Raya had been enjoying her new home, despite her hesitance to trust Axar. The city of Ith seemed much calmer to her here, though she could not be certain if that was a lull in the tension between the city’s rulers and its people or if it was due to her distance from the bustling commotion of Massed Alley and other, similar boroughs. Benn and her ate breakfast together every day, while Dondar joined them often. Sometimes, the middle-aged guardsman was absent, either hung over from a night at a tavern or walking to put distance between himself and the magicians that Raya seemed to be constantly surrounded by.
Ailo spent two hours training in the morning and two in the evening, but aside from his clear prowess with weaponry, he didn’t give Raya much with which to build an impression of him. He bought whatever food or supply that his house guests asked for without question.
Axar finally visited Creek Stead a few weeks after Raya and her friends had moved in.
Raya had been making arrows with a small hooked knife, when Ailo opened the door for him. She tensed, in mid-motion and stood up. The magician stepped inside the house gently, with a loose, open chested robe made of stripped green and white silk. The sword at his waist glided through the door smoothly, but the muscular man smiled when he saw the huntress’s concern. “At ease, Raya,” he said, with a smile.
Benn stepped into the hall from the dining room where he’d been reading a book. He watched Axar with Raya.
The magician shook his head. “You two are so concerned. Has this home not made it clear to you that I mean you no harm?”
“I don’t know what you mean for me,” Raya said.
“Then let’s discuss just that,” Axar said. He turned into the dining room. “In here.”
It was a very earthy room, with a thick wooden table, and rustic stone slabs on the floor. A brazier sat in the center of the table in a worn metal holder. Axar sat at the head of the table and invited the others to join him. Ailo bowed and left the room, while Dondar sat to the left of the magician and Raya and Benn to his right.
“There’s going to be a revolution,” Axar said. “It’s inevitable and it cannot possibly succeed.”
“What?” Benn asked.
Raya blinked. “I thought you wanted me to play a role in it. Everyone keeps demanding I play a role in it.”
“The Mage Kings and their guards will decimate any number of civilians who try to storm their castles or steal their slaves. If the Mage Kings were behind the eruption of Mount Lukar, as the mob would have us believe, they will overpower any attack they see coming. I plan to defeat them more subtly. More secretly,” Axar said. “We will gather them, perhaps by a feast or wedding… or maybe some victory. And when they are all together, we’ll detonate more explosives. Coal dust is incredibly flammable, which is how Jadden’s men took out the Bridge of Norzeen. They weren’t able to stop that attack—it failed due to timing and planning.”
Dondar stayed silent, but his expression became more open as he considered Axar’s plan. The Mage Kings were dangerous because of their numbers. When King Rull had died, two others had been there to spring into action. Kill them all at once—it might work.
Axar had mentioned the volcano again, and Raya still had no explanation of why his name was written at the foot of it. But she wouldn’t get those answers by asking.
The more she thought about Axar’s plan the more unsettled she was. It was a horrible way to treat human life, gathering them and killing them at once. Like livestock. But she knew why these people had been driven to violence. She’d seen a lot of reasons why in the past half a year. And finally, her thoughts turned to her own circumstances. “What do you want me to do? I don’t want to be a part of this,” she said.
“Do you know anything about explosives? No, I did not assume so.” Axar chuckled and leaned forward. “As I said, the revolution is inevitable. My plan will ensure all the rebels are not killed, but the resulting chaos could easily collapse into anarchy. I know the people will choose a leader, and I can’t affect that. But I want you to be a part of that order, that structure. Jadden told me before he enacted our plan at the funeral that he knew people would trust you. Will you help us this way?”
Raya shrugged. She didn’t really know what to say to Axar as she hadn’t known how to respond to Lotha’s plans and Jadden’s either. “I want to help the people,” she said. “So I suppose the least I can do is try.”
Benn smiled. Axar did too, but his smile meant less. Raya wouldn’t forget her reasons to suspect the magician for foul play. But Benn and she had been trying to help for months. If they could, they would.
“I’d like to help with the first part,” Dondar said, quietly. Everyone looked at him—those had been his first words to Axar. Dondar shrugged. “I’m no use convincing rebels to keep the peace or whatever.”
“Dondar,” Raya said. “You want to be a part of killing the mages? Why?”
The guard looked at Raya with rumpled eyebrows and said, “I don’t like magicians. I don’t trust them,” he said. His eyes flicked to Axar for a moment. “No offence intended. But Raya, they have used you and lied to you since day one. I can’t discern the truth, and to be honest, I can’t protect you like Hemsten would have wanted me to. But killing those slavers and murderers? I can be a part of that.”
“I see,” Raya said, but her words were almost lost in Axar’s.
“I think we can definitely find a position for you to help out,” the magician said. “Ailo will talk to you as we structure our plan even more. Now, for all of us, I’d like to say. This is a ‘long plan.’ The key component is the where and the when, circumstances we must wait to be perfect.”
Raya nodded. She was feeling wound up after the conversation and wasn’t content to cut more arrow shafts. It had been a long time since she’d gone for a hunt, so she left Benn alone for a while. She hiked across Ith’s hills that afternoon, catching very little in the midst of the metropolis and feeling no more at ease.