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"Once this war is over"

"Once this damned war is over Have you heard the latest ru from the corridor under a stone archway that led to a staircase, they vanished fro the only torch Their conversation was quickly s carried her after them, but by the time she reached the staircase she could only follow the receding glow of torchlight She climbed quickly, chafed by a sudden cold draft of wind Between one breath and the next, the torch went out, leaving her in pitch-blackness She cli the dressed stone, feeling the cracks and flakingaway beneath her skin until it seemed to her that she was in a narrow stair alls, wood floors, and a ceiling so low that it brushed her hair She stuers touched the latch, they hesitated

Her jaw had gone tight, clenched hard, and the pain brought a rush of questions Where was she? Had she unwittingly descended back to Earth?

Quickly vanquished and fled "Walk through the door," her voice murmured, "and I will be one step closer to my heart’s desire" Wasn’t it true? Surely it was true She set her hand on the latch just as she heard ht Startled, she jerked back as the latch twitched, turned froainst wood, and snapped up

The door was thrown open

A pretty young woman blinked into the darkness She had a fresh scar on her upper lip and wore only a shift, the fabric so finely woven that Liath saw the blush of her nipples beneath the cloth "Oh, thank the Lady," she said, grabbing Liath’s wrist and tugging her out into a bright chah four unshuttered s "You got her safely hidden"

The ht pooled over a parquet floor and set into relief a set of frescoes depicting such obscene subjects that Liath blushed Her new friend pressed past her into the hidden cupboard--for such it was--and helped the weeping wo and rather shapeless wool tunic, dyed a nondescript clay red, worn by coh unlike the Wendish style she wore also a tightly fitted bodice and a brown apron over it Her hair was bound up in a crown of braids rather than covered by a light shawl, as a respectable Wendish wohtened expression, Liath could see that she was remarkably pretty, blackhaired with the kind of eyes one could stare into for hours She shrank away froe bed and its silken canopy

"I’ll not be abused by hiht!" she said in a voice , but I’m a Godly married woman and I only come to pray at the cathedral to ask for God’s mercy on my poor sick child"

"Hush," hissed the pretty woone now What did you say your name was?"

"I’ain, overco, when in he coht out of there What was I to say to the king? I never iain while the pretty woave Liath a look to show that she’d seen this scene played over ust "--that he would try to rape me If it hadn’t been for that holy man who come in and put a stop to it--"

"Yes, friend, if it hadn’t been for hi was like to run hih Ai, Lady, how brave he was!" Her eyes shone with remembered admiration

"And so handsome"

"And a holy presbyter, sister, not for the likes of us, so go back to your good husband and your sick child Hurry, now, for the kinginto an opulent hallway and the other to a narrow servants’ corridor She beckoned toward the servants’ corridor "Go on That’ll get you down to the servants’ hall My friend Teuda will get you out of the palace She’ll be waiting at the bottom of the stairs"

"What about you? Aren’t you wanting to escape as well?"

The pretty wo’s whores We’re paid well enough to want to stay"

"But you’re so pretty" Terezia looked ready to faint again, and she hadn’t even gotten as far as the door, stopping to lean on the back of a chair "Why would he be co women who’ve just come there to pray when he has lemans as pretty as you to warm his bed?"