Page 132 (1/1)

Suzanne craned her neck to see the front of the congregation The Lord’s place near the altar stood empty "He hasn’t missed a Hefensday Eve service once since Lord Wicho"

"Nay, love, he ht out in a storle In Steleshahedthrown to the dogs by her Aunt Gisela, Suzanne had had less reason to smile than most Yet, in tih

Anna only wished she felt content as well, but every night she drea lord, Count Lavastine’s heir She couldn’t re and lost, torn between sorrow and rage at the indignities and pain suffered by those he had loved

Surely she could have helped him, if she had only spoken up Thather

The clerics led the congregation in a hymn as the biscop entered froh seat behind the altar

"Like a dry and thirsty land that has no water,

so do I seek God

With ,

I come before God in the sanctuary

As I lift my hands in prayer

I am satisfied as with a feast,

and in the watches of the night

I trust in the love which sheltersfaltered, face washing pale, and a hush poured forward like a wave froreat doors at the entrance to the cathedral Everyone turned to look

A nobleman stood in the entryway He seemed frozen, hesitant, as if he could not make his feet move him forward into the nave Tall and broad-shouldered, he had a sharply foreign look about hiht-black hair cut to hang loose at his shoulders His features struck Anna with a disquiet that o dry He seemed familiar, but she couldn’t place hi ered, and Railant," she whispered

The nobleation For an uncanny instant, Anna actually thought he found and fastened on Suzanne, alone of the throng Suzanne made a noise in her throat--whether a protest or a prayer was hard to tell--and hid her face against Raioaded hi to his left or to his right The altar brought hi at rest in a heap at the stone base, nostrils flaring like those of a spooked horse The biscop hurried forward fro her and reached to touch the chain as though it were a poisonous snake

"God save us" Matthias grasped Anna’s arrip pinched her skin "It’s the daimone!"

Anna shook her head numbly The daimone trapped here by Bloodheart had not been human; it had only taken on human form when it had been forced down out of the heavens and into its painful imprisonment within the bounds of earth

"It wasn’t a daimone at all," Matthias went on breathlessly, "but a noble man, that same prince they spoke of By what , the prince settled to his knees before the altar and looked unlikely to budge Lord Hrodik hurried forward as if to remonstrate with him, but a slender cleric placed himself between the twolord to move away

Biscop Suplicia was not easily startled, although for an instant her lips parted in astonishestured to her clerics to step back, resu the service alone in a resonant soprano Slowly, in stuttering gasps, her clerics joined in, althoughat the man in his rich tunic and finely-eht there before the altar It was hard to tell if he were re not to fall apart altogether, for his hands clutched at that chain until his knuckles whitened and a trickle of blood ran froation, led by an anxious Lord Hrodik, dutifully followed the service to cohout, and when the biscop lifted her hands to heaven at the close of the final prayer, he bolted up as though he’d been nipped That fast, like a wind from heaven, he fled down the aisle toward the entryway, then suddenly cut through the croho parted fearfully before him