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“Golds wanting us to do their dirty work Typical,” Pytha mutters “I don’t want to die for them, Lysander”

“This ht be the only e don’t die today,” I say with a sic is cold and clinical

“Don’t tellabout this!”

“Dido is preparing for war, Pytha We’re afterthoughts to her She’ll delete us or use us…usechip somehoon’t have that Not at all” I turn to Gaia “Would Diomedes help?”

“No The vain boy is a slave to his honor He’s bound by his oath to the Olyhts, and they’ve accepted Dido’s coup Roins tomorrow Diomedes will deliver him to that trial for justice to be served there”

“His own father?” Pytha asks

“It is our way”

“You have a plan, I assume?” I ask Gaia

“So you’ll do it?” she says slyly

“I did not say that What is your plan?”

“My daughter, Vela, waits in the desert with legions loyal to Rorave to capture Dido But she cannot attack if he is a hostage I need you to go to the Dust Cells Free hie You will need them to cross the Waste and reach Vela

“It’s not just aboutall her cards “I was friends with your grandfather, Lorn He was a stuck-up old goat, but so a “He ca and the pride of the old I tire of empire, just like Old Stoneside did War eats faustus’s war and raced to fall in the Lion’s Rain He did not listen My son did All he’s done, all he’s hidden, has been for the good of the Rim”

“Did Romulus know Darrow destroyed the docks?” I ask

“No I suspected, and I counseled my son not to seek ith him”

“Logical, at the ti your losses But dishonorable”