“He’s gone, for the moment,” Mala said. “So we don’t have to worry that he’ll come looking for me.”

“Is that a concern?” Kiri asked. “I mean, normally?” Despite Mala’s assurances, she kept looking at the door. The guard had shut it behind her to give them privacy, but Kiri still didn’t feel comfortable having a civilized conversation in her enemy’s palace. She kept expecting to discover she was a prisoner; it would be no surprise to find she had calmly walked into a trap.

“He doesn’t know I play guard,” Mala said. “And he wouldn’t like it. But he knows I’m up to something.”

“You’re always up to something.” And Kiri wondered if this was just another one of Mala’s games, playing at a role she didn’t mean. Kiri put her hand to her face, feeling the mask that was still there. She didn’t want the guards to know that Mala knew her in another way than as the Firebrand. Or was there a point to keeping that secret? She didn’t remember who knew the truth, anymore. How could she look down on Mala for playing dress-up, anyway, when she was playing masked hero herself? Maybe they were both fools, playing dangerous games. Or maybe it was the only way to handle the real world.

“What are you thinking, Firebrand?” Mala asked. “Are you wondering how long I’ve known?”

“Among other things,” Kiri said.

“I’ve known for a while, but not as long as my lord has, I think,” Mala said. “I realized you must be the Firebrand in Laed. Garon was obviously there for you, not me. And there was the Firebrand, just like at home. And there aren’t very women from Westfall Valley who go to Laed. And I knew it wasn’t me, so…”

Maybe there really wasn’t much point in this secret anymore. But Kiri didn’t take off her mask.

“Mala, I didn’t really come here just to catch up,” Kiri said.

“It’s because of Useph, isn’t it?” Mala said. “I know you’ve been working with him...or the Firebrand has been working with the Thief Lord, whatever. Not saying you’re a criminal. It’s just expedient, I know.”

“You knew he was the Thief Lord?” Kiri said.

Mala licked her lips. “Okay,” she admitted. “I haven’t known that for long. I tried to ignore the whole thing for a long time. I mean, he’s a lord, all this stuff is just different sides of the same coin. It’s not like the nobles are rich because they’re nice. But I didn’t know he was the Thief Lord until just recently.”

“Me, either,” Kiri said. “But I should’ve realized.”

“But that’s not why you’re here either, right?” Mala said. “I mean, you’re not an assassin, are you?”

“I need to get something he stole,” Kiri said. “It’s very dangerous. To everyone around him, and to him, too. It’s evil.”

“You mean the Sceptre!” Mala said. “I knew there was something strange about that thing! When you say it’s dangerous to him, do you mean that it would, I don’t know, change him?”

“Yes, exactly that,” Kiri said. “Has he not been acting like himself?”

“Not hardly,” Mala said. “And there was this-he sentenced a man to death--and the man deserved it. He did. But Useph lost his temper. And the man died before he could be hanged, and even though it’s impossible I felt like somehow Useph killed him.”

“He did,” Kiri said. “It’s the Sceptre. It’s Fatefall.”

“Wow!” Mala said. “Fatefall, huh? The Eldan Sceptre! That explains it!”

“Explains what?” Kiri asked.

“Oh, just, you know, it seemed magic,” Mala said quickly. “Eldan explains that.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Kiri pursed her lips, but Mala gave no further explanation.

“You know, you can’t stay here, Firebrand,” Mala said. “Most of the guards around here are not going to keep secrets for me. It’s bound to get back to Useph. My girls can sneak you out.”

“Do you know where Useph is?” Kiri said. “I need to get that Sceptre back.”

“I don’t know where he is, and he always has the Sceptre, so you can’t steal it while he’s out,” Mala said. “You’re going to have to figure that out for yourself. He’ll be coming back to the palace in the morning, though. There’s a ceremony--a memorial-thing. Maybe you should set up an ambush or something. Get that Sceptre from him while he’s on his way home. It was pretty, but I don’t think I want him bringing it in here again.” She got to her feet and called in the guard from the hall. And Kiri couldn’t get another word out of her before she was being hurried out to the wall by another guardswoman. Mala didn’t come along.

~

“Are we going to be making a habit of this, my Lady?” Shendra didn’t look back at Mala as she spoke, keeping her eyes darting from shadow to shadow around them, alert to danger. That was her job, and she was good at it. She was accompanying Mala, now dressed properly as the Lady of the Desert, back to her rooms.

The hazy desert air turned clear in the night, and the stars overhead shined bright in their dizzying millions. Mala had seen so many stars only once, on a rare night spent in the Coldown Mountains, before she moved to the desert. Now, she saw them nearly every night. Still, the wonder had not worn off. She could hardly take her eyes off them to check where she was going.

“As long as Useph is not at home, I can go out at night as much as I want,” Mala said. And then added, “Even if he is home, I’ll go out as much as I can manage. Don’t the stars look lovely?”

Shendra gave them a cursory glance. “That is not what I meant. This is the second woman we’ve brought to you, caught sneaking in.”

“I thought you caught the other in the palace, not getting in,” Mala said. “She was already past the wall.”

Her shoulders stiffened for a moment, but Shendra shrugged it off. “Are more ladies coming?” she said. “Shall I set up accommodations for all your friends? Perhaps you should include a suggestion in your invitations to make use of the front door.”

“I would, but I didn’t invite them,” Mala said. “And where would the fun in that be? It’s good practice catching them, right? It drives you mad you didn’t catch that first one sneaking in, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t know how she got past us,” Shendra held the door open for Mala and followed her in.

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Mala said. “It was probably magic. You know, I’m not tired at all. How about we go ask her?”

Shendra turned on her heel and re-opened the door she had just closed. “After you, my lady.”

The women of the Order of Sahran had not been as kind to the first woman they had caught as they were to the Firebrand. Kiri was lucky that Mala had told Shendra about the Firebrand, and how she was an old friend of hers. Considering she wore a mask, Kiri probably didn’t want that information spread around, but it had worked out in her favor in this case. Besides, the Order could keep a secret.

The place Shendra was taking Mala to now was proof positive that they kept secrets very well indeed. The Order’s armory was in a basement room below the tower, but there was another, hidden level below that. Shendra said that none of the Lords or Ladies of the Desert had ever known about it. When the Order first allied themselves with the first Lord of the Desert, they had built their own tower, and they had included a secret door, hidden in the corner of the uninteresting-seeming basement. It was only-half height, and looked just like the rest of the wall. Mala hadn’t yet caught the trick Shendra used to open it, and she’d been watching carefully. Mala had to go through on hands and knees, but the door opened into a normal-height space and she could stand again. There was no light, so Shendra brought in a torch. She tugged the door closed. Its thud sounded very final to Mala, mostly because she didn’t know how to open it back up herself. It looked, as it had from the other side, like an unbroken wall.

Shendra slipped past Mala and led the way down the tight staircase. It followed the curve of the tower above, keeping the lower level under the footprint of the Order’s building. There were other dungeons under the Desert Lord’s place, but this one was separate from them. And it was a dungeon. The flight of stairs ended in a hall, lined on each side by three cell doors. Everything was stone except the iron bars set into a small window at the top of each door. Shendra stopped by the first door.

“Do you want me to open it?” she asked.

“We can talk through the door,” Mala said.

“I don’t think she’s dangerous,” Shendra said. “She seems weak.”

“Still, makes me nervous,” Mala said. “But I guess you’re right. Just stay close to me, all right?”

Shendra nodded. “Of course, my Lady.” She unlocked the door and flung it open. The woman inside, seated against the back wall, jerked her head up at the sound. She gathered her long limbs under her and stood up to her considerable full height. She glared at Mala and Shendra through her strange-shaped eyes. Dressed as she was in a knee-length sleeveless tunic and legging, with the cloak she had been wearing when they found her balled up on the too-short cot, no one could have mistaken her for other than what she was: an Eldan from the old tales.