“Sometimes the best place to hide someone is in plain view,” Kira told him.
Around her, the initiates waved at the crowd. Some performing minor tricks as they laughed up at their audience.
Kira took a moment to locate Luatha’s section of the stands, finding the box where Liara sat on a throne-like chair.
Her cousin from her mother’s side had her hands clasped in her lap, her only attendant an oshota by the name of Roderick. The Overlord of House Luatha’s expression was hard to read from this far as she gazed down at the initiates.
Kira followed the line of her eyes, spotting the three from Luatha clumped together not far from where Joule and Devon stood next to each other.
Like Joule and Devon, they seemed wary of those around them. Not participating in the antics of the rest. Unlike Joule and Devon, two of the three didn’t look like they knew which end of a blade to hold. In another life, Kira would have called them civilians.
As Kira studied the rest of the initiates, she found several groups behaving with the same level of caution.
Those were the ones who’d probably been warned by their Houses about the gauntlet the adva ka could become.
They were the real threats once the rest had been weeded out.
But first—they had to protect themselves from those intent on preying on the rest, Kira noted as she saw a group talking among themselves before glancing in Joule and Devon’s direction.
Surprise, surprise, Renata and Notus were among their numbers.
“I’ve got them,” Raider said, noticing where her attention had gone.
“Be careful,” Kira warned.
“Don’t worry, Grandma. I know the drill.”
“If that was the case, I wouldn’t have had to bail you out of the brig so many times.”
“You’re forgetting half the time you were in the cell right next to me.”
Kira’s mouth clicked closed as Raider used her insulted silence as an opportunity to saunter toward Joule and Devon.
“I should have let Bayside and Walker beat him up more often,” Kira muttered, referencing two Curs who’d died in the battle at Rothchild.
“Agreed,” Jin said as Kira turned away from the three to find Graydon watching her with a veiled gaze that gave her no hint as to what he was thinking. “Maybe he’d be less arrogant.”
Kira started toward Graydon as the rest of the initiates spread out, investigating the arena floor.
“You should be careful to keep your eyes in your skull,” Kira warned Graydon.
She was a little surprised to find he and his two oshota hadn’t already departed now that they’d been delivered to their newest stage.
“Why?” Graydon challenged with a rugged grin. “When they’ve found something worthy of their regard.”
Kira’s snort held amusement as she looked beyond him to the stands, locating the emperor’s box easily.
For one thing, it dwarfed the boxes of the Overlords. Its size alone made it hard to look past. To say nothing of the fancy throne Torvald reclined against.
“This is going to be bad, isn’t it?”
Graydon’s mouth quirked. “I have faith you’ll find your way.”
Someone was feeling a little overconfident in her.
Graydon leaned forward. “You’re far too paranoid to fall for the obvious tricks of those around you.”
Kira stilled, picking up his warning.
