One of the soldiers beside Magus asked a question in his foreign tongue. Magus thought for a moment and then shook his head. He tossed Cyrus to the stone, dropping him beside the bodies. Cyrus tried not to look. He tried to not let the blood and bone and spilled innards of his beloved parents sear into his memory for the rest of his life, however long or short it might be. He failed.

“Lock him in his room,” Magus said. “We have much to do to prepare this wretched island, and too few years to do it. And one thing I’ve learned is that when it comes to keeping a populace in line, well…”

His giant boot settled atop Cyrus’s chest, grinding him into the stone, smearing him upon the blood of his slain parents.

“It never hurts to have a hostage.”

CHAPTER 2

MARI

Mari slid a word-lace around her neck in preparation for a meandering walk through the conquered city of Vallessau. The imperial tongue was still new to the island, and though she had learned much of Thanet’s native language over the past few months she’d lived there, she found it much easier to rely on the word-lace’s magic.

“Be careful out there,” said Mari’s older sister, Stasia. Sweat soaked Stasia’s body, which was naked from the waist up except for a tightly wound strip of cloth tied across her chest. The two were in what had been dubbed the “training room” of their two-story house. The floor was heavily carpeted. Iron rods of various weights rested on hooks and shelves. A massive triple-wrapped sack of white sand from the nearby beach hung from the ceiling, and Stasia thundered her bare fists into it with a staccato rhythm.

“I’m always careful,” Mari said. She removed a silken green band from her pocket and began tying her long brown hair into a tail. Mari was dressed opposite to her older sister, in a long, loose black dress over a thick chemise, a shawl for her head and neck, and long wool stockings. Whereas Stasia was more muscle than human, Mari would graciously consider herself plump.

“It doesn’t mean I can’t worry,” Stasia said. She weaved back and forth to dodge imaginary punches. Mari knew she’d be at that sack of sand for at least an hour, beating it into submission. Her older sister always worked out when she knew battle approached. It was how she kept her nerves at bay. “I’m going to be at the front lines tomorrow, and I’d like you there with me.”

“I’m trying,” Mari insisted, as if she hadn’t spent every day of the past months doing exactly that.

“Try harder.”

“I’m communing with a god, Stasia. Either Endarius accepts my offer, or he doesn’t.”

Stasia flashed one of her cocky smiles that only an older sister could get away with.