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The attendant hands me a stretchy black suit with purple and silver stripes He pointsout of my usual clothes and into the jumpsuit It reminds me of my old clothes, the ones I used back in the Stilts Worn by tih not to slowhall, I’ at me, not to y beneath ht rises above us, showing a blue su stairs connect the several levels cut into the walls, each at varying heights with different equipment There are many s as well, one of which I know opens to Lady Blonos’s classroo fro into a room full of teen warriors, all of the about the insufferable icicle of bone and eline Samos I barely make it halfway across the floor before hervenom
"Graduated fro with your legs crossed?" she sneers, ju machine Her silver hair is tied back into a complicated braid I’d very much like to cut off, but the deathly sharp ive me pause Like me, like everyone else, she wears a jumpsuit emblazoned with the colors of her house In black and silver, she looks deadly
Sonya and Elane flank her withup to the future queen herself
I dofor Maven He sits in a corner, separated froether Whispers follow ers watchto be courteous, but e; after all, I did take one of their princes away
"Took you long enough" Maven chuckles once I sit down next to him He doesn’t seem to be part of the crowd, nor does he want to be "If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to stay away frolance back to Evangeline She holds court near the target wall, where she shows off for her cronies in a dazzling display Herinto the dead center of their targets
Maven watches o back to the capital, you won’t have to see her so much," hethe country, fulfilling their duties And we’ll have ours"
The prospect of getting far away fro, but also reainst me Soon I’ll be forced to leave the Hall, the river valley, and my family far behind
"Do you knohen you--" I stuo back to the capital?"
"After the Parting Ball You were told about that?"
"Yes, yourto teachembarrassed She tried to teachall overis apparently out of "
"Don’t worry, on’t have to deal with the worst of it"
The thought of dancing terrifies me, but I s the fear "Who will?"
"Cal," he says without hesitation "Big brother has to tolerate too irls I reh at thehi hih two songs with her to give Cal soainst a legion of desperate girls one to save each other But as my smirk spreads, Maven’s s off his ar her sharp, biting grip on my arm "Poor Cal"
"And hoas your visit yesterday?" he says, referring to my jaunt home So Cal didn’t fill him in
"Difficult" It’s the only way I kno to describe it Now my family knohat I am, and Kilorn has thrown himself to the wolves And of course, Shade is dead "One of my brothers was executed, just before the release came"
He shifts next to me, and I expect him to be uncomfortable After all, it was his own people who did it Instead, he puts a hand over mine "I’m so sorry, Mare I’m sure he didn’t deserve it"
"No, he didn’t," I whisper, re why my brother died Now I’m on the sa to read the secret in lad for Blonos’s lessons, or else I would assume Maven could read minds as well as the queen But no, he’s a burner and a burner alone Few Silvers inherit abilities from their mothers, and no one has ever had iance to the Scarlet Guard, is mine
When he extends a hand to help me up, I take it All around us, the others war around the room, but a few are more impressive Elane slips in and out of ht around herself until she disappears altogether A eaver boy, Oliver of House Laris, creates aup tiny bits of dust Sonya lazily trades bloith Andros Eagrie, a short but hteen-year-old As a silk, Sonya is brutally skilled and fast, and should be able to best him, but Andros matches her blow for blow in a violent dance The Silvers of House Eagrie are eyes,his abilities to their full extent Neither one seeaine what they can really do So strong, so powerful And these are just the kids And just like that,into fear
"Lines," a voice says, barely a whisper
My new instructor enters without a sound, Cal at his side, with a telky froood soldier, Cal walks in step with the instructor, who see next to Cal’s bulk There are wrinkles in his pale skin and his hair is white as his clothing, a testae and his house House Arven, the silent house, I re back to th and all the things the Silvers put their faith in I even remember him froirl He would oversee the broadcasted executions in the capital, lording over the Reds and even the Silvers sentenced to die And now I knohy they chose hiirl blinks back into existence, suddenly visible again, while the churning wind dies in Oliver’s hands Evangeline’s knives drop out of the air and even I feel a cal out my electrical sense