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The 12th day of Wort Moon

The year 1041 K F (after the Fall of the Kurchal Empire)

In the palace of Duke’s Citadel, Summersea, Emelan

Lady Sandrilene fa Toren sat in the room that was her study in her uncle’s palace In her hands she held a thread circle, one that included four lumps spaced equally apart It was a syical bond she shared with her foster-brother and two foster-sisters, who had been away from home for many months Today was Sandry’s birthday, and she h their connection without even touching the thread, and spoken with theic, but not in the last two years They had traveled far beyond reach, into lands and experiences Sandry couldn’t share

“Daja at least should have been here,” she said, and sniffed “She was supposed to coo But no She wanted to see more of Capchen, and Olart—”

Someone knocked on her door Sandry hid the circle under a fold of her skirt “Coht and courteous

A footman entered He carried a parcel wrapped in oiled cloth and tied with ribbons secured by a large wax seal “My lady, this has come for you,” he said with a bow

Sandry’s ht be froht of its seal Only Aht, cross No gifts or nice, long books and letters from him Only dreary old accounts from my estates in Namorn

“Please set it here,” she ordered, patting her desk The footman obeyed and left her alone with the parcel

Other people get to have parties and presents and outings with their friends when they turn sixteen, Sandry reflected unhappily I get another fat package of dry old reports about cherry crops and mule sales from Ambros

I’ fair, she told herself I know that I also know I don’t want to be fair

Wearily, she gave the thread circle a last check, pressing each luer Each one stood for a friend Each was cool to the touch The others were too far away for their presence to even register in the circle

Sandry tucked the thread into the pouch around her neck and hid it under her clothes She blinked away tears as she thought, I was just foolingthey’d be home by now

She returned her attention to the package Ambros probably had no idea his tedious reports would arrive today, she re her chin on her hand And Uncle Vedris and Baron Erdogun gave ether withover this, too But really, ants to go over crop reports and tax documents on her birthday?

With bright, cornflower blue eyes set over a button nose, she stared longingly out of the open s Her pale skin still bore the light bronze tint it always picked up in the suht brown hair, neatly braided and pinned in a coronet on her head, was gilded with sun streaks Her cheeks were still girlishly pluave her face was offset by her round and mulish chin Even at sixteen, Lady Sandrilene fa Toren knew her own mind

She was dressed si, and design, a gown that would never shorinkle or stain, no e, with the right to practice as an adult She tolerated no ard behavior in any cloth in her presence Her stockings never dared escape their garters, any owns dared to pick up dirt Every woven scrap in Duke’s Citadel had learned the girl’s power since she had coreat-uncle Vedris

The day’s fading, Sandry told herself I should do so before dinner besides pout

She thrust the bulky package aside

“Do you know, the only ties arrive” While Sandry daydreamed, Duke Vedris IV had come to stand in the study’s open door He leaned there, a fleshy-faced, powerfully built man in hisand stitching While his clothes were plain and his jewelry si his aura of power and authority No one would ever mistake him for a commoner Neither would they reat-niece born of his ard nephew and a wealthy young noblewoman from Namorn

Sandry blushed She hated for him to see her at any less than her best “Uncle, he’s so prosy,” she explained, hearing the dreaded sound of a whine creep into her voice “He goes on and on about bushels of rye per acre and gross lots of candles until I want to scream Doesn’t he understand I don’t care?”

Vedris raised his brows “But you care about the accounts for Duke’s Citadel, which are just as thick with minutiae,” he pointed out

“Only so you won’t,” she retorted When Vedris sht a smile of her own “You knohat Iover every little detail, you ht fret yourself into a second heart attack At the rate Aoes on, I’m the one ill have a heart attack”

“Ah,” said the duke “So you need an altruistic reason to take an interest, rather than the selfish one that this is your own inheritance from your mother, and your own estates”

Sandry opened herabout that sounds like he just turned it head over heels on er on what

“Very well, then,” Vedris continued “I sub so conscientiously after your affairs and his own—I know he has properties in his own right—it is quite possible your cousin Ahtened “Just because your Namornese inheritance is in land, and in Nahtly, my dear” He walked off down the hall

Sandry put her hands up to cool her cheeks, which were hot with e froht with dismay I don’t care for it at all!

She glared at the ribbons on the packa

ge of doculed, then ripped free of the wax seal and flew apart With a sigh, Sandry grasped the edges of the folded wrapping and began to remove it

The 18th day of Blood Moon

The year 1041 K F

The Anderran/Emelan border

After several side trips following their original journey to Kugisko in Na Circle temple and his student Daja Kisubo finally crossed back into Eh it was late in the year, the weather still held fine The skies were a brilliant blue without a single cloud, the breeze crisp without being cold Daja sighed happily

“Another week and we’ll be ho her broad, dark face up to the sun She was a big young woe, perceptive brown eyes She wore her wiry black hair in , thin braids wrapped, coiled, and pinned at the back of her head, an elegant style that drew attention to the ht broith orange patterns, sewn into a tunic and leggings in the style of her native people, the Traders “I’ll be close enough to mind-speak with Sandry any day—well, I could now, but I’d have to strain to do it, and I’d rather wait She’ll have a million questions, I know”

Frostpine grinned He was brown like Daja, but where her build was solid, his iry, hisbody He wore his hair wild around a perfectly bald crown and kept his beard in the same exuberant style His Fire dedicate’s crimson robes were every bit as travel worn as hers “You can’t blame Sandry,” he pointed out “We were supposed to be home the summer before this”