“I’ve never heard of such a thing, but then, they’d have erased that, too, if such didn’t spontaneously erase themselves from men’s memories as your conflagration at Sundered Rock did. No, Dazen, I’m not going to tell you any more. All you need to know is this…”

He balanced the sword on the floor, tip down, and set the black seed crystal on its pommel. It sank into the pommel, melted, and a change rushed over the entire surface of the sword. What had been black and white entwined now shimmered with darkness. As Grinwoody turned the blade, entire sections dulled in the light as if they were a polarized lens.

“… you find the nexus of magic, and you stab the Blinding Knife into it. I don’t care if it’s a thing or a person or God himself. You kill it, and our deal’s complete.”

Simple.

“Why me?” Gavin asked. “You’ve got dozens? Hundreds? of people loyal unto death to you.”

“The Blinding Knife’s powers can only be activated by a Prism. Climbing the tower was once a pilgrimage open to all, but after Vician’s Sin, the priests at White Mist Reef created magical locks on the tower to keep drafters from reaching the top—to protect the nexus, you see? There’s a magical lock at each level, a blue lock to block blue drafters, a red to block reds, and so forth. So only a non-drafter will be able to reach the top of the tower.”

“How do you know this?”

“The Chromeria has always tried but failed to gain a monopoly on old knowledge. We Braxians have protected our own histories.”

“But if there are locks, surely there’s one for black.”

“Not according to the records. Either black resists being formed in such ways, or the priests felt black defiled them to use. That’s why they formed the reef instead—failing to keep out the worst, they decided to keep out everyone.”

“But you don’t know if this will work.”

“Of course not. But I do know that you’re the only person in the world who has a chance,” Grinwoody said. “Only a non-drafter can reach Orholam. Only a Prism can use the Blinding Knife to kill him. Only you are both.”

“I never expected to find you betting on me,” Gavin said.

“One thing I like about you Guiles. People are usually either fighters or survivors. You’re both.”

Gavin looked at the blade and couldn’t even think. It was like staring down an infinite chasm now, where before it had been like staring at the sun. Each was too terrible to behold for long.

It felt hungry.

“So let’s pretend I’m an enthusiastic participant,” he said. “How am I supposed to get through White Mist Reef? You have drafters who can handle a skimmer?”

“I sent a skimmer already. It shattered in the stresses passage through the reef put on it. I’m sending you on a normal ship. Mostly.” Grinwoody checked the window again.

Gavin was incredulous. “And what kind of a lunatic would be willing to attempt to sail through White Mist Reef?”

“The kind that gambles.”

What the fuck does that mean?

Then Grinwoody opened the door. Gavin followed him out onto the Chromeria’s back dock. In the lightening gray of dawn, a magnificent white ship with a glimmering sheen was docked at the quay, but Gavin barely had a moment take it in.

“My friend!” a voice boomed out of Gavin’s past. The human avatar of braggadocio ambled down the quay in an open jacket with no tunic beneath, wild hair, baggy trousers, and a huge, crooked-toothed grin.

“Gunner,” Gavin said. “Of course it’s you.”

“You look worst hand lass time,” Gunner said. Gavin thought it was a crack about his missing fingers at first, but then he translated: ‘Worse than last time.’

But then Gunner stopped suddenly, stricken. His eyes were fixed on Gavin’s eye patch as if it were a serpent that might strike him. “What’s with the evil eye? Is it bad luck?”

“Only for our enemies,” Grinwoody said.

“Indeed?” Gunner asked Gavin, still disconcerted. The man could be childlike in his superstitions.

“Troth,” Gavin said.

“Diggity. Been told I got a fearsome aspect my own self. Guess I can use you to loosen the bowels of any poppy fiends we got. I’ll keep my deal,” he said, recovering his swaggering tone. “Gunner abides his bets.”

Grinwoody lifted his eyebrows at the man’s insouciance, but said nothing.

Gavin said, “You gambled for this?”

“Nah… Sorta… I s’pose you could say… Yes. So you see, arter I lost the first time—my ante the gun-sword, his the ship yonder—he asked me if I wanted to go double or nothin’. I felt real down-like about losing your poky boom stick, plus I didn’t have anything left to lose ’cept this mighty fine jacket what I plundered from an Ilytian pirate king. Plust, whenever has Gunner’s luck been so bad he’s lost twice in a row?” He twisted his ratty beard. “So, uh, arter I lost again, he said I gots to sail my old bosom friend Guile through White Mist Reef. He calls that losing! An’ if we live, I keep the ship! You know our missing?” Gunner asked. ‘Our mission.’

“Oh yes.”

“Ain’t it exasperbating?!”

Exciting? Exhilarating? That was one way to put it.

“Not so loud, please,” Grinwoody said, glancing back toward the Chromeria looming above them all.

“Can’t wait to show you my new girl!” Gunner said. “Guile! Brother! If we pull this off, we’ll be legends!”

Gavin sighed. “Gunner… we’re already legends.”

Gunner winked. “That’s Cap’n Gunner to you.”

Gavin looked up at the Chromeria looming above him. Somewhere up there was Karris. She was this close. She was on this island, greeting this dawn, and she would never know he was here.

He was about to get on a ship and leave—going to his death, no doubt—and she would never know he’d been this close.

All that stuff about controlling the black luxin in Gavin’s eye patch could be a bluff. Could be. But the Order was here, armed, unstoppable, standing behind everyone and everything he loved.

Grinwoody laid the Blinding Knife out over his palms. “Let me make something clear, Guile. I have watched you for decades now. I have seen you prevaricate and charm. I have seen you baffle and obfuscate. I have seen you stand steady as a mountain and then dodge the inevitable with the grace of a bull dancer. I have seen you appear to lose, only to emerge quietly victorious years later. Some would see you as diminished by the loss of your drafting. I don’t accept that. So let me tell you this, as a man who fully appreciates the powers of his opponent, and the dire position I’m putting that resourceful man in: I don’t know if Orholam can be destroyed, but I expect you to find a way to do it. I expect you to turn your whole heart and mind and soul to accomplishing it. If you fail, I will kill everyone you love. Her first.” He cast his eyes up toward the Prism’s Tower where Karris must be. “If anything happens to me or you reveal me, she dies. If she disappears, one of those she trusts enough to take with her will be mine, and she will die. If any of a hundred things happens that is not your obedience and success, I will take away every bright and happy thing in this world that you know.