At first, the denizens of the port sought simply to ighe dark fleet that had anchored in such a way as to choke off most of the harbor’s approach. A few brave mert ships rowed by during the day, but by night, they lost their nerve and hid in the port, hoping for one more night of safety.

  The Voice of Reason would have let them go, of course. Killing merts and sinking their fine ships in sight of the city would have beely the wrong thing to do, to prepare for all that was i.

  Twice, a small formation of ships rigged for war formed up in the harbor, preparing to sail on the Voice’s fleet. Whether that was because they po fight or because their pride demahat they show they were, she couldn’t say. The spirits of the sailors they’d fished from the wreckage of their st battle rgely agreed that the ships were waiting for the return of the fleet she’d already burned and that they would strike ohey sighted those white sales on the horizon.

  It would have been a cssicer maneuver. It would probably have been quite effective, even. Sadly, they were out of allies and the fearful men would have to treat with her directly, or tio cower behind the beautiful walls of their fragile city until she finally lost patieh them.

  Given enough nights to study the pce, she didn’t need her master’s Dark Paragon to tell her that it would have been much easier to quer this pce than stantinal or Rahkin. She might have enough death knights and other structs to march right up through the harbor and sack the pa a night or two.

  That would have defeated the point, though, she thought crossly to herself while she admired the distant lights that flickered off the glittering waves. The Lich had endless numbers of servants that could quer, but only ohat could do it without swords, and she o show her worth in that regard.

  It took almost two weeks for the powers of Tanda to cease their bickering and send forth an envoy. His dhow was an ornate pleasure craft, which made it quite showy, but it was a ft-decked vessel that left o hide unwele surprises.

  She approved. It was a sensible choitended not to provoke her further while still a glimpse of the wealth and status of this pbsp;

  Thanks to the wraiths that circled the waters like so many gulls, she knew what she would see long before the fragile boat reached her fgship. Onboard the Mysterious Ways was a single, plump eunuch who only just barely managed not to tremble as he stood there between his eight rowers, reeking of fear.

  The voice stood there as the boat pulled slowly alongside of hers, and then as he began to shout his entries as to pary, she walked toward the bow of her ship, trag the rails lightly as she studied the little man and his strange at.

  He tried three different nguages before the figurehead on the bow of her vessel began to unfurl aend. The Voice wasn’t ed. She knew every nguage her Master did, and she was sure that any that she did not already know would e to her quickly.

  The figurehead had been a beautiful maiden made of ivory holding a harp, but as soon as the Voice approached her, she extended into her true form, being a bony Lmaia that slithered almost pletely free of her bonds, being a delicate stairway that curved around toward the aft of the dhow.

  Though she could be unleashed pletely and made into a killing mae, that was not the main purpose of the figurehead. It was to provide an easy way for the Voice to board and disembark the vessel. After all, she was far too heavy to float, and if she were to fall into the water, there would be nothing to catch her until she reached the abyssal sands hundreds of feet below.

  Though she could presumably walk until she reached the shain, she didn’t like to think of what such a fate would do to her fine dress or carefully tanned skin. The odds of staying ued by the things that dwelled down there long enough to read weren’t good, and she had not been built to fight them. Evidently, the Lich had simir fears, for it had givehis guardian to prevely that fate, and graceful Lmia did an excellent job.

  Even though both ships bobbed up and down in the surf out of sync with each other, the Voiever felt it. Instead, each bony stair beh her moved ever so slightly to cel out all the motion, makihe only part of the eableau that was even capable of stillness as she walked dowh with her stiff, prideful gate.

  The screams started before she reached the dhow, but she khat they weren’t because of her. None of the rowers who were trying their very best to fling themselves into the sea were attempting to escape the beautiful woman in bck who was strolling down her own private staircase made of serpentiebra; instead, they were doing all they they could to escape her loyal lma.

  They couldn’t, though. They were ed to their rowing benches, and in the end, all they could do was find something to defend themselves.

  When the voice stepped onto the deck, she curtsied slightly in her long bck dress. She only walked three steps forward before the first fearful sve attempted to strike out at her. Fortunately, his master was faster with his whip, and before the terrified rower could strike a sed time, the chubby little eunuch was already waddling toward her.

  “Mistress, please!” he said, struggling to maintain his posure as he moved himself between her and the rest of his crew. “Ohousand pardons for this. I will have him fyed to within an inch of his life once we return to port. I am Harun Rok, a lowly funary who serves the Sultan, and I have e here to ascertain who the great power behind such a fleet might be and what it is that they would want from the ivory port of Tanda.”

  “This would be an acceptable apology,” she nodded, letting a moment of silence linger before she tinued just to make the ma. “I am the Voice of Reason, and I e from the darkened nds to the south at the behest of my Master.”

  “Your Master?” he asked hopefully, seeking to wheedle out more information, but the Voice ignored him.

  “We thank you for your bravery, Harun Rok,” the Voice said with a cold smile, “But this is a versation for your lord. You are here to work out the details for such things and nothing more.”

  The man was so ed with the snake woman that lingered just beh her that he barely noticed the slight. Instead, he nodded bnkly and agreed, “Yes, the arras, of course. When will you…”

  “Midnight,” she said in a tohat was as muswer as it was and. “I shall jouro the paorrow at midnight so that we may have an amicable discussion about all of this. Please go and deliver this message to your lord so that he may expect my arrival.”

  The man had obviously expected a longer audience or eveiations, but as soon as the exge was plete, the Voice was turning away aurning to her ship. There was nothing to be gained by further discussions with someone who had no power, not when the cost was mystery and intrigue. She would let poor master Rok return aloh nothing but a name and a time, and that would be enough to practically watch the whole of Tanda’s dense harbor, and white walls burst into fmes of intrigue from here.

  She watched the tiny dhow slink back the way it had e with its tail between its legs, and In the day that followed, she did little except choose a feropriate gifts as tokens of her Master’s generosity. After some sideration, she chose a fist-sized pearl carved in the shape of an eye and a wind-up raven made of brass and bohat would fp its wings quite vingly when the key was turned.

  The tter had no magic, of course, which was just as well because the former was overflowing in entments. With the right level of focus from the Lich, it would be able to spy on half the city even if they tucked this thing away in the deepest treasury, which is what any sensible ruler would do. Still, it was a work of singur beauty, and the iridest iris was arresting in its detail, so she was fairly certain that a ruler with this level of wealth and vanity would put it on dispy regardless of what his advisors had to say.

  She wouldn’t have to wait long to find out, though. Less than 24 hours ter, her ship, along with two more fnking it, moved slowly toward the vat pier at the heart of Tanda’s harbor where her small pany of only a few dozen disembarked. The voio longer had her carriage, but even if she did, she wouldn’t have had any way of moving it from sea to nd. her did she have any way of matg the ostentatious pomp of this fn pce, so she didn’t try.

  Instead, she met the overwhelmih of their mosaid silken banners with dread austerity as she mounted her panquin and was carried into the city by four t death knights. They were escorted by ahree dozen that marched in perfeison; it was an impressive showing of steel and precision, but that was not the reason that she’d chosen them for this occasion.

  It wasn’t even because they were as merciless as they were deadly; It was because out of all the soldiers and monstrosities cealed below decks in the bck fleet, these were the only ohat appeared to be human in a ving way, and while she was in no way ashamed of her uh or that of her minions, she had a better uanding of fear and panic after the events of Rahkin, and she would not let the rea of the streets and those who dwelled among the gutters force the Sultan’s hand.

  So, despite the growing crowds, she and her fearsome ente marched in perfect silence from the harbor to the pace. There had been a weling party to greet them, headed by the same eunud a few nitaries, but her dismissive gaze had made her stance clear without a wasted word: I am not here for you.

  That dismissive silence g to the group as it made its way to the pace, and though the size and the volume of the onlookers increased as they went, even their excmations were not enough to breach the metallic drum beat of dead footsteps that silenced everything as they went.