Interesting, he thought, eyes flicking to his wife and watching the threads of emotion that connected her to Kajivah. She believes my mother can sway me when even my counsellors cannot.

Looking back to Kajivah, Jardir couldn't deny his wife was right to worry. His mother had occasionally been vexed with him over the years. He was no stranger to that. But never had he dreamed his divine mother could direct such fury at him.

'This is your fault,' Kajivah said, drawing gasps from around the room. 'This is what comes of refusing your nieces the white.'

Asome nodded. 'It was enough you told the world they were not worthy of Everam's grace. Now you decree they should man a spearwall like common warriors?'

Jardir felt his temper flare. He pulled the edge of his white outer robe, revealing the black beneath. 'I am a common warrior, my son. As is your elder brother.' He glanced at Jayan's aura, not surprised that the boy did not care what he decided. His eldest son did not want the headache of women warriors, but neither did he consider the issue worth crossing his father over. He was content to stand by and enjoy Asome's suffering.

'There was a time when you begged to be a warrior, as well,' Jardir told Asome. 'I mourn the loss of that boy. His honour was boundless.'

'I have led men in the night,' Asome said. Jardir regretted the insult when he saw how deeply it cut at his son's spirit, but now was not the time to coddle.

'From the rear,' Jardir said. 'You are a master tactician and general, my son, but you have not felt the rancid breath of an alagai on your face. If you had, you would have more respect for the spear.'

'Father speaks truly, brother,' Jayan said. His aura made his motivations clear, attempting to appear wise while currying his father's favour and kicking his brother for the pleasure of it.

Jardir cast a displeased glance his way, and saw Jayan's aura shrink. 'Everam bless me if I could meld the two of you together like silver and gold to make a fitting heir.'

'I have always respected the spear, my son,' Kajivah said. 'I raised you to do the same, did I not? Everam knows it was hard without Hoshkamin ...'

Inevera's aura was so exasperated she might as well be shouting, though only Jardir could sense it. To the rest she was studying her painted nails as if they were more interesting than the events at hand. She knew better than to force Jardir to choose between them publicly.

'But I also taught you to respect women,' Kajivah went on. 'To protect and cherish them. To keep them safe in the night, and provide for them. Now you will make them fight? Will you ask children to take up arms next?'

'If I must, to win Sharak Ka,' Jardir said, and even Kajivah sputtered to a stop at that.

He looked around the room for further thoughts, his eyes lighting on Shanjat. He had known the man since they were children in sharaj together, and had fought and bled beside him in the night countless times. The kai'Sharum's aura was conflicted, but Jardir could not glean its meaning without more information.

'And you, Shanjat?' he asked. 'What does your heart tell you? Do you wish to see your daughter take the spear?'

Shanjat knelt before the throne, laying his spear next to him. He put his hands on the marble floor and pressed his forehead to it. 'It is not my place to question your decree, Deliverer. It is also not my place to question Damaji Ashan's feelings regarding his daughter, nor Dama Asome his Jiwah Ka.'

He lifted his forehead and fell back on his heels. 'For my part, if you had asked me yesterday, I would have shouted at the thought of women beside me in a spearwall, or trusting one with my back in sharak.' He looked at Shanvah, and his aura filled with love. 'But I cannot deny that when I watched those two warriors fight, it was glorious. I can think of none, even Spears of the Deliverer, who could have fought better. When they unveiled and I saw my daughter's face, it was not shock or anger I felt, it was pride.'

Shanvah returned her father's look. Jardir could see in the emotions connecting them that she barely knew the man ignored by him in favour of her brothers and taken from his household early to train in the Dama'ting Palace. Until now, she had felt little for Shanjat, but with his words, a thread of love went out to him in return.

Jardir nodded, considering.

Inevera cleared her throat. 'Husband, with respect, you have consulted your clerics and counsellors. You have consulted the fathers, you have consulted the mothers. You have consulted the husbands, you have consulted the brothers. You have even consulted the alagai hora. You have consulted everyone and everything, save the women themselves.'

Jardir nodded, beckoning the would-be Sharum'ting forth. 'My beloved nieces,' he said as they knelt before him, 'know that like Shanjat, your honour is boundless in my eyes. But I cannot deny I fear the idea of you out in the night. If you wished to prove something to me, you have proven it. If you wished to honour me, and your bloodline, you have done so. Nothing more is needed for my esteem, and I would not see you pushed into this life by some,' he glanced at Inevera, 'or fleeing to it from others.' His eyes flicked to Asome. 'And so I ask, is this truly what you want?'

Both women nodded immediately. 'It is, Uncle.'

'Think well on this,' Jardir said. 'Your lives will change forever if you take the spear. You may look upon the Sharum and see only the excesses they are allowed, but those excesses come at a heavy price. There is glory in the night, but there is also pain and loss. Blood and sacrifice. You will see horrors to haunt you, awake and asleep.'

The women nodded, but he went on. 'It will be even harder on you than on men. The male Sharum will expect you to be weak, and will not wish to heed your commands. You will be challenged, and have to be twice the fighters your male zahven are until you have their respect. This will not be easy, and I cannot help you there. If men fear to strike you only because they fear me, they will not respect you.'

Ashia looked up at him. 'I have always known Everam had a different path for me than He did your daughters. Now, having stood in the night, I know. If I shame my husband, then dissolve our union that he may find a worthier Jiwah Ka. I was meant to die on alagai talons.'

Shanvah nodded, taking Ashia's hand as the morning's first sunbeam came in through the windows. 'On alagai talons.'

You will gain warriors in the night, Inevera had said, but lose others on the morrow. But what did it mean? Did it mean he would refuse them? Or that his men would rebel at the thought of fighting alongside women?

He shook his head. They said the same thing when he made the kha'Sharum. Now those men served him with honour. He would not lose warriors by choice. He'd hated the shameful way his mother was treated when he was a child, with no man to speak for her. He had been terrified that he would die, too, and his sisters be claimed by the local dama and sold as jiwah'Sharum.

Jardir cast his gaze over the court. 'I do not wish to make women fight, but Sharak Ka is nigh, and I will not turn away those who choose to. Kaji may have forbidden women the spear, but the first Deliverer had an army of millions. I do not, but must fight the same war.' He pointed to the kneeling young women with the Spear of Kaji. 'I name you kai'Sharum'ting.'

Kajivah wailed.

'Holy Father,' Asome said. 'If my jiwah thinks nothing of her vows to me, then I ask you divorce us now, as she suggests.'

Ashan looked at Asome sharply. The union between Ashan's daughter and Ahmann's son strengthened the ties between their families, and it would be a loss of face for them to be severed.

'No,' Jardir said. 'You and my niece declared your vows before Everam, and I will not let you go back on them. She remains your Jiwah Ka, and you will not deny her time with young Kaji. A son needs his mother.'

'So now my granddaughters go to alagai'sharak each night?' Kajivah demanded.

'It need not be so,' Inevera offered.

Kajivah stared at her in shock. 'What do you mean?'

'Many of the dama have personal guards, Sharum only called to alagai'sharak on Wanings,' Inevera said. 'If it pleases my honoured husband, I will take them as such.' Jardir gave her a slight nod, and did not need to see her aura to know the sense of satisfaction had returned to his wife.

'Even on Wanings, it will be a mistake to let them join the front lines,' Asome said. 'They will distract men whose attention needs to be in front of them.'

'My warriors will learn to adapt,' Jardir said, though he knew it was not quite so simple.

Asome nodded. 'Perhaps. But is it a lesson you wish to begin while Alagai Ka stalks the land?'

Jardir pursed his lips. 'No,' he said at last. 'I do not know what is coming with the new moon, and it is not the time to force change.'

Asome smirked at the small victory. 'But that goes for the dama, as well,' Jardir said.

Asome's eyes widened just slightly. 'Eh?'

'Everam's Bounty would fall into chaos without the dama,' Jardir said. 'And so I will not risk you on Waning until I know what we are facing each month. You may join your mother and wife in the underpalace come the new moon.'

Jayan stifled his laugh, but not enough for it to escape his brother's ears.

Be careful, husband, Inevera thought as she watched Ahmann and Asome face off. He is still your son, and he has his pride.

Thankfully, their staring was broken by a commotion at the door. Inevera saw a lone Sharum striding into the hall. He looked thin and haggard, his blacks filthy with mud, and he stank. She could smell him from across the room.

The warrior planted his spear and fell to one knee before the Skull Throne. 'Shar'Dama Ka, I bring urgent missive from your first daughter, holy Amanvah.'

Ahmann nodded. 'Ghilan asu Fahkin, is it not? You were sent north to guard Mistress Leesha's caravan. What has happened? Are my daughter and intended safe?'

Intended. The word cut at Inevera, even now.

'Both were safe when I left them, Deliverer,' the warrior said, 'but they appeared to have had a ... conflict.'

'What kind of conflict?' Ahmann demanded.

Ghilan shook his head. 'I do not know, but I believe the holy daughter's letter will say.' He held up a small scroll, sealed in wax.

Ahmann nodded and motioned for Shanjat to take the letter. Shanjat was Ghilan's kai, but still the warrior leapt to his feet, backing away.

'What is the meaning of this?' Ahmann said.

'The holy daughter made me take an oath, Shar'Dama Ka, to put the letter into your hand and no other,' Ghilan said.

Ahmann nodded, motioning the man forward. Ghilan sprinted up the steps, falling to one knee again when he was in reach. He kept his eyes down as he handed Ahmann the letter. His voice was low, so only Ahmann and Inevera could hear. 'I will say this, Deliverer. By her own admission, Mistress Leesha poisoned me to prevent my reaching you.'

'She was bluffing,' Ahmann said.

The young Sharum shook his head. 'Your pardon, Deliverer, but she was not. After two days I began to weaken. On the third, I fell from my horse and lay for hours, waiting for death.'

'How did you survive?' Inevera asked.

The Sharum bowed to her. 'Night was falling, Damajah, and I thought it better to die on alagai talons than lying in the dirt, my strength sapped by a woman's poison.'

Ahmann nodded. 'Your heart is that of a true Sharum, Ghilan asu Fahkin. What happened then?'

'I barely had strength to stand,' Ghilan said, 'but I hid myself well and bided my time, waiting for a fool alagai to venture too close. After some time, a field demon came by, attempting to track my scent. When it drew up to my hiding place, I struck hard.'

'And grew stronger,' Inevera guessed.

Ghilan nodded. 'The blessings of Everam come to those who kill the creatures of Nie. My horse fled, I hunted for the next two nights before my strength was restored. I apologize for the delay, but I have come as quickly as I was able.'

Ahmann put a hand on the man's shoulder. 'I am proud of you, Ghilan asu Fahkin. Know that your honour is boundless. Go now to the great harem and have the jiwah'Sharum bathe you and comfort you into a well-needed sleep.'

The warrior nodded, leaving the room as quickly as he entered. Ahmann opened the letter, read it, and passed it to Inevera.

'Husband, I am sorry,' she said as she scanned the contents, 'but I did warn you.'

'Once again your dice have proven true,' Ahmann said. 'I gained two Sharum'ting in the night, and lost the warriors of the Hollow come morning.'

'I take no pleasure in it, beloved,' she said, but it was not entirely true. 'If it is any consolation, you cannot truly lose what you never had.'

Ahmann shook his head sadly. 'It is no consolation, wife.'

Inevera moved the stone covering one of the many hidden nooks in her Chamber of Shadows. There was a small box, warded for cold and powered by a demon bone core. A thin rime of frost covered its surface.

Inevera opened the cloth and removed the stiff bit of silk from within. It was precious, but with her dice restored and Mistress Leesha discredited at last, it was time to finally cast the bones for the Northern witch.

The silk was one of Inevera's many kerchiefs, this one used to daub the blood Leesha had lost during their fight in Inevera's pillow chamber. She carefully cut out the bits of bloodied silk, tossing them into a small bowl of steaming liquid. When blood had been fully leached, she poured the mixture over her dice and shook.

'Almighty Everam,' she prayed, 'give me knowledge of Leesha, daughter of Erny, of the Paper family of the Hollow tribe.' With a final shake, she cast the dice before her.

And gaped.

She is your zahven, and carries a child.-

27.

Waning

333 AR Autumn

Waning

'How does it work?' Jardir asked, staring in fascination at the Skull Throne, now sheathed in electrum. She had drawn the thick curtains in the throne room, allowing his crownsight though sunset was still an hour away. He could see the steady stream of power the throne radiated in every direction. Its centre shone hot with concentrated magic, like a miniature sun.

'Your throne now projects a-' Inevera began.

'-warding field,' Jardir finished for her. 'Not even the princes of Nie will be able to approach my seat ...' He turned, following the path of the magic, looking through the great stone walls as easily as one might look through glass. '... for miles.'

It was truly amazing. The Crown of Kaji could repel alagai as well. Jardir had mastered its power in recent weeks, learning to extend the protection far beyond his physical reach. No alagai could approach within a quarter mile of him, but that he willed it. He could protect an army on the field, but this, this protected the entire inner city and beyond. The demons might strike at his walls, even knock them down, but they would never get past them.

He looked back at Inevera, his mouth curling in a smile. 'I did not ask what it did, beloved. I asked how it worked.'

Inevera's aura flushed with shock, and then disappointment that she would not be able to parade around the marvel she had made, revealing its power to him in teasing bits.

Let her have the moment next time, he chided himself. With this gift, she has earned it a thousandfold.

To his surprise, Inevera laughed. Not the bark of derision she threw now and then, but a full laugh, infectious and true. There was no more beautiful sound in all Everam's creation.

'You never cease to amaze me, Ahmann,' Inevera said. 'Every time I begin to question, you remind me you truly are Shar'Dama Ka.'