Lucas made two more visits that night, and in each case, it took longer to find the place than to break into it. He'd asked around about Duke Loffel and Duke Jaravik's city homes earlier in the week, but on the winding streets at night, all of the homes looked almost the same to him. Since he had no intention of asking for directions, he wasted precious time making sure he didn't break into the wrong house and threaten the wrong man.

Still, in both cases, he hoped fences and slid invisibly through open windows to confront the privileged men he sought out. While he didn't plan to kill either of them, it was always possible he'd end up in a fight with one of their guards, so it was better to be safe than sorry.

In both cases, he crept into the bedrooms of sleeping dukes and held them at swordpoint while he explained his version of what had happened to Lord Torvin before he lied outrageously about what was going to happen next.

Although he'd originally planned to use the Blue angle and be his own front man in this part of the plan, the dead mage made things that much easier. Now he could lie his ass off and blame someone else for something he'd done. While that was pretty much the story of his life, Lucas had never enjoyed it less than he did that night.

"The Mages' guild is, well, was behind Torvin's play," Lucas rasped with a false voice while the shadows hid his identity. "He crossed them, so he had to go."

Lord Loffel was too panicked by the kiss of cold steel on his neck to do much more than agree to everything that Lucas said and blubber about where his drugs would come from now that his dealer was dead. Lord Jaravik acted a bit braver, but only because he had a beautiful young woman in his bed with him, who was either a servant or a prostitute. Either way, Lucas didn't threaten her, but he didn't let her leave, either, not until he'd given the message he needed to give.

"Rediculous!" the man whispered, trying to sound brave for his beautiful audience, even if Lucas could still hear just enough healthy fear that he didn't dream of calling for his guards to help him. "Lord Torvin has too many friends for anyone to kill him."

"You don't have to believe me," Lucas warned. "You just have to remember my words when the criers repeat the truth on every corner in the city tomorrow. The guild was behind the duke's rise, his play for the throne, and ultimately his death. That means they'll be behind whoever turns out to be the next would-be-king, too."

"Mages swear an oath to stay out of such things," the duke protested as Lucas pressed his sword into the man's throat slightly harder.

"Maybe they did, but I expect that agreement died with the Prince and his whole god damned line," Lucas growled. "They're making their play, and I'm letting people like you know that playing ball with them is a particularly bad idea. I know that Duke Torvin chained your body with poison, but the mages will chain your souls with magic if you let them."

Neither man reacted well to that news. In that moment, the reactions of the two very different dukes mirrored each other as they insisted there was nothing they could do.

"You could resist their blandishments," Lucas volunteered. "You could buy some alchemical concoctions to free yourself of Torvin's chains and then stay far away from the throne and save your soul."

Both of them insisted that they would. In that moment, they were probably even telling the truth, but Lucas wanted more than that. "The only way to foil them is to ensure there's no king at all," Lucas repeated in both encounters. "If there is only one man in power, then whoever controls that man controls the kingdom. If instead, things are put to a vote, and fifty nobles, or even a hundred, have a say, then whoever seeks to manipulate events must control a great number of men to stay in control."

For Lucas, this was probably the best case. Even if he wanted the job, and he very sincerely did not, the only way that he was going to keep his people safe was to introduce a little chaos. No one could hunt him if they were too busy securing their own place in the pecking order.

He doubted this world was ready for a true democracy, but even some kind of parliament would be a better choice; as an American, he had no idea how a parliament worked exactly, but he knew they had a House of Lords and Lordanin had no shortage of lords, so he was sure they'd figure it out.

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A bunch of greedy noblemen trying to loot the treasury wouldn't do any worse than the dragoness had done. That would require actual work, and besides the Prince, Lucas had yet to meet anyone above a baron who struck him as someone who knew how to get things done. While he'd never been privy to exactly what the yearly tithe was, Heisenburgle had assured him that it was over a hundred pounds of gold and silver every year.

Lord Jaravik tried to bring up the idea that the royal line had died because the dragon did, but Lucas dismissed it. One more lie wouldn't hurt anything. This he hadn't considered until the man brought it up, so he had to make it up as he went along.

"You think a dragon controlled whether they lived or died?" he asked mockingly. "That's just what the mages want you to think. They had to kill her at the same time they killed the prince, or it would have all been for naught; they lost a small army of mercenaries in the process, too. Expert dragon slayers, the lot of them, though I doubt you'll hear about that any time soon."

"That's not what Duke Torvin told us," the duke protested, but Lucas kept up his mockery.

"The story you're telling me sounds pretty ridiculous," Lucas answered with a sneer. "You really think one man could kill a wyrm like Sklara, and a piece of gutter trash at that? You've been reading too many fairy stories."

That cowed the man, but even as he vanished into invisibility and left the way he'd come in, Lucas was less sure that he'd swayed him than the other duke. Still, he was out of time.

I don't need to fix this in one night, he reminded himself as he climbed down the outside of the structure and made his getaway. I just need to sow chaos. I can come back on another night and tell another group of nobles an entirely different story if I need to.

That was a dangerous game, of course. Turning allies against each other would be an easy way to cause a bloody civil war, but he doubted that the army or even the mages he was scapegoating would let things slip entirely out of control. Even a bad ruler would be a better choice than one with a personal axe to grind against him, though.

That is why I pay the Knights of Brass, he told himself. A little blue and a few well-placed bribes should be enough to see us through any hardship.

That was a nice idea in theory, but by the time he left Lord Jaravik's estate and made his way back toward the gate, it was already a little light. Even if it had been pitch black, though, he still would have noticed the change.

The streets in the area were absolutely mobbed with guards. They were stopping everyone at several points, and Lucas had to drink a second mana potion just to slip through without anyone getting close enough to identify him.

That presence continued for a while, but by the time he reached the gate, the commotion he'd caused at the Torvin's had practically emptied it of manpower. By sunrise, they should have gone back up to at least four guards on this gate, but he saw only a single young guardsman standing there anxiously, wondering what was going on. He was so distracted that Lucas bypassed him without any real effort.

Then, after a quick jog to the inn, he was riding back down the road to Meadowin in the predawn light. It was nearly abandoned this time of day, and he saw only a few farmers in the fields. Really, it would have been a lovely day if not for the knowledge that he'd killed two men in cold blood.

That was a stormcloud he couldn't escape, no matter how far or fast he rode from his black deeds. Doing what he had to was a great line, but it did little to ward away the emotions that those deeds had inspired.

By the time Lucas arrived at the farmhouse, Danaria was already up and in the garden, and he was forced to use his ring one final time to sneak into the house. That sent another pang of guilt right through him like a crossbow bolt, but he didn't have another option. The last thing he wanted to do was lie to her about where he'd been, and telling her the truth wasn't an option.

Instead, he avoided the confrontation entirely and got a few scraps of sleep. When someone woke him hours later, he feigned illness, but even that wasn't enough to send Mort away. "You have to get up," he explained to Lucas. "The Duke is dead and things are, uhmmm, 'tiltin' toward blasted chaos.' Anyway, Kar'gandin said more, but I don't want to repeat it. He did insist you have to get dressed and come out to the barn right now, though."

Lucas sighed heavily at that. Of course he's behind this, Lucas sighed inwardly. He knows what I've been up to, and he's determined that I have to suffer for it, one way or the other.

Even as he got up and dressed, he ran into Danaria, who was as chipper as always, which forced him to act far happier than he felt. "Everyone seems so serious today," she offered. "Is there something I should be worried about?"

"You?" he asked. "Nah. These are city problems. They won't reach us out here, and if they do, I got this." Reassured, she smiled at that, leaving him to get some breakfast before he got another talking to from his crew.

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