I knew the water in the goblet was water. It tasted like water when I took a drink. I drink the blood of my enemy. To the Shadowlanders it looked like blood when Narayan and his arm-holders started using it to smear marks on Shadowlander foreheads. I invested those marks with the power to stick. Those men would bear the stain of blood as long as they lived.

They even put up with that. A lot of them. A lot decided to try their legs and headed for home.

After a few hundred had been marked I ordered the Shadowlander officers to join me. Several score did so, but most had chosen to stretch their legs. Their class was more committed to the Shadowmasters than were the rank and file.

I told the Shadowlander officers, There is a price for freedom as theres a price for everything. You are mine now. You owe Kina. She asks one task of you.

They did not ask what. They wondered if they had been stupid to stay.

Continue to beleaguer Dejagore. But dont fight the men trapped there. Take them prisoner when they try to escape, expecting only those called the Nar. Theyre enemies of the goddess.

That was what they had been doing anyway, I learned. The flooding had played havoc with what food stores remained in the city. Mogabas rationing ignored the natives. Disease was rampant. The natives had revolted already. Mogaba had thrown hundreds from the wall to drown. The lake swarmed with corpses.

Such draconian measures had cost Mogaba the support of many of his soldiers. They had begun deserting. Thus the prisoners in the camp stockade.

There had been nothing but silence from that stockade. Maybe the prisoners did not know what was happening. Maybe they were scared to attract attention. I sent Blade to let them out and tell them where to find Mather.

If the Shadowlanders did not stop me Id have to accept this absurd twist as real.

They did not raise a murmur. At dawn they marched off to take their posts in the hills.

Narayan sidled up wearing his biggest grin. Have you doubts yet, Mistress?

Doubts? About what?

Kina. Have we her countenance or not?

We have somebodys. Ill take Kina. I havent seen anything this unlikely since my husband... I wouldnt believe it if I wasnt here.

They have lived under the Shadowmasters for a generation. Theyve never been permitted to do anything but what theyre told to do. Penalties for disobedience were terrible.

That was part of it. So was the will to defy oppression. And maybe Kina had something to do with it, too. I did not intend looking the gift horse in the mouth.

The majority of the prisoners had gone. I had had two held to interview. I told Narayan, Ill see Sindhu and Murgen now.