“Alya Vaelstrom isn’t in the Tower!”

  Lauren’s voice rang high and shocked against the stone walls of the castle.

  “Shhhhh!” I urged her. “That’s a damned military secret! I shouldn’t even be telling you this!”

  Katya was less perturbed. She said, “Well, I approve. Boston needs to do whatever it can to put things right. There’s no point guarding a chest with no treasure in it. You’re right to take her to the field; she’s stronger than any of you. Let her do her work and fill the coffers, and then there’ll be a reason to keep her at home on guard duty.”

  Lauren was aghast. She said, “But… It’s not done. The Scepter guards the Tower. Scepters never see the field during Fallings. In war, sometimes, when things are desperate, but… Tiberius, think of the precedent you’re setting. Other cities will follow suit; they’ll feel they have to… Next thing we’ll have raids happening on unprotected cities, whole armies being burned up in Scepter fire. I… I can’t believe it.”

  Katya said, “You should go further. When you reveal that she’s in the field and her BEAM announces her presence, it will be at least one battle won for no cost. Boston should empty its vaults of relics, make more knights from the treasures, and shock the world.”

  I nodded, trying to suppress the eager grin that wanted to grow on my face. I said, “Maybe we should. What good are any of the treasures doing if we don’t put them to use? Think of the Pinnaculum, Lauren. That relic rots in the treasury of this castle, but the wonders it could do for Boston in the field.”

  Lauren sniffed. “The Pinnaculum is one of the finest and most powerful relics in all the lands. It can’t be risked on the field like that. One battle waged poorly and it might be captured.”

  I said, “But think of the contradiction in that. Your family holds a weapon of incredible power but is afraid to take it out of its box for fear of losing it. What even is the point of holding it, then?”

  Lauren said, “In the hour of Boston’s greatest need, the Oakcrests can wield the Pinnaculum, but only in the direst of circumstances.”

  Katya said, “I would have thought the danger of starvation for the masses would count as dire circumstances.”

  Lauren cocked an eyebrow and said, “Oh really, it was never that bad. Things might be tighter than they have been, but there’s an ebb and flow to the fortunes of any city. Look what Ti is doing now. He brought 25 Flows to the city in a day. The city and the people were never under existential threat.”

  I was lost in thought as they continued, their words flowing past me without finding purchase. I couldn’t help but dream about what she’d said. Every Tower held a vault of treasures too valuable to risk losing. Relics, power weapons, ancient and terrible artifacts that could turn the tides of a war, but that could so easily be snatched away by enemy hands that they were rarely held at all. I wondered what could be done if we really did deploy those relics, equip our finest warriors, double or triple the numbers of knights we could put in the field.

  My ears pricked up as I heard my name in the stream of words that flew by me.

  I said, “What did you say?”

  Katya looked at me with forced disdain. “I knew you weren’t listening.”

  I smiled sheepishly. “I was thinking Griidlord thoughts. I was saving the city.”

  Katya turned her nose up. It was impossible to tell sometimes whether she was really annoyed with you or when she was playing the part. She said, “Well, if you deserved to know, you’d have been listening.”

  I said, “Come on, you said his name, I heard it...”

  Lauren could see the earnest interest on my face. She said, “Really, Katya, he’s only got a few hours. Are you going to make him waste his time begging?”

  Katya said, “He thinks his time is more precious than ours now just because he runs around the wilds with a sword.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Lauren said, “Yes, Ti, Olaf has made it to the final eight in Houston. In a few more rounds, he might Shield there. He’s won 96 bouts to get there.”

  I whistled. “Ninety-six? By the Oracle… in a full suit?”

  Katya rejoined the conversation. “That’s what they say. Are you thinking about the levels he might have gained surviving a gauntlet like that? Are you worried he might be leveled higher than you?”

  I snorted. “Hardly likely.”

  I felt a blush hit my cheeks then. That had been a wildly arrogant moment for me. It made me realize, not for the first time, that it would take some concerted effort to prevent my ego from growing too big for me. I felt embarrassed, but I noticed both women seemed to be looking on my exclamation with some approval.

  I hurriedly spoke. “He will have leveled a lot though. The cost must have been terrible...”

  Lauren nodded slowly. “Many a noble house has lost a son or daughter to the tourney. The likes of this won’t be seen again for generations, maybe never again. Only a Tower rising gives the opportunity for so many full suits to be used in a Choosing. Only the rush of four vacant suits could create the frenzy that brought so many there.”

  I opened my mouth to say something about Houston needing to field a team of strong Griidlords as soon as they could if they were to maintain their independence. But I snapped my mouth shut with a click as I realized the discomfort such talk would bring for Katya. Her mother was one of the forces trying to subvert the independence of the new Tower.

  Lauren seemed to see my discomfort and blurted, “Olaf’s not the only one of your acquaintances who’s making the news.”

  I said, “Oh?”

  Katya narrowed her eyes slightly, seeing the way we turned the conversation away from wars between Miami and Dallas, wars of conquest and expansion.

  Lauren said, “The mad Arrow from Buffalo who can only count to five since you met him last...”

  I said, “Who can only… Oh, because Buffalo folk are so stupid they can only count with their fingers? And I took his hand off.”

  Lauren giggled musically. There was something profoundly wonderful about that perfect, refined laugh spilling out as a result of such a grisly, poor-taste joke.

  Katya said, “If I’d made that jest, you’d have told me to mind my composure.”

  Lauren said, “Well, your composure could do with improvement. Mine is beyond reproach.”

  I said, “And what of Perdinger? I’d have thought he’d have been run to ground by now.”

  Lauren said, “Just the opposite. With every Griidlord in the world taking the field for the Falling, he’s running wild. He’s been raiding to the northeast, knocking over caravans. They say he attacked a city of one of the borderlords of New York.”

  I shook my head. “What’s he doing?”

  I felt responsible for his carnage. I’d had a chance to put him down and failed. Every life he took weighed on me.

  Katya saw my expression, read my mind in the way she did, and said, “I’ve told you before, you’re not responsible for what that mad dog does. The Griidlords in Buffalo had the chance to contain him, retire him, or put him out of the world’s misery. It was they who failed. They suffer for it now.”

  I said, “A bad Falling?”

  Lauren said, “How could it be any other way? They started the Falling with one suit lost. Word is they’ve been skirting the fighting like vultures but are still to harvest a single Flow.”

  I said, “Good.”

  Lauren said, “Not so fast. They might deserve it, but their people don’t. The deeper Buffalo sinks into chaos, the greater the danger becomes of the Green Men doing something. They say the Green Men walk the streets in gangs now, that the city watch is afraid to interfere with them. It’s all playing into Baltizar’s hands.”

  I said, “He has the best interests of the city at heart.”

  Lauren said, “No villain in history set out without what he or she thought was the best interest of their people on earth. Do you think Thrax Bonesaw set the world on fire so he could be remembered as a pillager and a tyrant? Do you think Joel Montagnion captured so many Towers so he could be known as a warmonger?”

  I said, “Baltizar hardly aspires to conquest.”

  Lauren said, “No, maybe not, but he’s changing things.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  She said, “The people are so besotted with their ‘people’s champion’ and the Lord Supreme that shepherded him, and so disgusted with the way the power brokers tried to sabotage you, that the others on the council don’t dare oppose his motions now. They all fear the Green Men. There’s unrest everywhere except Boston. The nobles want to keep it that way.”

  I said, “What kind of changes? What are you talking about?”

  She said, “Changes to the constitution, Ti. He’s been passing motions left and right while you’re in the field. Changes to the Choosing, changes to provisions for emergency powers.”

  I felt my heart tick upwards. I remembered the way he’d spoken when we surveyed the land in The Eagle. He’d been so passionate, so determined. He’d spoken of the traditions that held the city ransom and kept her powerless. Part of me was excited to think that he was affecting change, that I was part of breaking the chains to the past. Part of me felt raw anxiety creeping up.

  Lauren said, “You better hope he’s as wise as he seems, Tiberius. Lord Baltizar wields more power today than any Lord Supreme has in generations.”