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Who are you!
She quailed again, panicking, knowing that she only had moments left to live Myriad Ones smothered her She could not speak She could not breathe In that moment of near-pure panic and fear, she clenched her fists, bowed her head, and let loose another thought as if screaone fros with a surge of heat It flooded her heart, flooded herwere a man kept in dark rooms whose eyes could not bear even a candle flame, his will flinched froasped for air,her mind loosened Just as had happened with the Alderhts for what they really were What she found squir inside his mind shocked her He was afraid He was afraid of Garen De weak like his father In every war he had fought, in every battlefield he had chaht in his soul He feared anyone who used the Medium for it would not hearken to hih a chain and a charht the tiniest of candles or suouelle But even the chain and htened him too, for he had used them too freely and now the Myriad Ones controlled hiuer The medallions had made both men into puppets
Lia raised her head and looked into the sky, into the ain She had sacrificed sleep, but soh to save Colvin To barter for a ht, speaking softly in her ive to achieve what I desire? Colvin is a man of proper Faood health If justice cannot be satisfied without blood, would h instead? If one of usto the stillness, thrusting her petition into the stars As if to answer her, she felt as if she grew into the size of a giant, and the king size of an ant She saw him clearly in the ca blankly into a rack of torches, clutching a goblet of cider, his hand tre so hts pleaded I know you I recognize you Are you awith fear She realized that he did not knohether she was real or a phantohts were so consumed with his own jealousies and needs, he could not see beyond hi place He could sense her thoughts, hear theth with the Mediurip away froirl?
Another thought came to her, so small and still that she hardly heard it at all Yes, a life would be required to spare Colvin’s The weight of that thought and the full rush of the Medium crashed down on her like a mountain She collapsed
The earth shook Lia opened her eyes, realizing it was day She lay against the inner wall of the burnt-out tree, her cheek itching with the sooty ruff of wood Her ankle throbbed as she e of horses and jangle of arhtened, eyes filling with tears She had fallen asleep! The vigil was not co Her ankle was sore, but it supported her How had it happened? How had she fallen asleep? Her led and jostled together E from the shell of the tree, she stared at the fields near Winterrowd and watched as three walls of rass at the tiny army led by Garen Dehts in each wall, lances stark against the dawn sun, charging against Demont’s men from every corner Every one of Demont’s men were dismounted She saw their horses tethered beyond their reach
No! she wanted to screaap, as Deed in four lines, a square, eachoutward, shoulder to shoulder with their swords drawn The gap in the middle showed no reserves Thunder churned the air, the thunder of warhorses Lia bit her lip, watching helplessly at the slaughter about to happen The slaughter Maderos had predicted
Let hiht silently Please, let hih She needed to act To do so to aid hiht her eye, nearer to her than the charging knights The flags were large and sweeping, fixed on poles and fluttering in the air like huge forked tongues to rally the king’s soldiers They were held by len where she was hidden It was near enough that she could see the slope of the hel of iht her eye It was red and gold, tattered, and charred black in places Sohts like watery silver, so taunted his ene the banners of his defeated foes, a deliberate design to crush the will of his eneht, to seed their minds with doubts