiet man.

Jardir sat up, waking Inevera in the process. Abban.

He looked at Inevera and smiled, trying to convey all the love he felt for her, and knowing it fell short. Inevera's return smile was genuine, and her aura gave back his love with equal fervour.

He kissed her again. 'Duty calls, beloved.'

She nodded, helping him into his raiment before seeing to her own. When they were composed, they left the chamber, returning to the throne room.

It was empty, but it was little surprise after Asome's lesson. Jardir sniffed, smelling the blood of the Damaji spattered on the carpet.

He pointed to a few drops. 'Ichach.' He sniffed again and turned, pointing a few feet away. 'Qezan.'

Inevera nodded, taking special cloths from her pouch and carefully blotting up as much of the blood as possible for her spells. If his Damaji were to turn on him over this indignity, he wished to know of it. His Jama and Khanjin sons were still in their nie'dama bidos, but he would raise them himself if necessary to keep his tribes unified.

He strode up the steps to the Skull Throne, throwing back his warded cloak as he sat. He waited for Inevera to join him on the dais, then clapped his hands loudly. Immediately, Hasik appeared at the door, bowing deeply.

'Show Abban in,' Jardir said. Hasik had a surprised look on his face, but he nodded, and a moment later the fat khaffit appeared at the door, bowing as low as his crutch would allow.

'Abban, my friend!' Jardir beckoned the khaffit. Inevera shifted beside him, and he did not need to see her aura to know what she was feeling. He had seen Abban's aura, and knew the khaffit harboured similar feelings towards his First Wife.

No matter, he thought. They must learn to abide each other.

Abban stopped at the base of the dais, but Jardir waved him still closer. 'You may climb three steps,' he smiled, 'one for each of your legs.'

Abban smirked, tapping his crutch against his leg. 'My wives would tell you that meant I could take a fourth step as well.'

To Jardir's surprise, Inevera laughed at this, and Jardir nodded. 'I remember you in your bido, and think your wives flatter you, but the sound of the Damajah's laughter pleases me. You may take the fourth step.' Abban ascended quickly, not questioning his fortune.

'We have consulted on your plan, and find it sound,' Jardir said. 'We will attack Docktown on first snow. Begin the preparations, but say nothing to anyone.'

Abban bowed. 'The longer the secret is kept, the less chance the Laktonians will have to flee. If I had my way, even your generals would know nothing until the time came to signal the attack.'

'It is sound advice,' Inevera agreed.

Jardir nodded. 'But that is not why you come to me today, Abban, and I have not summoned you. What draws you from the centre of your web?'

'My people have made a ... delicate discovery,' Abban said. For an instant his eyes flicked to Inevera.

Jardir sighed. Was there no trust to be found anywhere in his court? 'Speak.'

Abban bowed again, reaching into a pocket in the fine tan vest he wore over his colourful silk shirt. He withdrew the hand, holding out a lump of silvery metal.

Inevera stiffened, and Jardir, too, recognized it immediately. He was out of the throne in an instant, snatching it from the khaffit's hand. He hadn't held it a moment before Inevera snatched it in turn, holding it to the light, this way and that.

'This is the same metal as the Spear and Crown of Kaji,' she said, voicing all their thoughts.

Abban nodded. 'Our metallurgists have long sought to unlock the secrets of the artefacts of the first Deliverer. Too pale to be gold, but neither were they silver, or platinum. Our best guess had been white gold, an alloy made by adding nickel to pure gold. Jewellers in the bazaar have been using it for centuries.' He smiled. 'Cheaper than gold, it sells for nearly twice the price to fools who think it exotic. This,' he pointed to the lump of metal, 'is electrum.'

'Electrum?' Jardir asked.

'A natural alloy of silver and gold, I am told,' Abban said.

Jardir's eyes narrowed. 'Told by whom?'

Abban turned, clapping loudly as Jardir himself had done before. Immediately Hasik appeared at the door. 'Show in our guest,' Abban called. Hasik glared at him, but when Jardir did not countermand the order, he vanished, escorting a Rizonan man into the room. The man was old, squinting in the light, his face and hands smudged with dirt. He held a hat in his hands.

'Rennick, master of one of Shar'Dama Ka's gold mines,' Abban introduced. Hasik grabbed the man roughly, forcing him to his knees and pressing his forehead to the floor.

'Enough,' Jardir said. 'Hasik. Leave us.' The warrior pursed his lips, but bowed and vanished again.

'You, Master Rennick, approach the dais,' Jardir called. 'Tell us what you know of this metal.'

Rennick approached, wringing the hat in his hands like a laundress. 'It's like I said to Abban, Yur Grace. That there is electrum. Seen it once before, when I was a boy working another mine down south. The signs are in the rock. Vein of silver ran into the gold. It don't happen often, and there ent much of it. Yur mine is safe.'

Safe, Jardir thought, as if I care a whit for gold.

'Can you make more of it?' Jardir asked.

The miner shrugged. 'Reckon so, though maybe not as pure. But why? Might fetch a fair price as a novelty, but it ent worth as much as pure gold.'

Jardir nodded, then clapped again, signalling Hasik to remove the man. 'Make sure that man does not speak to anyone,' he told Abban.

'Already done,' Abban said. 'He will be taken right to the forges where my private smiths work, and never seen again. His family will be told he was killed in a cave-in, and compensated handsomely.' Jardir nodded.

'I must take it to my chamber and confirm its power,' Inevera said.

Jardir nodded. 'We will wait.'

Inevera looked at Abban, and Jardir cut her off with a chopping motion of his hand. 'I am not a fool, wife. I see how you and Abban look at each other, circling my throne and marking it with your piss. But I have chosen to trust the two of you, and in this, at least, you must trust each other.'

Inevera drew in her brows, but she nodded, disappearing into her chamber and returning several minutes later.

'What is more precious than gold?' she asked.

Jardir looked to Abban, and both men shrugged.

'It is an ancient question of the dama'ting seeking the Damajah's sacred metal,' Inevera said. 'Precious metals conduct magic better than base ones, but even gold cannot transfer without loss.' She held up the lump of electrum. 'At long last, we have found the answer.'

Jardir took the lump, studying it. He lifted it and put his teeth to it, seeing the imprint they left. 'But the crown and spear are harder than the finest steel. No hammer or forge can even scratch them. This metal is soft. It will not even hold an edge.'

'Not now, perhaps,' Inevera said, 'but when charged with magic, it will be indestructible.'

Jardir felt a tingle in his crotch at the word. The thought of making more weapons as powerful as his spear was intoxicating. Suddenly winning Sharak Ka seemed within his grasp. 'Imagine the power my warriors will have ...'

Abban cleared his throat, interrupting the thought.

'A thousand apologies, Deliverer,' the khaffit said when Jardir looked to him, 'but do not put the cart before the camel. As Rennick said, there is but a small vein of the stuff.'

'How small?' Jardir asked. He gave Abban a hard look. 'I will know if you lie to me, Abban.'

Abban shrugged. 'Thirty pounds? Perhaps fifty? Not enough to arm even the Spears of the Deliverer. And, I might add, you might think twice about arming any warrior with such a potent weapon, lest he begin to have delusions of grandeur.' He smiled. 'It's been known to happen.'

Jardir scowled, but Inevera broke in. 'I agree with the khaffit.'

Jardir looked at her in surprise. 'Twice in one day? Everam's wonders never cease.'

'Do not grow accustomed to it,' Inevera said drily. 'But in this case, your weaponsmiths are not the ones best suited to make use of this discovery.'

Jardir looked at her a long time, remembering her words in the pillow chamber.

You will give the dama'ting a powerful gift today.

He nodded. 'So be it.'