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Antesh didn’t turn back “Do you require soave a shortattack, but a suggestion of deception He hides so “I’d like to hear more of Darkblade,” Vaelin said “If you would care to tellmore of the Ten Books Aren’t you afraid your soul will be sullied by such knowledge? Your faith undone?”

The Cumbraelin’s words suuilt and the rew louder Did he know hie could sully a man’s soul And as I told your Trueblade, my Faith cannot be undone”

“The First Book tells us to teach the truth of the World Father’s love to any ish to hear it Find ain and I’ll tell you s he would make his way to Ahm Lin’s shop where his ould scowl murderously as she poured tea and the stonest my people it’s called the Music of Heaven,” Ah tea from small porcelain bowls next to the statue of the wolf, which appeared ly real every time Vaelin visited The mason’s ouldn’t allow Vaelin into the house itself where she invariably secluded herself after pouring the tea He had oncethey pour it thelare that he waited until Ahm Lin took a sip froe

“Your people?” Vaelin asked He had deduced that the mason hailed from the Far West but knew little of the place beyond the tales of sailors, fanciful stories of a vast land of endless fields and great cities where the Merchant Kings held sway

“I was born in the province of Chin-Sah under the benevolent rule of the great Merchant King Lol-Than, a ifts When e elders I was taken fro’s court, to be tutored in the Music of Heaven I remember I was terribly homesick but never tried to run away It was the law that the treason of the son extends to the father and I didn’t wish hied to return to his shop and work the stone again He was a mason too, you see”

“There is no shame in the Dark in your hoift froreat honour” His expression clouded “Or so it was said”

“So you were taught the song? You kno to use it, you knohere it coht, brother, and it doesn’t co is not another being living inside you It is you”

“The song ofthe words of Nersus Sil Nin in the Martishe

“I have heard it called that, a naht, what could they teach you?”

“Control, brother It is like any other song, to sing it well it must be practised, honed, perfected My tutor was an old woman called Shin-La, so old she had to be carried around the palace on a litter and couldn’t see …” He shook his head in wonder at the ht and loud you felt blinded and deafened by it all at once The first ti to me I nearly fainted She cackled and called e of my people”

“She sounds a harsh teacher,” Vaelin observed, reminded of Master Sollis

“Harsh, yes she was that, but she had ift is extre life of service to the Merchant King and his father before hier I was her replacement Her lessons were harsh, painful She needed no stick to strike h It started with the truth telling, twocommitted a crime of some sort Each would claiuilty Every ti would lash , Rat,’ she would say ‘If you cannot hear truth, you cannot hear anything’

“Once I hadtruth, the lessons becaiven a token, a precious jewel or ornament, and told to hide it sohtfall they could keep it, and I would be punished for its loss Later, a large group of people wouldat the top of their voices, with one of theer beneath their robes I had only five er would have stabbed our master For, as she never failed to remind me, I owed all to him and to fail hi ?”

“Indeed he did Commerce is the life-blood of the Far West, those that trade well becos of e, especially knowledge others wish to keep hidden”

“You were a spy?”

Ahreater and richer men At first Lol-Than would havewith his children, if anyone asked I was said to be his ward, orphan son of a distant cousin Naturally, most assumed I was his bastard, an unimportant but nonetheless honoured position at court As I played, rees of cereret at bes’s palace with their unworthy presence I noted the richer the e, the more he would proclaim his abject unworthiness at which Lol-Than would assure theies for not providing a more ostentatious welcome It could take an hour or more before the true reason for the visit became apparent, and it was almost always about money Some wanted to borrow it, others were owed it, and all wanted more of it And as they talked, I would listen When they were gone, with an assurance the king would give the discourtesy of delaying response to their request, he would askthe conversation

“Being but a boy I had little notion of the true i didn’t need to knohy a reat respect Lol-Than knehy, of course, and in knowing saw the road to either profit or loss, or occasionally the axe-’s palace, learning fro to Lol-Than I had few friends, only those peruardians They were a dull lotchildren froht a place at court for their offspring In time I came to realise uile or cunning Friends with sharper hts, made me consider that this pleasant life of luxury and plenty was in reality nothing e, and I a slave within it

“There were rewards of course, as I grew to manhood and the lusts of youth took me Girls if I wanted, boys if I wanted Fine wine and all h to dull the sound of rew too old to play with Lol-Than’s children I became one of his scribes, there were always at least three at every raphy was clue was simple, untroubled by the trials of the world beyond the tall walls that surrounded aze had become distant, lost in thefor a singer to hear another’s death song It was so loud I wondered the whole world couldn’t hear it A screa into oblivion So to takeher final song I understood that her devotion to Lol-Than was a lie, the greatest of lies since she hout all the years she had taughtwas the scream of a slave who had never escaped her master and didn’t wish to leave , a vision, born of the song, a village, ruined, se”

He shook his head, his voice laden with such sadness that Vaelin realised he was the first person to hear this story “I was so blind,” Ahm Lin continued after a ift lay in no-one knowing of its existence No-one save Lol-Than and the old woman I would replace I remembered all the people Shin-La had used in her lessons, all the suspected criminals and servants, there must have been hundreds over the years I knew they could never be allowed to live with the knowledge ofin their presence