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.

Rather than place men they know are loyal to them in the frontlines, they placed ones they knew were steadfast.” 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

walked closer to Argrave to sit beside him. “The other four are far too busy preserving their

and Elenore stood there, shadowed by Melanie and Orion. Argrave rose to his feet at once. “Elenore. Why are you here?

to come in person. I was getting a headache from these constant mental barrages of

slowly acquiesced from the sheer force of her approach. Only Orion

informants attacked,” Elenore summarized, her voice rapid

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

people are more advanced than ours in every which way—why did we believe

been taken without

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

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

agreement, then asked,

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

his face. His sister, it seemed, had gained

them with druidic bonds to spy. Lira’s connections should be capable of that much.

she refocused. “Commander Yuan—is he reliable?” She looked at each Anneliese and

nodded. “Probably the most

fact he was injured suggests otherwise, 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 the

rose and walked to a shut window, then opened it up. Orion watched the outside uneasily as she peered 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 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

the empire, too. Ji Meng talked about barbarians on the opposite edge of

to her. “The whole reason we’re targeting the Grand Imperial Bank is to minimize bloodshed, remember?

may be… extreme. But Argrave, tell me—do you expect it to