Essael put me up in another room, no questions asked. When Andiya’s mind reached for me, I sent a quick flash to show her I was safe and slammed her out. I couldn’t talk to her right now. Fully spent, I hit my bed and slept deeply.

Regret filled my dreams. I shouldn’t have left things the way I had—without reaching an understanding. In the morning, I would not let anger cloud me.

I woke to a gentle knocking on my door and Essael’s voice calling me downstairs. I quietly dressed and came to the tavern, where I saw Andiya waiting by the door. There was an apology in her eyes, and she found one in mine. Our consciousnesses brushed, and there was no will to fight, no fury. A small lightness lifted her expression.

Essael ushered me over to the door. “Should be fairly busy at this hour. No one should notice you.”

Andiya swept a black cloak over her shoulders and raised the hood. Essael must have given it to her for when we eventually reached Ryalgrad.

“Let’s go, Rozin,” Andiya said. Her tone was gentle, testing the waters. She wouldn’t push the subject. “Our lady awaits.”

We stepped out the door, and we were in a city.

People in fine clothes rushed past us, too occupied to notice two new strangers on the street. The buildings were of a handsome grey stone and mortar, their roof tiles all a scalloped slate. Everything was neat, well kept, from the trimmed bushes in front of houses, to the flat cobbles polished clean, to the massive Shrike banners that flew from a guard post down the street. The banners were a deep red edged in black, a navy shrike bird open winged on their faces.

I looked behind me, but there was only an open alleyway, the inn nowhere to be found.

I didn’t need to ask where we were. Curling like a claw above the city, Mount Anfang loomed over us. It stood alone, the lands around it nothing but flatlands, hills, and mire. The city crawled up the mountain’s base, buildings stuck to it like barnacles on a sea cliff, daunting staircases wound up its inner face. Near Anfang’s inverted peak, hundreds of balconies and spike-like towers rose out of the stone, carved from the mountain itself. Finally, clinging to the peak like a water droplet, was a massive construct of glass. It shone against the sun as a diamond would, hanging from the mountaintop as if lording over the world below. The Creator’s Eye. Home of House Shrike.

Winged bonded flew around Mount Anfang, lifting riders and heavy slings up the mountain. We set off to where many of them seemed to launch from, at the mountain’s eastern base.

I felt uneasy as we made our way through Ryalgrad. It was grander, more densely populated than any place I’d ever been. There seemed to be more people in this single city than in several of the Novoski provinces combined. And everywhere I looked, I saw Shrike soldiers. Just watching, chatting, patrolling. Making their presence known. There were far more of them than in any other private command. I understood why the Ilyins wanted the Shrikes. They wouldn’t need any more allies than this.

We passed handsome parks, glass-roofed markets, sparkling temples, and thousands upon thousands of clipped shrubberies, blooming flower pots, and bubbling fountains. The wealth made my head spin. It was little wonder the Korongorod left the Shrikes largely to their own devices. The fact of it was, I doubted they could control the Shrikes if they tried.

We wove through a music festival in full-swing. Children danced in circles, giggling, as crowds watched on with bright smiles. Wealthy citizens stood with bonded behind them, but few bonded were covered, and few were common Bestials. Rather than black cloaks, humanoid bonded wore vivid robes in the Shrike colours, their faces obscured with delicate veils. Nowhere else had I seen a place with enough wealth to purchase so many Elementals. A Bestial was easy enough to trap and sell to a wealthy merchant. All one really needed was a big enough iron cage. But an Elemental was intelligent, powerful. Very few bonders outside the military were skilled enough to capture them, and so their price was astronomical.

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The soldier presence thickened as we neared the mountain’s base. We followed the flying daemons and came to an open square filled with shipping boxes and workers loading slings. Bonded landed within, their masters on their backs. They waited as attendants loaded supplies into saddlebags or slings, then launched back in the air. The daemons were all Bestials of the same variety: hulking, four-legged, spiral horned, and shaggy like bison in winter. Their wings were membranous, hairy along the shafts, so wide the daemons tucked them close before they even touched down, instead landing on canine paws after a short drop. One of the daemons let out a disgruntled snort. It had the face a mountain lion, if said mountain lion had flat, dull teeth and droopy eyes.

“Tiraar,” sent Andiya. “Big, stupid things, but durable as they come. Popular as beasts of burden in our lands.”

I frowned at the tiraar. Catching daemons was luck. You grabbed whatever you could find. How had the Shrikes managed to bond so many of one type? Had they found some sort of herd?

We were halted by a guard as we tried to enter the square. “Business?” he asked, bored.

“We’re looking to get up the mountain.”

He squinted at my fine clothes, and at the humanoid bonded behind me. He likely I assumed I was from some wealthy family. “Right. Which port?”

“Er …”

“University, Merchant Guild, Courthouse, Winter Prison, Hallowed Bank …” he drawled, as if he repeated it several times a day.

“The Creator’s Eye.”

The guard snorted. “If you have a complaint, you’re better off stuffing it.”

“I’m not here to complain. I have business with House Shrike.”

“Merchant Guild, then.”

“Not that kind of—look. I need to speak with any member of House Shrike immediately. It’s of national importance.”

“There’s no port for that, ma’am.”

“Then how would one meet them?”

“One wouldn’t.”

I wanted to grab the guard by the lapels and toss him aside. But I had to tell myself that it wasn’t this man’s fault. He’d have no way of knowing what I’d been thought in the past weeks.

“My name is Eon Kain, bound in service to the blood of the Canavar. I demand to to be taken to meet with the Shrikes, as my regent commands.”

The guard leaned in, curious. “Eon, was it? Where’s your …” He gestured to his eyes, where I once wore spots of maroon paint.

“I am travelling anonymously,” I grit through my teeth.

The guard sighed. “This one for the Merchant Guild!” he called to a worker behind him. “Dunno how to get you to the Shrikes. But money’s got a better chance than anyone.”

A shipyard worker led us over to a tiraar lying by a tall mounting block. On its back was a platform-like contraption with low rails. At the worker’s order, we climbed the stairs and stepped onto the tiraar’s saddle, then strapped our legs in with leather belts. I watched carefully, but the bonded tiraar had no reaction to Andiya’s presence. The worker whistled, and we leapt into the air.

It was like being tossed about in a tiny ship. We bounced in the air like we crested and crashed on waves as the tiraar’s powerful wings pumped higher. The city dropped from under us. I clenched my stomach so I wouldn’t lose what was left of my dinner. Soon we levelled out, and the tiraar soared along the mountain in a path it had clearly taken before. From above, I saw the true scope of House Shrike’s reach. Ryalgrad dwarfed even the Korongorod, its perfect roads and towering temples spread out in a ring around Mount Anfang. A great river carved through it. The Blackstar, for the iron dust that mixed in the waters.

And just beyond the city limits, great smoking mines scarred the land like the claw marks of a Creator. They were the source of the Shrikes’ power, so vast and rich that all of Itrera depended on their iron. Thousands toiled in those mines, worker and crown prisoner alike. The scale was barely comprehensible. Those mines could have swallowed Barje Vos a hundred times over.

About two thirds of the way up the mountain, the tiraar landed heavily. We were in front of a manor house, alike in design to those of the lower city, but far larger. A familiar symbol graced the circular window above the door: an open eye surrounded by sunbeams. The Guild of the All-Seeing. They had branches in every major city on the continent, controlling the flow of wealth between coalitions by way of contracts and exclusive deals. You did not do business on Itrera without consulting the Guild first.

I recited my words over and over under my breath as I entered the manor. I had to stress my position first, so they would listen to me. I would press my urgency, my duty to the crown they also served. They had to help me. If they didn’t, I had no idea how I’d find Irina.

But when I entered a handsome parlour, and found a familiar face seated among a table of merchants, my words fizzled away.

“Why, Eon Kain,” said Jiyi, envoy of the Empress of Seo Jie Go. “What might you be doing here?”