“I thought you needed time to decide,” Ziel said.

“Everything you’ve said lines up with the reports of our scouts and scholars. And I believe you.” The Kazan Patriarch inclined his head. “We entrust ourselves to your honor.”

“Oh. Well…good.”

Ziel became acutely aware of the weight of command settling onto his shoulders. He realized he had just taken responsibility for another clan of people.

What a stupid decision.

He should have let the Golds handle it.

The wall surrounding the Li clan was a work of art, a smooth expanse of pale, polished wood decorated by a functional script in a way that evoked the image of a slithering serpent. Treetops rose from behind it, and the sky was filled with birds of every description.

Mercy was impressed. Their commitment to aesthetics was all the more commendable considering their lack of resources. She could only imagine the effort it would take to build something so expansive and delicate with a workforce of Irons.

She only wished she had seen more of the Li clan than the outside.

“The Matriarch has arrived,” one of the guards announced from the top of the wall, and Mercy let out a relieved breath. She had spent most of the afternoon negotiating with underlings, trying to get a word with the clan leader.

Her Golds were behind her. She didn’t want to overwhelm the Jades.

Now, at last, she’d finally gotten somewhere.

A gray-haired woman stepped up to the edge of the wall. She was tall, thin, and dignified, with an emerald-set silver tiara in her hair and rings on each finger. A snake rested on her shoulders, and even it was decorated with gold and jewels.

Mercy dipped her head. “Humble greetings, honored Matriarch. I am Akura Mercy, and I have come to offer the assistance of the Akura clan in the face of the incoming threat.”

The Matriarch lifted one eyebrow. “And what threat is that?”

They knew exactly what the threat was. Even if they were blind to the increasing earthquakes and the bizarre behavior of the aura all around them, Mercy had explained the situation half a dozen times already.

But she gave no hint of impatience as she responded, “The Dreadgod, honored Matriarch. You can feel its footsteps in the earth. My mother is the guardian of the lands all around Sacred Valley, and I come as her representative to shelter you until the danger is passed.”

“And what proof do you bring that this danger is real?”

“I would be happy to leave a dream tablet for you, or to swear an oath on my soul, if that would convince you.”

The Matriarch waved a hand. “That isn’t necessary yet. Assuming I believe you, what would you have us do?”

“We have a fleet of cloudships ready to evacuate your clan outside the eastern passage to the valley. I urge you to let us help evacuate you and your families, so that we can fly you to safety.”

“Hmmm. Well, thank you for bringing this to my attention. I will consult with the clan elders and let you know our decision soon.”

She began to turn away, but Mercy cut in desperately. “I apologize for pressing you for details, but how soon?”

“Soon.”

“We expect the Wandering Titan to arrive in only a week, honored Matriarch. Once it begins its attack, it will be too late to escape.”

“I’m beginning to find your insistence rude, Akura Mercy,” the Matriarch said. She folded her arms and looked down on Mercy sternly. “If you really were the daughter of a ruler, you would know better than to show such…desperation. It is enough to make me wonder what you have to gain by rushing us into a decision. Perhaps you hope we will make ourselves vulnerable in our haste.”

Frustration tightened its grip on Mercy’s heart, but she threw herself to her knees. “I swear on my soul that every word I have said is true to the best of my knowledge,” she called.

Her spirit tightened slightly. A one-sided oath wasn’t as binding as an agreement with another soul, but it was still foolish to break.

“Then you are a very earnest messenger,” the Matriarch said, “but still perhaps an enemy. Enough. I have heard everything I need to hear, and I will make my own decision.”

With that, the leader of the Li clan strode away.

Mercy knelt in the dirt, frustration and helplessness twisting inside her.

She felt a building tide of madra, and looked to the side to see Kashi, the Truegold commander of her Akura troops. He was a conscript from Akura lands, not a member of the clan, and he was ganglier and more awkward than a stork.

He had drawn a pair of swords, which crackled with silver madra, and there was deadly ice in his eyes as he looked on the enemy wall.

“With your permission, Overlady, I can have her on her knees before you in ten breaths or less.”

“No, that would send entirely the wrong message. We’re here to help them.”

“Then let’s help them,” Kashi said. “Whether they want us to or not.”

Mercy pushed herself to her feet, brushing off her knees. “They’ve seen the signs of the Dreadgod’s coming. They’ll leave.”

“Forgive me, Overlady, but we can’t wait for them to come to a decision. If we can’t start evacuating them now, then we won’t have enough time to get them out.”

“But she was right that we can’t push her into a decision. We can afford to wait until tomorrow.”

Tomorrow the Matriarch would see reason, Mercy told herself. Rushing would only ruin negotiations. The Titan was more than a day away; they would see it coming long before they ran out of time.

She kept telling herself that instead of chewing the Goldsign from her hand in frustration.

Jai Long sat with Jai Chen in the corner of a tiny cloudship. It was hard to call it a proper cloudship at all, actually; it was more of a raft on the back of a Thousand-Mile Cloud.

They were part of a small fleet of these…cloud-rafts, some of which had been brought by the Akura Golds, though most had been confiscated from the Fallen Leaf School. They were designed to work in this low-aura environment, and as such were painfully slow. Jai Long often considered leaping down to the ground and running.

But down there, he would run into trouble. Up here, at least he had an escort.

They were returning to the Heaven’s Glory School—and the eastern exit from Sacred Valley—with a team of forty Akura Golds, a few dozen old or wounded exiles from the Wei clan…and Eithan Arelius.

Who would not leave them alone.

He drifted at their side on a dark blue one-person cloud that he had surely brought himself, and no matter how Jai Long steered his own raft, he couldn’t escape.

Jai Long had managed to dodge or bluntly ignore all the Underlord’s questions up until now, but Jai Chen wasn’t helping. She chatted with him easily, she and her dragon spirit.

“You’ve cared for your bonded spirit well,” Eithan observed. “Have you named it?”

“We call him Fingerling,” Jai Chen said, looking a little sheepish. “He started off the size of a finger, and he loves eating small fish. It started as a nickname, but then it just…stuck.”

The pink, serpentine dragon trilled proudly at the sound of his name. It undulated through the wind on Jai Chen’s shoulder and gave Eithan a haughty look.