The Orphans' Promise by Pierre Grimbert Page A

would not be enough to discover the half of it. These last two dékades, even though they were spent almost entirely on horseback, had only allowed her to see the extreme south of Lorelia—the closest kingdom to Kaul.
    Now she understood what Yan was trying to explain to her before. The young man desired to meet people who were different… visit strange places, experience rare things. Previously, she had found this desire a bit bizarre, even questionable, but now she felt the same.
    Yan solely wanted to live.
    But he doesn’t love me
, she had to remind herself, which saddened her further. He had not asked for her Promise, and he wasn’t doing anything to stop Rey from charming her. Worse, it seemed he preferred solitude over her company, now that he was spending so much time in the forest, alone.
    She closed her mind to this new wave of pain.
The past is dead; the future is dying
, as the proverb goes. Only the present is worth your time.
    “Do you see something?” she asked Rey.
    “Nothing. It’s been long enough to assume they got in. That’s a good sign, right? Maybe they are sharing a drink with the Züu, to celebrate the new peace.”
    Léti smiled at his joke, even though she actually felt like crying.
    Why wasn’t she with Yan at her house in Eza, like before?

     
    The jeleni stationed at the hallway’s entrance stared Grigán down for a long time. The guard was wondering whether he should let in this Ramgrith, armed from head to toe, and whose fierce stare met his own. The warrior made no effort to appeal to the Lorelien guard. He simply waited for him to get out of the way. Under other circumstances, Grigán would have simply ignored the guard and walked right past him.
    The jeleni let out his dog’s chain a little; the canine only needed a few more feet of slack to jump at the warrior’s throat. Grigán didn’t move, even when the dog was close enough to leave traces of its panting breath on his black leather.
    Corenn pulled Grigán back and then went forward. This way of doing things wouldn’t do them any good. She held out a golden terce to the guard, who immediately called his dog to heel. The dog obeyed, but growled at the two visitors as the guard ushered them by.
    Corenn entered the narrow hallway with Grigán following closely behind. They squeezed their way through the other elite soldiers and their ravenous dogs. Being surrounded like this set Grigán’s nerves on edge. He was relieved when they reached the more spacious entry hall, even if it was just as well guarded as the front door. At least in this room there was no lack of space for him to fight back, if it ever came to that.
    “Try not to be so tense,” Corenn whispered to him. “You look like you’re in the mood to start a fight. The guards can tell, and so can I.”
    “There are some Züu within thirty feet of here,” he shot back. “I won’t rest easy until we’ve put at least thirty
leagues
between us and them.”
    Corenn shook her head and led them toward the scribe at the registry desk, which also acted as the tollbooth. There was a short line of people waiting under the watchful eyes of three jelenis,who relieved all visitors of their weapons. Corenn and Grigán didn’t recognize any Züu among the traders waiting, but the red killers could very well have a civilian employee in charge of such deals.
    Corenn wasn’t carrying a weapon, and the guards didn’t linger on her for long. For Grigán it was a different story. The warrior handed over a dagger, a smaller dirk, and from a much larger sheath drew a Goranese broadsword, which he had brought in place of his usual curved blade. The jelenis suspected him of carrying another weapon concealed in his robes, and Grigán had to endure a thorough inspection in order to convince them otherwise. The guards finished their search with a sigh and a long look at the warrior, disappointed that they hadn’t been able to catch the Ramgrith red-handed.
    The scribe collecting fees