“You’ll still accept, of course.”

When had he said that? “I don’t know,” he said. “Would you?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, you have to be part of the system to change it, don’t you?” She grinned, reached for a laugh. “The Ijori Dè Guāng notwithstanding.”

As a joke it fell flat, stretching a long silence between them as the two cadets gained the social sciences building and shook off the rain. Jenna whipped her braids around, flinging water in all directions. She glanced at him repeatedly, but held her tongue until they slipped into the main hall, joining the press of students who shuffled around between classes.

“Do you think we should drop Rogers’s CH&C course?” she asked. “I mean, if The Republic is really paying attention to this kind of detail right now—”

“I don’t like being manipulated,” Evan said shortly. He nodded Jenna through the auditorium door first. “Not by anyone.”

But then a hand fell on his shoulder, preventing him from following. “No,” a soft voice said as the hand turned him around. “Going your own way has never been a problem for you, has it?”

Evan might have overlooked the other man without recognizing him. The long hair, a wispy beard shot through with gray—but the voice, that was familiar. And the eyes. Still dark and hard, like a doll’s eyes. In less than a second, they chilled Evan right to his core. He dropped his backpack to the floor, stood their dumbly.

Mai Uhn Wa had returned to Liao.

“Hello, Evan,” his old mentor said with false pleasantry. “Don’t you have a greeting for—” he paused, as if trying to think how best to describe himself, “—an old friend?”

He did. With all the strength he could summon on an instant’s notice, Evan balled up one fist and swung it for the tip of Mai Wa’s chin.

Yiling (Chang-an)

Qinghai Province, Liao

30 May 3134

The shock of seeing his old mentor fueled a deep anger within Evan Kurst. Mai Wa’s return at this very moment seemed just as opportunistic as the letter Evan carried in his jacket pocket. He swung without thinking, dropping his thin veneer of calm for several irretrievable seconds.

And then he was flying forward, pulled off balance and bodily tossed into the center of the corridor. Mai Wa had been ready for any outburst of anger. A simple matter to block the punch, grab, twist and extend …Evan tripped over an outstretched leg and levered out full-length before he caught the floor with his hands, chest, and the side of his head.

The small man stood over him. “Good to see you, too.”

Evan rocked up onto his knees, shook his head clear. He owned the center of the hall. Other cadet-students stood around in a rough circle, watching. Jenna waited at the door, casting a wary glance at Mai Wa, but also spending some concern in Evan’s direction. Ruefully, he dusted his hands against his jacket and climbed slowly back to his feet, bending down to get his backpack before facing his old sifu–mentor and master—again.

Mai Wa kept a flat-footed stance and a wary shoulder turned toward him. “First attempt is free, Evan. The next one will cost you.”

He considered it. Then Jenna placed a hand on the side of Evan’s face where he had polished the vinyl floor, brushed some dirt from it. “Everything all right here?”

Ignoring the ringing in his left ear, Evan nodded. “Just saying hello to an old friend. Jenna Lynn Tang, this is Mai Uhn Wa. My old kung fu instructor.” The half-truth rolled easily off his tongue. Chinese martial arts techniques were some of the things Mai had taught him. “I’ve never been able to catch him off his guard.” Also true.

“Well—” she didn’t sound sure “—if that’s how rough you boys used to play, no wonder David can never get the drop on you.”

He nodded. “Can I catch up with you in a second?”

It was an abrupt dismissal, maybe too abrupt. Jenna frowned, then glanced around quickly, nervously. Sometimes having a reputation among his friends served Evan well. This was one of those times. Jenna moved into the small auditorium. Mai and Evan followed, but immediately moved to one side to sit at the upper row of tables. Jenna had found her usual seat next to Hahn, who stared a question back at Evan.

“Your friends?” Mai asked.

“My friends.” The emphasis was slightly different between the two. Hands off.

“Róng-yi, Evan. Easy. You are the only person here I am interested in.”

“That makes me feel so much safer.” Evan shouldered his backpack onto the table. Professor Rogers stepped up to the podium, readying the day’s lecture. As usual, a Conservatory proctor sat in on the class, right down front, taking obvious notes for his report to the dean. “How did you slip back onto Liao?” he asked.

“Customs was a problem. They’ve tightened down border crossings, certainly, but JumpShip crews are not interrogated as well as they might be. And planetfall?” Mai Wa shrugged. “I am not without resources, even now. Still, if approached, you may want to stick with your story about kung fu instruction. It will hold up much better.”

“What do you want?”

“I understand that you have been busy in my absence. I expected nothing less. Causing gridlock traffic to reroute the Heritage Days military parade—a masterful piece of work.”

Evan simmered. “Greggor has a big mouth.” Who else had Mai contacted?

“Loyalty, Evan, is never easily abandoned.”

“You seemed to find it easy to do so.”

“From your point of view, that is probably true. Or you could say that loyalty is what brought me back. I never forgot you, Evan, and we still want the same thing: a free Liao.”

“I don’t know what it is you want, Mai. You left us. Care to explain that?”

The old man steeled himself against something unpleasant. Evan saw it in his eyes, and slack expression. “I was called back to the capital,” he said, careful not to speak direct names. “To the… black towers. That is all the answer you should need.”

Sian! The Celestial Palace… Mai Wa had always intimated that his orders came from the highest levels. Evan wanted to stay angry, not believe him, but he couldn’t help asking, “Did the… the Celestial Wisdom send you back here?” Meaning to Liao.

Mai answered it differently. “To the Conservatory? Actually, I was invited. By Professor Rogers.” With a tight smile the old Capellan stood and walked stoically down the aisle to accept a nervous handshake from the professor.

Professor Rogers was a bookish, slender man, and Evan had no trouble reading his unease in the tight set of his shoulders. He introduced Mai Wa as a visiting lecturer from Bulics Academy, Evan’s previous school. Another weighty glance from Hahn Soom Gui followed that announcement. Evan groaned, and put his head down on the table.

Fortunately, Mai Wa did not launch into a tirade against the evils of The Republic. He actually talked, at length, about its formation. About Devlin Stone, fresh from victory over the Word of Blake, convincing the great leaders of his time to help him create a new hegemony with Terra at its center. Stone’s swords-to-plowshares program, adopted by—or forced upon—the Great Houses so that war could not be waged at the Jihad’s scale again.

The world of Liao was part of those events. An example of the horrors of unbridled war, and the courage of a besieged people.