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No one dared speak for fear their voices would carry on the still winter air across the sea of snow and blanketed forest to the waiting Quman Surely they were still out there

They hadn’t the tiround, so they just left the a cairn of rocks over theht What else could they do?

As the others ri party a short way, just to get an idea what direction they were heading That was the eeriest thing of all: the Quman riders had obviously ridden back down the trail toward the abandoned village One h to leave a faint trail of blood in his wake, quickly churned away by the passage of his fellows It seemed possible, in retrospect, that the solitary hoofprints veering off froe had been those of a Quman scout rather than one of the deserters Had it only been a dreaht?

Of course it had If the Quman had spotted them, they would have attacked They hadn’t spotted theue with Lady Fortune, her mother would say

Nervous every tiht of snow, she returned to the others They were eager to be gone froe

"Didn’t they kill even one?" deht Lord Dietrich’s cousins were strong fighters"

"Maybe they were taken unawares," said Hanna, which shut them up

Maybe she had ridden under worse conditions in her tile, but she couldn’t think of any The silence beca, teed on and on and on along the path that led thees where they had traveled thus far, on into the old uncut heart, a vast tract of trees and silence They saw no living creatures except themselves The path was their only land a narrow track bounded by trees Except for a detour here and there to cut around an escarpment or dip down to a ford in a streah the old forest Luckily for their feet, the strea easy

The worst part of the whole long, cold, nerve-racking, ht in twilight deep in the forest without shelter

Fortunately, the old sergeant, Gotfrid, kneoodcraft He spotted a dense stand of fir trees off to the right of the path In their center, under overhanging branches, they discovered a living cathedral blanketed with needles and almost free of snow The air lay close and quiet underneath the overarching branches In an odd way, Hanna felt protected here, as though they had stuht horses could all crowd in, as long as two es to peer out into the darkening forest Clouds hung low, see to brush the tops of trees, and snow skirled down, spinning and drifting

"It’s really beautiful," she murmured to old Gotfrid She had come up beside his sentry post to survey their situation "Or would be, anyway, if we had a fire andlike wolves to feed on us," he agreed He was a good man, stable, shrewd, and steady, who had spent most of his adult life as a Lion

"There’s solanced back to make sure the others couldn’t hear them Several ranks of trees, each taller and broader than the last, separated them from the hidden center "Why would a practicalfor a heresy?"

He chuckled, taking no offense at the question, as she’d guessed he wouldn’t He was old enough to have white in his hair and a few age spots on his face "You’re thinking that those young lordsand rash and fools, aren’t you? That’s because you’re a practical young woly, and it was a ained for him on this desperate journey that she smiled, pleased with the co suddenly serious

Snow fell softly throughout the vista beyond, aIt was almost too dark to see

"Have you ever seen a rose?" he asked finally

"Truly, I have seen one or two in arden at Autun"