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Their guide was a well-seasoned hunter whowith his tales My father enjoyed the man’s tall tales as much as any of us did, but privately he warned me that there was little truth to them, and that he had small use for such idle dandies as his clients were They were only a few years h they several tiars after dinner, my father had instructed retted it, for I would have liked to make friends with them, but my father’s word on this was final "They are dissolute and undisciplined, Nevare Youngthe of their conquests Avoid the so"

I had made two previous trips to Old Thares One hen I was three years old, and I reht of the river slipping placidly by us and the crowded cobbled streets of the capital city I had made another journey with er brother Vanze to the Ecclesiastical School of Saint Orton to register hiious school and my father wished to enter his name in the enrollment lists well ahead of time to be sure he would be admitted when the ti that visit, we stayed with Uncle Sefert Burvelle in his elegant town house with his gracious family His as a very fine lady, and he had a son and two daughters My uncle welco me the extensive journals that had been contributed to his library by the soldier sons of the Burvelle line, as well as the numerous trophies won by them There were not just the jeweled swords of noble adversaries defeated in battle, but also the grislier trophies of earlier disputes with the savage Cuerts to the southeast Necklaces of hu the prizes clai trophies as well, bison pelts and elephant feet and even a wide rack of barbed antlers from a humpdeer my father had sent back to his ancestral home My uncle took care to let me knohat a valorous family history we shared and that he fully expected me to contribute to it I think I sensed then his disappointment that he had produced no soldier son of his own Until his son and heir sired a soldier son, there would be no new journals For the first tiap in the Burvelles’ military history No son of his would send back the written record of his exploits, and clearly that saddened him a bit

Even then, I sensed that e in status had caused a ripple of discord in the extended fa had established new titles and granted land King Troven had established a double dozen of new lords at one bestowal The sudden influx of aristocrats diluted the power of the older houses His battle lords felt a higher degree of loyalty, perhaps, to the king who had so elevated the his battle lords, the old nobles on the Council of Lords had beenthat perhaps they deserved more than an advisory status with the monarchy; that perhaps the ti’s newly created nobles diluted andTroven are he was creating that solid block of support for hi that htful leader Yet I still believe that King Troven was notthose who had served hinized, too, that the forors of survival

Nonetheless, I am sure that it had crossed my uncle’scould just as easily have granted those lands to the Burvelle faht fall under his control It must have been odd for him to look at his soldier brother, the second son born to serve, and see him now as a peer Certainly it seereet my father as an equal at her table and introduce hiuests

My ifts for my female relatives She had chosen Plains-worked copper bracelets forthey would be unique and interesting to theift forof freshwater pearls of the highest quality I knew the pearls had been costly, and wondered if they were intended to buy hts I e made its placid way down the river toward Old Thares I kneould be expected to call upon ular basis while I was a student at the Academy Selfishly, I wished it were not so, that I could have allwithofficer who had paused on his journey east to share our table had spoken glowingly of his days at the Acade friendships he had discovered there and the deh-spirited pranks and general good fellowship of the mess and barracks life Our isolated lifestyle at Widevale rather than any inclination of my own had forced me into a solitary boyhood I’d always enjoyed e I felt soed into the communal life of the Academy, but mostly I felt anticipation and excitee from my quiet rural ways