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Back Oath of Fealty Save as PDF
Contents ( 92)
  1. What Has Gone Before
  2. CHAPTER ONE
  4. Vérella
  5. Duke’s Stronghold, North Marches, seven days later
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  8. CHAPTER THREE
  10. Vérella, the palace
  11. CHAPTER FOUR
  13. CHAPTER FIVE
  15. CHAPTER SIX
  17. Vérella, two days later
  18. CHAPTER SEVEN
  20. Chaya
  21. CHAPTER EIGHT
  23. CHAPTER NINE
  25. CHAPTER TEN
  27. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  29. CHAPTER TWELVE
  31. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  33. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  35. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  37. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  39. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  41. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  43. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  45. CHAPTER TWENTY
  47. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  49. Valdaire
  50. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  52. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  54. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  56. Chaya
  57. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  59. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  61. Cortes Vonja, Aarenis
  62. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  64. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  66. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  68. CHAPTER THIRTY
  70. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  72. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  74. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  76. Cortes Vonja
  77. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  79. Vérella
  80. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  82. Verrakai Holding
  83. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  85. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  87. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  89. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  91. CHAPTER FORTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Chaya

At the heart of Chaya towered the King’s Grove. Ten of the tallest trees grew in a circle around a mossy mound where the coronation would actually take place. Kieri had been told of it, and forbidden to go near it. Now—on the morning of his coronation—he looked out the window to see the trees massed beyond the palace walls. Already he heard a distant bustle in the palace, and soft scuff of those who would bathe and dress him coming along the passage …

Kieri came down the steps of the palace in his coronation robes over new clothes from the skin. Before him, the Council that had sent Paks to find their king; on one side his uncle Amrothlin, the elven ambassador, and on the other the Captain-General of Falk. Immediately behind them, two King’s Squires and Paks. Behind them, the other Siers and lesser nobility, including Aliam and Estil—he’d insisted they be part of the procession, over Aliam’s protests. Merchants and crafters, too, this time over the protest of his Council, but he wanted everyone. Even—along with all the other ambassadors and envoys—Hanlin of Pargun.

Palace staff lined the way to the gate, and beyond was a crowd, held back by a green rope in the hands of rangers in russet and green. Kieri would have walked faster on his own, but measured his pace to that of the Council.

Left out the gate … along the street … and then an abrupt turn into a narrow lane winding between and around great trees, in a dim green coolness. The fragrance of sunlit meadows, of spring flowers, vanished into the rich, complex odors of forest.

Finally, the King’s Grove. The ground rose slightly under his feet as they approached tree trunks wider than houses; the path lifted over knotted roots, dipped between them.

He felt the taig here, far more strongly than he ever had; the flavor of each individual tree, its essential being, touched him. Ahead, his Councilors lurched and scrambled, the oldest helped by the younger, but to Kieri the path felt smooth, welcoming. On either side, great boles rose, furrowed bark shaggy with moss and tiny ferns near the ground, but higher showing multiple shades of red-brown, lavender, green-gray, where lichens patched the bark. A rich fragrance enveloped him, complex and enticing.

Beyond the trees, the ground rose smoothly, the path marked out with round white cobbles on moss and grass intermixed with tiny flowers, pink and white and blue. The top of the mound rose to the height of two men, level there with a single stone on it. The Council paused, then split into two lines, each moving to the side. Only the most senior, Sier Halveric, led the way up the mound. Kieri followed, and the Captain-General of Falk and the elf ambassador moved with him. Behind him, he could hear his Squires and Paks, but the others, he’d been told, would join those marking the human half of the circle.