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The Emperor's Mage
Chapter Two: Empire
At thirteen, Miss Veralidaine Sarrasri would have been mightily impressed with the ostentatious spread of diplomats at the end of the long woven rug covering the plain wood of the docks. At sixteen, Daine had already assumed her standard 'smile prettily and bear the noble fussing' expression before her leather shoe touched plush carpet. The politics of leaving the ship in an ordered procession had passed her by, to Daine's relief. She had ended up near the back of the line with Lindhall and the rest of the diplomats that weren't nearly so important as Lady Alanna, Champion of Tortall.
Daine didn't envy Alanna's place at the front of the line, where she had already begun making polite conversation with the crowd of glittering nobles waiting on the shore. Lindhall was tense enough that she could have kneaded on his muscles for an hour with no effect, and they didn't have five minutes. Daine settled for taking his arm and waiting for their turn to move.
By the time that Daine had crossed the long stretch of dock, Alanna had moved through the cluster of nobles, and was talking to the emperor. Daine watched the man for a few seconds, but Ozorne wasn't nearly so intimidating as King Jonathan. She supposed that he was powerful magically, but she had sat through court deliberations before. Ozorne hadn't done any major acts of magic for years. All the rumors said that he preferred to leave the heavy lifting to the man standing a pace behind him.
Master Arram Draper had an atrociously gaudy outfit on, to someone raised in the mountains, or even to most of Tortall. Daine might be a little biased, but she couldn't imagine anyone Alanna associated with wearing so much jewelry at once, let alone spirals of black opals fixed into the collar of a deep black tunic. One of the man's ears was pierced, probably for the sole purpose of dangling a faceted gemstone. There were several rings on his hands, and even his belt had flat gems set into it.
She had seen dozens of mages just like him in Tortall, who were so fascinated by their usefulness and power that they wasted every scrap of their pay on shining things. She would have dismissed every last rumor proclaiming him the Lioness's equal in the next instant, but that was the moment when Arram Draper chose to meet her eyes.