How Black the Sky

practiced it myself. And it's very unlikely Kash could train a significant portion of his forces to do it. Not in a thousand years could he teach as many soldiers. No, I believe the Tenth Skill is safe from the hands of the common soldier."
Scythia nodded, accepting her friend's assessment. "Yet I have a strong intuition concerning this matter," she said. Her circlet gems were pulsing lightly again. "They will try something new."
"What is folding?" Pierce asked.
"Were you never educated, kid?" Agrathor asked incredulously.
Pierce shrugged. "I had a couple tutors back home, but they kept quitting 'cause I wouldn't stay in one place long enough to have a lesson. I remember a few things about Convergence Theory though. Never felt like I missed much."
"Ho!" said Agrathor. "Too good for the Glorious Path, eh?"
"No sir," said Pierce. "Just never thought simply knowing all the details was the important part. You get all stuck on that, you never feel anything, you stop trusting your instincts."
"Wisdom in this lad!" Axebourne beamed. "It's just like I always said, isn't it darling?"
"Axebourne was never much of a scholar either, it's true," said Scythia.
"Prefer to learn by experience," Axebourne said. "Figure if the Blacksmith put his mark on me, that's all I gotta worry about."
"Exactly sir," Pierce said. "Trust him. He said he'd take us down Glorious Paths. Nothing I can do would stop that anyhow."
"So folding," Ess reminded everyone. "Folding, Pierce, might better be called 'pinching', or perhaps even 'tunneling'. The Skill is to bring two distant points of space together, as if you were folding a cloth, and then trade your current position for a new one."
Pierce was quiet, taking that in.
"That's awesome!" He exclaimed. "Think what you could do in a fight!"
"What she's done," Axebourne said appreciatively. "You do not want to meet this woman in battle."
Ess remained humble, but said, "It is quite an experience, Pierce. If you ever have the desire to trod the Path this far, you will see."
"I mean, wow," he continued. "I could fold down to the Underlands..." Ess nodded. "Or out past the Chasm, finally see what's there..."
Everyone shook their heads at this.
"No one makes it past the Chasm, kid," said Agrathor.
Pierce shrugged. "Someone will, maybe even Ess."
Ess favored him with a look. "I appreciate your vote of confidence," she said, "but not even The First has done this thing. It is said the banshees can snatch a person even as they fold." She shook her head. "It is too dangerous to even try."
Pierce remained dubious. "I don't know about all that," he said. "All I know is when there's something I'm reaching for, no matter how bad things get, I push through. And unlucky as I am, I haven't died yet." The others shared glances at this. "Seems like Overland should think the same way. Everyone wants to know what's across the Chasm, so why don't we just push 'til we find it? If it's what the Blacksmith wants, we'll get there someday."
"Suppose that's true," said Agrathor thoughtfully.
No one argued further, and conversation turned back to preparing for the attack.
Pierce found it interesting that though Ess was clearly the most accomplished member of Gorgonbane, and though Axebourne constantly sought his wife's opinion and approval on tactics and strategy, it was ultimately Axebourne's satisfaction with the plan that brought matters to a conclusion.
They would assume command of Grondell's forces, and prepare for siege as well as they could.
After the conference, the party split, and everyone was seen to their rooms.
Pierce's dorm room was as spartan as the rest of the tower. He lay back on a narrow bed, soaking in the faint light of a half-shaded gemlamp.
His brain was wasting its time.
Here they all were, on the verge of an invasion from the Underlands, and suddenly he was taken with a girl. Her face was already burned into his mind. He could trace its silhouette in the random shadows on the walls, in the natural grain of the tower's bricks. When he closed his eyes, Ess's white-painted eyelids gleamed like beacons in the dark.
He considered taking a stroll down the stairs, just in case she was out and about. Even one look...
Fool, he thought. Why not just jump in the Chasm? She might as well be the queen of Overland, why would she want you?
But she had smiled when he spoke, hadn't she? She had chuckled at his stupid joke about her middle name. What if there were more to that?
Sure, he thought, and any minute now she'll just walk right in here and fall into your arms. In her nightgown. Or just pants and a shirt... Yeah, something normal...
His thoughts were running away with him, and he jumped when Ess did come by his open door.
"Pierce Boonswadled?" she said lightly from the hall.
"Come in," he said. "What's going on, Ess?"
The wooden door creaked as it opened further, and Pierce sat up in his bed. Ess stood in his doorway.
"I was simply making the rounds," Ess said. "I wanted to make sure everyone was comfortable."
"Hey, the shower was great. I think I've only ever had one or two hot ones."
Ess laughed, like morning birdsong.
"And you do get used to them," she said. "I remember apprenticing in Grondell at the Temple. They softened us up with cool air and hot water, then turned everything off four days before evaluations."
"Oh that's cruel," Pierce said.
"Ingenious!" Ess said. "Those were some of the hottest days that year. You cannot even imagine the smell."
Pierce made a show of sniffing his own armpit.
"I think I can."
Ess wrinkled her nose playfully. "Maybe you need to go back in for another wash? To this day, many of my old classmates think the First himself brightened the sun, just to torture us. But it was a good lesson. The victor of the battle never counts on circumstances being ideal."
Pierce saw visions of his latest escapades.
"That is very true," he said.
"Well, like I said, I just wanted to check in. My servant Rook will