Traveler of the Void - Part 2 Chapter 3 - Manipulator, Manipulated

  Traveler of the Void

(Book 4 of the Guardian of the Spirit Series)

Author: Uehashi Nahoko

Translator: Ainikki the Archivist

 

Part 2 - The Curse

Chapter 3 - Manipulator, Manipulated

     

    A man squatting down in a dim cave stirred his legs to movement. His body had been wrapped in cloth to retain heat better. He poked his head tentatively out of the wrapping and looked around.

    This man had been sent to greet Adol, the Island Guardian, when he had first arrived at the palace. His name was Yatonoi Rasugu. He was disguised as a merchant, but in truth he was spy from the war-torn Talsh empire. Talsh's voracious appetite for conquest now targeted the continent to the north. Sangal was in the way.

    Rasugu had been sent to make contact with the Island Guardians of Sangal about two years ago. It had taken time to build up trust, but both Rasugu and his new trading partners had both turned a tidy profit in that time. It had been especially difficult to conceal the Island Guardians' new trading activities from the eyes of their wives—but the plot was laid now. All he had to do was wait. Time would bring it to fruition.

    Rasugu had said to the Island Guardians, "Sangal is currently only able to expand its influence and wealth by relying on its northern alliances. But the Talsh empire to the south is rich beyond imagining. If Sangal were to open more trade routes with them, Sangal could continue to rely on its current backers while generating more wealth in an almost entirely new market." Such arguments had proved persuasive—to some of them, at least.

    Of course, this was all rhetoric. Sangal was already glutted with goods from the markets in the south. There was nothing weak or lacking in their trade network. They also had a fearsome army and a larger navy than the Talsh empire. But if the Talsh empire could break Sangal's alliances with the countries to the north—or, better, if they could get these nations to fight one another—the Talsh conquest could be carried out that much more easily.

    Until recently, there had been a reasonable balance of power between the north and the south, but that balance had recently collapsed entirely. The Talsh gathered armies from their explosively growing population and swallowed up every nation bordering their empire like the wave of a tsunami. The islands to the far south of the Sangal kingdom had been the easiest to target; they were far from the capital and the King. But the Talsh had not come there to wage war, but to maintain peace—at least, that's what Rasugu had claimed to all of his new friends in Sangal.

    The Talsh were hoping to conquer Sangal without exercising their military might. When they’d first cast their eyes toward the northern continent, the Talsh had quickly grasped that the Yaltash ocean provided easy access to many other nations by means of established trade routes. If they managed to capture Sangal's most strategically located islands, their path to the north would be secure.

    The Sangal royal family remained a formidable barrier, but they were not present everywhere. Rasugu had gained allies from several of Sangal's islands in the hope that the Talsh could build bridges instead of inciting enemies. The most convenient outcome for the Talsh was to gain dominion over all of Sangal's islands while leaving their infrastructure mostly intact. The path to the north from Sangal's capital city was straight and clear, and the Talsh wanted it.

    As a last resort, the Talsh empire could of course muster its armies on the southern continent and conquer Sangal and the northern continent by force, exerting its power over these weaker nations from afar. But this was less desirable.

    From the Talsh point of view, High General Yunan's death from an illness was fortuitous. He had been hugely popular, not just among the King's army, but among the soldiers that served Sangal's Island Guardians as well. He had managed to unite the flimsy ties of loyalty between the islands into one strong bond. In many ways, he’d been the linchpin of the country's defense. After his death, the strong military alliances that existed between islands began to weaken.

    With Yunan out of the way, the Talsh began forming relationships with Sangal's Island Guardians while quietly encouraging resistance against Sangal's King. This was a tactic that they often used when invading foreign nations. More often than not, the internal dissension that the Talsh managed to create was capable of making the country destroy itself from within.

    Rasugu had been dispatched almost immediately after Yunan had died. He'd ingratiated himself to the Island Guardians and searched out the strongest leaders among them to win to the Talsh cause. But after only a short time of observation, Rasugu had realized that the usual Talsh tactics would not be effective against Sangal. Each Island Guardian was personally independent and not easily led. They also held little trust for one another and seemed to have few grievances against the King that ruled them. Their main interest was in gaining wealth through trade; as long as their preferred activities were not interfered with, they didn't much care who ruled Sangal.

    Of all the Island Guardians, only Adol of Kalsh had been relatively easy to convince. He had an independent spirit, but the other Island Guardians would never follow his lead. Even the soldiers that served him had little confidence in him, choosing to place their allegiance and trust in Prince Tarsan, who was not much more than a boy. Rasugu was well attuned to this fact. It seemed that Tarsan greatly resembled the deceased High General Yunan. He'd had to personally do very little to achieve widespread support among Sangal's army.

    And there was also Princess Karina to consider—she was Adol's wife and the oldest daughter of the King. She was a remarkable woman, more remarkable than her husband in several respects. There had always been a risk that she would discover Adol's plotting. If that had happened, Rasugu would have been forced to give up all his plans as hopeless. But Karina hadn’t discovered anything, and Rasugu had managed to turn his most significant vulnerability into an advantage.

    The Eyes of the Nayugul Raita is a gift from the heavens.

    A girl whose soul had flown elsewhere, leaving behind an empty vessel ready to be used: she was perfect. He could control her body freely and she would soon be cast to her death into the sea, leaving behind no evidence of his tampering or any evidence of ties to the Talsh empire.

    Rasugu closed his eyes and smiled to himself. Everything was going according to plan. It was a bit unfortunate that the Dreaded Spear had veered slightly from his intended course, but the wound it had inflicted was grave. What would happen next was anyone's guess. Rasugu intended to seize this chance to take down the entire royal family with one stroke.

    At the same time he'd decided to use the appearance of the Eyes of the Nayugul Raita to his advantage, he'd sent a message by carrier pigeon to the Talsh army. He'd instructed them to attack the island nation of Sagan that rested along Sangal's southern border. Spy ships were still searching for a secret, direct route to the capital, but aside from these forces, every other Talsh soldier was mobilizing for a war against Sangal.

    With Crown Prince Karnan dead and Prince Tarsan condemned to death, Rasugu could encourage the Island Guardians to revolt. He had not won all of them to the Talsh cause, but with the royal family dead Sangal's chain of command would be utterly broken. Sangal would become a series of unconnected island chains with no one to coordinate them all.

    Well before preparing for war, the Talsh empire had taken full advantage of Sangal's clever merchants and extensive trade routes. They had learned that the Sangal people were indeed clever merchants, on the whole. When they realized their own disadvantage, they would almost certainly submit to Talsh rule.

    It ’s a shame that the King has only two sons. Imagine the chaos we could create with more.

    Rasugu thought about his vanished homeland of Yogo. It had been an ancient kingdom, but the Talsh had sown discord among the members of its royal family. Yogo had destroyed itself; the Talsh had rushed in to pick up the pieces.

    How ironic that I, who gave up and fled my homeland so long ago, should be involved in such a similar plot to destroy another nation. Hm... Perhaps I still feel something for my homeland after all.

    He remembered the face of the young man that had disrupted his work with Prince Tarsan and grumbled to himself. That man's features were undoubtedly Yogoese, mixed with other characteristics that were more shapely and dignified. Over its long history, the people of Yogo had mixed their bloodlines with those of other nations; that young man seemed to be such a mix. He definitely didn't think that the young man had come from Yogo.

    That Crown Prince, though, is the spitting image of the old royal family.  When he remembered that Chagum had slipped out of the snare of his magic weaving, Rasugu became faintly nauseated. The royal family of Yogo are stubborn stock, it seems. Even after all this time...

    Crown Prince Chagum was entirely enclosed, living in a protective cocoon like some kind of pale blue insect. Rasugu shook himself. In the end, Chagum was just the descendant of a family that had destroyed its own nation to fuel its greed.

    Magic weavers were scorned in Yogo. They were paid to curse people, or harm or injure them in other ways. The Yogo people were highly conscious of their own individual purity and wary of anything that might put them at risk of contamination. The purest of all the Yogo people was the Mikado, their ruler. Expectations of high personal purity extended to his family and acquaintances as well. It was widely believed that any commoner that gazed upon the Mikado or his family would be struck blind.

    Magic weavers were considered utterly contaminated and impure. They only reason they hadn’t been eradicated was that they were so powerful: they were known for cursing people, but they also possessed the kind of power that could restore the souls of the dying. Most people in Yogo feared and detested magic weavers. Some turned from the healing profession to take up magic weaving in order to gain greater knowledge and ended up corrupted by power. The more contaminated magic weavers were in their world's eyes, the more power they seemed to possess. In this way they transcended the status proscribed to them.

    The imperial family of the Mikado and the Star Readers were the prime examples of the power of purity in Yogo. But no matter how many people a magic weaver saved, they had no hope of reaching such an exalted status, ever. They were consigned to the shadows, considered impure and unclean by all.

    The Talsh way of thinking about magic weavers was entirely different. As far as magic was concerned, the Talsh only cared if it was useful or not—and if it was deemed useful, they would use it, to the very limits of its capabilities. Utility was perhaps the only thing the Talsh empire truly cared about. After Rasugu's home nation had fallen to the Talsh, they’d shown off their ruthlessly utilitarian attitude at every opportunity.

    The conviction that everything the Talsh empire did was useful did much to fuel their desire for expansion. As many people as possible should bear witness to their competence—and contribute their own useful talents for the glory of the empire. The Talsh cared little for the personal loyalty of the people they subjugated; their primary aim was always to display their own power and greatness.

    Yogo society had functioned by separating the pure from the contaminated. Talsh society functioned by spreading and upholding its monolithic reputation of invincibility.

    Rasugu envisioned a map of Sangal in his mind. Soon, the places on the map would run red with blood. Like pawns in a game, each fallen player would lead to yet more blood drawn, until the winner of the game was declared. The chaos that the Talsh created before attacking any nation practically guaranteed that their invasion would succeed.

    However, Rasugu had not foreseen that anyone would be able to see through his magic weaving. It was an unfortunate failing on his part, not to have foreseen it. Still, the plan would not fail because of it. And he could still use the body of the Eyes of the Nayugul Raita freely enough as his tool.

    Rasugu had no doubts at all about the effectiveness of his plan. The man that had seen through his curse clearly possessed some knowledge of magic, but he had not possessed the knowledge to turn the curse back on the caster or to discover the curse's source. Rasugu had no need to treat an amateur as an enemy.

    Rasugu spent nearly all his time occupying the body of the Eyes of the Nayugul Raita, returning to his body only often enough to eat and drink and ensure his own flesh would not perish. He needed to watch over events to ensure that all his plans achieved the desired results. His remaining inside the girl's body also ensured that no other souls could take control of it—including the girl's own.

    Rasugu rested his weight against the stone behind him, smiled, and sent his soul flying once again toward the Eyes of the Nayugu Raita.

    After throwing the Dreaded Spear at Karnan, Prince Tarsan spent two full days sleeping like the dead. Priestesses and attendants informed the King of Sangal that this was due to the severity of his wounds. Even when he was poked or prodded, he would not stir from his unnatural sleep. No one knew why—except Shuga.

    Chagum was understandably very worried. Shuga tried to reassure him by saying, "Wounds of the soul are like wounds of the body. They take time to heal. That's all. I think Prince Tarsan will be all right."

    The foreign guests and dignitaries that had been invited to the coronation ceremonies remained in the palace. The King of Sangal announced his intention to throw a grand farewell feast in five days' time, on the night of the full moon. It was also the same night that the Soul Return ceremony would be held for the Eyes of the Nayugul Raita. The King wanted to use this feast to bid his guests farewell on a more positive note.

    The five days leading up to the feast were trying ones. Prince Tarsan received a harsh punishment called the Three-Day Judgement. This punishment was part of Sangal law and was only applied to those that harmed or intended to harm members of the royal family. Persons accused under this law had three days to defend themselves and attempt to justify their actions—or exonerate themselves. If the accused person's justification proved inadequate, they would be executed.

    People started to speculate about when Tarsan would wake up so that he could mount a defense. They also wondered continuously after Karnan's health. The future of the royal family of Sangal and Sangal's place of power on the world stage had radically shifted overnight. It seemed that no one would know anything for certain about the future for at least five days. All that could be done was to wait for Prince Tarsan to wake up.

    On the morning of the third day after Tarsan threw the Dreaded Spear at Karnan, his eyes finally opened. He looked around himself and was shocked to discover that he was bound to his bed. "What's all this?" he muttered. When he attempted to loosen his bonds, pain shot through his right arm. He groaned. It seemed that he was injured. He felt bandages around his arm, but they chafed like they'd been wrapped too tight.

    When he looked around the room, he noticed soldiers standing in vigilant poses along the wall across from him. They were guarding him as if he were some kind of dangerous criminal. Strange. Was he having a nightmare?

    "Hey, let me go! What are you all standing around for?"

    The guards exchanged uncomfortable glances.

    "Stop ignoring me!" Tarsan struggled against his bonds and thought about how all of this could have happened. He did remember drinking just a little too much at the feast last night, but only a little. Had he done something violent after that? Something illegal? But no, he wasn't that kind of person...and besides, he distinctly remembered returning to his room after the feast. He remembered, vaguely, that he'd been concerned about Eshana. Everything else after that was a blank.

    So I went to my room, fell asleep, woke up, did something terrible and now I'm tied up here?

    Tarsan’s guards whispered something to one another. Eventually, one of them left the room. Some time passed before the sound of many footsteps echoed in the corridor outside his room. The door opened; people marched in one by one.

    Tarsan watched his father, sisters, several aunts and their Island Guardian husbands line up along the wall. Legal clerks and scribes entered the room last. Tarsan felt the blood vessels around his heart constrict with anxiety. Everyone's expressions were cold and stern as they looked at him. His ears started buzzing from panic.

    This has to be a dream. Come on, Tarsan, wake up. I hate this!

    "Tarsan," the King said. He did not say his name in his usual affectionate tone. His voice was like ice. "Please tell the clerks everything you have done up until now. I expect you to tell the truth."

    "Father? Please, wait," Tarsan said in a voice like a cry. "Please, tell me what's happened. Why am I bound? What did I do?"

    Everyone looked at Tarsan in confusion.

    "I have absolutely no idea what's going on," Tarsan said." I just woke up, and now all this is happening, and now I—"

    "Be silent, Tarsan," the King said in the same cold, cruel tone as before. Reading his expression, Tarsan could tell by his expression that his father did not believe him. The King of Sangal gazed at Tarsan with clear contempt. "Are you truly saying you do not remember?"

    Tarsan's guts turned to water. "Yes...I really don't remember what I did. Did I injure someone when I was drunk?"

    Whispers broke out among Tarsan's sisters. The King's expression contorted in rage. "I never believed you'd be such a coward. I thought you'd be genuinely ashamed of your crimes and own up to them like a man. You asked if you hurt someone when you were drunk?" The King shook his head. "Claiming that you do not remember and facing us all so calmly is an affront to your honor, and to ours."

    This was the first time Tarsan had ever seen his father this angry.

    "Were you so blind drunk that you don't even remember hurling a spear at your brother?!"

    Tarsan felt like he'd been struck by lightning. He opened his eyes wide and stared at his father. I...attacked Karnan...with a spear?

    He noticed that Karnan alone out of all his siblings was not present in the room. Tarsan felt like someone had wrapped a hand around his heart and was squeezing it. He gasped, "I...at Karnan? I threw a spear at him?"

    The King's shoulders shook as he said with a roar: "You threw the Dreaded Spear at Karnan! Before the eyes of all our guests! Clearly you planned to kill him. The throw was so hard that the spear's point is still lodged in the wall! None can dislodge it! Do you understand?"

    A low, tremulous sound buzzed in Tarsan's ears. "Kill...my brother. Did I...do that?"

    Tarsan felt cold all over. His heart beat wildly, its rhythm clearly audible in his own ears and picking up speed. His vision went dark and the room began to spin. Tarsan desperately gulped in air.

    "And you still claim that you do not remember?" the King said with a sneer. His voice was hoarse from his outburst. "I came to hear your reasons, but I realize now that this was a fool's errand."

    Tarsan looked at his father's and sisters' faces. The only person that showed any trace of sympathy at all was Saluna.

    Believe me, father! I would never make up an excuse out of cowardice. I truly and honestly do not remember!

    The King shook his head slowly. "You are an embarrassment and a stain upon the honor of this family. To think my son would be such a man."

    Saluna struggled to form words. She wanted to deny what the King said. Tarsan was short-tempered, true, but he was not the sort of person to deny his own guilt. She believed him when he said that he couldn't remember what he'd done. Tarsan was generally a poor liar and a worse actor.

    Saluna stared at Tarsan with an aching heart as she  watched him reaching out mutely to her for some kind of sympathy or understanding. She dropped her gaze to the floor.

    "It seems that we still can't fully make sense of this situation. Before dozens of foreign guests, you clearly and violently attacked the next King of Sangal. No other sentence but the Three-Day Judgment is just. If we deal lightly with the matter of a younger brother attacking his older brother, the remnants of resentment and distrust will linger for years to come."

    Tarsan felt like his heart was being ripped out by an eagle's talons. Saluna gasped in alarm. The King had as good as pronounced a death sentence on Tarsan. The people gathered in the room stared at Tarsan in silent shock. The light went out of Tarsan's eyes.

    "We cannot risk more rebellion," the King said. "Go down to the barracks and inform Prince Tarsan's personal guard of his judgment."

    Tarsan was released from his bonds so that he could get out of bed, but his hands were immediately bound behind his back. The soldiers guided him down to the barracks. He followed their lead as mutely and expressionlessly as a statue. He passed through a long dim hallway toward the outer courtyard of the barracks, a shell of his former self. He moved where he was directed, but that was all.

    As Tarsan approached the entrance to the courtyard, walking with an unsteady gait, he paused briefly and thought, This must be a dream. It can't be anything but a dream.

    The men who served as Tarsan's personal guards were already assembled in the courtyard. They stood surrounded by other soldiers of the army. Their stiff postures and troubled faces betrayed their nervousness. When they saw the King and his procession, Tarsan's personal guards all snapped their mouths shut and stood at attention.

    The King stood upon a dais in the courtyard and surveyed the assembled men. He ordered Tarsan to ascend to the dais as well. When his personal guards saw that his hands were bound, they erupted in outrage.

    Tarsan had grown up with all of them as a true man of the sea. They were all Yaltash Shuri. Every one of them had complete and absolute faith in Tarsan.

    "I am sure that all of you would like to hear with Prince Tarsan has done," the King said. "He was once my beloved son. He would have led Sangal's armies. But in his blind unthinking rage, he threw all that away by attacking his brother with a spear, gravely wounding him. Furthermore, he claims to have been so drunk at the time that he does not remember his grievous misdeed."

    Tarsan's guards shouted in consternation. When they’d first heard of Prince Tarsan's attack on Crown Prince Karnan some days before, they'd been greatly perplexed. They knew Tarsan's character well. They considered that Karnan may have done or said something to injure Tarsan's pride. But blaming his attack on Karnan on too much drink was emphatically not like Tarsan. He might be hotheaded, but he didn't make excuses for himself.

    The King's voice and carried to the edges of the courtyard. "From now on, unless new facts come to light, this man is considered a traitor to the crown. As punishment for his cowardice and dishonesty, I divest him all of his royal titles and status. He is now a commoner and shall be executed according to the law."

    Silence fell among the assembled soldiers. Then someone called out in an unsteady voice, "Prince Tarsan is no coward, and no traitor!"

    "Lord King, please reconsider..." 

    First one, then another, then all of Prince Tarsan's men rose their voices in appeal to the King. The sound of his friends' voices hit him like a punch to the gut. Up until this moment, Tarsan had been more than half-convinced that all of this was a dream, but the sight of his friends and allies standing with him drew his absolute and total focus. They were real, which meant the rest of this might be, too. He felt like someone had just dumped a bucket of cold water over his head.

    If his friends tried to save him now, they'd be branded traitors, too. Tarsan sucked in a breath and called out in a voice so loud that it cracked, " Dalgana!"

    The soldiers fell silent at once and looked at him. Dalgana  was a military command that had been drilled into every soldier in the courtyard. The command called for immediate quiet and stillness. Every man obeyed the command without thinking.

    My brothers.

    Tarsan's next words were uttered in a resonating tone like his father's, but he felt oddly disconnected from himself as he said them. "I will make no excuses to you, father, for cowardice. I am no coward. I truly do not remember what I have done. But my father and my sisters all claim to have seen me do it. I have no choice but to trust them. I have vowed unswerving loyalty to the King of Sangal. No matter his judgment, I shall abide by his will."

    Please let this be a dream.  He clung to the idea, as hopeless as it was. While staring at his friends' faces in the failing light of the afternoon sun, Tarsan wondered vaguely when he would wake up.

    On the night of Tarsan's judgment, the Island Guardian Adol was drinking alone in his bedroom. His wife Karina had not returned all night. She was probably still in the Flower Pavilion. Men weren't permitted there, so Karina was free to linger with the other women and discuss whatever she liked.

    Adol stared into his glass of chilled wine and summoned an image of his wife's face to him, its lines set in an expression of grim determination. He genuinely cared for her. Although their marriage had mainly served to strengthen the royal family's ties to Kalsh, Adol always thought there was mutual respect and affection in their relationship, and he was fairly sure Karina felt the same way. 

    But as time went on, rifts had developed in their relationship. Not simply matters where they couldn't see eye-to-eye, but points of contention where they actively worked against one another.

    Karina was a highly intelligent woman, but she somehow hadn’t noticed or had chosen to ignore the widening gulf between them. Even though any failings in their relationship might pose a risk to the unified Sangal, she had not acted either to break things off with him or to mend fences. He wondered why.

    Sangal had been protected thus far by the constant and unshakable loyalty of the women of the royal family. Few problems had arisen as a result of their mutual ties to the Island Guardians and the King of Sangal, since the interests of the Island Guardians and the royal family were largely aligned.

    Certainly, the Sangal royal family was the primary force keeping Sangal's scattered islands united. Their influence and leadership had made Sangal a stable and recognized nation of power and prominence on the world stage for the past hundred years.

    But it's different now.

    With the continent to the south embroiled in endless war, the Talsh empire had spread over them like storm clouds, and in the end had engulfed them entirely. Now the Talsh had set their sights on Sangal. Adol understood clearly that they would cross the Yaltash and turn their gaze on the northern continent.

    And what would become of Sangal then, caught in the middle as it was?

    If the wind keeps changing, why not take advantage of it?

    If foreign merchants were to be believed, the winds blowing from the south were currently the most profitable for trade. But there was something dangerous in those winds: hints of a coming storm on the horizon. Adol thought of Sangal as a ship, and he wanted to direct its sails. One mistake could cause the ship to careen into the storm. If that happened, the dream of a free and independent Sangal nation would sink beneath the waves.

    Adol saw no other option aside from joining the smaller Talsh navy to the larger Sangal fleet controlled by the royal family.

    The Talsh language was much different from Sangalese. They worshiped different gods. But Adol had heard that they were deliberate thinkers that valued ideas and tools for their effectiveness and utility. They had a reputation for being clear-headed and decisive. He doubted that his life would be much worse as an Island Guardian under the Talsh empire’s rule than it was now.

    As he sat thinking, Adol realized that he felt no love for Sangal whatsoever. Maybe the other Island Guardians felt the same? He loved his own island of Kalsh, but he had no such affection for the wider Sangal nation. His love for the common people of Sangal was so distant and weak that it barely existed except as an obligation; something expected of him that he didn't feel.

    I doubt Karina will understand.

    Karina was only fulfilling her role. But it was a mistaken belief that the country was somehow integral to the functioning of the islands. Adol honestly didn’t know if the islands would be better off under their own sovereignty than they were under the King's. He suspected Karina would never forgive him for even thinking such a thing. The women of the royal family were taught and raised only to fight for the continued existence and preservation of the Sangal nation. Trying to change Karina's thinking on that would make her entire mental infrastructure crumble.

    He wondered what Karina would do when the Talsh invaded. When she learned of his betrayal...

    Karina, what will become of you when Sangal falls? Will you understand that I did this to protect us, and our way of life? It wasn't an entirely selfish choice.

    Sitting in his bedroom drinking, Adol started to nod off. He heard a voice call out to him and jerked awake. He saw no one else in the room with him. He heard only the sound of the evening wind blowing in through the open window.

    "Am I hearing things?" he muttered. He closed his eyes, then heard the voice again.

    "Lord Adol."

    The voice was coming from the window. Adol stood up, retrieved his short sword sitting on top of his desk, and looked out of the window.

    He gasped in surprise. In the courtyard below him there was a soldier, standing silent and alone. His eyes were vacant and empty, not focusing on anything, but the soldier had shifted his stance to gaze directly up at Adol. His hair was wrapped around the back of his head, but Adol barely noticed.

    "What do you want?" Adol asked.

    "Lord Adol," the soldier said. "It's me. Yatonoi Rasugu."

    Adol's eyes widened. He wanted to tell the soldier to stop joking, but then he realized man's tone and mannerisms were very much like Rasugu's.

    "I borrowed this soldier to come and tell you something important," Rasugu said.

    Adol gulped. He knew that Rasugu was acquainted with magic, but this was the first time Adol had seen him move and speak while manipulating another person's body.

    "We must speak quickly. I must be gone before your wife returns. The elite Talsh navy forces will soon cross into Sangal's waters."

    "Wh-what?"

    "Please inform the other Island Guardians. It is time for them to make up their minds. One prince is dying from wounds inflicted by the other. Sangal's royal family has been shaken to its core. Now is the perfect time to strike. All the Island Guardians are currently in the capital. This makes them easy to mobilize. You shall prove our loyalty to us now.

    "Our forces are strong. It is my estimation that the kingdom of Sangal will be as good as fallen in three days' time. Those who serve us will not be killed or made slaves, but will be granted freedom and wealth beyond their wildest imaginings. Urge the other Island Guardians to seize this chance."

    Adol's face went pale.

    The soldier's face was blank and utterly expressionless as Rasugu continued to speak. "In order to prove your own loyalty, kill Prince Karnan and the King of Sangal. You do not have to do this immediately. I shall give you three days. When Prince Tarsan is executed three days from now, the King and Prince Karnan must die as well. This will be the proof of your loyalty to the Talsh, and shall grant you safety in our empire."

    Adol's mouth opened, but no sound came out.

    "The lives of you and your allies in exchange for the lives of the King and Prince Karnan. That's the deal. And the time for consideration is over. You must make a choice." Rasugu's tone was deadpan. He presented this choice as casually as if he were commenting on the weather.

    "I will be watching you," Rasugu said. "My eyes are not limited only to this soldier's. I will be watching you, even when you do not expect to be watched. Do not forget."

    The soldier rested three fingers on his chest. This was the Talsh salute. He turned smartly around and withdrew.

    Adol stood near his window and broke into a cold sweat. The stagnant night air filtering in through the courtyard carried the sweet scent of flowers. Adol stared out the window into the darkness. Before tonight, he thought that the approaching storm was farther off, but now it was upon him. He'd barely been given time to blink.

    He had to kill the King—and Prince Karnan—in less than three days. He felt entirely numb with shock. He gripped his windowsill with both hands and shook uncontrollably.

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