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Lucivar shook his head "The High Lord asked me to report to him at the Hall This side trip has delayed that report for a couple of days, so I’d better get my ass there before he decides to take a piece out of it"

"Then I’ll go with you"

When they reached the place where they could catch the Winds, Lucivar hesitated "How is Karla? I didn’t get to see her before they left for the Keep"

Daemon stared at the unbroken snow "She’ll live Jaenelle thinks she can heal the legs enough for Karla to walk again"

"Jaenellethinks she can?" Lucivar paled "Mother Night, Daemon, ifJaenelle isn’t sure, as done--"

"Don’t ask," Daemon said too sharply He made an effort to soften his voice "Don’t ask I don’t want to talk about it" But this was Lucivar as asking, so he tried "There’s no antidote for witchblood The poison had to be drawn into soans and then drawn out Itkilled a lot of the e rose as he thought of the withered liently "Let it go"

They both took a couple of unsteady breaths before Daeo home" For hiht then, he needed to know that Jaenelle was safe

6 / Terreille

"Kartane sent a report" Dorothea carefully selected a piece of sugared fruit, took a bite, and chewed slowly just to make Hekatah wait

"And?" Hekatah finally asked "Has the Gate in Glacia been secured for our use? Is the village ready for our hand-picked irants?"

Dorothea selected another piece of fruit This ti "The villagers were elier who met with Kartane couldn’t find out what happened to the Eyriens, only that they had killed the villagers and had, in turn, been killed" She paused "Lord Hobart’s dead as well"

Hekatah stood perfectly still "And the bitch-Queen, Karla? Was that, at least, successful?"

Dorothea shrugged "She disappeared during the fighting But since Ulka died rather dramatically one would assume she consumed the poison"

"Then that’s the end of her," Hekatah said with a little sure out an antidote for the Hayllian poison in tis"

"Our plans for Glacia are also finished Or hasn’t that occurred to you?"

Hekatah waved that away "Considering ehave achieved, that’s a minor inconvenience"

Dorothea dropped the fruit back into the bowl "We’ve achievednothing "

"You’re beco inflexible, Dorothea," Hekatah said with veno to act as old as you look"

Dorothea’s blood pounded in her temples, and she wanted--oh, how she wanted--to unleash just a little of the feelings that had been growing more virulent She hated Hekatah, but she also needed the bitch So she sat back and inflicted a wound that would hurt much deeper than any physical blow "At least I still have allto ooze, dearest"

Hekatah automatically lifted a hand to cover the spot With effort, she lowered it before it reached her head

The iold eyes scared Dorothea a little but also produced a sense of vicious satisfaction

"We can h the other Gates," Hekatah said "We have so better now"

"And what is that?" Dorothea asked politely

"The excuse we needed to start the war" Hekatah’s s the sers will go to Glacia--just as they would have if Hobart had given us that village as payrants from other Terreillean Territories The escorts will be e was located Only the Coach drivers will be told where to drop off the happy families--and that won’t be anywhere near a settled area, so there won’t be any chance of detection The escorts will, of course, be dis for inhabitants" A dreamy look filled Hekatah’s eyes "The co for thehter will behorrible But there will be a couple of survivors ill et back to Little Terreille and tell a few people about how Terreilleans are being butchered in Kaeleer And they’ll live long enough to say that twothe orders--a Hayllian and an Eyrien"

"No one in Terreille will think it’s anyone but Sadi and Yaslana," Dorothea said gleefully "They’ll think the High Lord ordered the attack and sent his sons to oversee it"