The sun had set, and the flowers had closed up for the night, but their scent lingered in the air as Fitz and the other Oymyakon cadets followed Colonel Hansen through the maze of gardens from their dormitory to the diplomat school. They were all dressed in their formal uniforms, which Fitz hated.
It wasn"t that they were uncomfortable. They were designed to be moved around in the same as their daily wear. It was just that the earth tones of the Oymyakon Foreign Service Academy school colors were unappealing. Even against the greens of the gardens, they looked less like rich nutritive earth and more like a sickly sort of clayey mud.
Against the navy blues of the guardian uniforms and the cool ivory of the diplomats, they looked even worse.
But he"d be wearing navy blue soon enough, and
