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PROLOGUE

Terreille

I am Tersa the Weaver, Tersa the Liar, Tersa the Fool When the Blood-Jeweled Lords and Ladies hold a banquet, I'm the entertainment that coirls and boys have danced and the Lords have drunk too much wine and demand to have their fortunes told "Tell us a story, Weaver," they yell as their hands pass over the serving girls' ruin the bed that night

I was one of them once, Blood as they are Blood

No, that's not true Iwasn't Blood as they are Blood That's why I was broken on a Warlord's spear and becaht have been

It's hard to break a Blood-Jeweled s by the hyht determines whether she is whole to practice the Craft or beco for the part of her that's lost Oh, so and parlor tricks, but not the Craft, not the lifeblood of our kind

But the Craft can be reclai to pay the price

When I was younger, I fought against that final slide into the Twisted Kingdom Better to be broken and sane than broken and mad Better to see the world and know a tree for a tree, a flower for a flower rather than to look through gauze at gray and ghostly shapes and see clearly only the shards of one's self

So I thought then

As I shuffle to the low stool, I struggle to stay at the edge of the Twisted Kingdom and see the physical world clearly one last tiled web, the web of dreams and visions, on the small table near the stool

The Lords and Ladies expect ic but by keepingthem what they want to hear

Siic to it

But not tonight

For days now I have heard a strange kind of thunder, a distant calling Last night I surrendered to madness in order to reclailass covens Last night I wove a tangled web to see the dreams and visions

Tonight there will be no fortunes I have the strength to say this only once I must be sure that those who must hear it are in the room before I speak

I wait They don't notice Glasses are filled and refilled as I fight to stay on the edge of the Twisted Kingdom

Ah, there he is Daemon Sadi, from the Territory called Hayll He's beautiful, bitter, cruel He has a seducer's smile and a body women want to touch and be caressed by, but he's filled with a cold, unquenchable rage When the Ladies talk about his bedroo pleasure" I don't doubt he's enough of a sadist to mix pain and pleasure in equal portions, but he's always been kind to me, and it's a sht Still, it's iven him

The Lords and Ladies grow restless I usually don't take this long to begin itation and annoyance build, but I wait After tonight, it will make no difference

There's the other one, in the opposite corner of the room Lucivar Yaslana, the Eyrien half-breed from the Territory called Askavi

Hayll has no love for Askavi, nor Askavi for Hayll, but Dae why, so wound into each other's lives they cannot separate Uneasy friends, they have fought legendary battles, have destroyed so ether for any length of time