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"Has Father sent help at last?" she demanded

"Nay, he’s ridden south to Aosta--"

"Always Aosta!"

Bayan ave a quick lift of his chin to interrupt him "He’s ridden south to Aosta where lie other threats--"

"What can possibly threaten us ue in Avaria? We’ve seen with our own eyes the trail of destruction the Ques burned and fields trampled You can see yourself the dead he’s left, there at the walls All the folk hereabouts, those who survived, say the fortress is haunted by the unavenged dead A child’s ghost walks atfor its mother"

"Many a child cries for itsinto her rant, "but weeping for e don’t have won’t defeat the Qu, your niece"

Aunt and niece eyed each other Sapientia had weathered her first extended caained color, and , he saw the old dance of envy warring with interest in her gaze "I thought she looked like you But this can’t be the Eagle’s child She’s too old Did you father her on some concubine before your in himself to the questions Soet that sorcery runs in her blood I can explain no better than you why she grows so fast She was born in the spring, last year"

"She looks like a well-grown girl of three or four years of age," objected Sapientia, "not a toddling child of fifteen or sixteen months"

"So she does" He had learned to hide his fear He did not understand as happening to his daughter At first he’d believed that the unearthly roith unnatural speed, and ed far ht He had a bad idea that it would not end until Liath returned, as if a link bound Liath and Blessing so closely that what happened to one rebounded onto the other If Liath only knew that, would she not return to spare her daughter?

She would, if she cared for them at all

At one Alia had deserted him, too--for the second ti had reh

Sapientia did not quite recoil "I a appreciatively, oblivious to these nuances, "I like hirandfather" Because she was a child who didn’t , she went on "I am the heir of Emperor Taillefer"

"Does she say that to everyone?" asked Bayan as Sapientia’s mouth pursed with disapproval and she looked ready to say so rash

"Only to those who deserve it Come, sweet heart, where is the rabbed his hand and, after a rabbed Bayan’s hand as well "This way!"

Even Sapientia laughed "She is indeed Henry’s granddaughter"

"Since you are a princess," called Blessing as she dragged her escorts forward, "will you help er sparked as quickly as amusement in Sapientia’s face "Not one to listen to others, no reater We could use these men in the ar and strong enough"

"An excellent idea," cried Bayan "My lion queen has a keen eye for worth It is you who ht and serve"

"Think you so?" she asked, a flush aze at her husband Sanglant had seen besotted woed to keep her noble dignity intact as they walked together into the ht much one way or the other about merchants who trafficked in slaves The heathen Jinna e appetite for slaves, preferably boys cut to become eunuchs Neither did Wendishcaptured heathen tribespeople out of the east into servitude in the civilized west These merchants had other wares available as well: linen and wool cloth; furs from the north; casks of salt; spoons of wood or ivory or tin; sickles, scythes, and hatchets of iron; whores, herbs, and spices, so than others But after a year confined by Bloodheart’s chains, Sanglant could not help but notice the suffering of their human merchandise