a throne to come here to save you. Wealth, position, security? He gave those up out of loyalty to the Chromeria—and even to you. You sent no help to us when we were dying for the Seven Satrapies, and yet here he is. Because he’s a hundred times the man you are. So if anyone ought to check his attitude, it’s you.”
Everyone was stunned to silence.
Kip was reminded that Cruxer naturally deferred to authority, but this was also the young man who’d broken Aram’s knee out of the blue when he saw authority endorsing injustice.
Andross waved to the Blackguards at the door. “Remove this failed Blackguard trainee. I can’t abide mediocrity.”
Cruxer didn’t even look to Kip to countermand the order. He strode toward the door.
“Oh, Grinwoody,” Andross said, projecting his voice so that Cruxer was sure to hear him, “check if Inana ux Holdfast is still getting a pension for her time in the Blackguard. And cancel it. Check to see if perhaps she’s been overpaid for years and owes a ruinously large debt.”
That was Cruxer’s mother.
The young commander of the Mighty flinched as if struck, but he didn’t turn.
He walked out.
Andross looked at Kip to see how he’d react.
“You’re speaking,” Kip said icily, “as if you’ll be giving out pensions or collecting debts next week, much less next year.”
“Make your demands,” Andross said as if bored. Kip knew it was a put-on.
“I need to figure out the mirror array. So I need unfettered access to it, immediately.”
“You haven’t figured them out yet?”
Kip had already answered that. “I will,” Kip said.
“You haven’t figured out if they do what you claim, much less how,” Andross said, darkly amused, “and yet you ask to be given a privilege that has been reserved to Prisms alone for centuries. I’ll grant you this, you have grown into the Guile arrogance.”
“It’s not arrogance,” Karris interjected. Her eyes were thoughtful. “Is it, Kip?”
“I don’t claim to be free of it,” Kip said. “But I don’t think this is that.”
“What is it, then? You think you can undercut your brother at the last moment?” Andross asked.
“Half brother,” Kip said. “And no. It’s not pride. It’s purpose.” Kip turned his hands up, as if offering himself.
His grandfather’s eyes flicked to Kip’s left wrist momentarily, and narrowed, and Kip saw him sink in thought. For a moment, Kip couldn’t help but think, I just told you there’s an invasion imminent. Shouldn’t you be issuing some orders?
But Andross had shown himself quite willing to jump, once he decided which way. These few moments now, in his estimation, were worth the delay.
“Send a runner to Carver Black,” Andross said to Grinwoody. “I want to meet him here before the Spectrum meeting.”
Grinwoody bobbed and headed out.
Andross turned to Kip. “You would bring light against the bane. You would save the Jaspers and the empire. And it has to be you. Special, special you.”
“Special in that I’m the only full-spectrum polychrome we’ve got who can do it.”
“Nonsense. We’ve got plenty of full-spectrum polychromes.”
“Plenty?” Karris asked. “Half a dozen? Ten, if some have come for Sun Day?”
“The time for the Chromeria to ignore things they don’t like is over,” Kip said. “High Lord Promachos, I’ve got a genius for drafting a lot of different colors not only serially but simultaneously. And I’m almost as Will-full as you are. I’m a Guile, and there’s no one better equipped for this.”
“Are you the Lightbringer?” Andross asked quietly.
It seemed as if history itself pulled sharply at the air through clenched teeth. No one moved.
Kip knew what he needed to say.
Voice firm, level: “I am.”
And everyone breathed differently. The course was set. They were committed. Whether Andross was going to imprison or kill them for blasphemy, or if he’d fall in line behind them, was out of their hands now.
“The most important man in history,” Andross said quietly. “Standing before me. My own . . . grandson.” His tone was impossible to read. Mockery? Thoughtfulness?
But Kip thought he felt a current of grief in Andross’s voice, as if he weren’t mocking Kip but marveling at how the universe was mocking him.
“If it makes you feel better,” Kip said, “the amount of luxin I’m talking about drafting will certainly kill me. Even if I look like the big hero for a moment, you’ll be the most important man in the room again the very next day.”
Kip could feel the Mighty looking at him. He hadn’t talked about that part with them.
“You think that’s what I care about?” Andross asked.
“Yes,”