Magic Graves

and spread down into Cuba. To the left of Adrianglia, the vast Dukedom of Louisiana mushroomed upward, containing all of Louisiana and a chunk of Alabama in the south, rising to swallow Mississippi and Texarcana, and ending with the coast of Great Lakes. Beyond that smaller nations fought it out: the Republic of Texas, the Northern Vast, the Democracy of California...
    Kaldar had grown up on the fringes of this world, in the Edge, a narrow strip of land between the complex magic of the Weird and the technological superiority of the Broken. Most of his life was spent in the Mire, an enormous swamp, cut off from the rest of the Edge by impassable terrain. The dukedom of Louisiana dumped their exiles there and killed them when they tried to reenter the Weird. His only escape had been through the Broken. He travelled back and forth, smuggling goods, lying, cheating, making as much money as was humanly possible and dragging it back to the family.
    Kaldar stared at the map. Each country had an enemy. Each was knee-deep in conflict. But the only war he cared about was happening right in the middle, between the Dukedom of Louisiana and Adrianglia. It was a very quiet vicious war, fought in secrecy by spies, with no rules and no mercy. On the Adrianglian side, the espionage and its consequences were handled by the Mirror. He supposed if they were in the Broken, the Mirror would be the equivalent of the CIA or FBI, or perhaps both. On Louisiana's side, the covert war was the province of the secret service known as the Hand. He had watched the two organizations clash from the sidelines for years, but watching wasn't enough anymore.
    First, the Mirror woke him up at ten till five, and now he spent fifteen minutes waiting. Puzzling.
    The heavy wooden door swung open soundlessly and a woman entered the room. She was short, with a sparse, compact body, wrapped in an expensive blue gown embroidered with silver thread. Kaldar priced the dress out of habit. About five gold doubloons in the Weird, probably a grand and a half or two in the Broken. Expensive and obviously custom tailored. The blue fabric perfectly complimented her skin, the color of hazelnut shells. The dress was meant to communicate power and authority, but she hardly needed it. She moved as if she owned the air he breathed.
    Nancy Virai. The head of the Mirror. They've never met - he had not been given that honor, poor Edge rat that he was - but she hardly needed an introduction.
    He'd spent last two years doing small assignments, challenging, but nothing of great importance. Nothing that would warrant the attention of Lady Virai. Anticipation shot through Kaldar. Something big waited at the end of this conversation.
    Lady Virai approached and stopped at the desk four feet away. Dark eyes surveyed him from a severe face. Her irises were like black ice. Stare too long and you'd veer off course and smash into a hard wall at full speed.
    "You are Kaldar Mar."
    "Yes, my lady."
    "How long have you worked for me?"
    She knew perfectly well when he had started. "Almost two years, my lady."
    "You have open warrants in two Provinces, which we quashed when you were hired, and an extensive criminal record in Dukedom of Louisiana." Nancy's face was merciless. "You are a smuggler, a conman, a gambler, a thief, a liar, and an occasional murderer. With that resume, I can see why you thought the Mirror would be the proper career choice. Just out of curiosity, is there a law that you haven't broken?"
    "Yes. I never raped anyone. Also, I never copulated with animals. I believe Adrianglia has a law against that."
    "And you have a smart mouth." Nancy crossed her arms. "As per our agreement with your family and the condition of extracting the lot of you from the Edge, you are now a citizen of Adrianglia. Your debt is being paid in full by the efforts of your cousin Cerise Sandine and her husband, William. You are allowed to pursue any profession you may like. Yet you came to work for me. Tell me, why is that?"
    Kaldar smiled. "I'm grateful to the realm for rescuing my family. I posses a unique set of talents that the Mirror finds useful and I don't want to rely on my lovely cousin and William for the repayment of my debt. William is a nice chap, a bit testy at times and he occasionally sprouts fur, but everyone has issues. I would feel rotten being indebted to him. It would be taking advantage of his good nature."
    Nancy's cold eyes stared at him for a long second. "People like you love