Jackal Among Snakes

Argrave was higher ranked, and so had access to higher-ranked druidic magic. With it, he could create a temporary bond with a tamed creature only. For this purpose Argrave used a messenger pigeon, and with it, he examined the most important city in all the Great Chu.

The capital city of the Great Chu, Ji, had no peer. Argrave could say so fairly confidently while viewing it from above. He had been to Mundi, Dirracha, Sethia, and even founded a city of his own, Blackgard, but nothing could quite compare to Ji’s radiant beauty. To begin with, it had no roads at all. The whole of it was navigable by wide canals upon which boats traversed in tremendous numbers. Beautiful gardens lined these canals, with walkways of impeccable gray stone connecting the whole city.

No building seemed poor or run-down. Most all had clean white walls and gray-blue pyramidal roofs that hung over the side of the building. Gold and silver decorated wealthier homes, and children abounded, many of them playing with kites made in the image of eastern-style dragons. The crescent moon symbolizing their nation could be seen in noble palaces all over the city, each estate containing elaborate gardens and statues with a history Argrave couldn’t begin to guess.

Looming at the far north of Ji was the imperial palace. Argrave had thought the Sea Dragon massive, but the imperial palace was a gigantic complex of buildings in the same style of architecture throughout the rest of the city. One puny wing of it was as large as the entire parliament hall and all accompanying buildings in Blackgard. The imperial court did its business within, running the whole of this nation.

Closely positioned by the palace, straddling the wall between the palace and the city itself, was Argrave’s focus: the main branch of the Grand Imperial Bank in the Great Chu’s capital city of Ji. It was neither showy nor ostentatious, blending in with much of the city relatively harmlessly. But below, the heart of this nation beat. Metaphorically speaking, that bank was the moon that governed the tides of the economy.

And they were no closer to it today than they had been before.

Now that Argrave had seen it, he broke the connection with the bird and once again sat in his quarters within the Sea Dragon. The past few days were both a relief of some pressures and the application of others on a whole new level. The fact they’d compromised not one or two, but eight enemy commanders in such a timely fashion meant that the strain faced by their invading force lessened immediately. At the same time, this lessened strain enabled their scouting efforts to begin in earnest.

With druidic spells, they scouted army locations and geographical features, much of which they already had thanks to Lira. But with insider information, they began to map out how the power structure in the Great Chu had changed in the wake of Ji Meng’s absence. This was the most important information, yet also the hardest to manage. It was so tremendously difficult that Argrave found himself at a loss in merely three days.

Anneliese slid open the door, and Argrave turned his head to her.

She walked in and closed the door. Only then did she disclose, “Commander Yuan was attacked. He survived, yet… he lost a limb. I’m told this is likely to relieve him of duty.”

Argrave lowered his head upon hearing the news, but was not surprised. The past few days, he’d had to accept that he’d bitten a honeyed apple that was poisoned on the inside.

Three of the commanders that they’d managed to contact had been assassinated. Now, Commander Yuan was direly injured and likely to be removed from service. Some of the attacks had been blamed on Argrave and his forces—the commanders were ‘ambushed’ by raiding parties that Argrave never sent out. Two had utterly vanished, and were presumed dead. Worst case, they were captured and tortured by the imperial court. Argrave couldn’t be sure what information they leaked. All eight seemed steadfast, but anyone could break under duress.

were steadfast.” Argrave scratched at

sit beside him. “The other four are far too busy preserving their own lives to be of any genuine use.

Orion. Argrave rose to his feet at once. “Elenore. Why are you here? This place

She walked in briskly, then the two shut the door behind her. “I had to come in person. I was getting a headache from these constant mental barrages of conversation you people send me.” She walked with unusual

slowly acquiesced from the sheer force of her approach.

informants attacked,” Elenore summarized, her voice rapid and

as of minutes ago,” Anneliese cut in. “He survived, yet

were naïve. These people are more advanced than ours in every which way—why did we believe ourselves their

story has been taken without authorization. Report

made it seem like he fought them, then got pushed back,” Argrave shrugged. “And the commanders themselves… I don’t think they

even have known—they could have simply purged those they suspected. I’ve certainly done such things before. We should move forward with the assumption the imperial

in agreement, then asked, “Should

is their biggest vulnerability, I’m sure of it. Despite that, we’re fighting our equals—no, our betters at subterfuge in the heart of their territory, and they’re amply aware of our attempts to infiltrate and undermine their position. It’s no wonder out first attempt failed. The first battle is lost,

it seemed, had gained some rather extreme motivation. There was nothing

cannot be anticipated. I’ve thought of one, for now: we’ll capture the pets of prominent figures and imbue them with druidic bonds to spy. Lira’s connections should be capable of that much. Even one or two successful plants could open up the world for us. As for the four commanders remaining… we’ll change our strategy. Drastically. We face a proactive foe—but by moving, they’ve already given us a vast amount of information.

nodded intensely as her brain worked, then she refocused. “Commander Yuan—is he reliable?” She looked at each Anneliese and

“Probably the

works in our favor nonetheless,” she nodded firmly. “If the imperial court acts as they likely will, Yuan could become extremely important.

across the land. “Kill our informants without consequence? I don’t think so. Their information is conveyed by pipes beneath the canals, right? We need to get at that, intercept

we’ll rattle their cage until the rats come scurrying out. Then, we’ll burn them from beneath until they squeal the names of their masters. We’ll reach around the empire, too. Ji Meng talked about barbarians on the opposite edge of the borders. If we tell them about the internal conflict…

stood, walking up to her. “The whole reason we’re targeting the Grand Imperial Bank is to minimize bloodshed, remember? I’m not opposed to assassinations. Better for a

tell me—do you expect it to be easier to raise Ji Meng as a claimant if the Great Chu is stable and prosperous, or if chaos