Joshi approached the center of the war camp. The Darwur yurts had been taken down and removed. He found almost a hundred Darwur men and women in the center of the camp, with his brother at their head. They looked strange standing in rows rather than mounted.

  Khan Temaj stepped forward. “They say a powerful cultivator battle is coming. The General commanded us to retreat here and wait. Do you bring further news?”

  Joshi stretched out his will and sensed the crowd. Temaj had achieved the Peak of Bodily Refinement and was advancing nicely toward the Peak of Mental Refinement. All the others here had likewise reached the First Peak, their bodies now fully able to use lux. While they would be trampled like grass beneath a more powerful cultivator's feet, they might inflict one small wound or two in the course of that trampling, or at least so he hoped.

  Temaj met his eyes without a challenge in them.

  “Prism Eri and the General have entered the tower,” Joshi said. “I do not know if or when either of them will emerge. Most of Eri's disciples have been destroyed.”

  “You did it?” one of the men with Temaj said.

  “My friends and I.”

  “They were more powerful than you. Or at least that’s what the General’s men were saying. They said there was no hope for a couple of cultivators at the Spiritual Refinement tier going up against those two tiers higher than them.”

  Joshi merely shrugged. “Only one tier higher by the time they reached us. They are dead now, and we are not.” He let his simple words speak for themselves. “My friends are organizing our sect to defend.”

  He gestured around at the remnants of the camp. By now, Min was deploying the more advanced Morning Mist cultivators along the palisade around the Imperial War Camp. Unlike most war camps, the palisade ran only around three sides. The fourth side had been open to where the Darwur yurts had stood. Those were gone now. Vacant imperial tents still stood, and he saw lesser Morning Mist concealing themselves inside those, covered by thin blue lux workings from Hiroko that veiled their presence. When the Inquisitor came, she would not get a true sense of how many there were at first. He hoped.

  “What do you need us to do?” Temaj asked. “The rest of our people have moved off, taking our horses, our children, and our belongings with them. We are here to fulfill the oaths we swore to General Li.” Temaj looked grim, and Joshi realized he expected to die. He stepped forward and spoke quietly to his brother.

  “When we were children, you did not fear cultivators. Now the thought of a single high-ranked cultivator has your stomach turned to water.”

  Temaj growled. “You were not there the day our father died, the day the Prism descended from the sky with death in her hands. Thousands fell in a single attack. I saw that the war we had been fighting was a farce. We can never stand against superior cultivators on our own. We will fight here because that is what we have sworn, and we will die.”

  “The one coming against us is a mere Inquisitor, not a Prism,” Joshi said, speaking loud enough that everyone could hear him. He had seen Inquisitor Pak in action before and did not underestimate her. But he needed them willing to fight, and not just to die. “In the past days, I have fought and defeated six cultivators who were only a little weaker than her. My friends and I are stronger now, and all we must do is hold her off until relief arrives.”

  A spark kindled in Temaj’s eyes. “That we may be able to do,” he agreed. “What will you have us?”

  Joshi gave orders, stretching out his will and feeling the boundaries of his battleground. His father would have approved, he hoped, and it warmed him to have his people respond to his orders without question. Even Temaj did as he was told.

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  Joshi’s will warned him of the approach of the Inquisitor, and he looked up as she descended from the sky. She carried a sword in her hands, her body covered in black lacquered imperial armor, enforced with lux, her head protected by a helmet. He felt her will press against him, its sheer power threatened to cut off his breathing, but he cycled and enforced himself with his Intent and withstood.

  As she withdrew her will, he had a quick sense of her power. There was so much strength to her lux, but her core didn’t feel full. If she hadn’t been inside a tower, then she had been forced to use lux batteries, to keep herself topped up. There was a chance that he and his friends, with their cores brimming with fresh tower lux, had more at their disposal than she did. That was Min’s plan, and it had a bare chance of success.

  The Inquisitor pulled her will in around her. Joshi could see it as a nimbus around her body. She was cycling her lux, keeping it in tight.

  “Greetings, traitor,” she said to Joshi. “I am hereby placing every member of the Sect of Morning Mist under arrest for violation of your cultivation licenses and for aiding and abetting a traitor.”

  “We have done no such thing,” Joshi said.

  “You opened the tower, allowing Eri to enter,” Inquisitor Pak said.

  That was almost true. Joshi didn’t bother to deny it, though he was certain the woman was being specious with her accusations. “We are no traitors,” he said again. “We entered this tower with the express permission of the regional governor, General Li.”

  “You have a mere provisional license yourself and have reached the rank of Lux Endowment without permission. That’s a Class 3 violation in and of itself.”

  “It’s a little late to be worrying about licenses,” Joshi replied. “With General Li and Prism Eri contending for ownership of that tower, don’t you have bigger things to worry about than our sect?”

  “That is not your concern,” Inquisitor Pak said. “Surrender, and I will take you in for an imperial hearing before your execution. If you can persuade the wayward Indigo Princess to surrender, she might be permitted to live.”

  Joshi crossed his arms and allowed himself a tight smile. Every moment of talk was another moment where his allies could get into position. “Are you sure it’s not you who are the traitor?” he asked. “I thought stopping the rogue Prism would be your job, but you don’t seem to have hindered either her or her disciples in entering the tower.”

  Inquisitor Pak bristled. “You do not question an Inquisitor’s actions, dog,” she snarled.

  Joshi wondered if perhaps he'd hit the mark closer than he had expected. No matter. Magen bobbed near him, and Min’s voice issued from the little lux creature. “We’re in position.”

  Joshi stepped forward, summoning his lux Bracers. Behind him, his people spread out in a semicircle. He had cautioned them not to be clustered too closely together, they wanted Inquisitor Pak to have to strike widely to take them all down. Each of them was enforcing his body as much as possible with red lux. Joshi readied himself to protect them.

  “I am your opponent,” he snapped.

  “An Endowment cultivator dares to challenge an Inquisitor?”

  Inquisitor Pak’s eyebrows rose. “You are stupid, if brave.”

  Joshi pointed a hand at Inquisitor Pak. "You are here as a representative of an empire whose authority we deny. My people and I have fought long to preserve our sovereignty, and we have not surrendered. As son of a Khan, one whom you killed, I challenge you to a duel, one against one, here in the sight of my kinsfolk and the open sky."

  Inquisitor Pak sneered. "You think you can fight a Lux Dominator?"

  "I think I can take revenge for my father.”

  "So be it," the Inquisitor said. "I'll enjoy this."

  Joshi raised a hand. "You heard her, my kinsmen. Form a circle in witness. And let the heavens themselves be the judge of this fight.”

  Min watched as in twos and threes the Morning Mist disciples moved in to join the ring around Joshi and Inquisitor Pak. When Hiroko signaled it was time, she called softly, "All right, everyone in positions. Prepare your first attack, but hold until I say so."

  As her words carried, the Morning Mist cultivators obeyed. Her heart soared to see them carrying out her directions so ably.

  Min summoned her own Lux Bow. She hardened herself. The woman they were fighting was far more powerful than any of them. Most of their abilities would do no more than annoy her. Some of them were going to die. But if that was what it took, then she was prepared.

  Down below, Inquisitor Pak raged at Joshi. "This is an honorable duel!” She glanced wildly around the circle of watchers. Min’s heart froze. The Inqusitor was sensing the techniques being readied around her. “You are making a fool of yourself allowing interference!"

  “The only fool is the one who expects honor from a lesser opponent,” Joshi said calmly. He formed a gauntleted fist and stepped in, swinging at the Inquisitor. Min could tell he was pressing to keep her attention off the other cultivators. The Inquisitor neatly sidestepped the blow as she raised a hand, gathering lux.

  "Now," Min called.

  And her allies unleashed their first volley of attacks.