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"In soe is to mean in these lands, it makes sense to let them die Frohty-six women’s lives to prove that wo He offered his hand and she took it They began walking toward his apartments "I don’t kno to take the cruelty out of the choice"

"I don’t know if it ork, milord" Jenine always called him milord She couldn’t call him Dorian, of course "Your Majesty" was too distant "Your Holiness" was out of the question, and she knehat Wanhope rooirls Did you know they’re taken from their families when they’re nine years old? They’re trained to be exactly and only what the Godking wants The only currency they know is the Godking’s favor They’re not allowed to learn to read They never go anywhere They never meet anyone but each other and the eunuchs It twists theossip and backstab asuseful to occupy theh they’ve been treated as such And irls I can’t ask them to all die for ive each the choice These wo for themselves Let them choose now"

"You you think sohts with Garoth that left them literally with scars--and they were proud of theod Soer in his own land He said nothing as they walked past a knot of aethelings who’d stopped in the hall, prostrating themselves until he passed At the door of his apartments, he stopped and said, "Jenine, I swear to you that those women will be my concubines in naer on his lips "Shh, my love Don’t swear about what you can’t control" He had a sudden sense that he’d done this before He’d dreaotten the dream until this moment But in the dream, there had been a s else, I can control myself, my queen"

She smiled a sad smile too wise for her years "Thank you, but I won’t hold you to it"

"I’ll hold myself to it"

She squeezed his hand, and then the sharp tang of vir hit his nostrils He turned to the prostrate aethelings too late Two boys without a reen fire streaking toward Dorian and Jenine They were barely five paces away

Dorian watched, expecting the greenfor the vir, but it was too late to pull a shield together--but then the vir was there, already for hard froreen missiles ithin a hand’s breadth when the vir leapt up The green fires twisted away, looped behind him and Jenine as Dorian threw his arms around her, and sped back toward the youths There was a sound like eggs breaking and then sizzlingin the forehead, cracking their heads and scorching their brains, s froround, dead

Dorian’s shields sprang up around hih he’d acted as fast as he could There was no other sound in the hall

The dead children gaped at hi ones didn’t dare look up Fury rushed through Dorian They hadn’t just tried to kill them; they’d tried to kill Jenine He looked at the V&uus The , prostrate, at the back of the line Dorian couldn’t think The vir lashed out froave a strangled yelp, waving his hands in denial, before a huge fist of Dorian’s vir sainst the rock wall

Blood exploded over the wall and the aethelings at the back of the line, but no one moved With effort, Dorian dropped the shields, pushed the vir down His head was throbbing

The aethelings had ainst him It was a stupid, childish atteht to guard hiht years old There’d been no follow-up to take advantage of the distraction, so Dorian couldn’t know if the children had been directed by a V&uuth or to see if the vir would save him In some ways, it wasn’t i had to be done about the aethelings They were vipers If eight- and nine-year-olds had already acted, there was no doubt that the older boys were plotting, and a wedding would give them all sorts of opportunities Delay looked like weakness, and weakness put not only himself but also Jenine in peril That, he wouldn’t tolerate

Jenine started crying, and Dorian banished the aethelings and coht was bloody

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Kylar was dressed in servant’s garb, and there were many new servants in the castle as Terah’s retinue meshed with the re Gunder IX’s, so getting into the servants’ entrance was no problerabbed a tray of freshly polished silver goblets, balanced it in one hand, and walked toward the Great Hall In the bustle and hum of activity and shouted orders and snarls of ether for the first time, no one paid any attention to him He was invisible not because of the ka’kari, but because of the practiced anony him

For the moment, all of the tables were stored in the servants’ room adjacent to the Great Hall After the coronation, the tables would be carried in fully set The goblets went onto one of the high tables adjacent to the queen’s table Unfortunately, her table was still empty: it wouldn’t be set until immediately before the banquet, and then only under the watchful eyes of the Queen’s Guard would her cupbearer lay out the castle’s finest goldware for the high table with his own hand

These were not insurmountable difficulties However, Terah Graesin didn’t have a reputation as a drinker, so if Kylar used a poison h that her cupbearer wouldn’t be affected when he tested her wine, sheutensils She was a dainty eater

So after setting down the goblets, Kylar grabbed a pile of rags dirtied in polishing the tables and headed down a back hallway He walked purposefully, though he had no idea where the castle’s laundry was He scanned the ceilings and walls for the spy holes and crawlspaces that honeycorabbed the edge with his fingertips, and pulled hi web of vir crisscrossed the opening Kylar’s fingers were al on by one hand, Kylar rolled the ka’kari through the web The web popped harmlessly like a soap bubble