The noble captives were lined up against the red brick walls of the Citadel. A year ago, House Nohyreos had risen up in rebellion against the Crown, with a dozen other noble houses. It had been a bloody civil war and had cost the lives of Kean's two older brothers, leaving him now heir to the Lordship of House Celareon.
The captives were all women and children - men of fighting age had either been put to the sword or sentenced to the salt mines or the sea oars.
Kean followed his father and the steward down the stairs, to examine the captives. As loyal servants to the Crown and the greatest noble house left standing after the rebellion, they would have the first pick of the prized female captives.
The women, who had once worn only the most delicate silks and lush brocades, were now in tattered, bloody rags, their bare feet and faces mutinous and caked with dirt. Bloody lips and bruised eyes - the guards had not been gentle with the traitors' wives and daughters.
Among the women, Kean spotted one he remembered vividly. Elensar Nohyreos, the youngest and most beautiful of the first traitor lord's daughters. He tapped his father's shoulder to draw his attention and nodded to the girl.
"Lady Elensar was at school with me," he reminded his father.
The great nobles' children were usually all sent to the same boarding schools and Kean remembered shy, sweet Elensar well. She had never paid him any attention at all, but that might be about to change.
