Mags had been working at the Pieters's mine, slaving in the dark, cold
seams, looking for sparklies, for as long as he could remember. The
children who worked the mine were orphans, kids who had been abandoned,
who had lost their parents, or were generally unwanted. But Mags was
different.
Mags was "Bad Blood," because his parents were bandits who had been
killed in a raid by the Royal Guard. "Bad Blood" because he'd been found
in a cradle in the bandits's camp. Blood so bad that no one had wanted
to take him in except Cole Pieters. When he was big enough to see over
the sides of the sluices he had gone to work at the mine. Mags knew
nothing of the world beyond the mine, and was unaware of how unusual his
paltry existence was. Then some strangers on huge white horses forced
their way past the Pieters family and carried him away to Haven to
become a Herald Trainee.
Suddenly the whole world opened up for him. He was warm and well fed for
the first time in his life, and he had Dallen, his Companion, who seemed
more miraculous than an angel. But the world of the Collegium was not
all heavenly. There was political upheaval in Valdemar's capital, for
the court had been infiltrated by foreign "diplomats," who seemed to be
more interested in seeding discontent than in actual diplomacy...and
Mags seemed to be the only one who'd noticed....
