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At last! I hurried out a up with Serah “Well, that settles it! The old bat’s cracked The erin “Even Grandh to have seen the last emperor”

Serah fixedshe said?” And off she strode, leavingthere, jostled by Martus and Darin as they passed by

FOUR

Fro left where all ht Armour, statuary, portraits, displays of fanned-out swords, all of theeringly expensive woven rug, luxuriant silks patterned in the Indus style I turned the corner at the far end, teetering on the edge of control, dodged two uest range, where scores of roo nobility

“Out the fucking way!” Some old retainer doddered frorey old cripple always li underfoot I swerved past hiers-on—and accelerated down the hallway

Twice guardse before deciding I was more ass than assassin Two doors short of the corridor’s end I stopped andthat it would be unoccupied The room, chambered in rustic style with a four-poster bed carved like spreading oaks, lay empty and shrouded in white linens I passed the bed, wherein I’d once spent several pleasant nights in the company of a dusky contessa from the southernh the , onto the balcony, vault the balustrade, and drop to the peaked roof of the royal stables, an edifice that would put to shas Way

Now, I kno to fall, but the drop from the stables roof would kill a Chinee acrobat, and so the speed hich I ran along the stone gutter was a careful balance between my desire not to fall to my death and my desire not to be stabbed to iant Norseed to secure his services and ers Hell, if people sahat I saw in the ood odds, then I could just slip hiainst him

At the far end of the stables hall two Corinthian pillars supported ancient vines, or vice versa Either way a good, or desperate, cliround there I slid the last ten foot, bruised ue, and ran off towards the Battle Gate spitting blood

I arrived there winded and had to bend double, palfuls of air before I could assess the situation

Two guards watched uised curiosity An old soak conize

“Double!” I straightened up and raised a hand in greeting “What dungeon are the queen’s prisoners being taken to?” It would be the war cells up in the Marsail keep They ht be slaves but you wouldn’t put the Norseood to open with an easy question to put your man at ease

“Ain’t no cells for theht better of it and sed noisily

“Wh—?” She couldn’t be having them killed! It would be a criminal waste

“They’s going free Tha’s what I heard” Double shook his head at the badness of the business, joobbling “Contaph’s co up to process theh there was Contaph, layered in his official robes and beetling towards us with the sort of self-importance that only h latticed s above the Battle Gate I could hear the distant clank of chains, drawing nearer

“Daain “Hold the Not a thing I’ll see you right Your friend too” And with that I hurried off to intercept Ameral Contaph of House Mecer

We met in the middle of the plaza where an ancient sundial spelled out the ti to heat up and the day’s promise simmered above the rooftops “Ah he were an old friend

“Prince Jalan” He ducked his head as if seeking to take ive him his suspicions; as a child I used to hide scorpions in his pockets