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“He wasn’t killed by the Fief Lord,” she told Ellese “He was killed by a soldier in service to the queen If it’s any comfort, his death was far from quick” She reached for her pack and extracted the scroll-case containing Alornis’s sketch of the priest “Did you ever see this irl’s head rose and she wiped a threadbare sleeve across her face before reaching for the parche “Sometimes Father called him his holy friend I didn’t like the way he looked at me Neither did Mother, she would take uing and went to the top of the stairs to listen Father’s voice was too soft to hear but I could tell it was different, not like hi about years of wasted effort” Her eyes darted to Reva’s face for a second “He kept saying things about a girl, a girl of some importance I think”

“What did he say?”

“That herover the word

“Martyrdoirl’s martyrdom should wait upon her uncle’s hand, when there were riht Uncle Sentes would kill e his plans How much do they fear hiirl’s hand and returned it to its case then rose, gathering up her things and strapping on her sword “If there’s anything you want to take, fetch it now”

The girl’s head ca me?”

“To Alltor Unless you’d rather stay here”

• • •

“What happened to the walls?” Ellese asked three days later as they crested the hill east of Alltor She sat atop the s were too weak to allow her to walk any distance and the ular hten her spirits, and provoke an unending torrent of questions

“They were broken,” Reva told her

“By what?”

“Big stones launched by great engines”

“Where are they now?”

“They were burned”

“By who?”

“One by me, the other two by a load of pirates”

“Why?”

“They were very angry” Reva’s eyes went to the river, swelled by winter rains, the dark waters concealing the boats that bore the dread engines along with the Father kne many corpses “And the queen asked them to”

“Is she very beautiful? Mother went to Varinshold once She said Princess Lyrna was the most beautiful woman she ever saw”

At Warnsclave she had seen the queen with the orphans, the smile she showed them so different to the one she showed all others, a smile of real warmth and depthless compassion Later the saees to the west and ordered Lord Adal to hunt the one in every three captured and these were to be flogged before being pressed into service as porters She sent the North Guard commander off with a smile that day too

“Yes,” she told Ellese “She is very beautiful”

She saw scaffolding on the walls as they progressed along the causeway to the ate, clustered around the breaches wherestone

“Blessed Lady Reva!” the House Guard sergeant on the gate fell to one knee before her, hissuit “Thank the Father for your safe return”

“Just Lady will do,” Reva told hione but still so eant gave an appalled laugh as he backed away, head still lowered

Ellese leaned forward in the saddle, speaking in a covert whisper, “Who are you?”