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Bayan sidestepped and grabbed the man’s wrist, then spun down to one knee, hurling the man over him. Trapping the man’s wrist in an uncomfortable position, he stripped the knife from the man’s grip and pressed it against the vagary’s throat.
    “ Don’t call me muckling,” Bayan hissed, pressing his knee onto the man’s chest. The vagary wheezed.
    The sound of thundering hooves reached Bayan’s ears. He glanced up and saw Joord, Lemmert, and Konrad approaching at full speed, ignoring the road switchbacks. Konrad dismounted from behind Joord’s saddle as the horse thundered by. He skidded to a halt on the other side of the carriage. Bayan had no idea what had happened to Philo and Kipri.
    Bayan heard gurgling and glanced down. Startled, he nearly dropped the dagger, its blade red with blood that gushed from the man’s neck.
    Bayan shot to his feet, clenching the reddened dagger. Kipri, Konrad, and Philo ran around the end of the carriage, but their footsteps slowed as they approached the vagary’s body.
    “You’re all right, son?” Philo came to Bayan’s side. Bayan nodded.
    “He’s dead,” Konrad said, seeming surprised. “You killed him? Brave lad.”
    Kipri’s wide eyed gaze shifted from the body to the blade in Bayan’s hand.
    Bayan couldn’t remember if he’d killed the man, yet there he was, dead at his feet. And the darkness that fought back from inside him still thrummed in his head. Run! his mind screamed. Escape to Pangusay! It was too late, though; the chaos that might have covered his escape was gone, and he stood within arm’s reach of the surveyor’s guards.
    The sky above was nearly black, and hundreds of stars winked overhead. Somehow, Bayan felt as if part of the night’s darkness had slithered inside him. It had been within him since he’d left home, if not longer. He dropped the dagger and climbed back into the carriage, which still bore the acrid smell of the gas ball. Carefully, he tried to ease the darkness back down, but it wouldn’t let him go. Impatient, he tried to pry himself loose from its grip, but the darkness swelled, permeating his every fiber. His bones vibrated to a rhythm he couldn’t hear. Surely, staying much longer at this level of tension would exhaust the power inside him, and cause it to retreat.
    He startled when the carriage door opened. Philo climbed in, wig askew, then sat on the bench and sighed. “The boys have taken care of the remaining vagaries. We’re safe now.”
    Bayan waited a moment to see if his darkness would retreat at that news. It didn’t. “What about Lotte? Where’s her wagon?”
    “Konrad said she’s just at the top of the hill, where they heard our clash. He offered to bring her down, but she refused to leave her poxy pots behind. Told him she’d use them to beat people over the head if she had to.”
    “You and Kipri were all right after you got out of the carriage?”
    “Oh, we were fine. My fellow cricket found a pair of hefty stones and guarded me while I wept like the coward I am.”
    Bayan blinked at the vivid image his mind conjured to match the eunuch’s words, wondering if the pun had been intentional.
    “Bayan. You fought both bravely and decisively tonight. Whatever happens at the Duelist Academy, don’t forget you bear the soul of a warrior.”
    Bayan nodded, but unease curled deep within him, touching but not mixing with the throbbing darkness. I’ve got the soul of something, but I’m not sure it’s a warrior. I don’t think I killed that man. But if I didn’t, could he really have slit his own throat on the dagger? Why would he do that? Nothing makes sense tonight.
    Kipri climbed back into the carriage, bearing a small lantern. “The men are all right, for the most part. No injuries that will slow us down. Frits said these vagaries were very well armed and organized. If we’d all been together, they wouldn’t have attacked at all. If we hadn’t had Konrad, Lemmert, Joord, and Bayan come late to