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"Oriencor is dead," he whispered "You killed her, and the palace fell"

She felt hi the burning drops fro all around, black soil fanning out on every hand Water lay in sheets, a coolfrom it in wraithlike clouds Broken bits of furniture, tapestry, devices lay scattered about the sari, yellow and iled in a patch of scrub nearby The mist, full of colored sparks still, swirled and drifted, at ti canted in heaven aht did not feel cold At last, Irrylath drew back from her

"Not I," he said "Not I, but you--you killed her"

She had never been so close to hi scars that raked one side of his face, and the fifth that trailed just below the jaw The scars Pendarlon had given hio, when he had been a half-darkangel in Avaric She laid her hand along those scars

"In Winterock," she said, "while the palace stood, the pearl gave limpse of what the White Witch did to you"

She saw hiazed at her "I thought you knew all along," he whispered "I thought your green eyes saw everything"

She shook her head Was that why he had stayed away--shunning not her, but the things he feared she knew?

"It’s why I thought I wanted Sabr," he said, "because she knows nothing of that, and even if she ever learns, she’ll not believe it She’ll insist on thinking I was brave"

"You were brave," said Aeriel She re the battle fro his own and his brothers’ darkangels "You are the bravest one I know"

Irrylath shook his head "I wasn’t I’m not Oriencor found my every flaw In the end, she broke ht do the sa, full of wonder at her own stupidity

Blind! Until this moment, she had been blind "So you turned to Sabr, who adores you-- lonely for so only to escape that painful memory"

She saw the prince’s jaw set, as he nodded, thinking of the Witch His eyes were like two la

"But Oriencor is dead now," he whispered fiercely "I will never dreaain My rescuer You have delivered me"

She wanted to contradict him, to protest: he had turned away fro her seventh son fro before Aeriel had handed her the pearl But all she did was put her lips to his to ht and stars The mist swirled around them in whispers, like wraiths

Scattered sparks still drifted rando in Irrylath’s hair Her husband put his ar of thirst he al with a hulided past them and vanished into the mist Aeriel started back froone, but a ure strode by--again of golden light--this one a young lanced at the

Aeriel felt Irrylath’s arasped

"Souls," he whispered "All the souls Oriencor or her darkangels ever captured or drank All those she kept prisoner in the walls of Winterock Delivered now Look The air is full of the the line of his arht, ascending toward deep heaven They seeht were lit by them The air felt heavy and electrified The hair on Aeriel’s ar the nape of her neck stood on end She held on to Irrylath

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