Since arriving in Ethia, I had seen very little of the fairer sex, not a single one on Vang’s ships and only a handful at the Palace. I had yet to ask if there had been a particular reason for such a skew in gender. But here there stood a rather brawny female, and she was eyeing me with a particular sour expression compared to the others.


    sensed a malevolence coming from him unlike anything I had ever felt before. A shiver quaked through me as I watched him step forward like Haxley. He stood there ramrod straight with a blank expression and the dark feeling that had come over me now gone like it had never been there at all.


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Oh. Well that explained that. She probably thought I had no business knowing quat-lo. I had a growing feeling she and I were going to go head to head about that sooner rather than later. She confirmed it with a particularly pointed look as she stepped back in line.


    if we could work out the whole quat-lo thing. But I wasn’t going to hold my breath. I had the distinct impression that she would probably knock it right out of me if I tried.


    you choose to begin with?”