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How bad a sign is it that I have been cast back in with the beginners?

Darios whacks et above yourself"

It is a warning But I can’t explain to him that I am not a fool in a way that he’ll believe Instead I shove everything else froeries: cat, ibis, elephant, snake, dog, falcon, bull, wasp, jackal, butterfly, gazelle, crocodile, horse, gull, on, firebird, tomb spider

When I work that deeply I never notice anything going on around ood Only after we finish with the deathly menace of tomb spider and I have the leisure to wipe the sweat from my face do I see the people who have co terrace

Three woe, and one young like me The elderly woman looks as brittle as a ht as if a rod holds her up No ribbons adorn her silver hair; she wears it in a single braid Her gold gown has the flare of fire sewn out of rippling silk The wo and not yet old She has a plump roundthat makes it seem she has been there forever and will be there forever, perhaps having forgotten where she ca woers together Her hair is a tower of ribbons and arches spun out of thin braids woven with yet olden ribbons, and it shakes and shimmers with each of her impatient movements If not for the presence of the other tomen, I think she would have run out of here already She has a look of bored disgust on her beautiful face, or else ants are crawling all over her body beneath her clothes

This is my father’s wife

I cannot help but sain

Above the woaron sits beside h to be kinsh and points to a sight elsewhere on the court that I cannot see fro’s, oddly deep in so small a fra that horizontal ladder like a ood, Uncle Gar"

All the beginners turn to stare at the speaker Upon realizing with horror that they aren’t to stare at the lords, they glance accusingly at et them whipped for their part in the conspiracy, and finally fix their gazes on their feet It happens in such unison that I would laugh if I weren’t quivering because I hate Gargaron so ht down the siveI have saved them, beaten him, and won his nephew’s trust and heart besides

Darios whistles We hurriedly assemble in our ranks Lord Thynos stands in the place of honor, befitting his Illustrious status I am sent to stand with the Novices between Gira and Dusty Kalliarkos takes a place on the other side of Gira now that he has decided to become a real adversary who devotes his life to the Fives and not a prince playing at being one

Lord Gargaron and his kinsmen descend to stroll up and down our columns

He stops in front of Kalliarkos "Well, Nephew, the Exalted Princess your grandreed you will be allowed one last trial at Novice rank I have enrolled you in the victory gao into the aris"

"What if I win?" asks Kalliarkos, annoyance flickering in the corner of his aron, the tone shaded so close to h "That would be food for discussion, would it not?"

Only now do I notice that Talon is nowhere to be seen Are they hiding her?

My distraction catches aron paces past lances at Kal and back to me, I know he has heard the ruly frown But I say nothing I show nothing

"They call you Spider now, so I hear" His smile is thin and his voice is thin but he is athe past into rubble "Tomorrow you will run the first trial, Spider Appropriate for the daughter to run in the victory games held in her father’s honor, do you not think?"

He pauses

I nod obediently althougha trial at the Royal Fives Court In front of et that I am merely an adversary on the court and he is the one in the undercourt spinning the Rings