Then the commander walks fully into the moonlight, and I let out an involuntary cry. It’s hard to see, but now that I know what I’m looking for…

“Commander,” I whisper. “Can you angle your arm toward the light?”

All heads turn first to me, and then to Arxa. The commander slowly angles his forearm to catch the moonlight. We all see the beginnings of skin markings. The Amparan soldiers turn to each other in horror, and everyone starts speaking at once.

“Order!” Arxa says, and the soldiers snap to attention, though their eyes are wide and their faces pale. There’s no fear in Arxa’s countenance as he looks down at his arm. The man’s just been handed a death sentence, yet he studies the marks on his skin as if they were simply battle diagrams or maps. Arxa drops his hand to his side and steps deliberately away from the others. He looks around, and when he’s made certain that everyone is paying attention, he speaks.

“I relinquish command of our battalion until my illness resolves,” he says. “See that authority moves correctly down the chain.”

Then he turns to Kaylah. “Healer, the lives of my men are in your hands. See that you do the empire proud.”

He doesn’t say the rest, but he doesn’t need to because we hear it as plainly as if he’d said it out loud. Do your best, and convince the empire that you spared no effort. Otherwise, your people will pay the price of your failure.

Chapter Two

Amparan soldiers torture me in my dreams. They hold my head underwater until I writhe like a hooked fish, inhaling the foul liquid and coughing it back up. They beat me, whip me, hang me from the ceiling until I beg for mercy. I scream until my throat is hoarse, calling for anyone who might help—the gods of war and mercy, Warlord Gatha, my mother…

And this time, someone answers back. “Wake up.”

My eyes fly open. I expect to see the dark walls of my cell, to hear the screams of fellow prisoners and choke on the rank air. But instead I’m in a small, warmly lit room, and a woman wipes down my face. I grab her hand. She gasps, and I push her away and roll off the bed. The bedding tangles around my legs, and I realize I’m as naked as a newborn. Then the room spins around me. I pitch forward. The dirt floor is not as hard as the dungeon’s stone, but it’s still enough to make lights flash in front of my eyes.

As I groan into the ground, the woman shuffles to my side. “We won’t hurt you, boy.”