Erard gasped beside me, flinging one hand tohis chest even as he leaned heavily on me with the other. Oh no, not again. “Did you hear that, Kater! Did you hear what she said?” His voice rang out with a jubilance I doubted the subject of his question didn’t hear.

My elbow thumped on the arm rest as I pinched my forehead between my fingers. Across the table Headmaster Dolphelm remained impassive with his fingers steepled and leaning back as if he hadn’t just me delivered a horrible blow.

Eryn chair’s creaking as she tipped back onto two legs. A grin spread across her face. “Exposed for the fraud I am, eh?”

He sat perched on the rock staring into the valley ignoring me. Petulant. And stubborn. Not that I was better. I’d followed him out here.

“There’s a desolate feel to the place.” Stacy’s pronouncement was accompanied by vague hand waving. I whirled to glare at Terrance. Not even one minute and she’d started in.

The day the ferries sank is marked by the dead, the desperate, and those awaiting damnation. I number among the awaiting.

The pen snicked loudly in the quiet room when laid on the highly polished table at the center of the hall. Gythe followed the movement, maintaining a neutral expression even as her heart thumped. The amnesty was signed. Relief eased the tension of standing interspersed with the Mothili soldiers.

Redava glowered at the pendant lying on the table reflecting the glint hanging above. She snorted tightening the grip on the handle of the saw while ignoring the growing pile of broken blades shoved to the back of the table.

Metal scrapped across wood as a tankard slide over the bar to Dekal. He guzzled the liquid, ignoring the smell and slammed it back against the table. “Another,” he rumbled with a crook of his finger. He slumped over the bar to wait, resting his head on his arm. He allowed his mind to go numb.