Tancred closed his eyes and listeo the deceptively dangerous silence of the desert. An inteapping of needles against the stone and the crag of pebbles sighe beginning of an ioid migration to better pastures. It was easy enough to paint a picture: a host of drones carrying the swollen, oversized body of their queen; nimble warriors serving as scouts, cutting down any failing to escape wildlife; and feeders sug every ounce of flesh from the bones and carrying it to feed the queen.

  The wind rolled bleached bones across the sand; an occasional faint shriek marked the demise of a random beast, suffocated in quid pits or in the jaws of predators. He expanded his senses, straining his hearing to listen to the teemi. Caravanners, be they meraries or traders, exged jokes, rexing after the day’s heat. Workers performed maintenance, guards checked their gear, and cusacks snored, entrusting their survival to the group.

  Then he heard it. Erratic beeping of sensors ing from the yon ahead and the swirl of sand flowing into it. Tancred opened his eyes; his enhanced vision pierced the night, the crimson light hidden by the lenses. A stretched hole in the ground, situated in the middle of the busy trading routes, eg malements and vilgers.

  He o Zero, heaving his bardiche, the Judge, over his shoulder. Zero took the lead; her cloak tightly g to her body, and armored boots stepped with the lightness of a falleher, avoiding announg their approach by breaking a dried-up branch or a skull. Tancred followed, and they made their way through the jagged ruins of a long-dead civilization.

  Metropolises once spahe area; below the immense ce of sand were buried parks, hospitals, factories, apartments, research facilities, and bodies, of course. Aire nation died here, there, and over the mountain. The p became a necropolis of sorts, where a weary traveler could not hope to find a spot bereft edy and suffering.

  It wasn’t all doom and gloom. The process of uhing the lost knowledge tinued. Researchers dusted off ashes from the rediscovered terminals, learning about lost teology, lost culture, or the st minutes of a terrifying popution. Excavation crews opened bunker doors, unc cemeteries and occasionally trapped societies within. The Old World’s teology was remarkable, and even after being diminished in knowledge over the course of their prolonged isotion and radiation- low-induced mutations, individuals remained human, and reunions occurred.

  But the sight of ruins ah served as a stark reminder of the price paid by the weak when their rulers failed to uphold their duty to serve as protectors. Never will I be found g when those bequeathed to my prote are in peril. Tancred swore to himself.

  The Ironwills had a long and rich history in the Order, albeit an uneasy ohey had lost three sword saints in rapid succession to poison and in a scramble against invaders. Tancred was twice elevated from the ranks of sages to the rank of Sword Saint against his will, and accepted the Judge in pce of a gunhalberd. The relic seemed to hunger for him even when he passed it to a far-worthier didate. He mourned and missed his lost liege, a young noble who died underh Blood Graf’s axe. Despite the gentle age, the former sword saint always khe best course of a for the household and excelled ihing.

  He joined Lady Zero out of obligation and guilt. Deaths and injuries in duels betweeribe and the Order were not unon, as brash hot-bloods sought to prove the superiority of their ways. But the wrinkle done by Bertruda and, by proxy, First was insulting. The grandmaster was supposed to mediate a dey to the duel. The Blessed Mother was as much a parent to the Order as the Twins were. They owed it to help their inferior cousins asd and stand equal to the Ice Fangs.

  Tancred was bedecked in the modernized familial battle pte. Its overpped ptes, pact servomotors, and noise suppressors provided excellent agility, and the camoufge cloak hid him fr eyes. The lenses of his helmet entered infiltration mode, no longer shining. He danced after Zero, evading collision with anything capable of emitting sound.

  Zero surprised and intrigued him. The Wolf Tribe favored a more direct approach, a she moved as if her suit was a sed skin to her, her creaking nor slipping to reveal her whereabouts. The elegance of her movements carried her easily over treacherous potholes or unstable ground, and not a single light reflected from the round shape of her helmet.

  She also didn’t lead him. The warlord marked traps and indicated the approximate radius of the sensors’ dete and pt, but she never guided him. Zero did not act maliciously; she had no soldiers to serve her, no servants to dress her in battle gear, a she maintained her position as supreme warlord. She never visited a medical bay for rejuvenation or did so i, never removing her helmet.

  Su enigma perplexed the sword saint. Could she have horrifying scars on her snout? A missing nose, perhaps? Was she another victim of the Blessed Mother’s poor mental state?

  Together, they weaved their way to the edge of the yon, avoiding tripwire traps and motion sensors. Tancred’s suspis were proven correct. The unknown inhabitants had bored caves into the side of the yon, aric lights scared away the hesitant night predators. Automatic turrets, rusted and in various states of disrepair, waited to greet the rger beasts. Figures wearing sandy-colored cloaks led patrols, and Tancred’s fiwitched as the light of a passing patrol revealed a familiar four-wheeler in a cave below.

  Tancred reserved himself for overseeing the martial and diplomatic duties of his household, entrusting his children to lead the eic part. His children prospered, being the owners of an iial pany known for supplying light all-terrain vehicles to the nation and anyone willing to purchase them. The smugglers had a product bearing his crest.

  Zero leaped in, saying nothing, and Tancred slipped off the side of the yohe criminals had ftte, c the side with crete to reinforce the ground’s natural roof. The warlord was clearly aware of this location; she silently nded he crates, circled around them, and cealed herself iV’s blind spots. The sword saint held back his wrath and obliged the unspoken request. He crept after Zero, dodging the guards, partly disappointed by their inadequacy. Traders chatted in the open, eagerly enting on the delivery of rare meical parts to excavatianizations, ways to smuggle highly dangerous prescribed medical drugs from the Core Lands, and the sale of art to private colles.

  Together, the two Wolfkins scaled to the yon’s bottom, evadiion. In pces where it was impossible to pass the guards unnoticed, they used a cave to desd a level down. Each cave was ected to others through a work of tunnels. Many were far too small for a person in power armor to enter, and undoubtedly there were rger passages to evacuate some goods to safety in the event of ahquake or attack. The builders used reinforced crete to protect the pce from invasion of underground predators, and Tancred she acrid stench of a ‘scarecrow’ co, a mixture of mass-produced animal secretions. Ioids believed a rival hive inhabited this pce, while regur monsters imagiheir natural predators.

  Someone had structed a niplex here.

  Four a APCs stood at the bottom of the yon, bearing the marks of patchwork repairs and what svers called a flesh wagon, but as Tancred examihem, he uood that the cages for holding prisoners had been repced by crates for additional goods, ready to be slid down into secret partments to be hidden during an iion.

  Zero slipped uhe wagon easily, like a water flow underh a rock. Oher side of the wagon, she and Tancred got out and stepped past fifteen guards patrolling around a cave that looked more like a stone house. Its walls were smooth, carpets covered the mairand windows, and industrial air ditioning worked in full force.

  The warlord and the sword sai into a window, barely encumbered by their ons and gear. They rolled briefly across the floor, and Zero suddenly straightened and stretched. Her armor turned off the sound absorption, and a series of loud pops filled the room, rousing a man sitting behind a wooden desk, writing in a ledger instead of using a proper terminal.

  “Zero, the sweetest sight for weary eyes!” The nky man rose. The heat had removed any excess moisture he ever had, but his muscur frame remained despite the gray beard. A thiwork of scars and a broken nose ruined his face. He wore a roomy dark robe and an anti-heat suit underh. “Wele to my humble abode. What’s mine is yours, the priceless pearl of the sands, but pray, do er like a sand-sea ur. You risk giving me a heart attack. The arrival of a princess is more befitting your breathtaking excellence!”

  Tancred ighe ptitudes, alerted by the guards’ worries outside. The man was no fool; he wasn’t just trying to save face, but he had also informed his bodyguards that guests had arrived. The sword saint walked around the room, examining wooden shelves littered with the broken remains of artifacts of old. A brand new psma rifle, powerful enough to damage even his armor, stood in a ons rack. Such a tool was rare, even in the army, and cost a small fortune on the market. Zero wasn’t wrong in bringing him here.

  “Tancred Ironwill, meet Darazdast Siroosi, peddler of exotic goods.” Zero leaned on Darazdast’s shoulder, and the man sat ba his chair to bear such a weight.

  “A fabled sword saint has deemed it worthy to grace me with his presehe smile on the wizened, wrinkled faever wavered.

  “The honor is all yours.” Taking the criminal up on his previous offer, Tancred snatched the ledger from the table and flipped through the pages, accelerating his perception of time to read and absorb information faster. Deals, bargains, debts to colleo sudden influx of funds, just steady growth as the Wastes naturally turned more civilized… “The use of cer treatment iions and anti-radiatis is mandated by the gover or private i the Core Lands. People die from using them.”

  “Those who purchase them have no other choice, oh illustrious icicle. They either end their lives, die in excruciating agony, or take their ces by using the medie. We merely provide the said ce to the unfortunate souls, my lord,” Darazdast said.

  “And profiting from their suffering,” Tancred said, disgusted at the o listen to such a creature. He heard noises outside and pulled aside a carpet from the frorao face dozens of ons aimed at him. Most of them lowered their ons at his sight, but two—a terrified bear of a man carrying a shotgun and a steely-eyed, crimson-haired woman wielding a sonic pistol—held him at gunpoint. “We are having a versation. Do you mind?”

  “Everything is fine, friends.” Darazdast smiled broadly and put his hands on his chest. “Our ued but wele guests and I are engaging in a civilized discussion. Aibeka and Jack, please be sweeties and bring us refreshments. Lumière du matin thten up the occasion would do wonderfully.”

  Taook off his helmet, hiding the annoyahis specific brand of wine was sold in the vineyards of his household. An irritant, but a well-informed one. Zero still g to the smuggler, chatting and asking about various gang members like a long-lost friend, but he sat at a table away, hearing the chair creak under his weight. He sipped the wine ahrough the ledger and dots he had found in a safe.

  Darazdast was a busy little fly. His anization smuggled goods in and out of Iterna, and the Oathtakers, a group of patrons who owed him favors, provided dists on bulk purchases of vehicles and equipment. Later, his crews dismahem and exploited their ers by charging exorbitant prices for the on goods of the Core Lands, which required a lise to sell beyond the borders. Officially, Mr. Siroosi owned four brothels and donated heavily to orphanages.

  I hope he doesn’t pick himself workers from them. Taook a long swig from the bottle. The man’s presence sied him to the bone.

  “While your presence overjoys me to no end, five me, dear Zero, if I shamelessly inquire about your and the esteemed gentleman’s presence here,” asked Darazdast. “The old of the Third’s jouro the Core Lands.”

  “Ued developments demanded a ge—a temporary ge, of course.” Zero lowered her head, mirr the trabandist’s fa her helmet. “A settlement was attacked.”

  “Just Peachy, I am aware; it was all over the news.” Darazdast nodded. “Terrible thing; its people have my utmost dolences, and in a gesture of goodwill, I have written off the debts of my ts from there. But I’ve yet to know anything specific, the beautiful flower of my heart.”

  “See, I don’t believe in it.” Zero spun and nded her butt on his p, drawing a gasp from the man. She pressed a fio his ned rubbed some dirt away. “We turn a blio your little operations because you know everything that goes on around here.”

  “And if you know nothing about the biggest raid i times, what good are you?” Tancred said.

  “Straight to the point, but this is what Ivar will ask. You know Ivar, right, dear Darazdast? He’ll rip the information from your mind.” Zero tapped on the man’s forehead. “Me and my friend don’t want it.”

  “Don’t want to miss it,” Tancred crified.

  “Joker as ever,” Zero ughed. “So help us help you escape this nasty thing.”

  “I fear I’ll have to ehe mindscape discussiardless, peerless star,” Darazdast sighed and punched a wall o him. It folded inside, revealing a secret partment taining several portable data banks and a terminal. As Zero slipped from his khe smuggler pced them oable. “The first thing I did after hearing of the attack was to ehe safety of my men, and then I checked these, searg for anything out of the ordinary. Rumors, uhe-table deals, people plotting to overthrow me, those who refused my friendship and tried to work in my territory… There is nothing out of the ordinary.”

  “Nothing at all?” Tancred joined Zero in reading through the hidden materials.

  “The strahing to happen in Just Peachy i month was a traveling pilgrim who asked if anyone knew of a deity called the Orue God, oh fearless praetorian.” Darazdast drank some wine and tapped at his temple with a trembling hand. “You know the kind, lost souls whose brains have been dried by the sun. I wasn’t aware of the attack. It does sound incredible, and Captain Ivar is free to unravel my brain, but I really wouldn’t tolerate something so vile directed at children. I’m a ged man. Sihe ravenous Alpha spared my life, I have never again been involved in svery. Please, dear Zero, even if you came to collect my life, spare my men. I am , I swear!”

  “How I say no to such hoy?” Zero patted him on the shoulder.

  “Easily,” Tancred said, burrowing into the man with his gaze and hoping to spot any sign of him lying.

  “I’ll ask Big Sis,” Zero promised. “Wyrm Lord will check you; the touch of his mind should be gentler. Stay in touch, stioving goods, or you’ll wake up no more, Darazdi!”

  “About goods!” As she prepared to leave, Darazdast caught Zero by her vambrace. “Beautified image of a saint who has desded upon our unworthy world to awe and inspire us! I have a fession to make…”

  Tancred reached for the bardiche.

  “Stay your hand, good and merciful lord; my immaturity had misled you of the meaning of my words! I implied nothing incriminating.” Darazdast pleaded and smiled, fident and rexed, enjoying the game. “Greatest of warlords, bearer of the divine blood, there is a matter of unresolved delivery.”

  “Eborate,” Tancred ordered, not taking his paw too far from the Judge’s shaft.

  “You see, crimson-eyed defehe soldiers of the Third often employ the services of your humble servant. Nights are long, and whether they be men or women, the soldier’s lot is arduous. The ued shift in the army’s movement had made the usual deliveries impossible, but the transa had already happened, and it would be bad for my character aation…”

  “Redundant wordpy, since reputation stems from a character. Get to the point,” Tancred interrupted the trabandist. The man was getting on his hief. Sver. Scum. Liar, no doubt. He longed for a ce to bury his bde ied neck, but as, the man was teically i. The poliot the military, must solve Darazdast’s mischief.

  ess. Pead ess. We ’t instantly rectify every injustice. It is best to focus oing the sale of the Ironwills’ trade goods to this parrot and his apish band of lunatics.

  “Our host requests us to deliver the goods, Tancred.” Zero put her paws behind her head.

  “As long as you promise anonymity, oh sweetest fruit of our desote pins,” Darazdast said with a bow.

  “Delivering traband?” Tahundered. “I ought to…”

  “We’ll do it,” Zero agreed. “But a favor for a favor.”

  “I had po do it anyway, regardless, my ki and shrewdest friend, as a part of my eternal loyalty to the Wolf Tribe,” the trabandist stated. “I will tact my former friends aer my colleagues in the Core Lands. Information is worth tokens, and doubtlessly, they are busy dug their own iigations. The mystery of our invaders should be uncovered soon. It is in everyone’s i for us to keep living and thriving in peace.”

  “See that desire doesn’t ge, or you’ll taste the Judge’s edge yet, sver,” Taold him.

  “Former sve trader, noble knight! I have served my sentence, fifteen years, in full!” the trabandist protested. “And I’ll sooner die tha war return to our nds!”

  The sword saint remained silent, put on his helmet, and walked past the curious, scrutinizing eyes of the red-haired woman. He waited outside until the crate of unknown goods was brought to Zero, and then silently joined her as they left the yon.

  ****

  Author's note: Sorry for the slower updates. The intense heat in my try is having a ive effee.