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Prologue

A dust-covered, blood-spattered young ates and into a wide courtyard, a space paved with dark red bricks and lushly landscaped with desert plants The graceful fronds of a pagafa tree shaded a large fountain, surrounded by stone benches intricately decorated with glazed blue and yellow tiles In garden beds densely planted with purple-flowering broom bush, red and yellow desert paintbrush, and white-furred old rew over six feet high and twice as wide, their curving spiked leaves striped in blue and yellow Beside a blue-needled agafari, a weeping desert acacia swayed gently in the breeze, its yellow puffball bloo the branches like tiny darts

It was a lovely, peaceful, bucolic scene, the gentle trickle of the fountain adding to the restful at mercenary lieutenant had just left

Matullus paused by the fountain Taking a deep breath, he unwound his blue and yellow turban and dipped one end of it into the water, soaking it thoroughly It would not do to confront Lord Ankhor all covered in blood The news he had to give hih He wiped away the dust and blood on his face, chest, and arms The blood was not his own The uard, had died suddenly and terribly He had been standing right next to Matullus when it had happened

They had responded to an alarm in the merchant plaza That, in itself, was no unusual occurrence The crowded central plaza of Altaruk, with its uments and altercations, but this one had quickly become a full-scale riot The disturbance that had set it off turned out to be merely a diversion for the attack that followed, and it had all happened so quickly that Matullus wasn’t even sure who had attacked whom

The house guard had co in quickstep down the aisle between the rows of tented stalls, where they found a crowd gathered around a couple of combatants, who circled each other with obsidian knives As Matullus pushed through the mob to separate the two men, it happened

There was a blinding flash of blue light just beyond the crowd, and someone screaic energy bolts striking hu fromented as the crowd shoved past, and Matullus drew his sword, trying to find the source of the attack

He gli quickly behind a row of h him The Veiled Alliance!

“Guard!” the captain shouted “Assemble on me! This way! On the double!”

“Captain,” said Matullus, “those men are—”

“Move, Lieutenant!” the captain shouted without pausing to hear him out “Now! Go!”

They pushed their way through the ures of people who had been knocked down and trampled by the mob