Griffin's Fate

Chapter One

And lo, the Two Kings were bestowed with cups bearing the Water of Knowledge.

The First was wise and shared it among his people, so that all were blessed and their land prospered.

But the Second was covetous and drank his fill, pouring the rest upon the earth. Ignorance poisoned those he passed and strife became his shadow.

For though he knew all things, none would listen.

– The Petrexes Account. Translated by Fourth Sesham Arnos, the Capitol Archives

Chapter 1

The latches on a scuffed leather case clicked open at the edge of the market square. A love-worn practice lute basked for a moment in the afternoon sun. The sight of it resting there quietly melted away the noise of the crowd for its owner, rather like magic. The teenager took up its golden-brown neck tenderly in one hand and used his free arm to swing his lanky frame atop the low wall. Ken leaned against the cool stones of the clock tower and let his feet dangle, plucking simple, soulful music in the shade. He felt the low ticking of the clock's gears in his spine and let the pace seep out through his fingers on the strings. Ken never set out a collection cup but coins gathered on his better days. The shops were closing for Idlespan, the hours for resting in the heat of the day, so he'd not be bothered. He played on in his little world of happy solitude.

"Is that the Dawn song you've been so secret about?" his best friend Cades asked without warning. Ken hadn't heard him approach, but that wasn't unusual when he was engrossed in music. Cades' feet scrabbled to get his round belly over the wall's ledge. Eventually he managed. Ken looked impassively over the other lad's sweaty red face and disheveled blonde hair, while his fingers continued to play the gentle melody.

"No Dawns out in the open until I spar with Raylim," Ken replied sternly. Then he flashed an excited grin and his teeth shone brightly against his amber skin. "Any day now."

"Think you'll play it at Lyon's Heart?"

Ken's jaw tightened and his notes became sharper.

"Cufric still won't let me in." His eyes darted to the inn's fancy red door across the way and he silenced the lute's strings with a smack of his palm. "Not even for free! How am I supposed to get good enough for Gilhaven without real crowds?"

"You're already good. And you can't ask a pig to smell like roses." Cades often imitated his Gran's sayings. "Everyone knows he doesn't take to foreigners."

Ken was acutely aware again of being easy to spot in the crowd. Everyone in the market below was fair or tanned from fair from working in the fields. Ken and his Mum had deeper golden complexions, gifts from the desert far to the south. He'd never been there. And anyway, the innkeeper got on with the other five foreigners in Soffold just fine. Cufric's dislike of Ken seemed personal. Ken didn't have a clue why.

"I don't care," Ken grumbled. "I'm not from Dohal. I wasn't even alive during the war. And he came out all right...got paid enough crowns soldiering to build that great eyesore." Ken tipped the lute's round bowl at the Lyon's Heart inn, not caring if the likes of Cufric saw.

"He did lose a brother," Cades tried. "And they wouldn't have been in the war if your people and the Dohalis could have shared a ruddy port."

Ken glowered at him, then picked at the strings. Cades sat back and took a long look over the sun-drenched shop fronts and familiar faces.

"Two more months," he said on the end of a heavy sigh.

"Two more months. Do you know what you want for your birthday?"