“ Rye has taken Pemba east. If you hurry, you can catch up with him,” the Sandseed said.

“Won’t work,” Ari said.

“Why not?”

“The scimitar Pemba is already too strong for me. We’d have to go together.”

Janco gave him a pointed look. He was trying to tell Ari something. Finally he rolled his eyes and moved. Rolling backward and away from the blade, Janco kicked his leg and knocked the scimitar from the Sandseed’s hand. He jumped to his feet and tackled the man.

Ari spun, and went on the defensive. With his back to Janco, he slid his feet into a fighting stance. Balancing his weight on the balls of his feet, Ari waited for the other Sandseeds to attack. They stood staring at him with quizzical expressions then vanished.

“What the hel—”

“Finally! I can talk!” Janco said.

Ari turned. Janco held the Sandseed’s scimitar in his hand. The man lay on the ground, unconscious.

“Care to explain?” Ari asked.

“Didn’t you see my signals?”

“Yeah. But they didn’t make sense. Five into one and it’s an intrusion.”

“It’s an illusion! Five of them are an illusion.”

“That’s not the signal for illusion. This is.” Ari demonstrated the proper signal.

“That’s what I did.”

“No, you didn’t. You did a weird twisty thing with your pinky.”

“I had a scimitar at my throat. I’d like to see you try signaling under those conditions.”

Ari opened his mouth to retort, but thought better of it. They could argue for weeks and not resolve a thing. He changed tactics. “You did very well. You knocked him unconscious and stopped his magic.”

As expected, Janco preened.

Ari gazed at the magician on the ground. “How do we keep him from doing magic once he wakes up?”

“We could kill him. Magic’s illegal in Ixia.”

“But what if he’s right about this Pemba ? We may need his help.”

Janco rummaged in his pack. “I’ve got sleeping potion and Valek’s goo-goo juice. We could keep him unconscious or loopy.”

“Then we’ll have to carry him with us. No, we need something to scare him into cooperating with us.” Ari searched his memory, but he didn’t know enough about magic or magicians.

Janco rubbed the scar where his right earlobe used to be. “How about the cure-all stuff Yelena told us about? The Sitians really hated that stuff.”

Ari smiled. “Curare. It would work. Do you have any?”

“No.” Then Janco grinned with pure mischievousness. “But he doesn’t know that.”

While waiting for the Sandseed to wake up, Ari and Janco packed up the camp and found their weapons. They poured water into a small glass vial, and readied a dart.

“Remember, this guy can read minds. So you can’t think about how we’re trying to trick him,” Ari said.

When the Sandseed stirred, Ari sat on his chest and pressed his knife to the man’s jugular.

“Janco figured out your illusion and he can do it again. So one hint of magic, and I’ll slice your throat.” Ari growled.

The Sandseed wheezed. “Can not…breathe.”

“That’s the least of your worries. You’re under arrest for using magic in Ixia.”

“Can not…hold me…I will…escape.”

“Not unless we run out of Curare. Janco, prick this bastard.”

Terror filled the man’s dark brown eyes as Janco aimed a metal dart at his face. A drop of clear liquid hung off the end.

“No! Wait…I have…a message…for you from…the Soulfinder.”

Soulfinder? The partners glanced at each other.

“Yelena…Zaltana.”

“He’s bluffing,” Janco said. “He knows this stuff will paralyze him and his magic. The dungeon guards will keep dosing him until they unwrap the noose from around his dead neck.”

“Sieges weathered…fight together…friends forever.”

Ari didn’t want to believe it. The Sandseed just recited the special message Janco had inscribed to Yelena on her switchblade. It had been written in a secret code, so the man couldn’t have learned it on his own.

“Is that the message?” Ari asked.

“No…proof.”

Ari removed his weight for the man’s chest, but kept his knife pressed to his skin. “Talk. Now.”

“Yelena sent me to enlist your help to recover Pemba .”

“If that’s the case, you need to seriously work on your people skills,” Janco said.

“I did not want to involve…strangers. I thought I could get the scimitar and return home without any problems.”

“But,” Ari prompted.

“ Pemba has grown too strong for me. So I followed you from the castle.”

“Did you ever consider telling us this before you ambushed us?” Janco asked.

“I wanted to test you. If you had no clue about magic or could not defend yourself against my scimitar, you would have been of no use to me.”

“How’d we do?” Ari asked.

“I am…impressed. Most Sitians can not spot an illusion.”

Ari groaned to himself. “You shouldn’t have said that,” he said to the Sandseed.

“Ha! Hear that, Ari? I’m better than most Sitians.” Janco danced a little jig.