The crack ripped across the arena like the sound of bone breaking. Dust plumed. The dais lurched… and then buckled away from Leroy, collapsing in a deafening crash that sent splinters and stone scattering over the arena floor.
Screams echoed under the vaulted sky. The Emperor's box remained high and untouchable, its golden canopy quivering but intact. Above, nobles pressed hands to mouths, silks and jewels glittering like trapped birds.
But below, on the sand, the world had broken.
The Corvalith envoys, who had only just finished laying their tributes at the foot of the dais, were the first struck as they protected their royals. One man disappeared beneath a slab of wood, another staggered with blood running down his temple, and a third was dragged to the ground by a panicked horse screaming in its harness.
Leroy still lived.
