stairs.
'Where to now?' Ashara said.
'Do you need more sleep?'
'No. I slept just about the whole time we were there.'
'How long was that?'
'All night. What did he do to you?'
'He taught… or showed me-' Cart shrugged. 'He opened my eyes.'
'After he blinded you.'
'Hm.' That was literally true, but at a different level, Cart felt like he had never learned to see before he met Havrakhad.
'So what now?'
'How about some breakfast?'
'What an excellent idea. I know just the place.'
'Then lead the way.'
Ashara held his arm as they walked away from the apartment building with its streaming banners and back in the general direction of Chalice Center. When they left the narrow residential streets and walked along more crowded roadways, though, Cart noticed hostile stares directed at them. Ashara didn't seem to mind, but Cart was uneasy. He patted her hands on his arm, then gently extricated himself from her grasp.
'Who cares what they think?' Ashara said.
Cart didn't want to look at her, so he let his gaze range over the wide street, with its row of trees down the center, bare as winter drew near. 'In my experience, I find it better to avoid giving offense than to deal with angry people. Especially when they get violent.'
'Violent? Because I'm holding your arm?'
'People get violent when I walk into their favorite tavern. Or because I'm on the wrong side of the street. Or because someone's brother died in the war and somehow I'm responsible. People don't need good reasons to be unreasonable.'
Ashara laughed at his choice of words, and Cart hung his head. She could take the matter lightly, because she had never known the reality of life as a warforged. Quite the contrary-as an heir of House Cannith, she had enjoyed the servitude of the House's warforged creations for most of her life. She could still rightly command Cart's loyalty, as much as she wanted him to think of her as a friend.
She tried to take his arm again, but he pulled away. They walked in silence the rest of the way to Ashara's choice of breakfast locations-a bakery in Chalice Center. Cart didn't notice its name.
Cart sat with his arms folded across his chest and watched Ashara eat. The sting of her laughter was fading, and he was trying to remind himself to rise above it, to observe the storm of his emotions without being carried away by it. He liked watching people eat, except when they ate things that didn't seem to fit in the category of food-clams, mushrooms, potatoes. He particularly liked the way the muscles of Ashara's jaw flexed as she chewed, and the obvious pleasure on her face as she licked the dusting of cinnamon and sugar from her fingertips.
Her smile vanished as her eyes fell on something behind him, by the door. The smile returned a moment later, but different, perhaps forced. Cart heard footsteps behind him.
'Hello, Harkin,' Ashara said.
Cart turned in his seat to see the blond Cannith heir standing behind him. He didn't return Ashara's smile.
'I thought I might find you here.' Harkin seized a chair from another table and sat between them.
'What do you mean?' Ashara asked. 'We were going to meet for luncheon.'
'You were quite the scandal in Fairhaven this morning, walking arm in arm with your warforged like lovers.'
Ashara's face turned crimson. 'Why is it anyone's business what we do?'
Harkin laughed. 'It's not, but that won't stop them from talking. Particularly when they can see the dragonmark on your arm. I understand the baron is in a fury.'
'Jorlanna has already excoriated me. What else can she do?'
'You really don't know what you're in the middle of, do you?'
'Why don't you spell it out for me, Harkin?'
'Very well, Ashara. Jorlanna has decided to cast aside the Korth Edicts and swear allegiance to the queen, turning her part of House Cannith into an Aundairian noble family and its enclave into a Ministry of Artifice, responsible for producing armaments for the crown.'
'I'm well aware of what Jorlanna has done,' Ashara said.
Cart nodded. When the first King Galifar united the Five Nations under his rule, he signed accords with the leaders of the dragonmarked houses that prevented such close ties between the houses and the crown, but in the chaos of the Last War those agreements had grown increasingly tenuous.
'Of course you are.' Harkin sneered. 'But fourteen other dragonmarked barons are watching very carefully. Some of them have been stretching or outright breaking the Korth Edicts for years. There's no way Lyrandar's operations in Valenar are legal-they have a standing army there, and a fleet of flying warships. Aurala even married an heir of House Vadalis-and now she's gone and destroyed the city Vadalis calls home. No wonder some of the Houses are very nervous about what could happen if Aurala or some other sovereign starts getting ideas. House Orien's headquarters are down in Passage, and I know they're worried that Aurala's going to annex them next. More than any other House, Orien needs to be able to operate across national borders-that's the whole point of the Mark of Passage, right?'
'What are you getting at, Harkin?'
Harkin leaned over the table. 'There's a war brewing, Ashara, and we're right in the middle of it.'
'The barbarians? What-'
'Not the barbarians. The Houses. Look around you. House Cannith is about to split like Phiarlan and Thuranni did, if it hasn't already. The rest of the Houses are lining up on one side or the other, some trying to preserve the Korth Edicts, the rest trying to continue tearing them down until the dragonmarked rule Khorvaire.'
Cart shifted in his seat. Harkin's words rang true, and Cart suspected that this dragonmarked war ranged farther than Harkin was aware. Did he know about the Dragon Forge and Phaine's involvement in it?
'Where does House Thuranni stand in all this?' Cart asked.
Ashara looked at him thoughtfully, but Harkin seemed annoyed at his intrusion. 'They haven't made their position known,' he said.
'You're thinking of Phaine,' Ashara said. Cart nodded. 'He was part of Jorlanna's plan, but that doesn't mean his whole house was involved.'
'Phaine?' Harkin said. 'A Thuranni?'
'Yes,' Ashara said, still looking at Cart.
Harkin snorted. 'If one Thuranni is involved, you can be sure their baron knows about it.'
'But why was he involved?' Cart asked. He was trying to piece it together in his mind, but he felt as much adrift as he had when he was working with Haldren-caught up in political games far beyond his expertise. The night before, in the Ruby Chalice, Gaven and Ashara had been talking about what might happen if the dragonshard ended up in Phaine's hands. Perhaps, he thought, House Thuranni sought to undermine House Lyrandar, or maybe they hoped to build more Dragon Forges and steal marks from all the Houses. He wasn't sure if that had anything to do with the Korth Edicts, though. And he didn't want to talk about it in front of Harkin.
Ashara seemed to share his reluctance, which made him strangely glad. She reached across the table and took Cart's hand. 'I still don't see what this has to do with me and Cart.'
Harkin looked down at their hands as if he were regarding a dead thing on his plate. 'Don't you? Aurala and Jorlanna have just thrown the Korth Edicts out the window. The vigilant protectors of the Korth Edicts are the Sentinel Marshals of House Deneith. Or, as some people like to say, House Deneith uses the Marshals to make sure that nobody else violates the Edicts by creating an army that could challenge Deneith. So the Sentinel Marshals are looking for a way to interfere with Jorlanna, to get Cannith West back where it belongs-in a private enclave, and out of the government.'
Cart shifted uncomfortably at the mention of the Sentinel Marshals. At Haldren's command, he had attacked
