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"If I’ her teeth toto be warned or silenced byin the rain for two days now, and you’re a Queen"

"Queens don’tWhat if your throat gets sore and you can’t talk? Then what are we going to do?"

An awful silence filled the wagon

Jared held his breath, waiting

Whatever was said next wasn’t loud enough for Jared to hear, but Torin widened when the door closed behind hi pissy this ," Tomas said cheerfully

Jared ht about the "discussion" that had just taken place, then shook his head Hisin bed because of illness of injury, even the maturest adult turned into an obstinate child

Giving in to the inevitable, Jared trudged to the front of the wagon and gave Thayne the signal to move out

Everyone else was ahead of hiht once he topped the s the rest of them, and Brock had taken a on and the walkers Corry alking between Polli and Cathryn Blaed was paired with Eryk, who looked grateful to be included again after being shunned by everyone since yesterday’s squabble with Tomas Tomas walked alone, but there was no indication it wasn’t by choice

Jared turned up his coat collar and lengthened his stride enough to catch up to To air was cold--and those clouds piling up in the ere a sure sign that there would be another storlance that told him his presence was an intrusion that would be endured

Jared sether, we’ll both have so"

Torinned and returned to his own thoughts

Jared took a deep breath As he released it, he felt soht about much in the past couple of days, if he didn’t count the fierce daydrea put in so soht Thera and Polli how toIf it was shielded, he couldn’t detect the use of Craft There was no weight, no tightness, none of the things thatof Obedience Hell’s fire, ithiure out a way to elude it Except for the explosion Eryk had caused, they’d had no way to measure the Gray Lady’s temper A deliberately casual coet inforhtly held either A test of obedience? A trap for the first man who tried to slip the leash? Was that why she didn’t insist that they res to keep track of the cold and being concerned, which kept the near her--except Thera and To up with Tomas’s lack of subservience He’d seen a nu that kind of behavior in an otherwise powerless slave--and he’d seen what had happened to those slaves when the Queen no longer found it a But he couldn’t understand why the Gray Lady tolerated Thera’s tongue and temper And he still didn’t understand what it was about this Gray-Jeweled Queen that h to keep forgetting why he should fear her

All he knew for sure was that they were traveling through rough country, always heading west or northwest, and hadn’t seen anyone since they’d left the inn They were far enough north to feel the bite of autuht, but he still didn’t knohat Territory they were in, and the Lady wasn’t saying

Or else the Lady didn’t know

Not a pleasant thought Mother Night,none of his thoughts were pleasant! He understood why she wouldn’t allow slaves to ride the Winds by thee at the next Coach station if she was deter them back to Dena Nehele?

And as she afraid of? That the s of Obedience and then call in the Jewels and attack her? Doubtful The stories whispered about her were sufficient reason for any saneher And in truth, there were only five out of the twelve of theh to be even a potential threat to her

So there had to be some other reason for the flashes of anxiety he had picked up from her over the past couple of days, despite her effort to hide thee she’d received just before they’d left Raej have anything to do with this de?

Jared scowled Whatever it was, it was her probleive it another day Maybe two He didn’t know exactly where he was, but he did knoas still east of the Tamanara Mountains and south of Shalador Another day or two, and then the hollowas the dominant Warlord would test the leash attached to the Invisible Ring and see if it would reach as far as Ranon’s Wood

Just for a little while Just long enough After that, he would accept whatever happened to hi down that path, Jared broke the comfortable silence "What difference does it ets sore?"

To that it wouldn’t ot sick," Jared said Hell’s fire, the boy was pricklier than a Warlord Prince