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"Maybe it’s best we ride east," said Sanglant finally as Fulk and Heribert listened "Sapientia will not like this news of our father’sroad to the east," observed Heribert

"All roads are long roads" Blessing had fallen asleep on his chest He bundled her up in the sling, off the ground so no crawling creature could bite her The others rolled themselves up in their blankets Fro on their rounds, their footfalls light on packed earth He could not sleep His hand still smarted from the prick of the thistle

Jerna’s aetherical for like water She curled herself as a veil of protection around the sleeping bundle that was Blessing Perhaps, like an a had not taken sick for even one day since Jerna began suckling her, nor was the baby troubled by fly or mosquito bites like the rest of them Hot sun did not make her dusky skin break out in a rash, nor did she see so fast that every h none spoke a word out loud

Maybe he was a fool for letting an abomination nurse her Perhaps it wasn’t wise But what else could he have done? He had made the only choice open to hi Henry’s army lurched and toiled up the pass, Rosvita found herself for the fifth tiotten stuck where its wheels had broken through an icy crust to bog down in mud beneath

Fortunatus reined his hed "Do you think it ise of King Henry to cross the mountains this late in the year?"

"Speak no ill of the king, I pray you, Brother HeYou see, the sun still shines"

So it did, however bleak and wan its light seeainst a backdrop of dark clouds, coldwind Soldiers and servants hurried forith planks and sticks to coax the wagon out of its athered around the stricken wagon, arguing with each other in the tone of men who have had their endurance tested to the limit

"Shall I speak to them, Sister?"

"Nay, let theht But you may take the reins of my mule, if you please" As she had done the other times they had halted in this ive a feords of coon’s load of soldiers so stricken with the flux that they were too weak to walk

"Let us pray, friends," she said as she approached the wagon, although in truth most of the soldiers were too delirious with fever to hear her words The wagon stank of their illness, for these were the poor souls who no longer had the strength to hoist the their bowels

It took her perhaps four steps to walk fro did she turn her back to the pass up which the aron driver had a cloth tied over most of his face to mask the stench of sickness, but even so, she saw his eyes widen in terror as he looked past her She heard it first as a ru roar that obliterated distant shrieks and warning calls

"Sister!" cried Fortunatus "Ai, God, we are overtaken!"

She turned back She hadn’t turned away for longer than it would take to count to ten, but in that brief span the sun had vanished under a curtain of white descending off the ht so disoriented her that she ie of white flower petals

The blizzard hit without warning She had tion’s side, to brace herself Fortunatus flung himself down from his mount and yanked on the reins of her mule Then the storm sed him, and smashed into her

She could not even hear the moans of the ill soldiers Wind lashed her and snow blasted her Pebbles caught up by the wind peppered her back as though a giant was hurling theon until she shouldered up against the protecting bulk of the oxen Luckily, she wore gloves, but even so her fingers stiffened where they clutched at wood and harness She had to keep her back to the wind in order to breathe

For an endless time, as the warmth ebbed out of her, she just held on

By the tih that she dared look up, snow drifted knee-deep around her legs and her feet had gone nuh the furious snow she could barely ersouth, up the pass toward Aosta Now they fled north, down the pass, back the way they had come