I wasn’t a swordsman. I managed to knock his attacks to the side just barely. He whirled with the momentum and came at me again. I danced away. One of his daggers snagged in the hem of my jacket, catching the skin beneath, and sending a quick blaze of pain across my belly. The other I ducked under. My bones thrummed. I didn’t dare cause a quake this deep underground; I’d been foolish to do so in Lin’s underground caverns. Moisture here gathered in small, distant droplets. I had only my strength, my speed and my wits.

If I’d been less stubborn, I’d have let him have the sword. But I was tired of secrets, of people who sought to use me without first laying out their truths. I wasn’t a tool to be wielded by those in power, kept in the dark about their secrets. If he wasn’t going to tell me why he wanted these swords, I was going to find out myself.

I struck back.

My first blow was clumsy. Gio sent it glancing away, darting in with his other dagger. I tried to lift the sword to block, too late. I felt the shock of the slice across my arm, followed by the sting and warmth of blood. I pushed it aside and brought the sword back to bear. He couldn’t move out of my longer reach quickly enough. The blade grazed his thigh as he leapt back.

Gio stumbled and fell. He dropped one of his daggers with a clatter, pressing a hand to his injured leg.

“Age catches up to all of us,” I said. I stepped around him, Mephi at my heels. But all it took was one look at Mephi’s face, his brown eyes forlorn, to make me stop. I pivoted. Gio still knelt on the floor, his breathing heavy, palm against his wound. Ah, I wasn’t as callused as I wanted to believe. “Are you badly hurt?”

“I’ll live,” he said, his voice dry. He looked up at me, his teeth clenched, his milky eye reflecting the lamplight. “But where do your loyalties lie, Jovis? With the Emperor or with the Shardless Few?”

Why was he so invested in making me choose sides? My loyalties lay with my family, with Mephi, with the people I could help and save. It was a truth that burned brighter than a thousand torches in the night. That’s why I’d started down this path. Not for the Shardless Few, and not for an Emperor. I opened my mouth to tell him this; instead, all that came out was, “She’s not a bad person.” I wasn’t sure why I was defending her. It wasn’t as though we were friends, or even on particularly decent terms at the moment. All I could think about was how she was trying, and that mattered more than her station.