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"Kaeleer had the doth in the last war, too," Jaenelle replied quietly "And Kaeleer won--barely, but Kaeleer won But all those males died And it didn’t make any difference The taint that fed that war is still in the Blood, even stronger now"
"Hekatah and Dorothea can be destroyed"
Jaenelle moved around the table in order to pace "It wouldn’t do any good at this point Even if they’re destroyed, even if Kaeleer wins the initial war, the Shadow Realm won’t win The taint’s too widespread now Terreille will keep sending arhting will go on and on, in Terreille as well as in Kaeleer, until the Blood can’t remember who they are or that they were supposed to be the caretakers of the Realms"
"We’re at war, Jaenelle," Daemon said earnestly "It doesn’t matter if it’s been formally declared or not Weare at war"
"No"
"You have the strength to make the difference If you unleash--"
"I can’t"
"You can"
"I can’t"
"WHY NOT?"
She turned on him "BECAUSE, DAMN YOU, I’M TOO STRONG! If I unleash th, it will destroy the BloodAll the Blood In Terreille In Kaeleer In Hell"
Daes turned to water Weakly, he pushed aside some books so that he could sit on the tableYou had said she was six tith Oh, Father, you were so wrong Six tih power to wipe the Blood out of existence
With her arms wrapped around herself, Jaenelle paced "The Keep is the Sanctuary It wouldn’t be affected But how many could it hold? A few thousand atchoices are made and the taint is still there, hidden because so of Alexandra Would anyone have considered Alexandra tainted? Misguided, certainly, but unless they were obviously twisted, the Queens would definitely be a the chosen And what about so about, but the kind of woman who could sour the males around her and eventually ruin a land Exactly the kind of woman Dorothea cultivated
"The Blood are the Blood," Jaenelle continued "Two feet, four feet, it doesn’t ift of Craft came from one source, and it binds all of us"
So not even the kindred could be spared No wonder this had been ripping her apart "Does Kaeleer win?" Daemon asked quietly A full minute passed before Jaenelle answered "Yes But the price for winning will be all the Kaeleer Queens and all the Warlord Princes"
Daeht about the decent people he had ht about the kindred He thought about the children Most of all, he thought about Daemonar, Lucivar’s son If, for some reason, they didn’t destroy Dorothea and Hekatah, and those two got their hands on Daeth Destroy the Blood" Jaenelle’s mouth fell open She stared at hiet rid of the taint Dorothea and Hekatah have spread in the Blood, then, by the Darkness, Jaenelle, show soain "There has to be a way to separate Blood from Blood Therehas to be"
A memory teased him, but he couldn’t catch hold of it while her frenziedin motion "Stand still," he snapped She ca silence The ht the tail of it "I think there’s a way"
Her eyes widened but she obeyed the coo, there was a Queen called the Gray Lady When a village she was staying in was about to be attacked by Hayllian warriors, she found a way to separate the villagers froth, the villagers were spared"
"How did she do it?" Jaenelle asked very quietly
"I don’t know" He hesitated--and wondered why he hesitated "A man I kneith her at the tie to me that he had made a written account of the ’adventure’ and had left it for ood Queen, the last Queen to hold Dorothea at bay He wanted her rerabbed him "Then youdo kno she did it!"
"No, Idon’t know I never picked up the written account I decided to leave it where it was, out of Dorothea’s reach"
"Do you think you could find it?" Jaenelle asked anxiously
"That shouldn’t be difficult," Daemon replied dryly as he wrapped his ar to touch her "He left it with the Keep’s librarian"
"I retrieved it from the Terreillean Keep the first time you came to Ebon Askavi with Jaenelle," Geoffrey said as he handed Daemon a carefully wrapped parcel "I wondered at the time why you didn’t ask for it What made you think of it now?"