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Here, in the waning days of the dying year, the night air had a fresh taste to it, the scent of change In Aosta, the rains were drawing to a close With the turn of the year, the rainy season would give way to the long drought that marked summer and early autu the wide parapet ay, lilies and violets and roses had already begun to bloo myrtle wreaths fro the path for anyone alked abroad so close to dawn

Hefar out over the waist-high wooden railing as though ready to test if he could fly Wind whipped his robes around hi visited by a daimone coerced down froils, but here on the wall its call seelorious creation laid out before them The clouds had blown off to reveal the heavens in all their brightness

She paused in a pool of darkness to look doard the river running far below at the base of the hill Frolazed a silvery gray by thenow, So behind She studied the stars, pleased to find it easier to identify the constellations Somorhas stood at the cusp of the Healer and the Penitent, in her bright aspect as the ht in the Sisters, who plot mischief, but steady Aturna shone within their house as well, with the pro

He spoke unexpectedly, still staring out into the gulf of air "Nay, do not step out into the light I know you co, and it is better if he does not see you"

At once, so easily, her mastery was overset Her heart pounded erratically, and for an instant she felt as ht a hen, come face-to-face with the fox hi that she was following and observing hiainst her breast, hidden by her cleric’s robes, and breathed herself back into calm Nay, he did not call her by name Perhaps he had heard her, but he hadn’t seen her face He wasn’t sure exactly who she was Her sche as Anne didn’t suspect her

Silent, she stayed hidden froht

"Tell Sister Anne, if you please, that I have considered what she had to say But she "

The heavy tread of agitated footsteps echoed up to her So the outside stairs She shrank farther back into the shadows The bell began to toll again, ringing out seven strokes, the call of death Another bell, in a distant chapel, took up the stroke, and then a third, an echo ringing through the city below, leaden and so heavily

"Mother Cleh he set fists on hips as if he expected Hugh to take the blame "Nohat are we to do? I need a skopos ill support me! You kno the nobles all hate ht serve you better if you did not abuse thirteen-year-old girls in the sight of your noble companions and a hundred church folk"

Ironhead spat on the plank ay "I’ll never win their love, so why should I temper what I do?"

"It’s true that a bastard should not expect love," agreed Hugh smoothly, "but he may yet earn a measure of respect"

"Will respect earn me the new skopos’ support, whoever sheThe right person will be chosen as skopos"

"Will she truly? So you have promisedthat I promised you in Capardia, at the convent?"

Ironhead grunted, pacing in a tight circle bound by the railing and the stairs "You promised me I’d win the crown and that Mother Clementia would herself place the circlet on my head So it proved"

"Then what troubles you, h to buy another thousandis upon us Soon the passes will open If he old and then where would I be? Without the skopos’ support, I can’t hold on to Darre, ainst the railing so hard that Antonia flinched, afraid the ould shatter and he go tu down, and down, to fall and break hiainst the base of the cliff