cheated," she hissed angrily. "That lousy little ast Sakran bastard cheated. I saw him thumb the controls on his sword; it was so quick nobody probably caught it up in the stands, but I saw him spike the power up higher than the rules allow. That''s how he beat me."


    father is one of the judges," Karani muttered. "Do you really think old Naudar is going to rule against his son? Do you think any of them are going to side with a Baron''s daughter from nowhere over the son of one of the most powerful dukes in the Kingdom? Be realistic, Arta. He''s going to get away with it, trust me."


    Beat Galen for me. Show him not to mess with the ast Katanes sisters, all right? You''ve beaten me, you can beat him. Think you can pull that one off, little sister?"


    son, Naudar. Speaking of highly irregular, the way his sword blasted Miss ast Katanes''s from her hand was rather fortuitous, wasn''t it? Suspiciously so, one might almost say. I have to wonder if it wasn''t deliberate."


    Facts," Naudar scoffed. "Facts say that my son won, and the girl lost. But very well, if you insist. Let''s put things to a vote, shall we? All in favor of investigating Galen''s actions?" Mardoban raised a hand at once; a moment later, Hiram did so as well, albeit somewhat tenuously; the regent had a feeling he was motivated more by a desire to support his duchy''s contender rather than actual commitment to fairness. But Mardoban felt his heart sink as he saw that no one else was standing with them.


    unbearably na?ve for a man of your age. Of course, it was politics. We''re dukes; everything is politics. Do you really think that this tournament has been about giving the throne to whatever house fields the best duelists? I''ll admit I''ve been impressed by the Katanes girls, who have been successful far beyond anything I anticipated – the younger in particular interests me; you''re not the only one who can recognize a certain resemblance. I wonder where Varas found a girl who looked so much like our late Queen? But it doesn''t matter. We all know who''s going to win this. We''ve all known from the start."


    you want?" she asked, her tone rather harsher than she''d intended. "Come to gloat about my sister?"


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    tries to act honorably. All you care about is winning – no matter how much you have to cheat to do it."


    you yield, or do I have to break another leg today?"


    your doing? It does strike me as quite a coincidence that the girl who would unexpectedly make it all the way to the final round would also bear such a resemblance to our late queen." Here, out loud, he didn''t dare explicitly state Artakane''s true heritage; there were some among the dukes, Respen chief among them, who might well try to kill her if they knew who she really was.


    very lucky, that would be the end of it. Still, she intended to make Darius work for his victory.


    doing? Before he could come up with any answers, he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see the Professor.


    Shiran?" the duke breathed. "What in the Lord''s name…"