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The DeVeers’ as a high and forbidding one, but it and I were old friends: I knew its curves and foibles as well as any contour Lisa, Sharal, or Micha ht possess Escape routes have always been an obsession of mine

Most barriers are there to keep the unwashed out, not the washed in I vaulted a rain barrel, onto the roof of a gardener’s outbuilding, and jumped for the wall Teeth snapped at ers and dropped A shiver of relief ran through ainst the far side of the wall in frustration The beast had run silent and alht me The silent ones are apt to kill you The more sound and fury there is, the less murderous the anireed and so far not an ounce of murder

I landed in the street, less heavily this ti of roses then at least of azalea and mixed herbs Alain would be a problem for another day He could take his place in the queue It was a long one and at its head stood Maeres Allus clutching a dozen promissory notes, IOUs, and intents to pay drunkenly scrawled on whores’ silken lingerie I stood, stretched, and listened to the hound complain behind the wall I’d need a taller wall than that to keep Maeres’s bullies at bay

Kings Way stretched before s Way the town houses of noble families vie with the ostentation of hter than the old The city of Vermillion has few streets as fine

“Take hiarden

“Here, Pluto! Here!”

That didn’t sound good I set off sprinting in the direction of the palace, sending rats fleeing and scattering dung red spears at my back

TWO

T he palace at Verardens, satellite mansions for extended fareat stone confection that has for generations housed the kings of Red March The whole thing is garnished with ly lifelike forms by the artistry of Milano old leaf off the walls to randranite barricades a hundred feet thick and spiked with the heads of her enemies

Even the most decadent of palaces can’t be entered without soeons’ Gate, flipping a silver crown to the guard

“Got you out early again, Melchar” I uards’ names They still think of atekeepers on side when your life dangles froe a web of lies as mine does

“Aye, Prince Jal Them’s as works best works hardest, they do say”

“So true” I had no idea what he’d said but h is even better thanpopular is the ability to jolly the et one of those lazy bastards to take a turn” I nodded towards the lantern glow bleeding past the crack of the guardhouse door and strolled on through the gates as Melchar drew them open

Once inside, I ht line for the Root invested in the Roma Hall, a palatial Vatican edifice constructed by the pope’s own craftsmen for Cardinal Paracheck way back whenever Grandh she’ll say the words at celebrations and look to mean them She has far less time for Roma, and none at all for the pope that sits there now—the Holy Cow, she calls her

As Father’s third son I get bugger-all A chamber in Roma Hall, an unwanted co me a cavalry rank since the northern borders are too damn hilly for horse Scorron deploy cavalry on the borders, but Grand the Red March should exploit rather than a foolishness we should continue to follow Women and war don’thearts on a white charger, ar around the peaks trying not to get murdered by Scorron peasants

I entered the Hall—really a collection of halls, staterooms, a ballroom, kitchens, stables, and a second floor with endless bedchambers—by the west port, a service door uard, his halberd against the wall

“Ned!”