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Thynos extricates his hands "I have to send a pair of Nar’s men to shadow you Don’t be surprised to see them behind you Adversaries are required to be back by Firstday dawn, so hurry"

On deserted back streets lit by cheap lanterns we pass a pair of old wo into a wheelbarro that our adventure is over, an aard silence pools between us When we reach the West Gate of the Lantern District with its brass wheels we pause in the square to share astreet-side vendor An air of spent revelry and sad loss perners ould norone to ht, the last tru up for the dawn fanfare

Thirst quenched, alk side by side, not touching A pair of drunks stagger behind us, propping each other up I wonder if they are Inarsis’s ht of Lord Kalliarkos In his oay he has been as protected and restricted as my sisters and I were

As we head uphill into the palace district I findRo-emnu out of prison?"

"I’rando soak their heads in a vat of urine" I’ into the air that I can’t speak He takesit as he chuckles with excitement "Can you believe ? I had no idea the City of the Dead was built on top of a vast complex where people must once have lived"

I think of sparks like fireflies andup from death I think of Aht my mother back to herself

"Either my tutors never told me the truth or they don’t know it theht they knew everything What now, Jes? What about us?"

In the e my family is free, I feel bolder than ever "Why don’t you keep a concubine? Most lords do fros ht there in the middle of the street he kisses ht It is his hands I feelthe sether As the kiss deepens, the spark ofheats, and it twines the cord of its life into the spark of his, setting off a flare of brilliant light within our hearts

We break off My eyes flash open, and I’aze is wide and questioning "Because she wouldn’t be you, Jes You’re here with me because you want to be Any concubine I had in the palace would be spying on me for my uncle"

I think of poor Denya "Is it really nothing but a pit of vipers?"

"Yes"

Footfalls crunch up the street behind us, and we step apart Inarsis’s twoto be drunk To the east the sky lightens

"Come on," he says

As alk I think of the victory procession held for e passed With each step a new pattern begins to unfold in my mind’s eye "Kliatemnos the Fifth and his sister Serenissima the Fifth are not popular rulers, are they?"

"Not at all," he says blithely To speak critical words about the to him! "My cousin Kliatemnos sits in his palace and carouses all day with his honey cakes He sends his brother Nikonos into the field to fight his battles Everyone knows Serenissier brother Nikonos in every possible way"

"Poets are arrested forsuch scurrilous accusations"

He laughs "I’m not a poet, but I’ll tell you the truth anyway Kliatemnos and Serenissima have a sickly twelve-year-old son but everyone suspects Nikonos is the real father Can you possibly wonder why I want nothing to do with all of that?"

Anise’s warning Thynos’s explanation Kalliarkos’s angry flood of words The path through the Rings is starting to open

Words fuaron and I wanted raced niece to the best general in the kingdom I would force my unambitious nephew to eneral’s victories That would give the nephew a princely burnish and prestige"

His fingers clutch o on, because Rings never stop turning until one person reaches the victory tower