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KALDAR Mar stepped back and critically surveyed the vast three-dimensional map of the Western Continent It spread on the wall of the private conference rooic and semiprecious stones Forests of malachite and jade flowed into plains of aventurine and peridot The plains gave rise to er eye, topped by the snowy peaks of moonstone and jasper

Beautiful A completely useless waste of money, but beautiful If it somehow could be stolenyou'd need a handcart to transport it and some tools to carve it to pieces Hmm, also a noise da the Weird, he could probably find soht price Steal a custodian's uniforet in, cut the map, wrap each piece in a tarp, load theht out the front door, while looking disgruntled Less than twenty h The map would feed the entire Mar family for a year or more

Well, as left of the family

Kaldar's menoring the borders of the Weird's nations Adrianglia took up a big chunk of the Eastern seaboard, stretching in a long vertical ribbon In the Broken, it would have consumed ia and a sypt occupied Florida and spread down into Cuba To the left of Adrianglia, the vast Dukedo all of Louisiana and a chunk of Alaba to s Mississippi and Texarcana, and ending with the coast of the Great Lakes Beyond that, sht it out: the Republic of Texas, the Northern Vast, the Democracy of California

Kaldar had grown up on the fringes of this world, in the Edge, a narrow strip of land between the coical superiority of the Broken Most of his life was spent in the Mire, an enore by impassable terrain The Dukedom of Louisiana dumped its exiles there and killed them when they tried to reenter the Weird His only escape had been through the Broken He traveled back and forth, s asit back to the family

Kaldar stared at the map Each country had an enemy Each was knee deep in conflict But the only war he cared about was happening right in the lia It was a very quiet, vicious war, fought in secrecy by spies, with no rules and no e and its consequences were handled by the Mirror He supposed if they were in the Broken, the Mirror would be the equivalent of the CIA or FBI, or perhaps both On the Dukedom of Louisiana's side, the covert as the province of the secret service known as the Hand He had watched froanizations clashed, but watching wasn't enough anymore

First, the Mirror woke him up at ten till five, and now he spent fifteen

The heavy wooden door swung open soundlessly, and a woman entered the room She was short, with a sparse, coown embroidered with silver thread Kaldar priced the dress out of habit About five gold doubloons in the Weird, probably a grand and a half or two in the Broken Expensive and obviously custom tailored The blue fabric perfectly complemented her skin, the color of hazelnut shells The dress was meant to communicate power and authority, but she hardly needed it She moved as if she owned the air he breathed

Nancy Virai The head of the Mirror They had never e rat that he was - but she hardly needed an introduction

He'd spent the last two years doing sreat i that would warrant the attention of Lady Virai Anticipation shot through Kaldar So waited at the end of this conversation

Lady Virai approached and stopped at the desk four feet away Dark eyes surveyed him from a severe face Her irises were like black ice Stare too long, and you'd veer off course and smash into a hard wall at full speed

"You are Kaldar Mar"

"Yes, my lady"

"How long have you worked for me?"

She knew perfectly hen he had started "Almost two years, my lady"

"You have open warrants in two provinces, which we quashed when you were hired, and an extensive criminal record in the Dukedoler, a conambler, a thief, a liar, and an occasional ht the Mirror would be the proper career choice Just out of curiosity, is there a law that you haven't broken?"

"Yes I never raped anyone Also, I never copulated with aniainst that"

"And you have a sree the lot of you frolia Your debt is being paid in full by the efforts of your cousin Cerise Sandine and her husband, William You are allowed to pursue any profession you may like Yet you came to work for me Tell me, why is that?"

Kaldar s my family I possess a unique set of talents that the Mirror finds useful, and I don't want to rely on my lovely cousin and William for the repayment of my debt William is a nice chap, a bit testy at times and he occasionally sprouts fur, but everyone has issues I would feel rotten being indebted to hiood nature"

Nancy's cold eyes stared at hie of others' good nature"

He laughed quietly under his breath

"You lie with no hesitation The sine that face serves you quite well, especially in female company"

"It has its uses"

Lady Virai pondered hi moment "Kaldar, you are a scoundrel"

He boith all the elegance of a blueblood prince

"You were born smart but poor You view old coin indon't appreciate e have, and you delight in thu your nose at aristocracy"

"My lady, you give me entirely too much credit"

"Sparethe system, you hate orders, and you break the law simply because it's there You can't help yourself Yet two years ago you came to me with a bridle and a set of spurs, and said, 'Ride ely law-abiding You've been good, Kaldar Within reason, of course There was that business with the bankfire"

"Completely accidental, my lady"

Lady Virai grih all this trouble, and I don't have time to waste"

The probleave your opponent aainst you One siun Unless, of course, one had no choice If he played coy now or tried to lie, she would see through him and order him out of the roonments He had waited two years for this chance He had to be sincere "Revenge," Kaldar said

She didn't say anything

"The Hand took people froht "My aunts, er brother There were thirty-six adults in the fae There are fifteen now, and they are raising a crop of orphaned children"

"Do you want the Hand's agents dead?"

"No" Kaldar sain "I want them to fail I want to see despair in their eyes I want them to feel helpless"

"What is driving you? It's not all hate People driven by hate alone are hollow You have some life left in you Is it fear?"

He nodded "Most definitely"

"For yourself?"

In his ray rain Aunt Murid's body lay broken on the ground, her blood spreading across the brown mud in a brilliant scarlet stain He was sure that's not what he actually saw Back in that moment, he didn't have time to stand and watch the blood spread He was too busy cutting into the creature that killed her This htmares

"What are you thinking of?" Lady Virai asked

"I'"

"How did you feel when they were killed?"

"Helpless"

There She had pulled it out of him It hurt He didn't expect it to, but it did

Lady Virai nodded "Hoell can you handle the Broken?"

"I swih clear water"

She gave him a flat look

"The Edge is very long but narrow," he told her "The Mire, where my family lived, is boxed on two sides by impassable terrain There are only tays out: to the Weird and the Dukedom of Louisiana, or to the Broken and the State of Louisiana The Dukedoround for its exiles They er who approaches that boundary So that border is closed, which leaves only one avenue of escape, to the Broken Most of , so it fell to s we needed I've traveled through the Broken since I was a child I have contacts there, and I've taken care to maintain them"

Lady Virai pondered his face

Here it comes

"So happens that I can use you"

Aha!

"A few hours ago a group of thieves broke into the Pyraypt" Lady Virai nodded at the map, where the peninsula that was Florida in the Broken thrust into the ocean "The thieves stole a device of great yptians The Hand likely commissioned this theft To make matters worse, the thieves were supposed to hand off their merchandise to the Louisianans, and they chose to do it in Adrianglian territory Their lia is involved, and the Egyptians are threatening to send the Claws of Bast into our lands to retrieve the object"

Kaldar frowned The Hand was bad, the Mirror was dangerous, but the Claws of Bast were in a league of their own There was a reason why their patron goddess was called the Devouring Lady

"Can you handle a wyvern?" Lady Virai asked

"Of course,reptile and a horse, really

"Good You will be issued one, together with funds, equips you may require I want you to use it to fly to the south, find this device, and bring it to me Find the object, Kaldar I don't care if you have to chase it to the moon; I want it in my hands, and I want it yesterday Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes One question?"

Lady Virai raised her eyebrows a quarter of an inch

"Why me?"

"Because the West Egyptians tells ers," she said

"How do they know?"

Her eyes flashed with annoyance "They didn't specify But it's hardly in their best interests to lie The Hand hired the Edgers to do their dirty work, and now they have vanished into the Broken They think they are beyond o noill brief you and see to the details"

Kaldar ducked his head and headed for the door Fate finally smiled at him

"Kaldar"

He turned and looked at her

"I' that you are smart as well as pretty, and those s my orders Don't disappoint me, Kaldar If you fail because of lack of ability, I will simply discard you But if you betray me, I will retire you Permanently"

He grinned at her "Understood, my lady"

THE briefing room lay just a short walk from the conference roo it open Erwin rose from a chair with a neutral smile

Lady Virai's pet flash sniper had a pleasant face, neither handsome nor unattractive His short hair, halfway between dark blond and light brown, didn't attract the eye Of average height, he was tri; at the saed wherever he was Never unco et he was in the rooers, and once you passed him, his flash would take your head clean off Erwin could hit a coin thrown in the air with a concentrated blast of ic from fifty paces away

"Master Mar" Erwin held out his hand

"Master Erwin" They shook

Inconspicuous Erwin When Kaldar had first met him, he'd taken the time to replicate the look and the ht past the security into the ducal palace twice before he decided to stop te Fate

"Would you care for a drink?" the sniper asked

"No"

"Very well On with the briefing, then" Erwin turned to the large round table and tapped the console The surface of the table ignited with pale yellow The glow surged up and snapped into a three-die pyraold

"The Pyrayptian pyraressed into houses of worship and learning This particular pyraypt, is devoted to Ptah, God of Architects and Skilled Craftsypt, he is particularly venerated because of his intellectual approach In essence, if Ptah thinks of it, it co"

"A useful power," Kaldar said

"Very Ptah's pyraic disciplines It's the place where discoveries are yptians guard it like the apple of their eye"

Erwin touched the console, and the walls of the pyra its inner structure - a coeways

"This is just e know about," Erwin said "The defenses of the pyra It is seeded with traps, puzzles, ined to separate intruders froyptians infor" Erwin picked a narrowoff froht shade of yellow "It's a service hallway It's typically locked at night, and the lock is considered to be tamperproof"

"Until now"

"A fair observation The Egyptians estimate that a talented picklock could open this lock in ten to fifteen minutes The entrance is extensively patrolled The thieves had aof eight seconds, during which they opened the door, slipped inside the passageway, and closed and locked it behind them"

"They locked it?"

Erwin nodded

Four seconds to open, four seconds to lock That was crazy To break into the Pyramid of Ptah would take incredible talent Kaldar had looked into it when he was younger and the fa if it could be done, he would've said no

"Then they proceeded down this hallway, leaving three distinct sets of footprints, two large and one small"

"Two for uessed

"Probably" Erept the length of the hallith his pointer, causing sections of the iht up "They opened impossible locks in record time They avoided all of the traps They escaped detection and ended up here, bypassing both treasury here and armory here" The pointer fixed on a sht and left of it "They took a wooden box containing the device and walked out of the pyramid the way they came In and out in under twenty minutes

"That's impossible"

"Our Egyptian colleagues are of the saard for their collective sanity"

Kaldar frowned at the pyramid "Was this the shortest route they could've taken to the room?"

"Yes"

An enterprising thief would've done the research and broken into the treasury A terrorist would've gone for the armory and the weapons within But these three went directly to the room, took their prize, and escaped Someone had hired them to do this job and provided them with the plans of the pyramid Only a heavy hitter would have access to this sort of intelligence The Mirror Or the Hand That would explain why a thief with a talent of this caliber took a job for hire The Hand's methods of persuasion rarely involved money Mostly they showed you your child or your lover strapped to a chair and proreed to do whatever they wanted

There it was, finally, his chance of a direct confrontation He would make them pay

Eratching him

"What happened after the thieves left the pyramid?" Kaldar asked

"They disappeared off the face of the world" Erwin fiddled with the console, and the pyrae of a small town "This is the town of Adriana, population forty thousand Two hundred and twenty leagues north, across the border, in our territory A s the first place Adrian's fleet dise the ocean It's a popular destination for school tours Six hours and ten minutes after the thieves left the pyramid, Adriana's prized fountain exploded The city crew, first on the scene, becahost insects on their skin, hot flashes, freezes, te"

The reaction to Hand's ets to suppleents' natural talents, while the Hand eic modification Officially, all countries of the West Continent abided by an agreement that liic The Dukedoht noises and quietlyneedles on their backs, wos that used to be hus and claws

Magic augents lost their humanity completely, some held on to it, but all eic If you were sensitive to ic, the first exposure made you violently sick He'd experienced it firsthand, and he didn't care to repeat it