"I lost my sword. I’m sorry, I had to leave it. I caught up with the assassin. He looked Tingaran."
Captain Sloan snorted. "Anyone can look Tingaran. Shave my head and I’d look like a Tingaran."
"Yes, but he had that look. The same features, you know what I mean?"
"So what happened?"
"Four men of the imperial legion. They blew him to pieces. They left me."
"Skylord scratch the Emperor’s name! We have nothing."
"I’m sorry."
"Never mind… Miro, isn’t it? Never mind, Miro. Once again the Emperor has covered his tracks. We have a great deal of suspicion, but no proof we could take to the other houses. Get to the infirmary, have yourself looked at."
Captain Sloan turned to go.
"Captain?" said Miro.
"Yes? What is it?"
"It’s probably not much use, but I picked this up." Miro opened his hands, showing the knife. The symbols etched into it still glowed. "It’s the assassin’s weapon."
Captain Sloan’s face lit up. "No, Miro, this is good. This is one of ours. We’ll start looking into how it came into the possession of this assassin right away."
One of the bladesingers came forward, a slim man with grey eyes, his manner friendly enough. He deftly took the knife from Miro’s hands, holding it carefully. "Shant-lurada," he said softly. The runes deactivated. It was an ordinary knife again.
The bladesinger spoke softly. "He was a dangerous man, young soldier. You did well. Miro, is it? My name is Huron Gower."
Exhausted, Miro simply nodded. He turned and left for the infirmary, his back stiff so he wouldn’t show how much pain he was really in.
12
Our strategic alliances and proximity to Stonewater, yes, these were advantages. The superior tactics of our legionnaires also cannot be underestimated. But let us not forget Raj Tingara’s lore. It was our meldings that gave us the strength to form an Empire. Before I was proclaimed Emperor, wars between the houses were common. Now, we have peace.
— Memoirs of Emperor Xenovere I, 121-1, 381 Y.E.
ELLA basked in the afternoon sunlight, enjoying its warmth on her skin.
With the ending of the rains the Alturan summer had begun the gradual decline into autumn. The centurion trees had turned first dark green, then deep gold, the leaves falling softly to the ground before they were raked into piles by the groundskeepers.
Ella sat on the grass of the Great Court in the shade of a centurion tree, a yellowed book in her lap, oblivious to the other students around her. Occasionally she took a bite from a sourmelon, first making a face at its acidity before the underlying sweetness came through.
She heard giggling and looked up to see a boy and girl holding each other close. The boy leaned forward to whisper something in the girl’s ear. She laughed and kissed him on the lips.
With their studies soon over, many of the students were pairing up. A season of dances awaited them after graduation, before their hard work began in earnest.
"Good reading?" Talwin said, grinning down at her.
Ella hadn’t really felt like being interrupted. "Umm, yes." She looked up at him, smiling before looking down at her book again.
"Do you mind if I sit down?" Talwin said.
"Of course not!" Ella accepted the inevitable and closed her book. She’d have to read about Saimon Bower’s strength matrices later.
Talwin sat down, a little too close for Ella’s liking. "I thought you finished early on Evendays? This is the first time I’ve seen you about."
"I do. I guess I just thought I’d stay here for a bit. I love the autumn, the reds and the golds, the chill in the night and warm in the morning."
He shuddered. "You do? It’s getting too cold for me already. I was just going to head home." He took a deep breath. "Umm... Would you like to come and have dinner with my family?"
"I don’t think..."
"Ella, it must be terribly lonely out there in that shack."
"It’s not a shack. It’s Mallorin. And it’s my home."
"Come on, Ella. Everyone is talking about it. With your brother gone and uncle passed you need to spend some time with other people."
"Everyone? Who’s everyone?"
"I don’t know!" he said. "Ella, people, they like you, they want to be your friends. You just have to let them in."
Talwin was making her uncomfortable. "Miro will be back any day now. What would be the point of going to live somewhere else and leaving Mallorin to rot? It’s our home. We grew up there."
Talwin shuffled himself forward, moving closer to her. He picked up one of her hands in his own. Ella froze, not knowing what to do, her hand limply grasped in his.
"Ella, I... I think you’re so pretty... No... I think you’re beautiful." He gazed into her eyes, waiting for her to say something. "You could meet my mother — she makes the best country pie in the world. She’s really sweet, Ella, you’d really like her."
Talwin looked up at her, searching for a response.