Simple and direct, the architect of my dreams.

There was one dream, less common, that did without the death and corruption, yet was as chilling in its way. Black and white too, it placed me upon a plain of stone where deadly shadows lurked behind countless obelisks. I didn't understand it at all but it frightened me.

I couldn't control the dreams. But I refused to let them influence my waking hours, refused to let them wear me down.

"I've sent word out, Mistress," Narayan said, responding to my question about recruits. We fenced whenever the subject of his brotherhood arose. He wasn't yet ready to talk.

Blade suggested, "Someone ought to be watching things at Dejagore." I understood, though sometimes his brevity caused problems.

Narayan said, "Ghopal and Hakim can take a party down. Twenty men should have no trouble. It'll be quiet now."

I said, "You had them spying on our neighbors."

"They're done. They've made their contacts. Sindhu can take over. He has a higher reputation."

Another of those little oddities about Narayan and his cronies. They had their own hidden caste system. Based on what, I couldn't tell. Narayan was the man of most respect here. Broad, stolid Sindhu ran a close second.

"Send them. If we have spies everywhere why haven't I gotten any information?"

"There's nothing to report that isn't common knowledge. Except that there's a lot of disaffection among Jah's men. A third might defect if you offered to enlist them. Jah's been doing some talking about you ignoring your duties as a wife because you won't commit suttee or go into isolation, as befits a Shadar woman. He's working on a dozen schemes but none of our friends are in his closest councils."

"Kill him," Blade said. And Sindhu nodded.

"Why?" A political victory would be better, long range.

"You don't let the serpent strike if you know where he lies in wait. You destroy him."