Brian McClellan

The people are hungry,_ Mihali said. He lifted his hands, spreading them to encompass the city. __he people need to be fed. They need bread and wine and soup and meat. But not just that. They need friendship._ He pointed to a minor noble, some viscount decked out in his finest foppish frills, who poured a bottle of St. Adom__ Festival wine into the cups of a half-dozen street urchins.__hey need companionship,_ Mihali said. __hey need love and brotherhood._ He turned to Tamas. He reached out with one hand, putting a palm to Tamas__ cheek. Instinct told Tamas to step back. He found that he couldn__.__ou gorged them on the blood of the nobility,_ Mihali said gently. __hey drank, but were not filled. They ate of hatred and grew hungrier._ He took a deep breath. __our intentions were_ well, not pure, but just. Justice is never enough._ He let go of Tamas and turned to the square. __ will put things right,_ he said. He puffed out his chest and spread his arms. __ will feed all of Adro. It is what they need.

I believed it had been long enough that Kresimir would never return. I believed it was time for change. I thought all of Rozalia__ concerns were foolish, and that Julene was living in the past. I believed we were alone.___y people have never been alone,_ Mihali said. __he others may have left. I did not.

He took my family,_ Adamat said. __lackmailed me, and he still has my wife and oldest son. I want to get them back, and then kill him slowly.___ lot of violence planned, for a family man,_ the eunuch said.Adamat leaned forward. ___amily,__ he said. __emember that word. There is nothing that will make a man more desperate and more capable of violence than endangering his family.

You know,_ Taniel said, __e could have kept firing after they sounded the retreat. Would have wiped out thousands on the mountainside. The Kez did that to us in Fatrasta a few times.__avril snorted angrily. __ar has to have some decorum. Otherwise it__ back to the Bleakening for all of us, and Kresimir be damned.

Let the Kez come,_ Tamas roared. __et them send their greatest generals after us. Let them stack the odds against us. Let them come upon us with all their fury, because these hounds at our heels will soon know we are lions!

Promise me.___o.__tan__ eyes were glassy with tears. __oward. If I were dying, you__ promise me. Because you wouldn__ have to answer to me then. But I__ not dying, and you won__ promise it. Bloody coward.

The quail was tender, the potatoes smothered in butter, and the beans roasted in garlic.

You__e one mark on your record,_ Tamas said. __ou once punched a na-baron in the face. Broke his jaw. Tell me about that.__lem grimaced. __fficially, sir, I was pushing him out of the way of a runaway carriage. Saved his life. Half my company saw it.___ith your fist?___ye.___nd unofficially?___he man was a git. He shot my dog because it startled his horse.___nd if I ever have cause to shoot your dog?_____l punch you in the face.___air enough. You have the job.