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The King of Blood thought he now ruled theht be poor, but they were proud No one had the right to tell them what to do

King Gaius’s ument

“Idiot Basilius,” Lysandra h not to Basilius deserved to be skewered It was only a matter of time Makes me sick to my stomach that he’d be such a fool” Her next arro off course She needed to work harder on her concentration “Tell ”

“Why do you want to know? Do you want to be the one of the few girls to join their ranks?”

“Maybe I do”

“Corabbed her wrist “There have to be a few rabbits we can find to practice your aim on next Why waste arrows on trees and breath on silly words? Don’t worry about the rebels If anyone will soon be joining the, it’ll be me”

“Not silly,” she mumbled

But he did have a point—at least when it caet practice The trees were scarce here anyway Most of the area was brown and dry with a few sreener areas in which her ardens that, each year, yielded fewer and fewer vegetables, butsince she’d heard of Basilius’s death

It wrenched Lysandra’s heart to see her mother so upset, so inconsolable, but she tried to reason with her “I believe we make our own destinies, every last one of us,” she’d told her ht “Who leads us makes no difference”

This was hter I pray it won’t lead you astray”

And now her hter This wasn’t unexpected Lysandra had always caused her hter who did acceptable things Lysandra was accusto in with her friends, who couldn’t understand her fascination withoutside until her nose burned so red it practically glowed in the dark

Gregor put his arm out to halt Lysandra’s steps

“What?” she asked

“Look”

They were less than a , barren of any vegetation at all It was surrounded by dry bushes and leafless trees An old wonized as Talia, the eldest in their village, stood in theThe carcass of a red fox lay in front of her The woman had drained the blood from the animal into a wooden cup With this blood, she drew syer