Page 102 (1/2)

CHAPTER

1

Chaol Westfall, former Captain of the Royal Guard and now Hand to the newly crowned King of Adarlan, had discovered that he hated one sound above all others

Wheels

Specifically, their clattering along the planks of the ship on which he’d spent the past three weeks sailing through storm-tossed waters And now their rattle and thunk over the shining green an of the Southern Continent’s shining palace in Antica

With nothing to do beyond sit in the wheeled chair that he’d dee the world, Chaol took in the details of the sprawling palace perched atop one of the capital city’s countless hills Every bit of material had been taken frohty empire:

Those polished green floors his chair now clattered over were hewn from quarries in the southwest of the continent The red pillars fashioned likeacross the do hall—had been hauled in from the northeastern, sand-blasted deserts

The reen ana, another of the khagan’s prized cities at the mountainous southern end of the continent Each portrayed a scene frolorious past: the centuries spent as a norassy steppes of the continent’s eastern lands; the ean, a warlord who unified the scattered tribes into a conquering force that took the continent piece by piece, wielding cunning and strategic brilliance to forge a sweeping empire; and then depictions of the three centuries since—the various khagans who had expanded the e the wealth fro countless bridges and roads to connect the over the vast continent with precision and clarity

Perhaps the ht have been, Chaol athered court flitted between the carved pillars and gilded domes ahead That is, if Adarlan hadn’t been ruled by athis world into a feast for his hordes

Chaol twisted his head to peer up at Nesryn, stone-faced behind hi over every passing face andand colu home

They’d saved their finest set of clothes for today, and the newly appointed Captain of the Guard was indeed resplendent in her cri up one of the uniforms Chaol had once ith such pride, he had no idea

He’d initially wanted to wear black, simply because color … He’d never felt codouards They had worn those black-on-black uniforms as they’d terrorized Rifthold As they’d rounded up, tortured, and then butchered his men

Then strung the in the wind

He’d barely been able to look at the Antican guards they’d passed on their way here, both in the streets and in this very palace—standing proud and alert, swords at their backs and knives at their sides Even now, he resisted the urge to glance to where he knew they’d be stationed in the hall, exactly where he would have positioned his own , dom arrived

Nesryn , her shoulder-length black hair swaying with each step Not a trace of nerves flickered across her lovely, sole that they were about to meet one of the most powerful men in the world—a man who could alter the fate of their own continent in the war surely now breaking out across Adarlan and Terrasen

Chaol faced forithout saying a word The walls and pillars and arched doorways had ears and eyes and mouths, she’d warned him

It was that thought alone that kept Chaol froht brown pants, knee-high chestnut-colored boots, a white shirt of finest silk, mostly concealed by a dark teal jacket The jacket was sih, the cost of it only revealed by the fine brass buckles down the front and the glih collar and edges No sword hung froht like some phantom limb

Or legs

Two tasks He h

ad two tasks while here, and he still was not certain which one would prove the more impossible:

Convincing the khagan and his six would-be heirs to lend their considerable arainst Erawan …

Or finding a healer in the Torre Cesain

To—he thought with no sust—fix him

He hated that word Al of the wheels Fix Even if that’s what he was beseeching the legendary healers to do for hiut churn

He shoved the word and the thought from his mind as Nesryn followed the near-silent flock of servants who had led the and dusty cobblestoned streets of Antica, all the way up the sloped avenue to the domes and thirty-six minarets of the palace itself

Strips of white cloth—fro from countless s and lanterns and doorways Likely because of so recently, Nesryn had murmured Death rituals were varied and often a blend frooverned by the khaganate, but the white cloth was an ancient holdover froan’s people had roamed the steppes and laid their dead to rest under the watchful, open sky

The city had been hardly glooh it People still hurried about in clothes of various makes, vendors still called out their wares, acolytes in teod had a home in Antica, Nesryn supplied—still beckoned to those on the street All of it, even the palace, watched over by the shining, pale-stoned tower atop one of its southern hills

The Torre The tower that housed the finest mortal healers in the world Chaol had tried not to look too long at it through the carriage s, even if the le of Antica None of the servants had mentioned it, or pointed out the doan’s palace

No, the servants hadn’t said -banners flapping in the dry wind Each of them re and straight, and each wore loose pants and flowing jackets of cobalt and bloodred edged with pale gold Paid servants—but descendants of the slaves who had once been owned by the khagan’s bloodline Until the previous khagan, a visionary and firebrand, had outlawed slavery a generation ago as one of her countless ian had freed her slaves but kept the with their children And now their children’s children

Not a single one of them appeared underfed or undercompensated, and none had shown even a flicker of fear as they’d escorted Chaol and Nesryn froan, it seemed, treated his servants well Hopefully his yet-undecided Heir would as well

Unlike Adarlan or Terrasen, inheritance of the eender Having as many children as possible to provide him or her with a wide pool to choose frost the royal children … It was practically a blood sport All designed to prove to their parent as the strongest, the wisest, the most suited to rule

The khagan was required by law to have a sealed document locked away in an unmarked, hidden trove—a document that listed his or her Heir, should death sweep upon them before it could be formally announced It could be altered at any tianate had lived in fear of since that first khagan had patched together the kingdoms and territories of this continent: collapse Not from outside forces, but from ithin

That long-ago first khagan had been wise Not once during the three hundred years of the khaganate had a civil war occurred

And as Nesryn pushed hi of the servants now paused between two enormous pillars, as the lush, ornate throne rooathered around the golden dais glittering in thebefore the enthroned man would one day be chosen to rule this empire

The only sounds ca of the four dozen people—he counted in the span of a few casual blinks—gathered along either side of that glinting dais, for a wall of silk and flesh and jewels, a veritable avenue through which Nesryn wheeled him

Rustling clothing—and the clatter and squeak of the wheels She’d oiled the, but weeks at sea had worn on the metal Every scrape and shriek was like nails on stone

But he kept his head high Shoulders back