Read Citadels of the Lost for Free Online Page B

“I was there.”

CHAPTER 5
    Mutual Interests
    S HE WORE THE SAME STAINED and tattered dress that she had been discovered in amid the ruins of her household. Some of the rips in the cloth seemed a bit too strategically located to have occurred entirely by accident, showing off her young figure to better advantage. She put them there herself, Sjei thought. And the stains are still in the cloth. Surely the brothers of the council are not so gullible as to think she’s worn this same dress for the last two months since her House fell. Her face is even smudged! Still, it is an excellent bit of theater . . . and just look at them; she’s got their sympathies already.
    Ch’dak stepped to the edge of the light, his features cast in stark relief. His voice was firm but had a soft edge to it. “Tell us, child, what happened to you in the Western Provinces.”
    Tsi-Shebin raised her head, lifting her chin with seemingly enormous effort. “My father took us some years ago to establish our House in the Western Provinces. He was a devout citizen of Rhonas. We moved there so that my father might better serve the Emperor’s Will.”
    Sjei smiled inwardly. Everyone who knew him reported that ShaTimuran was a crass, opportunistic fool with a violent temper and delusions of grandeur far above his Estate. He was generally despised at court and only moved to the frontier when no other form of easier social advance was available to him.
    Ch’dak continued. “And where do you reside now?”
    Sjei glanced at Ch’dak with a slight frown. The answer to that question might prove awkward to the Quartermaster.
    â€œI am currently living off the graces of my remaining relatives here in town. My home is gone, our estate is in ruins, and I have lost everything in the fall of my father’s House from the wanton and utter destruction of our Aether Well.”
    Sjei raised an eyebrow, drawing in a relieved breath. Shebin had not only avoided divulging her living arrangements but had brought old Ch’dak back to the point of the performance. This young girl was proving more adept at this game than he had hoped. In the next moment he realized that he would have to reevaluate her strengths in this regard—and take care to never underestimate her again.
    Ch’dak nodded at the response. “And you were there when your House fell?”
    â€œYes, my lord,” Shebin’s whisper carried clearly throughout the hall.
    â€œThen tell us what happened,” Ch’dak spoke gently.
    Shebin raised her eyes toward Ch’dak but seemed not to see him as she spoke in flat, distant tones. “It was during our evening Devotions. Father had heard the report from a few of his returning Centurai warriors early that afternoon in his court. They were the first to return from the Dwarven Wars and had been expected as their trophies from the war had arrived earlier in the day. Father was angry with the Captain of the First Octia because he had lost the great prize in the final battle and had only returned with meager and unimportant dwarven trifles . . .” Shebin’s voice trailed off to nothing.
    â€œYou say this warrior had lost a prize?” Ch’dak prompted.
    â€œYes,” Shebin said, gaining her voice once more. “The warrior had reached the Crown of the Last Dwarven King and held it in his hands. Then he had thrown it away.”
    â€œThrown it away?” Arikasi Tjen-soi chuckled loudly. Arikasi was the Minister of Occupation whose concerns largely touched on any of the conquered lands beyond the traditional borders of Rhonas. Once, many years before, he had been a warrior subjugating those lands—now, by the look of his growing midsection, he preferred to administer them from a distance. The fall of Aether Wells in the Western Provinces was of peripheral interest to Arikasi who preferred distant maps to nearer territories. The conquest of the Ninth Dwarven