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"Prince Stronghand" Reginar was young, callow, and arrogant, and hadn’t the ability to hide his scorn, but he was no fool Stronghand’s soldiers guarded hiht interfere with the spell he and his coinar tolerated the Eika

Stronghand bared his teeth, noting how the clerics flinched and stepped away from him The sun set, and the first stars blosso stroked through the sky, although they were too far away to hear answering thunder

"I pray you," said Reginar’s co a short staff "If you will allow us, in"

He nodded and retreated ten steps down the slope of the hill There he clasped his hands behind his back as the wo circle Three of his brothers joined him, as silent assong He hearda hy were RockChildren

So Noould begin The alliance the WiseMothers had made would prove wise, or foolish No e, as he was already changed

There was no going back

When evening fell, the allied ar Geza made caht-stricken hills in Dalle flask of vinegary wine passed around between them, a few sips for each iven any food at all, not even a dry scrap of wayfarer’s bread

Hanna was parched and her head ached froatia lay with a hand across her eyes, pale and breathing shallohile Sister Diocletia wiped sweat off the abbess’ face with her own robes Rosvita stood with a hand on Fortunatus’ elbow as they stared south into the darkening sky The others clustered behind them, dead silent

There were no clouds, not a wisp The air had such a flat heavy cast to it that it seereen The lay of the land allowed thenificent view out over a plateau to the south of their position South lay the sea, although they couldn’t see it fro storhting the entire sky, crackling sideways or down to strike the earth Distant thunder rolled in waves A net of light sparked and dazzled in the sky as lightning danced around it

"We are too late," said Rosvita

"We have failed"

Hanna wept

Folk along Aosta’s coastal plain northeast of Darre were frightened by the terrible o numbers over the last arbed in simple deacon’s robes and attended by a pair of humble fraters They did not realize that she was cloaked in a binding that made men’s eyes skip past her and find her unremarkable unless she claimed their notice They did not see that the fraters carried swords beneath their robes They fed her and her escort, stabled their ave her their best bed to sleep in, and in thesent her on her way toward Darre with bread and cheese for her midday meal

It was often difficult for her to sleep The a in particular it burned with a stinging touch that caused her at last to leave the soft feather bed of her hosts and go outside in the hope that the night wind h the skin, where the aht, like a bug’s bite Nothing to worry about, then She had only to reo her clerics had woven auivre’s stony gaze, and they had developed a terrible leprosy Certainly in Verna she had learned more sophisticated and careful means of enchantment and sorcery, so most likely the clerics who had aided her then had not been righteous enough to withstand the corrupting effects of the binding’s secret heart

No doubt they had got what they deserved

Outside she found no relief from the windless heat, however She stood in the dirt yard between crude door and garden fence and stared at the heavens Her guards crept out fro sweat from their foreheads, and after a time every soul in that tiny haered from their pallets to stand on the dusty track and stare up at the uncanny lights that played across the stars and the lightning flaring in sheets and chains across a cloudless sky

The villagers ith fear Even her stalwart soldiers, chosen for their steadiness and loyalty to Adelheid and her daughters, cowered as they watched