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The question is pointless, she knows He will not speak to her She is an unworthy ene of no er that eats the unwary traveller

Instead, he chooses to surprise her "It was not a proposal," he says, face still composed and voice free of any quaver "It was an order, conveyed by the creature you call the Messenger"

She stares at hihs Was it reward or enticement? she wonders "I ordered your wife and most recently spawned brats be killed quickly," she says "I felt I owed you that , his composure still fully in place She toys with the idea of letting hi it will take before his legs buckle, but yet again finds her appetite for indulgence diht "Take hi at his back

Arklev casts an appalled gaze at her then lurches forward, trying to launch hi hies at her "Kill me you pestilent bitch!"

"You have too etic ss hi all the way down

She lingers for a while, watching the fires, wondering howin the city below had any notion of what they portended, of the different world that would greet the over her mind

The fires are s How long has she stood here? She turns to one of the swords her with open adown reveals a length of thigh "Do you knohat you are?" she asks him

"Arisai," he replies, rin "A servant of the Ally"

"No" She turns back to the city "You are a slave In theI will be an empress, but also a slave For we are all slaves now"

She isto the stairs when it strikes her, the sensation of his return falling like a ha to her knees Beloved! Her song swells in welco in his presence He is close, she can feel it, the ocean no longer between the shifts as it touches his hatred, his sweet hatred, a vision coh to discern a stretch of coastline, tall waves breaking on a rocky shore, a single word in his voice, his wonderful hate-filled voice: Eskethia

• • •

"Re his eyes fro there in my youth"

Eskethia did indeed bear soion, and seemed similarly rich in vineyards, rows of neatly ordered vines stretching away across the rolling hills, interspersed with an occasional villa or far in the ed to land the the the hull on the sands before they diseods to favour your mission," the captain had called down to Frentis fro a wary eye at the shore, his final words a barely heard h I doubt even they could preserve you here"

"I put us fiftyan unfurledis to be trusted"

"Good navigation is about the only thing I’d trust a Meldenean with" Frentis’s gaze tracked to the nearest villa, perhaps a quarter h to be stables

"It’ll be hoaze "Too grand for anything else They are likely to have guards; house Varitai An estate this large will keep perhaps a dozen"