Pug didn’t ask about the Cho-ja, for he already knew the answer. It saddened him greatly that such a majestic alien race had chosen to die with their world. He stared off through a rain-spattered window for a long time, then took a slow drink of wine and said, ‘I’m going to miss that little cheat.’
Caleb laughed. ‘Not when we’re playing cards, you’re not.’
‘Or throwing dice,’ said Jommy.
Pug sighed. ‘I know I lived almost fifty years before meeting him,’ said Pug, ‘but it feels like he has always been around.’
Miranda reached out and squeezed her husband’s hand. ‘He still is, in a way.’
Pug lifted his mug. ‘To Nakor.’
‘Nakor!’ they all toasted.
Jommy said, ‘We lost two good friends that day.’
Pug said, ‘Nakor was Erik’s oldest surviving friend, did you know that?’
‘No,’ said Jommy. ‘I bet there were some stories about those two.’
‘One or two,’ said Pug, rising. ‘I have a couple of things I would like to take care of in my study, and then I think I’ll rest.’ As others started to stand up, he motioned for them to stay where they were. ‘I’m tired, not injured. Finish your meal.’
He went up to his study and opened the door. Behind the desk, in his chair, sat a brown hair man.
‘Ban-ath!’
‘Yes,’ said the God of Thieves. ‘I felt you deserved to know one thing. The Dark One is destroyed, or at least as destroyed as a Dreadlord can be. He’s been cast back into the void, so for all intent and purposes, he is gone.’
‘How? Certainly not—’
‘Your little trick with the flaming planet? Very unexpected, and I will confess I was impressed. I thought you’d try to open a fissure in the earth, having the Holy City fall into the molten core of the planet and take the Dreadlord with it, or drown it at the bottom of the sea, but turning the entire world into dust, that was… remarkable.’
‘So we are at last safe?’ asked Pug.
Ban-ath laughed. ‘Never,’ he said, then vanished.
Pug stood there wishing he had the means to understand if what the God of Liars had said was true or not. Then he saw the box. He crossed to it, hesitated for a moment, then opened it. Inside was a scroll. Feeling a sinking sensation in his stomach, he took it out and unrolled it.
In his familiar handwriting was a message.
‘So maybe you deserve to know two things,’ it read. ‘You didn’t write these notes and send them back through time. I did.’
It was signed, ‘Kalkin.’
Pug sat down and tried not to laugh.