The voice had known that Tanda was going to be wealthy before she’d ever set sail on this voyage. The northern trade routes were well known for luxuries that were very nearly unheard of in the South. Eveime spent off the coast, watg the city night after night, had not prepared her for the dizzying variety of that wealth, though.

  The uemple within the Lich’s ir was a gilded nightmare that grew more extravagant with each passing year, but even that terrible heart of luxury was the only part of her Master’s kingdom to pare to the thousand delights she saw on her way to the pace. It was a humbling experience, in its way, though none of that sternation made its way to her carefully ral fabsp;

  Instead, she studied the sights from her ornate panquin as she glided through the darkereets and studied the city that passed arouhe city was made up of stone and stucco buildings, and each dwelling that was too poor for a mosaic or statues to mark its existence was decorated with colorful frescoes or lined with ornate friezes.

  Together, the result was that it was impossible to tell which buildings might be the tes of paupers and which might be the homes of mert lords. In the end, the whole thing became a sort of temple in its ht, aween the silken banners and fine clothes of the natives that had braved the te hour to see what the otion was, the only symbol of status that she could ultimately dis were the small gardens and oasis that hid behind wrought iron fences along her route. In a city where everything was fancy, only a few could afford the space for simplicity.

  That lesson was driven home when they finally reached the pace of Tanda’s Sultun. It was a rge, t building, built in a spiral like a narwhal’s horn in such a way that it lorded over the rest of the walled city. It was her its size nor its opalest tiles that made it stand out, but the broad and verdant gardens that separated it from the rest of the city like a green manicured moat.

  Guards with wicked halberds had lihe whole route to the pace. They kept the oners away from her death knights as much as anything, but here she faced what might as well have been an opposing army. Not only were there hundreds of broad-shouldered men wearing well-polished ical caps standing at attention, but there were mages too, draped in silk and watg her from high above as they circled her on tiny flying carpets.

  The se struck her as a show of force that was almost as ostentatious as the rest of the city, but then the Voice of Reason was sure that was the point, and to her, it stank of weakness, not strength. Mortal soldiers o eat and sleep. Most importantly, they o be paid, and with as much money as the people of Tanda spent on their decorations, she doubted very much that they had a rge standing army.

  So, instead of doing anything that might provoke flict, she dismounted her panquin and strode past the assembled defenders with only a single skeletal knight in tow to hold her baggage as she walked toward the pace gates. No one opposed her. Ihe sense of relief radiating off these perfumed warriors that this would not devolve into bloodshed as she walked through the garden-lined path alpable, and the t broes opened before her quickly enough that she didn’t eveo slow her steps.

  Onside, she finally stood on familiar ground. There, she entered the true warriors of the mert realm, the servants and the courtiers, and she was bombarded with all the polite and hospitable ons that they had to offer. The Voice of Reason would not allow these to slow her dowher. She khat she had perhaps five hours until the blue-gray light of dawn colored the horizon once more. As much as she might wish for all the time in the world to clude such importaiations, time was ever against the servants of the Libsp;

  So, buffeted by fawning curiosity, she moved ever fiving the well-dressed men and women that swirled around her just enough information to announce her properly as she moved toward the heart of the court. There, she found a pot at all like the audience halls of the South that she was used to. Instead, she found the Sultan half reed on a pile of plush cushions at the heart of the building, ensced in the warm light of oil mps and the glowing wards of mages.

  The Voice of Reason made no effort to approach these. Instead, as the room was stilled and her presence was announced in half a dozen fn tongues, she studied the men and women that rihe outside of the room to watch. It was clear to her immediately that not all of them were human. Some of those in attendance were shown with an inner light that marked them as spirits or even small gods.

  Are such things more on here? She wondered. Did that make peace a more or less likely prospebsp;

  The Voice wasn’t sure. Such things might ge the oute, but they wouldn’t ge her efforts. It was not at all uhat a city as old and grand as Tanda would have a godling of its own, but who were the others, then? Might the desert have a spirit? What about the river or the bay?

  All of that would require further study, which would be the prerogative of any number of other spirits. Her job was not to puzzle this strangeness out but to make peace with it, which she did with her gifts, a chilly smile, and as many kind words as she could muster.

  The Sultan’s servants took her precious objects from her as she presented each of them, and ohat was dohe Sultan looked down on her magnanimously and offered her exotises and aged wines from a dozen different ports along with golden jewelry. It was only the st that the Lich would have an i in, but she thanked him for all of them just the same.

  “Surely you have e all this way for more than gifts and pleasantries,” the Sultan said finally. “Tell me… tell all of us what your dark fleet is doing here.”

  “We have e to make war—” she started to answer, but the Sultan quickly interrupted her as he finally pulled his bulk up to his full height instead of sloug.

  “Is this a threat? In the heart of our power, you think to—” he started to say, his indignity rising with each word.

  “But we have e to make friends too,” she said, tinuing in a loud, clear voice that silehe few remaining whispers. “The darkness has risen and cimed the South, but it will not stop there. In time, the whole world will belong to my master.”

  “Tanda has stood for hundreds of years aed dozens of armies,” the Sultan said, leaning forward. He was obviously enjoying this as he licked his fat lips. “What makes you think yours would do any more than add to the bones in the wastends around the city?”

  “Besides the fact that those bones would be verted into fresh soldiers for the fight?” the Voice smiled. “Tanda has been strong for a long time. It would be strong even now, at first, at least, but we have already cimed stantinal and Rahkin and every kingdom iweewo, and only those few that surreo the darkness still live and breathe. All the rest are broken pces, grown over with weeds and shadows.”

  “So you ask us to bend the khe Sultan asked, appearing even more annoyed. He looked like he was about to tell her off, but a look at one of the women who lounged around the base of the Sultan’s dais seemed to make him thier of it. “We will not surreo you or anyone else, but we would… sider an alliance, perhaps, with the proper terms.”

  “An iing proposal,” the voice said automatically, but it had barely registered. “What would that look like in your mind?”

  Instead of dealing with the puppet figurehead, she turned her gaze to the woman whom she’d thought to be nothing more than a courtesan until that moment. She was dressed in pale silks and golden ors that showed more of her body than they hid, but as soon as their eyes met, the Voice could see an ageless depth in the eyes of the other woman.

  While it ossible she was a mage, it was far more likely that this was the goddess of Tanda here, hiding in pin sight. It was that insight that guided the rest of the Voice’s versation with the Sultan. He might have been the one saying the words, but it was the nameless woman’s body nguage she was listening to as the two of them began the eborate dance of diplomabsp;

  For the wo hours, the three of them made proposals and terproposals as everything slowly fell into pce. Given the Sultan’s hostility, it was hard to uand why this meeting was even taking pce at first, but it eventually became clear why: stantial. Every time the name of that city came up, the Voice saw the shadow of fear cross the eyes of her true oppo. The goddess of Tanda did not wish to share the same fate as her sister city and was f the mortals that ostensibly ruled her to find another way.

  That was reasohat was a motivation that the Voice of Reason could uand, and she used that to frame the discussion. Guaranteeing both the city-state of Tanda as well as any of their parthat wished to sign on as well safety and security both from the Lid any of their neighbors that might feel differently for a moderate tithe, to be delivered monthly to Rahkin, or possibly other nearby cities after they had been quered.

  “O-o-one pert of the city’s popution every year…” the Sultan stammered when she first proposed the terms. “Even spread out monthly, that would still be dozens of ships! The cost is too high!”

  “You would lose more people in your first night of standing against use than you would in a year of fealty,” the Voisisted. “I’d invite you to ask the good people of Rahkin, but they refused enerous offer and are no more.”

  That caused a round of collective gasps, but the Sultan ighem. “If you’re so fident, then why not ask for two pert or even ten pert?” he asked.

  “We seek a retionship that will span decades,” the Voiswered smoothly. “No city could flourish under su onerous yoke.”

  That metaphor was as close as she dared step to the truth. The people of this city, and all cities that might yet be brought to heel, were nothing but herds of cattle, and so they would be harvested slowly. For now, they could pay in beggars and criminals, but she was certain that in time when the Lich held dominiohe world, they would pay with their prayers and their dreams, too. After all, just as her dark lord used every part of the body to build its creations, it would use every part of creation to build what was going to e .

  Though the iations sted almost until m, she returo her ship before the first sun rose with a deal signed in blood. One more city ehe fold, and she hadn’t lost so much as a single death’s head to achieve her goal.