The argument started over a statue.
Ryn heard it before he saw it — voices raised in the particular register of people who had been disagreeing politely for a long time and had just stopped being polite. The sound came from the Academy's central courtyard, where the monument garden displayed busts and carvings of historical figures arranged in chronological order. The first bust was Krug. The last was King Aldren's father. Between them: two hundred and fifty years of commanders, priests, scholars, builders, and administrators whose faces had been carved in stone and mounted on plinths for students to walk past and, mostly, ignore.
Today, nobody was ignoring them.
A cluster of students had gathered around the monument to Sarvek Tarvond the Elder — the current Grand Duke's grandfather, a Lizardman general who had commanded the northern defense during the First Demeterra War. The statue showed him in battle armor, holding a spear, standing on a plinth inscribed with his deeds.
