“It means if they hurt you, they hurt me. If we are successful downstairs, that may mean something. If not, and I’m dead, well… someone else will try to claim you. If that happens, run. Go to Anjoliaa. Find a ship to Dhai.”

“I can help you downstairs. I’m a fighter, I–”

“Stay here. No matter what happens. This murder, what you see here? These bodies are nothing compared to what is about to happen below. Stay here, puppy.”

“But my brother–”

“You can do nothing for him now.”

“I need to find Chali.”

“Go now and you’ll die with him,” Kadaan said.

“Why did you protect me?” Roh said.

“If she knew it was you who killed him…” Kadaan shook his head. “By law, you’d be Patron. And she would have killed you for it.”

“Instead, you own me? Is that better?”

“One can escape slavery,” Kadaan said, “but death is permanent.”

“You can’t keep me from going after Chali,” Roh said. “You try it. You try to–”

“You won’t run,” Kadaan said.

Roh pushed past him to the door.

“If you run,” Kadaan said, “if you die with your brother, you’ll never learn to be a sanisi. And that’s what you want, isn’t it? More than anything. Even now. It’s why you came to watch me fight. It’s why you came to Saiduan. You are not a boy of books.”

Roh pressed his hands to the door. His eyes filled. He wanted to call on Para and burn himself into nothing. He had made his own fate, and this is where it led him. To die with his brother… or become a Saiduan slave. He said, “Why, Kadaan?”

“You remind me of someone.”

“Someone you killed?”

“Nothing so romantic,” Kadaan said. He came up behind Roh and gently pressed his hands to Roh’s shoulders. “I’m sorry,” he said, “but this is what can be done now. What happens after is up to you.” He released Roh and slipped out the doors.

Roh went back to the center of the room and stood amid a pool of blood and bodies. He sagged to his knees. He was shaking so hard, his teeth chattered. He was better than this. Stronger than this. He took a deep breath and forced himself to look at Dasai’s headless body.

Dasai’s head lay beneath the table. The letter Roh had written to the Kai had fallen to the floor beside Aramey’s body where it lay with Nioni’s, just to the left of Dasai. The letter was speckled in blood.