The storm that had threatened earlier blew off to the north and the afternoon turned warm and sunny. Everyone crowded the Ceara's decks to enjoy the weather. Kevlin was pleased to see no one looked seasick. Hopefully the good weather held.

He avoided the ladies gathered in the stern. They were listening to the helmsman explain about steering the ship. The young man was clearly motivated to keep the attention of five attractive women. It looked like he would gladly talk the day away if they let him. Kevlin longed to speak with Indira, but he wanted to catch her alone.

Harafin and Leander were lost in a deep discussion, and Kevlin didn't want another headache, so he avoided them. He hadn't seen Sentinel Ah'Shan all day and was grateful for it.

He and Ah'Shan had disliked each other from the start. Their dislike had culminated in a fistfight outside of the keep of Il'Aicharen. Kevlin had beaten Ah'Shan, but the Sentinel knew about his protective amulet now. Kevlin doubted the man would prove as easy to defeat again. He wasn't the leader of the Kestrels for nothing.

Jerrik and Gabral were competing in imaginary battles, describing their forces and how they would attack or counter-attack. Their discussion broke down into shouted insults every minute or two as they accused each other of cheating.

Kevlin found Drystan standing alone near the bow. The lanky Einarri warrior moved easily with the gentle roll of the ship and stared out at the glistening sea.

He greeted Kevlin warmly. "I haven't sailed before. This is amazing."

"Seriously?" Kevlin couldn't imagine not knowing the sea.

Drystan shrugged. "Horses and boats don't really get along."

Kevlin nodded. His father had hated taking on horses or worse, cattle. The mess and stench lingered for weeks after the animals were unloaded.

He realized he knew little about Drystan beyond his legendary reputation and incredible fighting skills. Drystan had united Kevlin to his family by blood. Kevlin knew nothing about them other than a few scraps of information he had picked up, and some calculated tidbits passed to him from Ceren.

"Tell me about your family," Kevlin said.

Drystan was happy to oblige. He spoke of the endless Einarri plains, of the waving sea of tall grass they traversed upon their matchless stallions. Kevlin was startled to learn Drystan was married and that his eldest sone had only just been born before Drystan had been ordered to Tamera.

"What are their names?" Kevlin asked.

"My wife is Keelin," Drystan said with a smile, his voice thick with emotion.

At one point in his life, Kevlin had planned to marry. Unfortunately the woman he loved turned out to be a murderous traitor. She had nearly killed him, and he'd spent years running from those memories and the enemies still bent on his destruction.

He glanced toward the stern of the ship but couldn't see Indira. He wanted to make things right with her, wanted to kiss her again, but the thought of marriage made him nervous.

Worse, he had no idea what Indira might be thinking. Did she already expect things of him?

Was he already failing?

"My son's name is Rhys," Drystan added.

"I hope you get to see them again soon."

"Me too. Keelin's father is Ambassador Talamantez. He sits on the ruling council." Drystan grimaced. "He has a crazy idea to make me a ruler in his place."

"Miserable," Kevlin agreed.

Drystan didn't pick up on the sarcasm. "I'd hate it. I just want to ride the plains with my family and my tribe."

He spoke with great pride of the Chandana, the powerful tribe his father led as herdmaster. "Our bloodlines run pure and deep."

Drystan talked about the responsibilities of being son of the herdmaster and, when he was home, battle master of the tribe. Despite the long peace with Grakonia, the Einarri had been fighting constant skirmishes with the Nedikans along their southern border for decades.

Drystan spoke of the constant vigilance required to guard against the Nedikan raiders who slipped north across the border looking for horses to steal and women and children to kidnap and sell as slaves.

As he listened to his Swordbrother, Kevlin was deeply impressed by Drystan's love and dedication to his family and tribe. Kevlin had jumped ship at fourteen and hadn't spoken with his family or even sent them word in years.

They ate dinner on deck to enjoy the late afternoon sun. After the meal, Harafin again summoned Kevlin to his borrowed cabin. As soon as Kevlin seated himself on the small bunk, his hands began to shake and his mouth went dry. He'd felt fine all day, but the craving returned with a desperate intensity.

He struggled for a few seconds to bring it under control. It was not as hard as last time. He clung to the hope that he was getting the hang of this.

Harafin encased the room in its glowing amber bubble shield and then tossed Kevlin a ball of crimson magic. Kevlin cringed at the sight of it.

"Lesson number one tonight," Harafin said. "There is importance to the color you choose to associate with your magic. It is true that the ShadeLeeches prefer blood-red magic. However, you cannot allow yourself to fear red magic above other colors."

Kevlin still shivered as he changed the magic captured by the amulet and made it his.

"Now, connect with Tia Khoa," Harafin said.

Kevlin reached for his boot until Harafin shook his head. This lesson included the mind trick of touching the stone without using his hands. So he closed his eyes and focused. A finger of thought touched Tia Khoa, and it sucked his mind into its deep blue depths.

He felt its vast presence, which rose with him back to consciousness. It felt like a tiny spark in the back of his mind that maintained their connection. Renewed strength and comforting peace washed through him with Tia Khoa's presence. He breathed deep and savored the feeling of complete wellness.

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"Very good," Harafin said. "I want to work a little more on your shields."

Kevlin grinned. Usually Harafin's lessons left him feeling stupid and hopelessly lost. He looked forward to showing Harafin what he could do with shields.

"You have improved greatly with fashioning external shields," Harafin added. "Tonight we will build upon what Leander taught you regarding inner shielding."

Kevlin sighed. Harafin never made things easy.

"As you learned, these are psychic shields, not physical constructs."

"How does that work? Are they real, or just all in my head?

"They are very real, and critically important, especially for you."

He reviewed what Leander had demonstrated in building psychic shields to protect the mind. With the experience of fighting down the Tai Pari, the explanation made sense. Hopefully he could pick up other new principles without having to nearly die to understand them.

Magic wasn't Kevlin's strength. He'd only touched it for the first time mere weeks prior. He was no Sentinel, and it still made no sense that he carried Tia Khoa, the empire's greatest defense.

Harafin stepped across the room and placed a hand on Kevlin's head. His voice spoke into Kevlin's mind. 'Come, I will help you build them again.'

Guided by the old Sentinel, Kevlin again formed the image of a fortified castle around his thoughts. The psychic shields rose and solidified, and Kevlin embellished the castle with a grand, central keep and several graceful towers.

"Ha! How's that?" he asked with pride.

Harafin returned to his chair. "Let's see."

An invisible hammer-strike of focused power struck Kevlin's mental towers and shattered them. Kevlin winced from the resulting mental jab.

Knowing he'd never really have a chance against Harafin didn't squash a flash of irritation that he'd failed. He'd had to practice many times before forming decent physical shields. When they had failed, he'd felt similar mental stabs of pain.

He had once constructed a huge, bowl-shaped shield to protect Ceren and himself from the first attack by Wayra and her Kestrels. The constant pounding of their magic against his shields had felt like a dozen midgets had climbed into his head and pounded his brain with hammers.

Kevlin re-formed the shield, raised the towers, and reinforced his inner fortress. "Try again."

Harafin struck again. This time the shields wobbled, one mental tower crumbled, but the rest of the fortress held. Even as Kevlin smiled in victory, Harafin struck a second time. The shields imploded and Kevlin winced. One of the midgets was back.

"How did I beat you?" Harafin asked.

"You're too strong."

"Was my first blow too strong?"

Kevlin thought about it. He'd served as an officer for a time in one mercenary company, overseeing a siege company in Donarr. He hadn't worked on the siege engines himself, but had learned a great deal from the engineers who did.

One of the key principles of their work was that a single stone rarely knocked down a wall. Their challenge was to strike the same place over and over again. The repeated barrage would weaken and then topple the wall.

It was the same principle, but there had to be more or Harafin wouldn't have pointed it out. After a moment, he realized the answer and raised his shields again.

"One more time."

This time, Harafin's first blow was more focused, and nearly shattered the shield. Kevlin winced at the pain but held on. Before Harafin could strike again, Kevlin shifted the shield.

Where a city wall was fixed, his mental shields didn't have to be. Harafin might intend to strike the same place twice, but Kevlin didn't have to play by the same rules.

As expected, the second blow struck in the same place as the first, right between Kevlin's eyes. Kevlin's shield rocked again, but held.

Harafin smiled. "Well done. I had hoped your training would provide insights non-military Sentinels often overlook. Keep your shields strong, and yet flexible. It is a foundational principle you will need as we learn other lessons and master new skills."

"Teach me another." If he had to learn this, he'd rather get it over with as fast as possible.

"Ponder what you have learned. The best knowledge is knowledge gained through personal insight."

He should have known. Harafin would give him bits and pieces, but never make it easy. Still, he was proud of tonight's progress.

"Whenever you touch magic," Harafin added. "First and foremost, you must shield your mind. Not only to protect from the Trembling Madness and the Tai Pari, but from other gifted minds."

Kevlin shuddered as a memory surfaced. For a moment, he was again a little boy aboard his father's ship, a little boy being tortured by magic wielded by a Sentinel.

If only he'd known then what he knew now.

Harafin added, "The mind is the ultimate battlefield. If you can breach another's shields, you can destroy them from within."

Some principles were eternal. Only after breaching a city wall could an invading force destroy the defenders.

Then he frowned. "If you destroy someone's mind, you don't have to defeat them physically. So why didn't you do that at that hidden fort, or when we faced Tanathos and the other ShadeLeeches? You fought them with fire and lightning and tangible magic."

"If there had been more time, I would have attacked their minds, but they were well shielded and the effort would have taken too long. One must choose their battles and know the risks."

"What risks?"

"Think about it. If I had paused to scan their mental defenses or sought to breach the walls around their mind, I would have been vulnerable to their direct attack. I could not both break their psychic shields and defeat their physical attacks that the same time."

Kevlin had once turned the tide against a strike force of Raghneidur and their Canavars when they had gotten distracted. He'd have to remember this principle also transferred from his previous life as a mercenary into his new, magical world.

"The battle of the mind is often the most dangerous and the most effective," Harafin continued. "Guard yourself well, for in Tamera our enemy will strike from the shadows where they will have the luxury of time to prepare attacks against the mind."

"You really think we'll be fighting in the palace?"

"I believe it best to be prepared. Soon, I will teach you the battle of the mind."

# # #

After Kevlin disappeared up the companionway ladder to the upper deck, Ah'Shan knocked on Harafin's door and stepped inside.

The powerfully built Sentinel said, "I wish to sit in on your sessions with this ungifted bearer of Tia Khoa."

"That may be a bit premature. So far we are only covering the basics."

"How is that even possible?" Ah'Shan snapped. "The man has no gift. Why do you insist on playing with his life, and with the fate of the empire?"

Harafin considered Ah'Shan. He had known the man for almost two centuries. Ah'Shan was a tremendously gifted Sentinel, and one who Harafin had long suspected would rise to become bearer of Tia Khoa after Antigonus. Recent events were giving him a glimpse into Ah'Shan's character he had never known, glimpses that suggested why Tia Khoa had not chosen him.

"Patience, my old friend. My reasons will become clear with time."

Ah'Shan snorted. "Have you discussed the prophecy yet?"

"That which has been required thus far."

"So you've explained to this helpless fool that after he suffers long enough from this power you've thrust upon him, you expect him to die to save the empire?"

"That's one interpretation, but we've proven that we understand the prophecy less than we thought we did."

"Always the optimist, even when logic dictates otherwise. Of all the sections of prophecy, this one is most clear. Drown thyself in the fires of the world's creation and deliver up the lives of the chosen sacrifices. The Flaming Sword will be quenched in the rebirth of order, and lives offered up will give new life to balance."

"I will ask you not to speak with him about this."

Ah'Shan barked a laugh. "So you fear I may be right."

"I fear only that we jump to conclusions."

He refused to allow Ah'Shan to see that he did, in fact worry about that section of the prophecy. The Catalyst would be called upon to make many hard choices. Other great men had been forced to seal their works with their blood. If Kevlin was required to do the same, would he be willing to do so? Worrying about it now would only instill doubts before Kevlin could handle them. So much still remained to be taught.

If fate did require the ultimate sacrifice, Harafin would pay whatever price to ensure the continued existence of the world. He would not hesitate. Stakes were too high, and the fate of the world hung in the balance. So much rested on the man Kevlin.

It scared him more than he would ever admit.

# # #

Kevlin slipped away from Harafin's door and escaped up the ladder only seconds before Ah'Shan stormed out of the room. Their words rang through his mind like a death knell.

Why hadn't Harafin told him?

What else wasn't he telling him?

He moved to the bow of the ship and settled into a sheltered spot near the rail. He'd returned to Harafin's cabin to ask one final question when he'd overheard the Sentinels' voices.

He hadn't planned to eavesdrop, but felt uncomfortable interrupting Ah'Shan, so he'd stood close to the door, one hand raised to knock. He'd been surprised neither of the men had sensed him there.

Maybe they had.

Did they want him to know that he was little more than a sacrificial offering?

Harafin said they couldn't interpret the prophecy. From what he'd revealed, their understanding of other passages had proven incorrect. Still, the passage seemed pretty clear.

Kevlin sat there for a long time, pondering what he'd learned and trying to make up his mind what to do about it. He liked none of the options he considered.

In the end all he could decide was to learn all he could from Harafin and use that knowledge to seek a way out. He hadn't asked for any of this, and he wouldn't allow Harafin or anyone to set him up to die just because some dead guy who spoke in riddles ordained it so.