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Theup the valley on a rare sunny afternoon, after a week of snows Most of the Keep was out of doors, working on repairing thenew fences for the food coe The cohorts of warriors at exercise under various of the cohted weapons with sweaty goodwill Children of all ages scattered through the Vale, sledding, skating, or sit-down tobogganing on the frozen strea of summer birds

Gil had picked that afternoon to experiment with one of the little white polyhedrons that she and Aide had found in such nuhout the old storerooms and shafts of the Keep These had reularity, businesslike and yet to all intents and purposes useless Like the Keep, they were sht be toys &039;They&039;d break if they were dropped, surely,&039; Aide objected The girls alking along the new-dug path back to the clearing in the woods where the Guards had spent the ular training and was black-and-blue &039;Votives?&039; she suggested

&039;For what?&039; Aide asked reasonably &039;Votives are gifts of light, candles, scent, incense, or of wealth given to the Church, in which case you present little bronze or lead iven&039;

&039;Maybe they were toys,&039; Gil reether&039; And they did, fitting facet against facet, like a cellular structure or a three-dimensional honeycomb &039;Do they really

break?&039;

But, from an oblique sense of uneasiness at what she did not understand, or merely from an overdose of science fiction films in her own universe, Gil had elected to wait for clear weather to perform the experiment outdoors She and Aide found Seya and Melantrys at the clearing, sparring ooden training swords, and warned the two Guards of their intentions There was a flat rock in the centre of the clearing, and Gil set one of the white glass polyhedrons on this, threw a piece of sacking over it, and hit it with a hammer The result was unspectacular The polyhedron shattered into six or seven pieces, releasing neither poisonous gas nor es Gil felt embarrassed over her own apprehensions, but she noticed that Aide, Seya, and Melantrys had all stayed a respectful distance away

The pieces appeared to be nothing lass of souely translucent when held to the wan sunlight, but otherwise unremarkable

&039;You haveone of the I&039;ve even heard of&039;

&039;I know,&039; Gil said &039;The recordstheht about their being toys,&039; Seya said Tir certainly likes to play with them&039;

And indeed Tir, as bundled up in black quilting and furs, so that he looked less like a baby than like a stubby-li another one of the milky prisms back and forth across the side of the rock Aide sat next to hi back at hilanced up at Seya&039;s words &039;But the Keep was built by people fleeing a holocaust,&039; she argued suddenly &039;Would they have brought toys?&039;

&039;We can&039;t know that these things are as old as the Keep,&039; Seya pointed out

&039;No,&039; Gil said &039;But on the other hand, we&039;ve found nothing to sho they were made&039;

Aide turned back just in tie of the rock and tu into a quiet, couised an appalling capacity forhis silent and efficient way toward any danger, gravely consu whatever mouth-sized morsels fate placed in his path and his et away from him Someti and unstacking the dozen or so Aide kept in her roo them for hours in fascination Gil wondered if this was si at the world or if he reotten ancestor in the Keep

&039;If the people who built the Keep came here in as bad a shape as we did,&039; Melantrys co loose fro down the thick barley-coloured waves over her shoulders, &039;it would stand to reason that the things were pretty important Maia says that when his people came up the Pass, they found thousands of crowns&039; worth of jewelery that people had chucked away in the snow&039;

Voices ca up, Gil sair pass, his fine hands gesturing to thevoice At his side, Maia of Thran was nodding, a seven-foot longbow held unstrung in his hand The Chancellor glanced up through the thin screen of bare birches and saw the three Guards in their black, shabby unifor Queen with her son He passed theed draw of Aide&039;s breath; turning, she saw the quick irl&039;s face

A voice called out, young and shrill, and Tad the herdkid

ca of the Keep orphans at his heels Alwir looked down his nose at the boy until he heard what Tad had to say; then Gil saw him bend forward, suddenly attentive She didn&039;t hear what Tad had said, but she saw the look that flashed between the Bishop and the Lord of the Keep Then Tad and his little band were running toward the clearing, Tad calling out, &039;My lady! My lady!&039; Aide got quickly to her feet &039;What is it, Tad?&039; The children roiled to a stop, red-faced and snow-flecked, in the steaer froasped &039;Lyddie here saw hi up the road from the valley&039;

What seemed like the whole of the Keep had asseer from Alketch But whether they were ones who had come fro faces Fro the ranks of the Guards, Gil could see that the er rode alone The Icefalcon had not returned with hi The Icefalcon had been her friend, the first of her friends a the Guards Cool, aloof, and self-contained, he had only once paid her a dubious co told she was a born killer as a co with her as a Guard, he had given her welts and bruises enough to qualify in ners a the people of the Wath, and that had been a bond And they had both stood behind Ingold, the night the Dark had come to the Keep

For that, Alwir had sent hier was dis the vast, dark crowd around the doors of the Keep was like the lapping of the distant sea He was a youngish reatcloak, he wore a knee-length tunic staain on his close-fitting, high-heeled, cri at his back; on the saddlebow rested a spiked hel sas scab-barded below In his dark face, his eyes shone a bright, pale grey

Heabove hiestured hios, nephew and er of his Imperial Majesty, Lirkwis Fardah Ezrikos, Lord of Alketch and Prince of the Seven Isles&039; He straightened up, dia in his earlobes

&039;In the nareet you,&039; Alwir said in his deep, h you, your master, the Emperor of the South I bid you both welco behind her rise at that, and a rumbled, &039;Yeah? And all his bloody damn troops as well?&039;

&039;Ration our bread to feed the darowled, the sound of it al, and a third voice replied, &039;Murdering fags&039;

With this in her ears, Gil watched Minalde coh and her face very pale The graceful young man bent over her hand and ; Gil heard only his reply

&039;Your ant brows deepened in an expression of concerned regret &039;Alas Our road here was fraught with perils He was struck down by bandits in the delta country below Penaht to haunt the roads by day, stealing and killing whatever they find Barely did I escape with er was a brave man, my lady A worthy representative of the Realain, deeper this time And as he did so, he swept his scarlet cloak back like a ainst the snow Gil had a brief gliilded belt - se swept her, rief She stood motionless as Alwir offered Minalde his ar before theates, Stiarth of Alketch trailing elegantly at their heels

What the er wore at his belt was the token of the Rune of the Veil that Ingold had given to the Ice falcon for his protection before theof Gil&039;s boot heels sounded very loud in the arched roof of the great west stairway The Icefalcon would never have given up that token&039;

&039;Not even to sootiate for the troops we&039;ll need?&039; Minalde asked quietly She and Gil reached the landing, where an old man from Gae seee nued chickens &039;Not even in the case of an eency? If it was a choice between one or the other of the the er&039;

&039;The Icefalcon?&039; Gil sidestepped two chicken crates and a cat and continued down the steps Fro the back door of the Guards&039; barracks; with it ca odours and steam &039;Believe me, there was no one he valued as much as he did himself Least of all some- some scented Imperial Nephehom he could have broken in half on his knee&039; They turned right at the foot of the steps, went down a short stretch of corridor whose walls looked to be of the original design, and then passed through a h-partitioned cells to the right again &039;He never went in for that kind of altruisotten that aold&039;s was by force, in which case he&039;d have had to kill hi it from the

Icefalcon would have been tantaainst the Dark&039;

Gil spoke quietly, but her anger was still hot in her breast Maybe it was the er&039;s creaotiations were first and last with Alith Aide being used merely as his rubber sta up in the rain-dripping dimness of that stable back at Karst, when the Icefalcon had come to check in his cool, i of it must have carried into her voice, for Aide touched her sleeve, bidding her to halt

&039;Gil,&039; she said, &039;whether the Icefalcon would have given it to him of his own free will or not - let it be&039;

&039;What?&039; Gil&039;s voice had an edge, sounding sharp in the gloomy half-darkness of these deserted corridors

&039;I mean - Gil, you&039;re the only one here who knew about that token But you&039;re not the only one who thinks that -that Stiarth na-Salligosto do with the Icefalcon&039;s not co back And, Gil, please&039; Her low voice was suddenly urgent, alrubby and flickering light &039; Alwir says we can&039;t afford to let negotiations fall through Not for that&039;

Gil bit back a cruel reply She stood for athat Aide was, in a sense, right What&039;s done is done The murder by treachery of one of the few friends I had is done Past

&039;Maybe,&039; she said slowly &039;But if that kind of treachery is cootiations to continue?&039;

Aide turned her face away &039;We don&039;t know that&039;

&039;Like hell we don&039;t! Aide, you&039;ve been reading those old histories and records as much as I have Co the Gettlesand border question,the Icefalcon would be Scout&039;s Honour&039;

Aide looked back at Gil, her face i &039;We don&039;t know that he murdered the Icefalcon&039;

&039;Don&039;t we?&039; Gil asked &039;He sure as hell lied about it If bandits had killed him, they would have looted the body, and Stiarth never would have gotten that aht,&039; Gil said softly &039;I won&039;t talk it up with the other Guards, though Melantrys is as convinced as I ae that would wreck negotiations But I can&039;t answer for anyone else&039; Silence and shadow lay between them for a moment, broken only by the distant randoreat gates would soon be shut for the night; the Church had tolled its bells throughout the Keep, and no few participants had reat cell beneath the Royal Sector where the Bishop Govannin centred her scarlet do them, Gil kneould be Stiarth of Alketch, like all the dark southerners, a fanatic son of the Church Soht had told her the Imperial Nephew had supped with the old prelate and had been closeted with her for so with Alwir, Minalde, and the other notables of the Keep Now Aide looked strained and worn in the diht of her clay lamp, her loosely bound hair kinked and wrinkled from her formal coronet She was a royal princess and the source of her brother&039;s power, Gil thought, looking at that white, withdrawn face And she was as much a pawn as any one of the Guards &039;Thank you,&039; Aide said quietly Gil shrugged &039;I hope it&039;s worth it&039; &039;To establish a bridgehead for humankind at Gae?&039; Aide blinked up at her, startled &039;Once the Nest there is burned out&039;

&039;But will it be? With Govannin and the troops of the Alketch trying to get rid of the wizards, and the Archold, and with all the other leaders fighting Alwir for power? With the old-ti Maia&039;s Pena the

unnysack full of cats here, not a teaether&039;

&039;I know,&039; the Queen said softly &039;And that&039;s why I thank you for not - notthe situation worse&039;

Gil paused in her steps, looking curiously over at the sweet, sensitive face on the other side of the lairl who in Gil&039;s world would be barely out of high school, yet with all the experience of ruin, horror, and death, of judgement and the soiled meshes of political expediency, behind those tired dark-blue eyes Gil&039;s grievance against the Imperial Nephew seemed suddenly very personal and rather petty &039;Better thee than hed &039;But you know I&039;ll back you all the way&039; &039;Thank you,&039; Aide said again Their footsteps chiether as they turned down the black hallways toward the barracks In the dark weeks of winter, the friendship between therown, a friendship born of loneliness and mutual respect Aide stood a little in awe of Gil&039;s learning and her quick, cold intelligence; Gil envied Aide&039;s patience and co thenized each other&039;s courage, and Gil, from her own disastrous family life, understood Aide&039;sisolation from her brother in the welter of Keep politics But if Aide understood the trouble that Gil had found growing in her own heart these dark, snowbound days, she never spoke of it

After a ti back to your research tonight?&039;

Gil shrugged &039;I don&039;t think so I&039;ve decoded most of that last chronicle, and there isn&039;t a whole lot in it It&039;s late - I think Drago the Third was the last King to rule from Renweth, and that was centuries after the Time of the Dark When he disappeared, theycitadel of wizards was in those days&039;

&039;He disappeared?&039; Aide asked, startled &039;Well - he took off with somebody named Pnak for soe fuss about it, and he never came back Where&039;s Maijan Gian Ko, I wonder?&039;

&039;That was the old nareatest fortunate place or Great Magic place - the centre-point of o took off for Quo, no wonder everyone was upset Was Drago a wizard, then?&039;

Gil shrugged &039;Beats ainst the ot them kicked out of the city Why do you ask?&039;

&039;Well,&039; Aide said, &039;I&039;ve often thought about hoe found the observation rooht I&039;ll lie in bed and do that, just res aroundBut once or twice I&039;ve had the feeling that there ought to be ht be levels beneath this one, dug out in the rock of the knoll itself?&039;

&039;It reed &039;Even if the power source for the puic, they had to put the machinery for it somewhere, and we haven&039;t found it yet But as to hoe&039;d find the entrances you&039;ve got h the wide, dark archway into the Aisle, where the gates were being shut for the night The warriors of the day and evening watches were grouped around theeneral noise of that great central cavern Melantrys was ant next to Janus and the head of Alwir&039;s troops In the shadows of the gates, the white quatrefoils of the Guards shone like a ghostly meadow of asphodel on the faded black of their massed shoulders; black stars strewed the scarlet heavens of the uniforms of the House of Bes like an LSD vision of the Milky Way; the ranks of the Church wore deeper criht The best way to explore this, I think, is for you to get the tablets on which you&039;re o back to the observation rooo&039;

&039;Wherever,&039; Gil finished They headed for the barracks door, al over a woman who loitered in its shadow She hurried away from them as soon as they cauely fa a threadbare brown cloak around her broad shoulders A few ed froing around the fringes of the group by the gate She looked about anxiously, rubbing her reddened knuckles and twisting at her cloak; but when Seya went over to speak to her, she fled again

Starting from the corridor outside the observation rooh the Keep, con of walls, floors, and doorways, stopping repeatedly for Gil to scratch additions to her maps on

the wax tablets she carried and for Aide to think Her memories were not always reliable, but weeks of research andhad fleshed them out By this time, there was probably no one who knew more about the Keep than the two of theinal structure of the Keep reinal stairways to the first level and followed the line of the original corridors &039;We see back toward the barracks,&039; Gil remarked as they turned down a narrow access corridor to find the, deserted chamber that appeared to be the centre of its own minor maze &039;In fact, I think we&039;re almost directly behind them, in the southwest corner of the Keep&039;

&039;The observation room was in the southeast corner,&039; Aide said &039;That&039;s where the main pump shaft seemed to connect&039;

&039;I wonder&039; Gil stepped through an obliquely set doorway and looked around her Aide raised the laain &039;Well, we&039;re close, anyway This was part of the original design, and I think that wall there is the inside of the front wall of the Keep You can see there&039;s no trace of blocks of any kind If we&039;ve come three rows in&039; Gil turned and pointed with her silver hairpin &039;Through there&039;

&039;Through there&039; proved to be not a cell or a closet, as she had supposed it would be, but a tiny passageway that ultimately ended in a square corner room, so jammed with junk as almost to hide in shadow the wooden trapdoor in the floor With a cry of delight and without the sht lurk in the shadows below, Gil pulled on its rusted reat s cloud of warreat dark space took Minalde&039;s soft voice and echoed it back to her like the sighing murmur of a million past voices &039;What kind of a place was this?&039;