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The Ar as well, Sha’ik suspected, though she did not turn about

She is gone I have been… abandoned

I was Sha’ik, once Now, I a towards me, is the one who betrayedTavore and Ganoes playing ooden swords Beginning on that path to deadly faht of that weapon Had the world beyond not changed-had all stood still, the way children believed it would-she would have had her turn The clack of wood, Ganoes laughing and gently instructing her-there was joy and co subservient to the game’s natural pleasures But she’d never had the chance for that

No chance, in fact, forthat could now return to her,

Instead, Tavore had dismembered their family And for Felisin, the horrors of slavery and the mines

But blood is the chain that can never break

Tavore was noenty strides away Drawing out her otataral sword

And, though we leave the house of our birth, it never leaves us

Sha’ik could feel the weight of her oeapon, dragging hard enough toit

Beyond the h the slits of the visor, Tavore strode ever closer, neither speeding up nor slowing

No catching up No falling back How could there be? We are ever the same years apart The chain never draws taut Never slackens Its length is prescribed But its weight, oh, its weight ever varies

She was lithe, light on her feet, achingly economical She was, for this moment, perfect

But, for me, the blood is heavy So heavy

And Felisin struggled against it-that sudden, overwhel of how that ht -

A thunderous clang, a reverberation jolting up her right arone fro punched into her chest, a stunning blossoh flesh, bone-and then she felt a tug fro had reached up, clasped her hauberk and yanked on it-but it was just the point, she realized The point of Tavore’s sword, as it drove against the underside of the ar her back

Felisin looked down to see that rust-hued blade iave way and the sword suddenly bowed to her weight

But she did not slide off that length of stained iron

Her body held on to it, releasing only in shuddering increround

Through the visor’s slit, she stared up at her sister, a figure standing behind a web of black, twisted iron wire that now rested cool over her eyes, tickling her lashes