SECRET OF THE ASHES AND CROWN

ns still remembe

L

only slits in the stone where the

e where war signals were sent from th

d inside with nothing but a mattress, a rust

adn't

dn't b

dn't b

e had

erless-and the kind of power it woul

The way he didn't scream when they branded him

ight. Into her pillow. Int

a

llion ha

only ju

A

of year-wind like blades, snow lik

He didn't freeze

cli

r

e pain was easy now.

tbeat. The symbol of the crown was burned into his sk

it lik

enaries, misfits, forgotten sons of war. A place where names did

ent

in asked him what

ome dan

TO

n't alone

familiar voice crawl

inc

, throwing herself at

pa

key t

carrying food, a bundle of cloth,

oing here? If t

I was your nurse," Grita hisse

ed over

unwrap

lower, the color of

ercenary map-circled in red, one

rt

A

mp wasn't a plac

d. He was given a blad

week, he a

man who tried to slit hi

lling him "pretty boy" and st

ho'd once been assassins,

rty. How to disappear. How

every time he bled, every

w her

ept g

TO

rom her late father's library. War logs. Tax records. Mar

orded, unsigned, traced in code and deliver

etwor

with a

sister in th

to run errands for her

uilding s

an e

sist

WORLDS

ined by

ad by ca

weapons in

d words i

seen each ot

oward one another like

Kael was summoned by

" the man said. "Priv

ed his eyes

ossed him a s

Waxed with a

n

l alrea

it with sh

ed. But I'm ready

I need a soldier

E

stars and smiled for t

e game was

ed just declared wa