Harlow sat back, resting an elbow on the arm of his chair. “Given what happened to the boy’s older brother during the Sorrowing, I can’t blame him. The emperor has kept his youngest and only remaining child close to him—done everything in his power to safeguard his wellbeing, including limiting those who’ve met him or even seen his face.”
Graydon waited, knowing Harlow wasn’t finished.
Harlow speared him with a matter of fact look. “It’s not possible to keep his presence here a total secret. There are those in my House who will recognize him, despite the emperor’s precautions.”
Graydon waved Harlow’s concerns away. “He understands that and even expects it. This isn’t meant to hide him entirely. It’ll be enough if his presence here doesn’t become common knowledge.”
Harlow smiled. “That I can guarantee. It would do us no good to draw notice from the other Houses.”
“Good.” Graydon stood and prepared to leave.
“I’m going to assume this changes your plans.”
Graydon stopped and aimed a toothy smile at his former mentor. “You would be right. I think perhaps I should stay close, after all. See for myself how the initiates’ training is progressing."
Harlow leaned his chin on his fist. "That might be best."
*
"Couldn't have picked the easy way," Kira muttered to herself as she leaned against the wall and stared at the infinite stairs ahead. "No, you had to do things the hard way—as usual."
She'd thought this was the last landing. Not so much.
"When will you learn?"
She peered down the steps she'd traversed over the last several hours. Another person's spirit might have broken at the latest false summit.
"Not me, though. No, I'm too stubborn for that," Kira griped, setting one foot on the next step.
The Tuann and their stupid games. She was tired. Her body hurt. The headache she'd had since shortly after stepping through the gates increased with every step.
She yearned for Graydon's presence. Pushing him off a cliff would have gone a long way to improving her mood right about now.
She blamed him for this. If not for his maneuvering, she'd be sleeping in her bunk on a ship somewhere. Not testing her limits on a climb that felt like it would never end.
The bag she carried pulled at her arm. She paused, switching it her other shoulder before resuming her trek. One stair by laborious stair.
Kira glared at the bag in question, cursing the urge that had caused her to take it from Raider. She still wasn't fully recovered from her last fight, and carrying something that seemed to get heavier and heavier as time went past was severely taxing her resources.
She would have gladly left him to it if she hadn't been afraid the Tuann would search the bag when Raider reached the top.
"How are there so many damn stairs?" she grumbled.
There hadn't looked to be this many from the bottom. Nowhere close to this many.
It was like the air itself resisted, dragging on the bag and her body. A weight clasped her tight, pressing harder with every step forward until it felt like she was moving against a constant current that only grew in strength the farther up she went.
The other initiates had long since abandoned the vertical paths they'd started with, each making their way to the stairs. More than a handful had already quit, forcing Roake's oshota to recover them and escort them to safety via a dunking in the ocean below.
Kira's progress slowed as a thought occurred to her. It was possible this was not what it appeared. The Tuann had already proven they were masters of technology far beyond what humans could even grasp. To a level that shared a close resemblance to magic.
Perhaps this staircase that marched up a never-ending cliff didn't really exist. It could be an illusion meant to test her fortitude and willpower.
Kira made a face. Of course. That made sense. If she was training a group of warriors, she'd likely do something similar. Hell, she had done something similar to anyone looking to join the Curs.
You couldn't be part of an elite force unless you were the master of your own self. A person who could rise above their physical limits when the time came.
This was a gut check. Pure and simple. A way of seeing who would allow something as measly as a staircase to get in the way of their goal.
