Unknown

He was—for a New Dji

“Cassiel,” he said, and his voice was magic distilled—soft, warm, deep, comforting. “I’ve long wanted to meet you—though, I admit, I never wished to face you on the battlefield. You may take that as a sign of respect.”

He was gracious in pretending that I was still something a Dji

“Rashid,” he said.

I turned back to Ashworth and said, “He belongs to you?” It was a deliberate provocation, and I heard a soft laugh from Rashid—amused, almost mocking, but far from offended. Ashworth smiled again, this time more genuinely.

“No one belongs to anyone,” he said. “Tenet of our society. Anyone who joins the Ma’at joins as a volunteer, and they can leave when and if they desire.”

“How democratic,” I said. I didn’t put any special weight on the words, which made them, by default, a touch sarcastic. “I had heard you made use of Dji

“We make use of anyone willing to work. Including you, should the spirit move you, of course.”

I shook my head slightly and focused back on Luis. My conversation had given him time to decide what to do, and I could see by the set of his back and shoulders that he was bracing himself for some kind of impact.

“The boy we were trying to save is dead,” Luis said. “We did our best, but whoever sent him drained him in the last attack. We couldn’t help him.”

Ashworth’s thick brows slowly climbed, though his face remained set and still. “Really. I’d heard you were a skilled Earth Warden.”

“I am.” He glanced at me. “So is she.”

“Then I think you’d best explain to me why a child attacked you in the first place, and why you couldn’t simply stop him without death entering into it.”

Luis did his best, but Ashworth gave no indication, throughout the explanation, as to whether or not he believed a word of it. When Luis came to the point where we’d left the boy’s body behind, I heard a soft hiss from Rashid, behind me. I resisted the urge to turn.

“It was not my first choice,” I said. “But it was necessary. She intended for us to be caught with the body. She hoped we wouldn’t notice his passing until it was too late.”

“She,” Rashid repeated. “Name this enemy.” I didn’t. He gave another soft sound of disgust. “There is no great villain in this, Ashworth. Only the twisted desperation of one who was once a queen among our kind. Don’t believe her. The humiliation of being cast down into skin has turned her.”

“I’ll believe what I like, Rashid. Thank you for your input.” I’d never heard a human rebuke a Dji

“We don’t think,” Luis said. “We know. She exists. We may not be able to find her yet, but we will. And we’re going to get my niece back, safe and sound.”

Ashworth didn’t comment on that. He said, instead, “Not many Wardens left these days. Some are off chasing ghosts, some lying low, the rest just trying to hold things together. A good portion of them died fighting the Dji

“Some say it could benefit the Ma’at,” Luis pointed out.

Ashworth’s face twisted in a tired grimace. “People talk nonsense most of the time. I have no interest in making the Ma’at any kind of replacement for the Wardens. You should know that, better than most. The world needs Wardens; if she didn’t, they wouldn’t be here. They’re part of the natural order, same as the Dji

“Guess just wanting to visit Vegas isn’t a good excuse.”

Luis’s attempt at humor—never more than half-hearted—fell into a cold silence. Ashworth didn’t reply. He shifted his gaze to me. “You really do think this creature’s real.”

“Yes,” I said. “She’s real. She’s a threat to the Dji

Rashid made that sound again. I turned to face him, and he folded his arms across his chest. “Yes?” he asked.

“You have something to tell me?”

“Not really,” I said. “I presume when you’re screaming your last, the way Gallan screamed, you will take my words more seriously.”

I left that deliberately ambiguous. He would know of my friend Gallan’s death—the death of a Dji

I knew well enough what he suspected.

“I take you seriously now,” Rashid said. “Believe it.”

“Enough,” Ashworth snapped. “The both of you. You’ll not be settling any grudges in my office; I just redecorated. Luis, what the hell do you want from me? I can’t offer you any real help. And I don’t have any real information.”

“Then there’s one other thing you can do. You can lend me a Dji

There was a sudden, startling quiet among the four of us; Ashworth’s gaze leapt to Rashid, and mine moved to focus on Luis as I struggled to process what he had just said.

He had a Dji

Rashid’s voice came from behind me. Very close behind, so close that I felt the whisper of air on the back of my neck. “You must not be performing to his expectations,” he said. “How very sad for you.”

I turned, slammed the palm of my hand into the flat of his chest. It should have sent him flying across the room, splintered paneling, crumbled concrete in his wake.

Instead, Rashid simply stood there, smiling at me with a terrible bright light in his violet eyes. Then he took hold of my wrist, and snapped my arm.

I cried out as the bones broke, twisted, and ripped into muscle. Pain tore through me in a livid white wave, loosening my knees, and darkness flickered over my eyes.

“Rashid!” Ashworth shouted, and surged to his feet behind the desk. Luis, however, was faster. His armchair tipped over, and before it hit the carpet with a dull thud he was next to me. He pointed a finger at Rashid, and for a second I saw—or thought I saw—black flames lick up and down his arms. I blinked. It was an effect of the pain, surely.

“You,” Luis said. “Let go of her. Now.”

Rashid did, still smiling, and stepped back. Luis took my arm in both his hands, and his touch was extraordinarily gentle and warm. I felt the warmth cascade into me, power twining in intimate circles around the damage. I swayed closer to him as my strength left me, and he caught me with one arm around my body, holding the injury clear as the healing continued.

“Point made,” Rashid said, sounding bored and waspish. “She’s no better than a human, is she? Hardly of much use at all. You do need a Dji

“I need one who thinks he’s invulnerable,” Luis said through gritted teeth. “You’ll do fine.”

Rashid frowned, and a little of his overwhelming arrogance flickered away. Not enough to matter, however. I found some strength left after all, and pushed away from Luis to stand on my own. My arm felt fragile and barely knitted together, and I knew I shouldn’t test it, though the healing was vastly accelerated. Rage had subsided to a low, hot burn deep within me, but I was less pleased with what had replaced it: fear. Was this how humans lived, so afraid of pain, so aware of their fragile and temporary bodies?