99
135-58876_ch01_2P.indd 99
9/25/14 2:52 PM
9/25/14 2:52 PM
isles without me?” Maris said. “A luxury trip to blue skies
SKI
O
while his only child languishes here in winter. Though you
can be sure that if I had gone, I would never have let the sun
darken my skin. It makes one look so coarse! Like a dock-
worker! Really, what was my father thinking?”
MARIE RUTK
Kestrel shouldn’t have asked Maris about the Senate
leader. She should steer clear of everything to do with him.
She had sworn not to embroil herself any further in Her-
ran’s aff airs.
And yet, she had gotten angry. She was angry still.
And yet, the Senate leader was tan.
And yet, this was unusual.
Her mind kept returning to this detail, like a thumb
rubbing a fl aw in a bolt of silk, or that papery bark of the
poison berry trees.
But so what if the Senate leader was tan? A trip to the
southern isles explained it. She told herself once more to
leave the matter alone.
Yet she didn’t.
“The southern isles have many delights,” Kestrel said.
“Surely your father brought you gifts?”
“No,” said Maris. “The wretch. Oh, I love him, I do,
but couldn’t he have spared one little thought for me? One
little present?”
“He brought you nothing? But the southern isles have
linen, perfume, sugar, silver- tipped tea . . .”
“Stop! Don’t remind me! I can’t bear it!”
“Poor thing,” one of her friends said soothingly. “But
-1—
just think, Maris. Now your many suitors have more choice
0—
100
in gifts to please you.”
+1—
135-58876_ch01_2P.indd 100
135-58876_ch01_2P.indd 100
9/25/14 2:52 PM
9/25/14 2:52 PM
“They do, don’t they? And they should please me.”
“Is that what fashionable young men do in the capital?”
CRIME
Kestrel asked. “Give gifts?”
’S
“Oh, yes . . . though they often ask for something in
return.”
“A kiss!” cried a lady.
THE WINNER
“Or an answer to a riddle,” said another. “Riddles are
very pop u lar. And the answer is always love.” Which made
sense, given that the court was full of young people who
had chosen to marry rather than serve in the military. By
the time they turned twenty, every Valorian had to fi ght for
the empire or begin giving it babies. Future soldiers , her
father would say. The empire must grow, he’d add, and Kes-
trel would wonder if this was the working of every general’s
mind, or only her father’s: to see something as soft as a baby
and imagine it grown hard enough to kill. And then Kestrel
would shrink from the thought of becoming like her father,
and he would know that he had said the wrong thing, and
then they would both say nothing.
“No, I’ve heard other riddles,” said a girl, drawing Kes-
trel back to the conversation. “Ones with diff erent answers:
a mirror, a candle, an egg . . .”
“I like riddles,” said Kestrel. “Tell me one.”
“There is a riddle that I simply cannot fi gure out,” said
the lady sitting next to Maris. “It is: I leap without feet to
land, my cloth head is fi lled with sand. I have no wings, yet
try to fl y . . . what am I? ”
Kestrel helped herself to some cream. She wasn’t angry
anymore. The truth was that she, like her father, knew
—-1
1
how good it felt to cut with certain weapons. She took a
10
—0
—+1
135-58876_ch01_2P.indd 101
135-58876_ch01_2P.indd 101
9/25/14 2:52 PM
9/25/14 2:52 PM
whitened sip of chocolate, the cream cool and pillowy
SKI
O
against her lips. “Maris knows the answer to that riddle,”
she said.
“I?” said Maris. “Not at all. I cannot guess it.”
“Can you not? The answer is a fool.”
MARIE RUTK
Maris’s smile wilted. There was a silence broken only
by the delicate clink of Kestrel setting her cup on the tray.
She gathered her white furs about her and swept away.
She noticed the eastern princess making a move at Bor-
derlands. Her rider hopped over Verex’s pieces to kill an
135-58876_ch01_2P.indd 99
9/25/14 2:52 PM
9/25/14 2:52 PM
isles without me?” Maris said. “A luxury trip to blue skies
SKI
O
while his only child languishes here in winter. Though you
can be sure that if I had gone, I would never have let the sun
darken my skin. It makes one look so coarse! Like a dock-
worker! Really, what was my father thinking?”
MARIE RUTK
Kestrel shouldn’t have asked Maris about the Senate
leader. She should steer clear of everything to do with him.
She had sworn not to embroil herself any further in Her-
ran’s aff airs.
And yet, she had gotten angry. She was angry still.
And yet, the Senate leader was tan.
And yet, this was unusual.
Her mind kept returning to this detail, like a thumb
rubbing a fl aw in a bolt of silk, or that papery bark of the
poison berry trees.
But so what if the Senate leader was tan? A trip to the
southern isles explained it. She told herself once more to
leave the matter alone.
Yet she didn’t.
“The southern isles have many delights,” Kestrel said.
“Surely your father brought you gifts?”
“No,” said Maris. “The wretch. Oh, I love him, I do,
but couldn’t he have spared one little thought for me? One
little present?”
“He brought you nothing? But the southern isles have
linen, perfume, sugar, silver- tipped tea . . .”
“Stop! Don’t remind me! I can’t bear it!”
“Poor thing,” one of her friends said soothingly. “But
-1—
just think, Maris. Now your many suitors have more choice
0—
100
in gifts to please you.”
+1—
135-58876_ch01_2P.indd 100
135-58876_ch01_2P.indd 100
9/25/14 2:52 PM
9/25/14 2:52 PM
“They do, don’t they? And they should please me.”
“Is that what fashionable young men do in the capital?”
CRIME
Kestrel asked. “Give gifts?”
’S
“Oh, yes . . . though they often ask for something in
return.”
“A kiss!” cried a lady.
THE WINNER
“Or an answer to a riddle,” said another. “Riddles are
very pop u lar. And the answer is always love.” Which made
sense, given that the court was full of young people who
had chosen to marry rather than serve in the military. By
the time they turned twenty, every Valorian had to fi ght for
the empire or begin giving it babies. Future soldiers , her
father would say. The empire must grow, he’d add, and Kes-
trel would wonder if this was the working of every general’s
mind, or only her father’s: to see something as soft as a baby
and imagine it grown hard enough to kill. And then Kestrel
would shrink from the thought of becoming like her father,
and he would know that he had said the wrong thing, and
then they would both say nothing.
“No, I’ve heard other riddles,” said a girl, drawing Kes-
trel back to the conversation. “Ones with diff erent answers:
a mirror, a candle, an egg . . .”
“I like riddles,” said Kestrel. “Tell me one.”
“There is a riddle that I simply cannot fi gure out,” said
the lady sitting next to Maris. “It is: I leap without feet to
land, my cloth head is fi lled with sand. I have no wings, yet
try to fl y . . . what am I? ”
Kestrel helped herself to some cream. She wasn’t angry
anymore. The truth was that she, like her father, knew
—-1
1
how good it felt to cut with certain weapons. She took a
10
—0
—+1
135-58876_ch01_2P.indd 101
135-58876_ch01_2P.indd 101
9/25/14 2:52 PM
9/25/14 2:52 PM
whitened sip of chocolate, the cream cool and pillowy
SKI
O
against her lips. “Maris knows the answer to that riddle,”
she said.
“I?” said Maris. “Not at all. I cannot guess it.”
“Can you not? The answer is a fool.”
MARIE RUTK
Maris’s smile wilted. There was a silence broken only
by the delicate clink of Kestrel setting her cup on the tray.
She gathered her white furs about her and swept away.
She noticed the eastern princess making a move at Bor-
derlands. Her rider hopped over Verex’s pieces to kill an
Similar Books
