fetch the key, perhaps a soldier or—"
"Gag him!" Solina said. At once her men silenced him.
She walked across the hall toward her towering doors of gold and ivory. When she snapped her fingers, more guards stepped from between her columns to march behind her. The weredragon's chains rattled, and a thin smile twisted Solina's lips.
When her guards opened the doors of her hall, she stepped outside and stood above the palace stairway. The Faceless Guardians, the great statues of her dynasty, towered at her sides. She gazed down upon her realm. The Square of the Sun spread below her, its cobblestones golden in the sunset. The Sun God's Temple rose to her left, scratching the sky, while Queen's Archway rose before her across the square, golden sunbursts shimmering upon its bricks. Beyond the square rolled countless houses and streets, finally fading into desert and delta. And there in the west, beyond dune and mountain, rose the tower. There awaited her glory.
The sun dipped in the sky, a melting ball of orange. Its light caught the platinum capitals of the columns surrounding the square. They burned like a ring of torches, like the light of her heart, and like her glory that would soon bathe the world.
BAYRIN
He rocked on his heels, rolled his eyes, and blew out his breath.
"Lyana!" he said. "You've been reading for ages. Will you tell us what the book says?"
She sat before him on the rug, huddled against the cave wall. The ancient codex lay open before her, a tome the size of a suckling pig. Lyana raised her eyes from the pages, glared at him, and held her finger to her lips.
"Shh!" she said and returned her eyes to the book.
Bayrin groaned. "Lyana! Merciful stars, you heard what the spy said. War and destruction. End of the world. Toes stubbed left and right. Will you please quit your pleasure reading, stop shushing everyone, and tell me what the book says about these Falling Ones?"
Lyana groaned too, an enraged sound like a mother bear disturbed in her cave. She bared her teeth at him.
"Bayrin!" she said. "It's the Fallen Ones, or nephilim in their tongue. And maybe if you had spent fewer years chasing tavern wenches, and instead learned to read and write, you could study this book too."
He raised his hands in incredulity. "I know how to read and write!"
"Scribbling rude limericks on alehouse walls doesn't count, Bayrin. Now please shut that blabbering hole in your face and let me read."
Bayrin let out the longest, loudest sigh of his life. He turned to face Elethor, who stood at his side in the cave.
"Do you see, El? Do you see what I've had to put up with all my life? Bloody stars, since becoming queen, her tongue's only grown sharper; you could slice a wyvern to ribbons with it, no sword necessary."
He expected Elethor to laugh; his friend would always laugh whenever he'd mock Lyana. And yet today Elethor only stood solemnly, face frozen, staring down at the book.
Stars, Bayrin thought, you can barely even see his face anymore behind that dreadful beard of his.
Where was the Elethor he had known, the young man who'd laugh or groan at his jokes? Where was the Lyana who'd leap up to punch him, not just glare and bury her nose in a book? Bayrin would welcome groans and punches over this tense silence, this… this wait for an evil he didn't understand.
Stars, Mori, I miss you, he thought and closed his eyes. A lump filled his throat. He would have given the world to have her here now—to hold her, kiss her, never let her go. The beauty of silver rain on autumn leaves, of stars in purple sunset, of Requiem's fallen columns; all paled by the love, beauty, and goodness of Mori. He thought of her pink lips that would kiss him, her gray eyes looking up at him in wonder, the smoothness of her hair, and the purity of her heart as he held her against him.
Where are you now, Mori? Do you too have a cave to hide in, somebody to talk to?
Elethor believed her a prisoner in Tiranor; others whispered that the princess lay dead among Nova Vita's ruins. Bayrin knew that she lived; he refused to believe anything else. And if she was Solina's prisoner…
Bayrin clenched his fists. If you hurt her, Solina, I will crush you in my claws, and I will burn down your city with my flames.
He shook his head wildly.
"That's