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"You and Daeainst his forehead as his nized each other’s weakness--or what you thought of as a weakness--and you worked with it For you, it ords For hiht, Lucivar There were tih le both of you You tried to teach hiht And there was so much frustration on both sides because you couldn’t understand why your brother couldn’t do what you could do in ter physical weapons"

"He’s less resistant to learning that side of a fight than he used to be," Lucivar said Of course, Jaenelle needing a sparring partner every day in order to continue regaining her strength anda few routines that used the Eyrien sticks And the sparring sticks were only a short step away froantly vicious a weapon as any sword

Not that he was going to mention that part to Daehter But he still kept his eyes fixed on the fire "At that time, Daemon wasn’t able to hold his oith you, so Prothvar worked with you, teaching you the otten Eyrien weapons made for you, with unhoned blades, so they would be balanced for a child’s hand"

Prothvar hadn’t told him that Oh, he’d been told his derandson, had been his sparring partner when he was a child, but he hadn’t known Prothvar had beenthat involved in his early education And he wondered what had happened to those small weapons His iven hih Priestess of Askavi in order to hide him fro at the Hall withas well to ith you"

A quiver in Saetan’s voice, quickly banished by that vicious--and visible--self-control

"He had always been so careful around you and Daeh he alore a leather vest as well I don’t kno you did it, but you talked hi you his death wounds I suppose that was inevitable He was an older cousin, a seasoned warrior who had died on a killing field, and you were still young enough to see the rorim and bloody reality"

Lucivar didn’t move Hardly dared to breathe

One hundred men walked off the field Fifteen of the lines of the story of the Demon Prince’s last battle, the decisive battle in the war that had alo Eyriens had been telling that story for generations, but he had heard a little of it from the men who had been there So he knew about Andulvar and Prothvar fighting in the battle--and being the leaders of the ar field that had ended Hekatah SaDiablo’s atte Reale and winning that battle, they never felt the blows that should have brought them down, just made the transition to demon-dead between one heartbeat and the next--and tore out their ene on the blood to sustain their own dead flesh as they kept killing and killing and killing

Only one side walks away fro the living, the fact that Andulvar and Prothvar Yaslana walked off that field changed the history of two Real would have co into ht you were co in to telltrick you had et your own death wounds And in thatat my brilliant little boy, I saw Andulvar and Prothvar as they had looked when they walked off that killing field I saw Mephis when he first arrived in the Dark Real died that sa for Peyton and Ravenar--and never knohat had happened to either of them But it was Andulvar and Prothvar I saw rownthe living And there were no words for that kind of pain Just a sound"

Lucivar closed his eyes The words squeezed his chest until he ached

He had stood on killing fields--and sometimes he had been the only one to walk away So he could see it clearly No visible lines defined the space, but a warrior could feel it, knew exactly where the line began, knew the shape of the field Once a man stepped onto one of those fields, he was co away Because of that, a killing field e that could be found on a battlefield For Warlord Princes, there was a clear distinction between those two things

After he’d come to live at the Hall and serve Jaenelle, he’d walked in on Prothvar one evening before his cousin was dressed Before the illusion spells were in place He had looked at those wounds with the eyes of a warrior--and the fact that Prothvar had walked away fro field had told him more about the man as a warrior than all the stories he’d heard in the hunting caht those stories about Prothvar’s abilities had been exaggerated, as stories tend to be

As ahis cousin’s body, he’d understood those stories hadn’t told the half of it

He could picture Prothvar and Andulvar as if he were standing next to Saetan waiting for the for theh his ainst his ear and hear his brother’s voice

Words can be a weapon, and our father is very skilled with that particular blade Look--and see clearly Within what he didn’t say is the reason he didn’t want to tell you the story

So he considered the story he’d just heard And he considered the few things Andulvar had said about that battle

Then he looked at his father and thought,Liar

While Saetan called in a handkerchief and delicately blew his nose, Lucivar went to the table and poured yarbarah into one of the ravenglass goblets He warue of witchfire, then held out the glass

Saetan vanished the handkerchief and took hold of the goblet

Lucivar didn’t let go