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Chapter One

The king must die"

Four single-syllable words One by one they were nothing special Put together? They called up all kinds of bad shit: Murder Betrayal Treason

Death

In the thick e kept quiet, letting the quartet hang in the stuffy air of the study, four points of a dark, evil compass he was intimately familiar with

"Have you any response?" Montrag, son of Rehm, said

"Nope"

Montrag blinked and fiddled with the silk cravat at his neck Like lymera, he had both velvet slippers firmly planted in the dry, rarified sand of his class Which meant he was just plain precious, all the way around In his s jacket and his natty pin-striped slacks andshit, were those actually spats?he was right out of the pages of Vanity Fair Like, a hundred years ago And in his ht frickin' ideas, he was Kissinger without a president when it came to politics: all analysis, no authority

Which explained this , didn't it

"Don't stop now," Rehv said "You've already ju any softer"

Montrag frowned "I fail to view this with your kind of levity"

"Who's laughing"

A knock on the study's door brought Montrag's head to the side, and he had a profile like an Irish setter: all nose "Come in"

The doggen who followed the coht of the silver service she carried With an ebony tray the size of a porch in her hands, she humped the load across the room

Until her head came up and she saw Rehv

She froze like a snapshot

"We take our tea here" Montrag pointed to the low-slung table between the two silk sofas they were sitting on "Here"

The doggen didn't move, just stared at Rehv's face

"What is the an to tre up from the tray "Place our tea here, now"

The doggen bowed her head,one foot in front of the other like she was approaching a coiled snake She stayed as far away from Rehv as she could, and after she put the service down, her shaking hands were barely able to get the cups into the saucers

When she went for the pot of tea, it was clear she was going to spill the shit all over the place

"Letout

As the doggen jerked away frorip slipped off the pot handle and the tea went into free fall

Rehv caught the blistering-hot silver in his palms

"What have you done!" Montrag said, leaping off of his sofa

The doggen cringed away, her hands going to her face "I am sorry, master Verily, I am-"

"Oh, shut up, and get us some ice-"

"It's not her fault" Rehv calmly switched his hold to the handle and poured "And I'm perfectly fine"

They both stared at hi for him to hop up and shake his bumper to the tune of o

He put the silver pot down and looked into Montrag's pale eyes "One lump Or two?"

"May I for that burn?"

He ss at his host "I'm perfectly fine"