So I followed him, stealing through the district. He cut through streets like someone who had done it many times, and before long, we reached the wide, fountain-dotted streets of the Ileyoba District.

Imperial Guard warriors flanked the villa assigned to Djbanti delegates, and high, smooth plaster rendered the walls unscalable. But before the warriors could spot us, Zuri took my hand, muttered feverishly, and tensed in pain—just like he had done at Olojari, when he vanished into thin air. My limbs hummed, in sync with his vibrating form . . . and then the wide street disappeared.

We stood in an elegant, citrus-scented bedchamber. The brick pattern matched the building we had just seen on the street—we were inside the Djbanti delegate villa. I dropped Zuri’s hand, stomach lurching with nausea and confusion. “I—how did you—”

“What?” Zuri strolled casually to an end table and offered me a towel. “Never traveled by lodestone before? I’d have brought you directly from the market, but the demonstration left me winded. I only had the energy for a short distance.”

I took the towel gingerly, swabbing at my gore-covered face. “Of course I have,” I wheezed. “That is not what that was.”

“Stomachache feels about the same,” Zuri countered, and then peeled off one of his leather bands. With a jolt, I realized it was the same arm on which he always wore his wide gold cuff. There in his skin, encased in festering, veiny flesh, were two hunks of stone.

Zuri was using ibaje—the same deadly Pale Arts as the deformed assassin from that night in the square.

The largest rock embedded in his skin was metallic gray, dotted with tiny ashen symbols. The second made my breath catch in horror—a multifaceted emerald stone, glinting with malevolent light.

“That gem,” I bleated, brushing my chin in the sign of the Pelican. “It was in Melu’s cuff. My mother used that to enslave an alagbato. Are you—Are you a djinn? An ehru?”

“In a way. To my own ambition.” He smiled wryly. “That stone is known as idekun—a mineral that grows only in the Underworld, though it’s available up here for a . . . generous price. It is said to amplify the wearer’s natural power, but it also binds the wearer to a person—or a cause. Until that person is satisfied, or that cause is fulfilled—idekun torments you.” He grimaced as the green stone flashed, seeming to lash him. But he shook off the pain and pointed to the larger stone. “I’m sure you recognize this one. It’s a piece of lodestone. The lodestones scattered throughout the empire originally came from the Underworld—did you know that? Alone, this piece lets me travel to other stones. But the idekun magnifies its power, allowing me to transport anywhere.”

“And that’s why you haven’t been caught,” I murmured. “How you’ve been waking alagbatos all over the empire as the Crocodile, while still making appearances at court.”

“You’re quick. Though it’s still hard to lead revolutions when I can’t be everywhere at once.”