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Prologue

The light of the ca in the utter darkness only found in the secret places far from civilization The woman let her endless black hair fall over her shoulders and cover her bare ar the cold ic

This was the last night they would stay here, and they had oodbye The conversation had dwindled with the fire The tone had turned serious and there were important questions that had been put off until now Questions that needed answering

"And where will you go next?" the black man asked in his thick Caribbean accent from across the fire He was an old friend, but even old friends could not be trusted these days

"We don’t know," she answered honestly She hadn’t known the answer to that question in a long tio to the stick that he used to stir the small flames of the leftover fire

"No, not yet," her husband answered "It’s not time for that yet"

"There is word that maybe an alliance will be made, between your people and theirs," the black man stated, his eyes narrowed in suspicion He had a name, but it was rarely used, only by those that had known hi and even they used the title in whispered tones

"They are not our people," the wo us with them, for their sakes"

"Yes, yes, I suppose," he replied quickly,at the cinders

"And ill you do?" the husband asked, leaning forward conspiratorially He was used to secrecy, used to whispering plans and artfully cryptic es

"I will do what I always do Survive" the black ray eyes clouded with ht they lost him to the painful past

"Will you help them, should they ask?" the other man pressed

"No," the black man said simply "I have been drawn in before and my people are the ones who suffer The old ic is too binding, there is no hope We must do e can with our freedom here and if they come, rebuild soain"

"Yes," the woman whispered sympathetically, "Your people have suffered too much Of course it is better to stay out of it"

The black h He had not expected e people expected "But you will help this tih it was barely a question He was accusing them

"This time is different," thewisdom that a as imminent And that this tiht

"Yes, yes I suppose it is," the black man had settled back down into the pensive ancient he was "I should like to meet them, these children that call you out of anony here, behind your mountains and isolation," the erous to provoke this ht of a hunted people on his shoulders

"We shall see," he smiled into the face of the fire

"What do you know?" the woman asked in a panicked voice "What have you seen?"

"Ah, and now I know the reason for your visit"

"That is not true," she retracted, defensively "Only you reference the future, and I cannot help but You must understand" she trailed off, hardly able to explain her deep hunger to kno this would end

"It is dangerous to know the future, is it not? Toofor sure," the black man chided

"If they coed the subject, her carnal need to protect overwhel her

"I will not know until they come," the black man replied cryptically

"She saved one of your kind," the husband spoke up again