Chapter 3

"Stop squirming!" The skinny mage directed towards the tall Barbarian, who was indeed attempting to avoid Helldemon's soot stained finger. "It looks perfectly natural, I tell you."

PteriDae glanced across the table at me. Her expression told me that she, at least, didn't find Kimpo's ash-darkened brows at all convincing.

"Maybe if Blaster or Chasm or another capable healer were here..." I started, drawing a lowering of the artificial brows in my direction.

"Even they can't regrow hair, Dear," my wife offered helpfully. Kimpo's dark glance fell in her direction, but it takes more than an angry Primogen to shake my wife. "Besides, it was his own fault. His eyebrows had barely started to grow back from the last time!"

A low mumble came from Kimpo, but no one attempted to interpret for him.

"Perfect!" Helldemon stepped away from Kimpo and absent-mindedly wiped his sooty hands on curry-stained robes. "Show everyone my handiwork!"

Kimpo turned towards where Pteri and I were sitting. Over each eye was a perfect semi-circle in black ash. The effect was... unusual.

Somewhere deep inside my chest I felt a giggle trying to escape. Pteri ground the heel of her boot into my instep and the giggle subsided.

We HAD to be meeting in the Phoenix Arena. That kick hurt!

Helldemon wandered off to his own business somewhere else and Pteri quickly fixed Kimpo's eyebrows to something less... exotic.

"Your wife is definitely going to have to start fixing you larger lunches," she lectured, although he didn't seem to be listening. "Or you could try growing fire-resistant eyebrows."

"Now, Pteri," I chided. "We are here to honor Greyshadow's completion of the Trials of Admission. Let's try to focus on that, and get off the subject of Kimpo's pilfering lunches and losing his eyebrows."

"Greyshadow!" Kimpo bellowed, jumping to his feet. "All these people whispering messages to me at once! It must be her!"

I opened myself to the whispers of the Clan.

"At least six of them!"

"I heard there was a dozen!"

"You sure it was HIM?"

"Him who?" I whispered ungrammatically. "Fill me in right now!"

In the next few minutes, Kimpo, Pteri, and I unraveled a story about a girl, presumably Greyshadow, dragged south out of Buya, by an uncertain number of darkly clothed fellows, led by one tall Mage with a regal bearing.

"Kija, has to be," I said aloud. I stood up and walked to the entrance of the Arena. "We only have one advantage. He doesn't know she's practically a Clan member, and so all kin will be watching for her. His head start will quickly evaporate if we can guess where he is taking her."

"Out the south gate?" Kimpo asked, rhetorically. "He must be heading home for Nagnang."

"Think we can beat him to the Pass again, this time from the other side?" Pteri asked, following me into the Hall.

"We can try," I hurried to collect a few things from Ashes, the Hall merchant, then turned back to my wife. "At least this time I won't be facing the Nagnang unarmed."

I thanked Ashes, attached the sheathed sward she handed me to my belt, and then drew it.

A Do is blue steel long sword with the singular distinction of being both the most desirable weapon to wield and the least desirable to face. Even without soul-wrenching spells like Forsake and Corrupt, it can tear through armor, like Kimpo tears through one of my unprotected lunches. With this in my hand, I felt comfortable with the thought of facing the Prince of Nagnang.

Luck was, for once, on our side. A Phoenix kin was attending a poetry reading near the south gate of Kugnae and he quickly Summoned us to him. Kimpo, Pteri, and I gathered some horses and rode towards the entrance to the Nagnang Kingdom.

The lush green grass and towering trees of Southern Kugnae gave way suddenly to the bare red sandstone of the Nagnang pass. Not much had changed since the last time we had been here, but then we were facing several Nagnang Ninja. Although our party was mostly an unarmed political envoy, we had a strong poet and two very strong mages. Pyran mostly sat and watched as Kimpo, his son Bane, and I had stood together, stronger than the walls of the Pass. Luckily for them, the Ninjas had decided against attacking into Kugnaean lands.

"Uh oh," Kimpo muttered, reigning his horse near the border markers. Pteri and I stopped next to him and dismounted, no longer quite so confident in our rescue attempt.

For there ahead of us in the Pass waited Prince Kija with his entourage, consisting of a full contingent of Royal Guard, warriors all of EeSan or greater, outfitted with the most expensive and effective weaponry. Behind them, a very serious looking group of sun-robed mages, and a squad of white-bearded Poets, each of which matched or exceeded the abilities of the strongest I had ever seen.

Indeed, our attack was hopeless. What's more, they seemed to have been waiting for us.

"Well met, again, Gareth!" Kija called from just across the border. The Prince was a gaily-bedecked clotheshorse caparisoned in brightly colored robes, edged with gold cloth. He looked as brilliant as a peacock, and was likely as vain. In our last meeting, we had bested him as much due to his overwhelming arrogance as our clever planning. "You can see I won't underestimate you again."

"I guess I should be flattered." I noticed there did seem to be one odd thing about the group arrayed against us.

"No Rogues," Kimpo supplied, he must have been thinking the same thing.

Kija laughed, causing me to wonder again what seriously deranged people always find so funny? They seem to laugh hardest just before giving the command to "open fire" or while plummeting over a cliff to their death. Alas, no cliff was available at the moment.

"Rogues? I think not," the Prince strutted back and forth, just an arm's length across the Nagnang border. He might as well have been vacationing at the seashore, for he couldn't be more out of reach. "It will be awhile before I begin to trust my Nagnang Rogues again. What few of them I let live. Sadly, all the Ninjas sent after you have suffered 'accidents'. Some even had family-wide tragedies."

"You monster!" Pteri exclaimed.

"I can have the whole Phoenix Clan here in minutes, Kija," Kimpo stepped up to the Border, in his black armor he looked like a bear looming over the slight Mage. "Then we will see how much protection you get from your troops."

Kija laughed again.

"These paltry troops aren't my protection, Barbarian," he explained, still chuckling. He quickly stepped behind the wall of warriors arranged along the border, then returned leading a young lady, gagged with her hands tied behind her.

"Greyshadow!" Kimpo exclaimed.

"She is Phoenix and under my protection, Kija," Kimpo threatened. "Harm her and I will wear your skull for a hat."

The Prince snickered derisively.

"But she ISN'T really yours, yet," he smiled evilly. "She is still Nagnang and hasn't formally sworn allegiance to you, has she?"

Kimpo glanced at me, perhaps hoping I had some ideas. It was true, until Greyshadow was formally Buyan and Phoenix, we didn't have a legal right to ask for her return. All that was to be taken care of during this afternoon's ceremony. While Kija held her hostage, even the might of the entire Clan would be insufficient to ensure her safe return.

"All right, Kija," I began, as calmly and evenly as I could. "You win."

Greyshadow took that moment to start struggling with all her bonds, but Kija simply kicked her feet out from under her. She fell hard, but the callous Prince never even spared her a glance to see the stream of blood running down her cheek.

"Gareth, you never disappoint me." Kija pulled out a leather diplomatic pouch and untied the straps. "You knew this was just a show, didn't you?"

"Even someone as vain as you, wouldn't arrange all this merely to gloat," I nodded. "What is it that you really want?"

Kija smiled, just barely showing his teeth. He looked like a cat that swallowed a whole flock of canaries, and had decided that the family dog looked tasty, too.

"What does he mean, Gareth?" Kimpo looked confused. There seemed to be little likelihood of a fight, now and he seemed uncomfortable holding his Spike without using it to bash in some skulls.

"Please, tell me YOU are the real power behind the Phoenix Clan, Gareth," Kija sneered at the confused Primogen. "I find it offensive to think this BARBARIAN is running the most powerful clan in Buya."