Chapter 10
- The Martial Arts Practice Hall of the Martin Family was a greenstone arena the size of a courtyard, with a rim of raised earth around it and a wall of black tile beyond the rim, and on the morning of the duel the rim was packed four deep with disciples.
- It was, everyone agreed, the largest gathering the family had seen in a decade. Not because the duel mattered. Because the Fifth Elder had made a bet.
- "Five hundred silver on David Bishop," Liam Martin had said, at the high platform, in front of the Patriarch and the Grand Elder, two hours before the arena was opened. "Sixth Elder, do you take it?"