I’d told Caliza I wanted to ride with Ericen to get to know him, to be better able to handle him. Maybe it was time I learned to play his game and saw where it led me.

Eleven

The deeper into Illucia we got, the more the landscape changed. We were due to arrive in Sordell in the late afternoon, having just passed through the Etris Forest into countryside of rolling green hills and small villages of thatched cottages.

A few hours later, during which my stomach had tied itself into several knots, Ericen shifted closer to the window. “We’re here.”

I leaned over beside him, peering out. The city had been built on top of a cluster of hills, a ripple of stone and color. I couldn’t see the end of it. Overhead, a blanket of storm clouds floated, dark with the promise of rain. At least those I could relate to.

Ericen sat back to give me more space, and I pressed closer to the window.

The stone buildings were tall and narrow, shoulder to shoulder like soldiers. Clean cobblestone streets had walkways on the sides for people to keep out of the way of carts and horses. Everywhere I looked, there was green: moss growing on the sides of buildings, vines snaking along roofs or up lantern posts. Yet it all looked perfectly manicured and carefully designed, as if the city’s inhabitants had recognized they couldn’t make it disappear, but they could damn well organize it.

The Illucians were obvious, dressed in crisp clothes with sharp edges. Nearly all carried swords or other weapons, and they walked straight-backed with their heads held high, like soldiers prepared to salute a commander at any second. As the carriage passed, some of them did.

Then I started noticing the other people. The men and women with the dark hair and bronze skin of the Jin or the golden skin and fair hair of the Ambriellans that didn’t match the bright gaze and pale complexion of the well-dressed Illucians they accompanied. The bent-backed, downcast-looking ones who trailed a few steps behind or else hurried along alone without lifting their heads.

With their economies decimated and their towns destroyed, many of them came to Illucia looking for employment, others to follow children conscripted into Razel’s army. They were paid, though probably not enough. From the downtrodden looks they wore like cloaks, I doubted any amount ever would be.