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Adica had a serious face but such a pleasant expression that the words she said next shocked Liath, so agreeably were they spoken "Yet if she threatens you and your people, then you must do whatever it takes to stop her Can’t you kill her?"

"Even if I had the power, I just can’t," she whispered, "It would be unnatural"

As Anne reached the steps leading to the lower dais, her four companions stepped aside Only the skopos could set foot on the ivory steps leading to the Holy Mother’s seat When she set her foot on the highest step, she turned to look back over the crowd Liath saw clearly the reserandfather’s death mask, rendered in stone in the chapel at Autun None could mistake her who had seen Taillefer’s recu heir, child of the son born and raised in secrecy to spare the infant boy a potentially fatal contest for the in over the holy church, ould truly beunnatural e hunt deer to feed ourselves? Is killing unnatural e seek to protect our children froht off our enees and enslave us?"

"That’s not what I meant" The hall had fallen into such a profound silence, waiting for Anne to take her seat, that Liath had a crazy notion that she had gone deaf But her voice still worked "She is my mother"

"Your mother? But you have a heart of fire"

Adica touched Liath over her heart and closed her eyes Lips pursed, expression intent, she swayed her head fro Her eyes popped open, but her irises had rolled back in her head, leaving only the whites visible A thin line of drool dribbled down her chin

She spoke in a hoarse whisper not at all like the easy tone she had used before, as though her inner sight had made a voice for itself out of smoke and ash "Child of Flame, look inside yourself She is not youron Liath’s hand flared with a blinding blue light Cold stung her finger, shooting up her arm until it stabbed into her heart

She screa voices, far away, calling her "child"

She knew it for truth, because truth hurts far more than a lie

"Did Alain send you, to protect uide me?" She understood the trap of Mok now, the obstacle laid before her: the trap of false obligation She had believed blindly, without trusting in her own judgment and wisdom and instinct "If I am not the heir of Taillefer, then I am free of his shadow and of his burden I a and thrust it into Adica’s hands "I pray you, Sister, keep this for hiave er, as he has protected me If he ever needs ?"

Liath let her wings of flame flower into life, but she was sorry to see the other woe, who rules isdo to bind her to Mok’s realm, Liath rose easily on a draft of wind cloudy with incense as, below her, Anne took her seat in the throne of the Holy Mother and grasped the jeweled scepter wielded by the skopos of the church of the Unities

3

SILENCE and stillness startled Alain awake He was lying in the dirt with Adica’s weight pinning his left ared pebbles stung his ru to pull out fro his hand It hurt to touch it, still, but once he chafed the prickling needles out of it, he could close it into a firm fist The snake’s poison had neither killed nor crippled hi in his ears

Dust h a cave’s mouth His staff, their ealia all sat on the earth nearby Rage whined in the di at the rock face that closed off the back Laoina, with her spear, was poking at the rock wall as though to flush out snakes Adica slept, hands clenched Sorrow sniffed Adica’s ear, then flopped down beside the Hallowed One and rested his huge black head on his forelegs Doleful eyes regarded hirunted contentedly Rage yipped, padding over to get a pat as well

"Where are we?" Alain asked, picking up his staff He tested the height of the cave’s opening and measured the tumbled boulders They could climb out, but it would be difficult to hoist the hounds out