Chapter 10: The Circle in the Courtyard

Seleth did not wait for night.

He walked into the courtyard at dusk with his clerk and ten guards.

He stopped in the middle of the cobbles, where the straw was piled.

"A formal reading," he said. "Madam auditor, if you would stand here."

Nanami, who had come out with a lantern and a page of notes, stayed where she was.

"Why?"

"The Collector's reading of unfitness. It is a small courtesy."

She looked at the straw.

It lay in a wide, even ring, much too tidy for straw.

She was backing away when two guards took her by the arms and set her down in the middle.

The clerk kicked the straw aside.

Underneath, scratched into the stone in white chalk, lay a circle as wide as a cart, ringed with signs.

"The auditor Nanami Mizuno is found unfit," said Seleth pleasantly, "by the Collector of the Thrones. The audit is closed. She goes home."

The clerk said a word.

The chalk blazed white.

The light came up her legs, and her feet left the stones.

She screamed, and the sound went thin and strange.

Someone hit the guards.

Dravan came through them.

He caught her around the waist in the air.

The pull of the circle went through her and into him, and his whole body arched.

"Hold on," he said through his teeth. "Nanami. I have you."

He reached down with his free hand, and raked all five claws across the chalk.

It was like tearing wet silk.

The light snapped.

They fell together onto the cobbles, her on top of him, and the courtyard was suddenly quiet.

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