Chapter 1
Tortall
Nari of Thoamatzura and Tortall gave an inner sigh when looking at her younger siblings. They had been quarrelling since morning and both Nari and the rest of the group was tired of them.
Nari, or Narisma witch was her full name, was a stocky ten-year-old dressed in a blue tunic and brown leather breeches. Her unruly ear long hair was black as raven's feathers. The most amazing with her was her sharp eyes, they were yellow, like polished gold with streaks of red.
"Why can't they be quiet?!" Nari murmured and gazed at her third sibling, the youngest brother Sokimo. He sat silent on his pony Yuñia. He had the same colours as Nari, but his hair was almost an inch shorter and he was three inches longer than Nari's five feet two inches. Soki, as he was called, had a love for black, he prefered black tunic and black leather pants. He was a quiet boy and it was easy to forget that he was in the same room.
All of the sudden Morima and Lokimo became silent. The youngest sister Mori, turned to the Thoamatzura children's cousin, Arbin of Saegensport.
He to was ten, but despite their fathers being brothers, Arbin's cropped hair was light blond and his eyes was blue. Another difference between them was that he wore clothes made out of silk and satin.
"Cousin," Mori said with a smile. She always smiled and laughed, she was even worse than Loki. She poked around in her waistpurse and took out an apple. "Do you want to become a knight?" She took a big bite out of it.
Arbin wrinkled his nose. He had meet his cousins, his uncle Edwon's children, for the first time only a week ago when they had arrived with boat from the Yamani Islands at Blue Harbor, were Arbin's parents had a house. They had come with sevants, one for each of them. The servants was big dark men, each of them armed to the teeth. Arbin thought that bot his cousins and their sevants was strange and odd. He hid his thoughts well, but was sertain that at least the oldest girl knew it. Captain Darryn Hihrec a Saegenporter and the leader for the group of soldiers taking the children to Corus, slowed down so he got a chance to hear what they were talking about. "Of course, why should I otherwise go?" he said with a smirk. When he wasn't shore witch one it was he was talking to, he called the girls 'Ima' and the boys 'Imo', refering to the similar endings of their names. He hated when the girls giggled, but he was unsure if it was both, or just one that did it.
This one giggled before becoming serious. "To have something to do whilst your soul grows and becomes wiser."
"Have your father told you that?" Arvin said giving a yawn. He didn't really care, but his mother had taught him manners.
"No," the girl shook her head, "from Jarren. He used to stay with us during the winters."
Arbin oppened his moth to ask who Jarren whas, but was interrupted by Loki.
"Sis'. Arbin. We're here."
They turned teir heads and looked at the capital of Tortall.
Corus lay on the southern bank of the Oloron River, towers glinting in the sun. the homes of wealthy men lined the river to the north; tanners, smiths, wainwrights, carpenters, and the poor clustered on the bank to the south. The city was a richly colored tapestry: the Grate Gate on on Kingsbridge, the maze of the Lower City, the marketplace, the tall houses in the Merchants' and the Gentry's quarters, the gardens of the Temple district, the palace. This was the city's crown and southern border. Beyond it, the royal forest stretched for leagues. (p. 194 of Lioness Rampant)
It would be the children's home for the next years.