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Al Sorna turned and walked back to his seat, retrieving the scabbard and sheathing his sword The croere beginning to react now, er that I kneould only grow
“This challenge is not concluded, Lord Vaelin!” Carval Nurin called above the rising tu to where Lady Eid frustration “My Lady, are you ready to depart this place?”
“This contest is to the death!” Nurin shouted “If you leave this man alive you dishonour him in the eyes of the Isles for all tiracious bow “Honour?” he asked Nurin “Honour is just a word You can’t eat it or drink it and yet everywhere I go men talk of it endlessly, and they all tell a different tale of what it actually means For the Alpirans it’s all about duty, the Renfaelins think it’s the sa a son for a cri a helpless e, but the crowd fell silent as he spoke, even though his voice wasn’t particularly loud the amphitheatre carried it effortlessly to all those present, and soer and disappointed bloodlust abated
“I offer no excuse for my father’s actions Nor can I offer any contrition He burned a city on the orders of his king, it rong but I had no hand in it In any case, spilling o, peacefully in his bed with his wife and daughter at his side There is no vengeance to be had on a corpse long since given to the fire Now give aze shifted to the spear-bearing guards, seeing hesitation as they exchanged glances and cast wary eyes at the crowd, now possessed of a rising murmur of confusion
“KILL HIM!” It was the Lady Eer pointed in accusation, snarling “KILL THE MURDERING SAVAGE!”
“You have no voice here, woman!” Nurin told her, voice hard in rebuke “This is the business of h was harsh, near hysterical as she rounded on Nurin “The only ed Cowards, I call you Faithless pirate scum! Where is the justice I was proe,” Nurin told her He looked at Al Sorna for a long“And it is concluded We are pirates it is true, for the gods gave us all the oceans as our hunting grounds, but they also gave us the lahich we govern these Isles and the law holds true in all things or itVaelin Al Sorna stands as victor in this challenge under the terms of the law He has coo” He turned back to the Lady Emeren “Pirates we are, but scuo”
We were marched to the end of the e for us with the few foreign vessels in port A large detache any last ed the e to be subdued, nored us and it was plain our departure would be marked with no cereer there with the two of theainst her breast, Al Sorna sitting silently on a spice barrel, andfor the turn of the tide and blessed release from this place
“This does not end here, North She approached to within a few feet of hi “Have no dreah to hide fro,” Al Sorna cut in “When love turns to hate”
Her baleful visage froze as if he had stabbed her
“I knew a man once,” Al Sorna continued, “who loved a woman very much But he had a duty to perform, a duty he kneould cost him his life, and hers too if she stayed with him And so he tricked her and had her taken far away Sohts across the ocean, to see if the love they shared has turned to hate, but he finds only distant echoes of her fierce compassion, a life saved here, a kindness done there, like s torch And so he wonders, does she hate aze switched from her to me, “betrayal is always the worst sin”
The cut onin my breast amidst a torrent of memory Seliesen when he first ca the sun, the E the honour of his education in courtatte to his latest poeht, the fierce jealousy when Es known, and the shaan to forsake her coht would consume me
Al Sorna had seen it all, I knew it So hidden from his jet eyes