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Into this troubling silence OldMother spoke

"We see into the heart of the Earth and we sense the threads that bind the heavens Our , into the past, but a shadow lies over our sight We do not see everything We are blinded where our ht The threads that weave heaven and Earth are not haphazard Find this one who lives in your dreaht where we have none"

"He is blind! He has lost his memory, even his name How can he help you?"

"It is difficult to knoho is lost and who is blind Do you know?"

The question gave hiht, the circle priests? They, too, have a quest"

"My daughters will guide them to the fjall There we shall see if they are wise or foolish, whether their plans threaten us or aid us As for you, son of Rikin: Find him He has seen e have not He can tell us e need to know"

4

TOO weak to ap in the curtain at thethe walls, scenes from ancient days of the first empire and before, the Lay of Helen and the triunize of doe-eyed woed sphinxes Because the servant hadn’t co hiaze across the floor toward the doors that opened onto the corridor The alternating pattern of white-and-black tiling on the floor made him dizzy, and he faded into a doze but started ahen a babble of voices surged The doors were thrown open by guards Folk strea voices made his head hurt so badly that he covered his eyes with a hand Since he hadn’t the strength to flee, he could only hope to remain overlooked here in the shadows

The emperor and his consort ascended to the dais and seated theh e of so close an audience with Henry in thisClerics and stewards crowded around behind the chairs, and through their legs Zacharias watched as one by one nobles caed their loyalty

A buzz of conversation undercut these procla so close that they almost stood on him, yet they seemed unaware that he lay just a footstep behind the curtain

"So, after all, the skopos chose the first day of Sorly

"That Bright Somorhas, the Fortunate One, should cohtful ascension of the true heir"

"That’s true enough, but I thought the signs were most auspicious for the twenty-second of Novarian, last year"