As he walked the long, lonely halls, he wondered if the vast palace had ever been full of people. He’d never really thought of that before. To him, the palace had always been a huge, mostly empty space. Now, as he walked the echoing halls he noticed how many apartments he passed that had locked doors and shuttered apertures. Judging by their number, Corium was three-quarters empty. Truly, there were more ghosts and dust here than living beings. Gruum found the old warhorse Tovus in the armory. There he trained with a dozen cadets, mostly the sons of elder knights. They were young, but hard of eye. Gruum could tell in an instant they took their training seriously. No one shouted or called out to a brother, except when performing a hard strike upon the other in mock combat. The most impressive thing about the cadets was their armor. It was lacquered black and red, with a red dragon’s head painted upon each black breastplate. Gruum knew without asking the black honored Anduin while the red honored Yserth.
