The panther led Kaelor deep into the swamp. Then it stopped. A wide patch of blue flowers glowed in the muck, their petals bright as lamps. The beast sat and looked at him, waiting. Kaelor held his hammer and studied the ground. He saw no path, no gate, no sign. He did not know what the animal wanted. "Show me," he said. The panther only stared. A voice cut through the reeds. "Great. A talking cat man. This planet keeps getting better." Kaelor spun, hammer raised. A woman stood ankle-deep in the water. She had wild red curls and green eyes, and mud soaked her boots to the knee. She did not run. She crossed her arms and glared at him like he was the one out of place. "Put the club down," she said. "I've had a rough day. I fell through a hole in the air and landed in a swamp. On the wrong planet. So unless you know the way back to Earth, we've got nothing to talk about." "I have never heard of Earth," Kaelor said. "And this is my world, not yours." "Lucky you." She waded closer, eyeing the flowers. "Why's your cat staring at the weeds like they owe it money?" Kaelor lowered the hammer. "It brought me here. It wants something. I cannot tell what." Ruby snorted. She stepped past him and crouched by the blooms. Kaelor started to warn her off. Then she pressed her palm flat against the wet earth between the flowers. "There's a seam here," she said. "Feel that? The ground's got a line in it. Straight, not natural." Kaelor knelt beside her. She was right. His fingers found a thin crack, hidden by mud and roots. He had walked past it blind. He dug. Ruby dug beside him, cursing at the cold. Together they scraped away a slab of packed clay. Underneath lay a flat stone. His house mark was carved into its face, the same red symbol from his hammer. The panther rose and pushed its nose against the stone. It sank an inch, and a low groan sounded beneath the swamp. "A door," Kaelor said. His chest tightened. "My family sealed this. It leads somewhere. To people who kept faith." Ruby stood and wiped her hands on her pants. "So your cat wanted a second set of hands. Great. You're welcome." Kaelor looked at her. He needed allies, and this stranger had found what he could not. "You want off my world," he said. "I want my throne. Help me open what lies below, and I will help you find your way home." She eyed him hard. "You'd better not be lying, cat man." "I do not lie," he said. "We'll see." She spat in her palm and held it out. Kaelor clasped her hand. The stone door groaned again, and cold air breathed up from the dark below.

The stone door swung inward. Cold air rushed up from the dark. Kaelor stepped onto the first stair, hammer ready. Ruby crowded behind him. Below, torches sparked to life on their own, one after another. They lit a stone room lined with racks of old jewelry and weapons. His bloodline's bunker. His people had sealed their wealth here before the exile. "Would you look at that," Ruby breathed. She pushed past him and lifted a gold chain from a hook. "This buys a lot of plane tickets home." Kaelor caught her wrist. "Put it down. This is not yours." "We opened it together, cat man." She yanked free. "That was the deal. Half." "The deal was I help you reach Earth." He set his hammer against the wall. "These are the relics of my house. I need them to raise an army and take back my throne. Every ring buys a soldier." "And every ring buys me a way off this swamp planet." Her chin lifted. "You don't get to decide alone." They glared at each other across the torchlight. The bargain hung by a thread. If she grabbed what she could and ran, he lost the wealth that made his claim real. If he forced her out, he lost the one ally who found this place. A scratching came from the dark stairs above. Both of them turned. A small creature trotted down into the light. It had gray fur marked with pale blue lines that seemed to glow, and bright curious eyes. It looked like a dog, but not quite. It sniffed the floor, then sat at Kaelor's feet and looked up. Ruby froze. "What is that." "I do not know." Kaelor knelt. The little animal pressed its head to his palm, the same way the panther had bowed to his mark. His chest went tight. "It knows my blood. Same as the great cat." He looked at Ruby. "These creatures vanished when the warlord took power. They are coming back. To me." Ruby watched the small beast lean into his hand. Her grip on the gold chain loosened. "So the animals think you're the real king." "They remember what the warlord tried to erase." Kaelor stood. He picked one thing from the rack, a heavy silver band, and pressed it into her palm. "Take this. One piece. Enough to trade for what you need. The rest raises my army. When the throne is mine, I command the portals. I send you home myself. That is worth more than a fistful of rings you cannot spend on this world." Ruby weighed the band. She weighed the glowing pup at his feet, and the room full of proof that his claim was true. "Fine," she said. "But when you win, you owe me a door back. And I'm holding you to it." "Agreed." He clasped her hand. The trust held. The relics were his to spend now, and the road to war lay open.

Kaelor climbed the stairs first, hammer in hand. Ruby followed with the silver band tucked in her belt. The pup trotted behind them, blue markings faint in the daylight. Cold swamp air met them at the door. Kaelor stopped hard. Ruby bumped into his back. Men ringed the clearing. A dozen of them, maybe more, in dark armor. They held blades and spears leveled at the door. Kaelor knew their marks. These were the warlord's soldiers. His raised hammer in the swamp had drawn them, just as he feared. "Stay behind me," Kaelor said low. "Get back inside." "I'm not hiding in a hole," Ruby snapped. She stepped up beside him instead. "Ruby. Now." He shoved her toward the door. She shoved back. "Quit pushing me around, cat man." A figure parted the ring of soldiers. He was old and hooded, shorter than his men but wider through the chest. Red eyes burned under the hood. A crooked staff swung in one fist. His men lowered their heads as he passed. Kaelor's stomach turned to stone. He knew this face from his mother's stories. This was the right hand of the man who burned his family. "Malakar Bloodstave," Kaelor said. "The exile lives." Malakar's voice was dry as ash. He studied the hammer. "And carries his grandfather's toy. My master will want to see that." Kaelor gripped the handle. "Come and take it." Ruby moved before he could stop her. She lunged sideways, snatched a fallen branch, and swung at the nearest soldier. The branch cracked against his helmet. "Get away from him!" she shouted. "Ruby, no!" Kaelor reached for her. Two soldiers seized her arms. She kicked and bit. It did nothing. They dragged her toward Malakar, and her boots plowed lines in the mud. The old man's hand closed around her red hair. Ruby went still, chin up, breathing hard. "Let her go," Kaelor said. "She is nothing to you." "Then you will trade nothing for her." Malakar smiled. His staff tip glowed dull red. "The hammer. Yourself. Or I open her throat here in the reeds." Kaelor's mind raced. Twelve blades against one hammer. If he fought, Ruby died first. He looked at her face. She stared back, angry and scared, and she had swung that branch for him. He knelt in the mud. He laid the hammer down. "Take it. Take me. Let her walk." "Bold terms from a man on his knees." Malakar nodded to his soldiers. They pulled Kaelor's arms behind him and bound his wrists. But the old man did not release Ruby. "She comes too. My master enjoys guests." The soldiers hauled them both toward the trees. Behind them, the pup barked once and bolted into the reeds. Kaelor watched it vanish. The hammer lay in the mud, and his hands were tied. He was a prisoner now, marching toward the throne he meant to steal back, in chains and with Ruby beside him.

The chains bit into Kaelor's wrists. He sat against the cold cell wall and listened. Down the hall, Ruby's voice carried through the stone. She was arguing with a guard, sharp and stubborn, refusing food. Every word reminded Kaelor of the truth. As long as he stayed chained, the warlord could hurt her whenever he chose. He pulled at the iron until his skin tore. It held. He needed another way out. He studied the chains. They ran from his wrists to a ring bolted in the floor. The bolt was old. The mortar around it had cracked. Kaelor braced his boots on the wall and pulled. Dust sifted from the ring. It moved, just a little. He pulled again, harder, teeth clenched. The bolt loosened but would not tear free. He needed leverage he did not have. Footsteps came down the hall. The cell door opened. Malakar Bloodstave stepped inside, hood low, red eyes glinting. This was the man who had burned Kaelor's family and taken his grandfather's war hammer. Malakar carried that same hammer now, its red marks dull in the torchlight. He set it against the wall, out of reach, and smiled. "The master wants you softer," Malakar said. "He thinks the girl will do it." He crouched close. "Beg, and I might feed her tonight." Kaelor said nothing. He watched the hammer. He watched the old man's hand rest on the loose floor ring, tapping it, mocking. Then Kaelor moved. He kicked the cracked mortar with both boots, aiming at the ring under Malakar's fingers. The stone burst. The ring tore loose. Kaelor swung his freed chain and looped it around Malakar's throat. Malakar clawed at the iron. He was strong, but Kaelor was stronger, and the rage of years drove him. He dragged the old man down and pinned him. Malakar's hand groped for the hammer. Kaelor reached it first. He wrenched the war hammer up and pressed the heavy head against Malakar's chest. "The keys," Kaelor said. Malakar spat at him. Kaelor pressed harder until the old man gasped and dug the ring of keys from his belt. Kaelor took them, unlocked his wrist cuffs, and left Malakar choking on the floor. He grabbed the war hammer. The weight felt right in his hands again. He ran down the hall. Ruby stood at her cell bars, eyes wide. "You look like a nightmare," she said. "Good." He unlocked her door. "We're leaving." But shouts rose above them. Boots pounded on the stone stairs. Malakar's soldiers filled the far end of the hall, spears down, blocking the only way out. Kaelor had his hammer and his freedom. He had lost the one thing he needed most. The exit was gone, and the warlord's whole guard now stood between them and the doors. Kaelor raised the hammer. "Stay behind me," he told Ruby. Then he charged.

The gold from the vault bought steel at last. Kaelor and Ruby worked through the night, handing out blades and spears to the farmers who had followed him. The panther paced among the fighters, its blue stripes glowing in the torchlight. Men touched its fur and stood taller. By dawn, Kaelor had an army. He looked at the distant palace and knew the time had come to take his throne. "We hit while he's still hurt," Kaelor said. He strapped his grandfather's war hammer across his back. "He won't expect us this fast." Ruby checked her borrowed sword. "Then let's not give him a chance to catch his breath." They marched at first light. The warlord's palace rose ahead, all pale spires and glowing domes. Kaelor's fighters spread across the open ground. The panther ran at his side. When the gates opened, the enemy soldiers poured out to meet them. The two forces crashed together. Kaelor swung the hammer and broke a shield, then a man behind it. Ruby fought close on his left, quick and fearless. His fighters held. For the first time, the numbers were his. Then Zar'thuul appeared on the palace steps. His skull face caught the morning light. His wounded arm hung stiff, but his staff still burned red. He raised it, and flame swept across the field. Kaelor's soldiers scattered from the fire. "Ruby, back!" Kaelor shouted. He drove toward the steps, hammer high, cutting a path through the panic. Ruby turned to follow him. A wall of the warlord's soldiers surged between them. She fought to reach Kaelor, but the flame drove one group left and the spears pushed another right. She was caught in the middle. A blast of red fire tore across the gap. Ruby dove sideways and a falling soldier crashed onto her. She went down hard and did not rise. "Ruby!" Kaelor's voice cracked. He forgot the throne. He forgot the warlord. He hammered through the soldiers between them and dropped to his knees at her side. Blood streaked her red hair. Her eyes were shut. Kaelor pressed his hand to her chest and felt it move, faint but steady. She was breathing. She was not dead. Around him, the battle broke apart. Zar'thuul's flame had scattered Kaelor's army into the fields. The soldiers fell back to the gates. The panther stood over Ruby, growling at the smoke. Kaelor lifted her in his arms. On the steps, Zar'thuul watched. He did not press the attack. He simply turned and walked back into his palace, letting Kaelor carry her away. "I had him," Kaelor whispered. His army was broken. His enemy stood untouched behind his gates. But Ruby breathed against his chest, and that was the only thing he chose to save. He carried her from the field, and the war ground to a halt behind him.