12
When the morning horn blared, Caden was already awake and prepared.
He was one of the first to rush out of the barracks and begin the morning run around the castle. Captain Eduard had told them ten laps. That had seemed easy enough, but as yesterday had proved, it was much more difficult than he first thought. Midway through his second lap, he could feel the soreness in his muscles flaring to life.
He kept a smooth pace and tried to focus on something other than the pain. His thoughts turned to Lord Klodian, and he wondered how the man was faring. Klodian seemed tough, and Caden had heard the stories about how he had evaded multiple assassination attempts. Whatever had happened to him yesterday in Slia, it hardly seemed possible to keep him down for long.
The morning air was crisp a
