and walked with a confidence that cleared a path through the crowds thronging the pavements. Many were dressed as soldiers, ready to fight and die in the Empire’s wars. But most wore rags, and a large number of these were slaves assigned to the factories that made the weapons the army needed for its wars in distant lands.
This was the reality of the Empire. People were just one more thing to be used by those few who ruled the massive territories. And if Thirrin had wondered if anything was truly different for the peasants of her own society, she might have argued that in the Icemark no one was called a slave and no one was forced to work in factories that poisoned the air and corrupted the land. The fact that the life of a “serf” living on her father’s land was little different from that of a slave would not have troubled her. At least their people lived in their own homes and ate some of the food they labored to grow.
Then in the eye of her imagination her owl wheeled north until they flew over the Icemark once again, and below her the forests and pastures flowed like a green sea around the walled islands of its towns. It was only in the winter that the kingdom lived up to its name and truly became the Icemark, white and frozen from the Wolfrocks to the Dancing Maidens for seven months of the year.
Maggiore Totus watched Thirrin as her eyes gazed unseeingly into the middle distance, and he sighed. She was the most difficult pupil he’d ever had to teach, but she was also one of the cleverest. And it was this knowledge that kept him in the palace as royal tutor. Deep down in the recesses of his brilliant mind he harbored the hope that he’d awaken a love of learning in this warrior princess, so that one day the Icemark would be ruled by a scholar as well as a fighter.
But any hope of that seemed a very long way off, and in the meantime he settled to the task of trying to regain her attention. “I think we’ll postpone our lesson on the primary income source of the Southern Continent and concentrate instead on the topography of famous battle sites.”
Thirrin grunted and nodded her head, her mood slightly improved, and surprised herself by actually enjoying the lesson.
2
That evening, Redrought held one of his State banquets. All of the barons and baronesses could expect to be called to the capital of Frostmarris to eat with the King at least three times a year. Eating and drinking were actually less important than the real business of keeping a close watch on any of the aristocrats who might become overambitious. But despite this cautious approach to his noblemen and -women, Redrought was a very popular king. He wasn’t too overbearing, and more important he was a proven general. Not only had he defeated the Vampire King and Queen of The-Land-of-the-Ghosts but he’d also beaten off many pirate raids along the shores of the Icemark.
In fact, that night’s feast was officially a celebration of the victory he’d won over one of the greatest threats the country had faced in more than a decade. Exactly one year ago to the day, Redrought had led his army to the field of Sea Haven, where a battle had been fought against the combined forces of the Southern Corsairs and the Island Buccaneers. Their fleet had been more than two hundred ships strong, and they’d landed an army of twenty thousand troops. But after a bloody struggle that had lasted an entire day, the enemy had eventually been driven into the sea and their ships set alight by Redrought’s victorious housecarls.
And now the King’s Great Hall was loud with celebration as those same soldiers ate and drank at the lower tables and told one another how brilliant they’d been on the field of Sea Haven. The minstrels’ gallery that occupied the entire southern wall was packed with the city’s best musicians, who played an unending medley of drinking songs and marching tunes. And between the long rows of tables, acrobats tumbled and threw one another around in an odd mixture of clowning and skill.
As Thirrin watched from her place at the High Table, the Great Hall heaved and swirled like a stormy sea. But her view of fine details was limited by the thick haze of smoke that rose from the fire blazing