“So you mean the only thing keeping them from finding out you’re a spy is they haven’t asked?” His voice rose. “No. Absolutely not. I’m coming after you right now. I’ll go to Mithros. He’s been worried sick about you—”

“Mithros knows where I am, Teraeth.”

He stopped, flustered. “No, he doesn’t. I spoke to him yesterday. He said he hadn’t spoken to you since the morning of the tournament.”

I stared at him. “No, that’s not—” I stood up from the rock and paced several times, casting my gaze toward the Chasm. “When I saw him here in the Afterlife, he wouldn’t go to the Chasm. In fact, he led me away from the Chasm.”

“So?”

“You’re never more likely to encounter a god than at the Chasm.” I looked at Teraeth. “I thought I was speaking with Khored—to Mithros. You do know who Mithros really is—?”

He waved a hand. “I know. But go on.”

“What if I’ve been speaking with someone else? Xaltorath? But why would she—” I resisted the urge to wring my hands. “Teraeth, if it was her … she did something to me that stopped Relos Var from gaeshing me. Why would Xaltorath do that?”

“Stopped you from being gaeshed?” Teraeth blinked. “I don’t understand.”

“Khored—or Xaltorath, or whoever it was—did something that would protect me from being gaeshed. Which, since I’m not gaeshed right now, must have worked.”

Teraeth shook his head. “That’s impossible.”

“Clearly not.”

He frowned. “What if Xaltorath gaeshed you? As far as I know, you can’t be gaeshed twice.”

“I think I’d know if I’d been gaeshed.”

“Would you?” Teraeth raised an eyebrow. “Do you sleep without dreams? Do you feel weakened?”

He already knew the answer to one of those questions: I possessed no dreams except for my journeys through the Afterlife. And I did indeed feel weakened—because of Senera.

So if I had been gaeshed, would I notice the difference?

I paced. “You think it was Xaltorath?”

“Who else? It couldn’t have been Khored. That would make no sense.”

“Why would Xaltorath help me? That makes no sense either.”

“No more sense than demons ever make.”

I sat back down again. “Xaltorath breaks many rules for a demon. She ignored the emperor when he ordered her to leave me. You should have seen his mouth drop open.” I blinked at Teraeth, who stared at me with a shocked expression. “Rather like that.”

Teraeth rubbed his hand over his face. “Do you realize what you just said? When all the demons were bound, they were gaeshed. Who do you think controls those gaeshe? The emperor does. That’s what the Crown and Scepter were created to do. You’re telling me a demon just laughed off a gaesh command?” He exhaled. “That would only be possible if Xaltorath isn’t a demon, which is obviously not true.”