========== Chapter 2 “Stop, thief!” The shopkeeper scuttled around his fruit cart, switch in hand, and shouted after the boy. “Thief!” Wearing only a ragged dhoti of indeterminate gray, the tow-headed boy stopped walking a few meters down the street, apparently ignoring the angry shopkeeper and instead concentrating on the ripe apple he was so […]

========== Later that day, Sergeant Jabari notified the Wardmaster—Mistress Mary, better known as Mary the Boneless because she was paralyzed from the waist down—that they were performing an unannounced and immediate wall inspection. She acquiesced, of course, since there was really very little she could do about it other than complain to the King, who […]

========== Roach had established quite a reputation. He’d stolen food from almost everyone, brazenly, sauntering off as if he’d paid and only running at the last minute. Small and agile, he seemed to know every nook and cranny of the market, escaping angry merchants—and Constables—with ease. He was also a phenomenal shot with small stones—or […]

========== Sergeant Jabari walked out into the Cirque of the Moon with the Captain. Most of it was parkland, with tended gardens, grassy slopes, walkways separate from larger streets for carts. It was scattered with key city buildings—theater, armory, a variety of key storehouses, and of course the Ten Noble Estates. Each of the nine […]

========== Poietria Martine and her retinue continued toward the Boreas Gate, one of the three gates to Skala Eresou. As they approached the Avenue of Boreas the shops grew larger and fancier, boasting of their wares to the traffic on the Avenue. While you could find cheaper (and sometimes tastier) food deeper in the marketplace, […]

========== Chapter 7 Sergeant Jabari took another sip of tea. She knew she shouldn’t, that it would just make her bladder hurt even more, but her mouth was so dry she figured it was worth it. The shack they were hiding in was old and dusty; the slightest movement would raise a cloud to make […]

========== For the first time, Rogier was on shopping detail, which meant he would be joining several other students and the cook on a trip to the market. The cook, of course, visited the fish market down by the seadocks, and the meat and produce market where Rogier had once roamed, every day. Many vendors […]

========== They gathered at the Boreas Gate to High City, blocking traffic and earning shouts of anger from carts and passers-by, which they studiously ignored. In addition to the six dozen city constables with their sergeants and all armed and armored for combat, the Captain also brought his own personal force of a dozen veterans. […]

========== The Palace was unusually crowded. In addition to the King and Chuang, Commander Britomartis and Captain Ragnarsson of the Constabulary stood nearby. Sergeant Ng and Sergeant Jabari stood farther back. The Chief Artificer, Marcus, stood on one side, next to the Alchemist, their assistants behind them. “So, Marcus, now that the cistern and tunnels […]