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.

Argrave scratched at his cheek. “Then, when we reached out… damn it all. But these men each and all had S-rank guards. How could they so easily…?” Argrave began to raise his voice, but calmed himself. He

him. “The other four are far too busy preserving their own lives to be of

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

to come in person. I was getting a headache from these constant mental barrages of conversation you people send me.” She walked with unusual vigor and grabbed a vacant chair, placing it before

from the sheer force of

high-level informants attacked,” Elenore summarized, her voice rapid and

as of minutes ago,” Anneliese cut

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

has been taken without authorization.

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

not 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 court knows of our intent to target the Grand Imperial Bank, and the fact the emperor is

then asked,

to be moving far faster than they could speak, at present. “The bank 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

face. His sister, it seemed, had gained some rather extreme motivation. There was nothing more reassuring

here,” Elenore looked at everyone in turn. “We need to attack in ways that 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

“Commander Yuan—is

“Probably the

but it works in our favor nonetheless,” she nodded firmly. “If the imperial court acts as they likely will, Yuan could become extremely important. His removal from service might be the legitimate grievance that allows us to protect and empower

don’t think so. Their information is conveyed by pipes beneath the canals, right? We need to get at that, intercept letters. It’ll be difficult to do so without arousing suspicion, but the rewards will be immense. As for assassination… it won’t be ours alone who have to die. We can stage killings of our own, pin the blame, just

reach around the empire, too. Ji Meng talked about barbarians on the opposite edge of the borders. If we

Bank is to minimize

expect it to be easier to raise Ji Meng as a claimant if the Great Chu is stable and prosperous,