The Fifth Vertex (The Sigilord Chronicles) by Kevin Hoffman Read Free Book Online Page A

pretend to be as brave as one.
    Fear and panic hit him in waves, his heart pounding. Instinctively he searched for the nearest exit, the panic doubling when he could find no obvious doors or windows, just solid sunstone not yet glowing from the sun's descent into night.
    The focus in the room shifted to the back as a piece of the wall detached itself and receded, allowing a tall man with shoulder-length gray hair to step through, his body covered in bright red plate-mail armor, a thin cape hanging to the floor behind him. The gathered crowd dropped to one knee and bowed their heads, their gaze fixed on the floor in front of them, an elbow resting on the other knee. Urus painfully followed suit.
    Emperor Kaled had arrived. As close as his uncle was to the man, Urus had only seen him a few times in his life.  
    "Your Imperial Majesty," Aegaz began, still kneeling and making sure Urus could see his lips move, "this is hardly a matter that requires your attendance. We can interrogate the prisoner without posing any risk to you."
    Kaled eyed Aegaz, his face wrinkled with age and scarred with the marks of countless battles. Even at his age, the man had never lost a duel, not even to Aegaz.
    "I will decide what is and is not of import to me, Commander."
    Aegaz bowed. "As you wish, Majesty."
    Kaled waved his hand. "Proceed."
    The assembled company stood. Relief washed over Urus as everyone looked away from him and to the prisoner. High Shaman Kebetir stepped out of a rift in the throng of important-looking people and stepped toward Urus, brilliant feathers hanging from the hair in his topknot.  
    As Urus and Kebetir locked gazes, he wondered if he had been caught, if the shaman knew it was he who had been eavesdropping in that hallway the night before.
    "What's happening?" Urus signed to his uncle, focusing on him and trying to ignore everything else in the room.  
    "This is madness. This culled creature has no business here," Kebetir protested, his decorative feathers flapping as he waved his arms.
    "You know we need him here, Kebetir," Aegaz said.
    "Urus," he signed, "we found this man in the dungeons. The guards tried to subdue him, and the shamans shot enough darts in him to put an elephant to sleep. That just slowed him down enough so we could capture him."
    "If the First Fist hadn't gotten in our way, we would have taken him ourselves," Kebetir protested.
    The emperor watched the exchange with a distant look, seemingly unaffected by the tension between the warrior and the shaman castes.
    "This is why you had to leave last night, and why you weren't at the culling?" Urus signed.  
    Aegaz nodded. But Urus didn't care about prisoners or anything else to do with his uncle's job. His uncle had promised to be there and he broke that promise.  
    "Stop coddling the brat and put him to work; important matters await," Kebetir said, eyes darting tentatively between Aegaz and the emperor.  
    Uncle Aegaz had always said that what he and the others did in the emperor's court every day was like a game, a game with very high stakes. Urus didn't understand this game. He just wanted to get out, to get out of Kest and away from the shame.
    "The point is that he doesn't seem to speak any languages we know," Aegaz signed. "I showed him some tradesign, and he replied in an old dialect from Orda. All I could manage to understand was when he spelled his name, Murin."
    "Orda? We haven't seen a trader from that far south in years," Urus signed, the conversation starting to take his mind off the officers in the room and the throbbing pain from the burn on his chest.
    "We need you to translate for us," Aegaz signed with a sad, apologetic look. His eyes never dropped to Urus's chest.
    "Why can't you get Master Villus to translate?" asked Urus.
    "Master Villus has fallen ill," Aegaz replied. "The poor man can't even get out of bed, and we're changing his sheets twice an hour from the sweats."
    Aegaz finally looked down at Urus's festering brand, barely