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___Sixteen eyes watched Seifas and the others leaving Qarfax Tower, my beloved.
___Four eyes watched from in the western forest edge. The mismatched studded leather armor of the hidden men reflected minds and bodies worn down densely, like old roots: scraggly, dirty…desperate.
___“Flamin’ bile. We got squatters,” mumbled one.
___“They ain’t all outta that there tent, I’m bettin’,” said the other. “Must be more nearby.”
___“Just venturin’ perhaps?”
___“Then why ain’t they all camped out on th’ dell? B’sides, I don’t intend t’ stick around an’ ask that jaguar!”
___A spit. “A jaguar’s just a man, like anyone else; ‘n’ they c’n die, like anyone else.”
___An eyebrow raised. “Them jaguars might be men, but they sure ain’t like anyone else! I don’t care what y’tell th’ others. I was there when all you did was loot a jaguar’s body for that axe; an’ I was there when he was killed, which you were not. That jaguar company ate up two brigades, like that!” A finger snap. “A floggin’ Cadrist had t’ kill’em, an’ still they kep’ him busy enough t’ let another Cadrist sneak up close for whackin’ him. Biggest bloody mess I ever saw…You wanna fight th’ jaguar, you go on. I’m headin’ back.”
___A snort. “Th’ Mad One won’t be happy hearin’ squatters now’re at th’ Tower. Person’ly, I’d rather face th’ jaguar than th’ Mad One.”
___“I’d rather face th’ Mad One than th’ jaguar!” A pause. “We’re so complet’ly thumbscrewed…Let’s go left. I figure these’re scouts for some brigade, an’ they’ll be campin’ south, down near th’ pass, more likely’n not. We’ll go north around, an’ cross th’ eastern ridge…get outta th’ district altogether.”
___“We could go down an’ offer to join.”
___“An’ fight th’ Mad One?!”
___“Yeah, good point. Okay, let’s go, b’fore they figure out we’re here.”
___The two men faded deeper back into the forest, angling northward.
___Six eyes also watched from underneath the eastern treeline.
___Four of them belonged to soldiers, better armed and armored than the western scouts. Their cloaks were draped around their well-kept darkly painted armament; their steel was dulled by smoke of fires for damping down the sheen.
___But every edge was buffed, sharp and razor-smooth.
___These two men were watching the dell in confident alertness, ready to strike, ready to wait.
___Yet when they eyed the man between them, wariness replaced their confidence.
___Artabanus never looked wary.
___His scouts perched, ready to dive into battle; but the gaze of Artabanus struck the land already, conquering it. He carried no weapon, wore no armor. Nor did he need them.
___“One of the Guacu-ara…”
___The scout on his left now wouldn’t wager an ohre on the black-skinned man surviving another week.
___“Clearly, he must die,” declared Artabanus.
___“A juacuar might be of use,” suggested the man on his right. “By all accounts, not many have survived.”
___“He is a threat, for he does not serve me,” Artabanus replied. “And should he cease to be a threat by his own choice, then he will have betrayed his former masters. I do not keep traitors by my side, especially killers of his caliber.” Artabanus flicked his unblinking gaze to the man on his right—who swallowed.
___“Clearly,” the scout agreed, “he must die. Shall I slay him myself, Midomo?”
___“If I have commanded, strike him down, though fifty other men may crush your bones beneath their blades. However,” he allowed, returning his attention to the dell, “this juacuar survived the deaths of all his corps—and so is not within your capability, I think. I shall slay him, as I choose.”
___“But, if you have commanded, I myself shall strike him down,” affirmed the scout.
___“The other men you see may die or live to serve me. Any magi with them shall be slain at once. There shall not be another Cadre War: I shall reign alone.” He didn’t have to order them to bring him any disciplex or other mage material. They knew.
___“All power shall be mine.”
___“All power to Artabanus,” they reverently echoed.
___“Now, I will return to camp,” the magus told them. “If these we see are from a brigade, they likely shall be camping yonder.” And he sparely gestured to his left. “I shall commission other scouts to check. You two stay. One shall report to me if necessary. If you find lone scouts, subdue and bring them to me. We shall discover what is in their hearts and minds, by splitting them open.”
___“As you command,” they murmured in response.
___He pulled away from their position—a fluid movement, drawing after a breeze that chilled their faces.
___Minutes passed before one man would dare to ask the other:
___“Shall we be seeing a better future? Or a worse?”
___The other man dared not reply the words within his heart. Instead he answered, “I shall live to see the future.”
___He answered without hope.

___Another pair of eyes, across the valley in the northwest corner, locked upon the form of Seifas, disregarding any others.
___These two eyes had shadowed the progress of the western brigade; creeping close to hear the talk of scouts, when they had thought that no one else could hear—speech of fear and atrocity.
___The Mad One might be such an opportunity as these eyes were seeking. Then again, the hands below those eyes must still survive to pluck away the rotted fruit: evidently now a spider lived within that shell, attracting souls grown drunk on heady fumes exuding from the ruin of the tree—and poisoning what it hadn’t yet devoured.
___A stronger leader might provide a different opportunity, and difficulty, toward the same result. Behind the eyes, a voice had whispered that another leader might arrive from eastward soon.
___Did that leader now wait south, from where the wind was bringing traces of “brigade encamping” to the nose below the eyes?
___A leader with a juacuar.
___Another different opportunity; but, all combined together in the plan now set in motion by the Way of Things.
___Into the wind between the winds, the mind behind the eyes did whisper:
___brother…
___Affirmations came at once; eager to complete the number.
___By addition? Or elimination?
___Any possibility would play into the blue-steel taloned hands.
___A Culling of a sort would be enacted here, uncovering the path into the future.
___Many screams would echo on that path.
___But—there would only be one cry.

___Along the northern treeline, four more eyes watched Seifas, in the distance, as he trotted up the dell.
___A finger pointed, tipped with stubby bone: “One of the olden killers!”
___“An auspicious moment: murderers gather to feast on yonder corpse of stone.”
___“From the east and west and south, the clay-hearted come.”
___“The Lord of Slaughter shall be pleased, I think.”
___“Shall we be pleased to join the feasting? Has he brought us here for this?”
___“One monster shall arise to take possession of the power of the corpse of stone.”
___“And shall be stronger after slaying every rival.”
___“Yet, as weak at first as having given birth.”
___“Then we will strike, and trample down the corpse of stone beneath our hooves, so that no monster shall possess it; and then we may leave these lands of murderers.”
___“You see our path correctly, Kambyses. Now, let us tell our tayasi, so they shall know to strike with all our power, pleasing Orgetorix Lord of Slaughter!”
___Barest pause. “I most earnestly pray the Great Lord shall be pleased.” A knotted forearm slid across one sharpened tusk, to show this deep sincerity.
___And back into the northern mountain forests drifted both the Ungulata.

___Seifas never saw these things; nor did Portunista; nor did Khase Sage discover them.
___But I have searched them out, beloved—with my power that destroyed them.

___Eighteen eyes watched Seifas and his squad, if my eyes also count. How many other eyes, from high above or deep below, were watching history converging on this valley?
___One other at the least, that I know.

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Notes from the real author…

So, Portunista was right about a force coming back from the west; but couldn’t know yet about the other two sets of troops boxing the compass in! (Nor the lone juacuar villain wandering around the area having shadowed Praxiteles into the area.)

An early editor suggested I should have simplified things a little by taking the Ungulata (i.e. the Mikonese orcs) back out. I could have done that, but I knew I wasn’t going to be in range of the Middlelands again for a while and I wanted to get some of the demimen introduced while I had an opportunity. So down they come from the north to add a fourth side to the coming conflict. (Also, their rationale for being there is different from everyone else’s.)

While this chapter introduces the competitive factions for the rest of the book, I figured only one leader would likely be in visual scouting range of the tower yet (plus naturally the juacuar), so I’m saving Praxiteles for a proper introduction a little later. The Unks, on the other hand, don’t really have one distinct leader, so the scout Kambyses will be their main character for my story.

I don’t think we’ll be seeing Arty again before the halfway point–he and the other two main antagonists have a couple of important chapters kicking off the second half of the book–so I’ll talk a little about him here. While I had basically plotted out the plot and action beats already for the rest of CoJ, I hadn’t worked out many details, so with this chapter I started inventing a lot of the color and character of the antagonists.

Artabanus is a realworld name of a Persian military leader accused of treachery, and there’s a bit of that in Arty’s background, too, although we won’t be getting much into that in CoJ. He represents competent but evil Order, one direction that Portunista herself could go in if she doesn’t improve her character along with growing in power. Later in the book we’ll see that he isn’t really much more yet than a jumped-up former apprentice like Portunista, but he thinks of himself more highly. I love writing Arty–except when he’s being super-evil, which is naturally uncomfortable–because it’s great fun setting up his ego to be progressively punctured! He starts as a man full of confidence and assurance and slowly gets that eroded away until he’s scrambling desperately. But since he does have lots of real talent, he can regroup, improvise and try again. Plus, his skill set is somewhat different from anyone else’s in this book, so I get to play with new toys whenever I’m writing him.

I very much like to assign important and/or excessively cool things to minor characters. I hadn’t originally intended to bring back the two unnamed scouts on the treeline, and they don’t show up again through Book 3, but I was able to give them an awesome scene and a meaningful speech (and contribution to the plot) late in this book.