THE FALL OF KESTREL TOWER

people read weather the tilt of a shoulder before a storm, the s

have seen

oking at the papers in front of him instead, as if they were more difficult to face than she was. "Four

me out steadier than she felt. "I

aw something like regret there. Then it was gone, replaced by the practiced solemnity of a man performin

ugh that two of the board members flinched. "Someone did t

room had decided anything today. It had all been decided before she walked in, in some other room, at some other table she hadn't been invited to. "

grown up in this tower, hadn't learned to walk on thes

to sneak her chocolate before dinner, who used to say someday this will all b

ression of a man who has already won and is simp

asn't a threat. It was a fact, stated plainl

," Weston sai

believed him, right up until the moment security's hand closed around her arm and the do

the sidewalk where reporters had somehow already gathered, d

ed yet but would be by morning, staring at a bank account frozen down to

sgraced in Embe

l's Fall F

a Kestrel Fled Rathe

he'd made her decision because there was nothing left in this city fo

r. And she walked out into a life she hadn't chosen, carrying nothing but the two things nobody could take from

longer than eithe

ears l

of Cha