"I knew it." Adrian said to himself. Of course it had to be this courtyard. Adrian stopped under the arch. There was a dry fountain and one lantern, and he already knew the flagstones too well. In his first life, a sixteen year old boy stood right here and called a Holy Empire girl a mongrel and told her to go away. That boy was him, and he had been proud of it afterward, because the cold word worked and she left without arguing. He didn't think about it again for years. Right now he could hear his own voice saying it, every word.Jenna sat on top of the edge of the fountain with her back straight and her sword across her knees. She didn't look up when he walked in, and he understood that it was on purpose. This time around she was the one who picked the place, and he was the one who had to walk across it."You came," she said."You asked me to come I think.""I asked you to come alone." Her eyes moved past him to the dark under the arch. "Is anybody with you?""No. I wrote that on t

The path split around a big flat stone. The right fork was wide and well trampled, and the left was a thin deer track that looked like it ended in a few steps. Roland pointed at the right one before anyone asked him."Right. Every map says right.""The maps say the left one is a dead end," Jenna said. It was the first thing she had said all morning, and she stopped at the stone and looked both ways."Left," Adrian said."Why?""The right fork goes through the Hollow Bridge ward gate. In my experience, the gate has a bad temper.""Your experience." Jenna turned to look at him fully. "You're sixteen, and you're ranked three hundred and twelfth.""Then call it a guess."She looked at him a long time more, and then she turned left without another word. Roland made a noise like he was choking."A guess! We're following a guess!""You can go right, Vane," Adrian answered, and Roland followed Jenna.He felt annoyed at himself for saying "experience." It just slipped out. In his first life hi

How long had Crowe been standing there? Had he seen the Blade come through the trees, or only the end of the fight? Adrian couldn't tell, and he was in no shape to get up and find out. Jenna's hand was still on his shoulder, so at least she was looking at the same man he was.Crowe looked over the whole clearing before he looked at anyone in it. Eleven masked men were dead on the ground, and a dozen more were tangled in the snares or flattened under the deadfalls. A Blackwood heir was kneeling in the middle of it with a violet blade in his hand. A Holy Empire heir was standing right next to him, alive, with her sword still out. Adrian could see him adding it all up, and he didn't like any of the answers Crowe could come up with.The last masked man was still breathing, lying where he had stumbled back with his mask torn off. Crowe walked over and turned him onto his back with the toe of his boot. He checked the face against something in his notebook and said it belonged to one of the

Adrian barely slept that night, and by morning he still couldn't figure out why Rhode had smiled at his arm. He had asked himself the same question so many times already that the answers were starting to repeat. Maybe Rhode knew about the Mark. Maybe he only noticed the glove and found it funny. Either way, a Cardinal with a gold glove on his right hand was sleeping somewhere in Ashgate right now, and all Adrian had against him was what a fourteen year old boy told him in a cellar.Gideon arrived by griffin before the first bell. The Headmaster had summoned him, and so had Crowe's report about eleven dead men in Dark Empire grey lying on neutral ground. Adrian was waiting outside the hearing room because a messenger told him to stand there, and he saw his father coming down the corridor with his travel cloak still on.Gideon stopped in front of him and looked him up and down. It took a long time."Three hundred and twelfth," he said at last."Yes, Father.""Out of three hundred and th

"He is breathing, my lord."Thalia had crossed the roof before Adrian even thought about calling her. She crouched down and held two fingers under Lucas's jaw, and her red eye stayed as steady as always. Adrian cut the sparrow link, but it was already dead already, so there was nothing left on the other end to cut. The sight and sound in his head just went out. Lucas's temple was hot under his fingers, and he still didn't wake up."He burned it," Adrian said. "He looked right at it and he burned it.""Yes, my lord. I felt it go." Thalia lifted Lucas off his chest and held him against her shoulder without any trouble. "Where shall I put him?""A bed. He's earned that much."She carried him down the stairs, and Adrian stayed on the roof by himself for a while. How did Rhode know there was a sparrow on that ledge? Did he feel the link, or did he feel Adrian looking through it? And if it was the second one, then he already knew somebody from Blackwood was watching him, and he had known it