As the sun set the holy men of the imperial cults lit their thuribles and bathed the pyre in holy smokes and sang of the Khanum, of the march to the sea, of the building of the walls, and of the Empire that awaited us on the other side of this life. When they finished a Legionnaire stepped forward, limping on a crutch, and lit a torch and placed it at the bottom of the pyre, and as the fires blossomed I stood among the weeping crowd and said my thanks to the officers who had fallen during these dark days—both those who had perished in the savagery at the walls, and those felled by the twitch, in this city we deemed civilized.
The crowd departed, yet I remained, my thoughts black and cloudy from all the suffering I’d witnessed, memories I’d never scrub from my soul. Then I saw I did not stand alone: the hulking figure of Captain Miljin stood at the edge of the pyre, staring into the flickering flames.
I approached until I stood beside him. The heat here was so great I felt the hairs upon my face curling. There was a distant, solemn look on the captain’s face, and for a long while he did not notice me. Then he did a double take and stared, as if surprised to find me here, a glint of madness in his eyes.
“Oh,” he said. “Kol.”
“Evening, sir,” I said. I bowed.
He did not answer but resumed staring at the fire. A long silence passed.
“How are you doing, sir?” I asked. An absurd question to ask, but it was all I could think to say.
“Tell me…” he said.
“Yes, sir?”
“Were you there, in the room, when she unmasked Uhad?”
I hesitated, then nodded. I did not tell him that it was I who’d laid bonds on the immunis and escorted him to the cells.
Miljin stared into the fire for a moment longer. “And…did you ever suspect?” he asked. His voice was terribly hoarse. “Did you ever know it was he who wove such evil about all our ears, all this time?”
“I didn’t, sir. I had no idea. I don’t think Ana truly knew until after Nusis was killed.”
“Killed on my watch,” he said. “In my city.”
Another long moment passed. Ashes danced around us like pollen on a spring breeze.
“None of us knew,” I said. “You couldn’t have known, si—”
“Don’t,” he said sharply. “Don’t bother.”
I looked away, still bathed in the heat of the pyre, and held my tongue.
“But…I was right about one thing,” he said. “The Empire has less need of brawn these days, and noble battlers, and more need of plotters and schemers. Like your Ana. And you, perhaps.”
I did not know what to say to such a thing. I held my tongue.
“You’re leaving soon—yes, Kol?” he said.
“Yes, sir. In a few days, I think.”
He nodded. “Then will you do an old man a favor?”
“If I can, sir.”
With a grunt, Miljin unbuckled his scabbard and gazed at it for a moment. Then he held it out to me. “Will you take this with you when you go?” he asked.
I stared at the scabbard, the mechanical hilt glinting in the dying light of the pyres.
“I’m not staying in the Iudex, Kol,” said Miljin. “Not my place anymore. I’ll return to the Legion, to what I know best. Walls and titans and bombards and the sea.”
“Sir, I—”
“But it’s as I told you—swords have little use against a leviathan. They’re better applied against them’s who make it difficult to fight leviathans. And this one will do more for the Empire to go with you, to wherever your path takes you, Kol.”
I took the scabbard from him, bewildered. Again, I marveled at its lightness, its leather warm from the heat of the flames. “You mean back to Daretana, sir?” I asked.
Miljin finally smiled. “Ha! You think you’re going back to Daretana, boy? How quaint.”
I wondered what he meant by that, but then I heard a voice: “You’re all right!”
I looked over my shoulder and saw the Legionnaire on the crutch approaching, his head haloed by the setting sun behind. It took me a moment to spy the shabby, earnest smile of Captain Kepheus Strovi within that shadowy face.
“You remember how to open it, Kol?” said Miljin beside me.
Distracted, I returned to him. I nodded. “I do, sir. But—”
“Good.” He nodded to me. “Good luck in your travels, Signum. I wish you much honor, and great success.”
Then he turned and marched away, stumping out of the Trifecta toward the east.