Trumpets announced his arrival. Trumpets and silence as the people of Olive crowded the steep streets winding up to the white palace that watched over them all. It was the first sunny day in weeks—the snow on the cobblestone streets melting quickly, though the wind still had a final bite of winter to it, enough so that the Avalon and his entire massive party were bundled in furs that covered their regalia.Their gold and crimson flags, however, flapped in the crisp wind, the golden poles shining as brightly as the armor of their bearers, who trotted at the head of the party. She watched them approach from one of the balconies off the throne room, Aiden at her side running a constant commentary about the state of their horses, armor, weapons—about the Avalon himself, who rode near the front on a great black warhorse. There was a pony beside him, bearing a smaller figure. “His sniveling son,” Aiden told her.The whole castle was miserably quiet. Everyone was dashing around, but sil

A few days after the unforgivable, despicable slave massacre, Sorscha was finishing up a letter to her friend when there was a knock on her workroom door. She jumped, scrawling a line of ink down the center of the page.Levi popped his head in, grinning, but the grin faltered when he saw the letter. “I hope I’m not interrupting,” he said, slipping in and shutting the door. As he turned, she balled up the ruined paper and chucked it into the rubbish pail.“Not at all,” she said, toes curling as he nuzzled her neck and slipped his arms around her waist. “Someone might walk in,” she protested, squirming out of his grip. He let her go, but his eyes gleamed in a way that told her when they were alone again tonight, he might not be so easy to convince. She smiled.“Do that again,” he breathed.So Sorscha smiled again, laughing. And he looked so baffled by it that she asked, “What?”“That’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.She had to look away, go find something to do with

“The leaders feared us and what we’d become. They thought the warriors or beasts would handle us, if we didn’t have each other to lean against. They were wrong.” His eyes glittered fiercely. “What they learned was that we love each other as true brothers. And there was nothing that we wouldn’t do, no one we wouldn’t kill, to reach each other. To save each other. We killed our way across the mountains, and made it through the Breaking—the worst of Ramiel’s three routes to the top—and we won the damn thing. We touched the stone in the same moment, the same breath, and entered the Carynthian tier of warriors.”Jane failed to keep the shock off her face. “And you say only twelve have become Carynthian … in five hundred years?”“No. Twelve made it to the mountain and became Oristian. Only three others, besides us, won the Blood Rite and became Carynthian.” His throat bobbed. “They were fine warriors, and led exemplary units. We lost two of them against Hybern.”Likely in that blast that

Vincent, former leader of the Consortium, Hand to the newly crowned Head of the Consortium , had discovered that he hated one sound above all others.Wheels.Specifically, their clattering along the planks of the ship on which he’d spent the past three weeks sailing through storm-tossed waters. And now their rattle and thunk over the shining green marble floors and intricate mosaics throughout the Kan of the Southern Continent’s shining palace in Antica.With nothing to do beyond sit in the wheeled chair that he’d deemed had become both his prison and his only path to seeing the world, Vincent took in the details of the sprawling palace perched atop one of the capital city’s countless hills. Every bit of material had been taken from and built in honor of some portion of the Kan ’s mighty empire:Those polished green floors his chair now clattered over were hewn from quarries in the southwest of the continent. The red pillars fashioned like mighty trees, their uppermost branches stre

Nasir had been standing beside her new king when Jane had flipped open two trunks in her chambers. Jewelry fit for a queen—for a Queen of Assassins— had sparkled within.I’ve enough funds for now, Jane had only said to Levi when he began to object. Give the Kan some of Consortium ’s finest.In the weeks since, Nasir had wondered if Jane had been glad to be rid of what she’d purchased with her blood money. The jewels of Consortium , it seemed, would not travel to Terrasen.And now, as the servants laid out the four smaller trunks—divided from the original two to make it seem like more, Jane had suggested—as they flipped open the lids, the still-silent court pressed in to see.A murmur went through them at the glistening gems and gold and silver.“A gift,” Vincent declared as even the Kan himself leaned forward toexamine the trove. “From King Levi Havilliard of Consortium , and Jane , Queen of Terrasen.”Princess Hasar’s eyes snapped to Vincent at the second name.Prince Sartaq