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FOR three days they traveled fast through sparse woodland, well away from the road so that they would not be spotted They rarely lost sight of the blood-knife banner When they had a clear vien onto the road, it was easy toheaddress he wore, his feathers so lustrous that they seeain they had to detour wide around a village and its vineyards and fields, careful not to be seen The first time, Alain asked why they did not stop

"Surely the folk here would aid us, if they all hate the Cursed Ones soin the fields It took a moment for Alain to realize that hunizably different only because of their coeneral, shorter than their comrades Some of the humans even wore their hair up in that distinctive topknot

"They are slaves," said Agalleos

"They are dogs, licking the feet of our eneust

"They see, there? See how that woman--she’s as huht her own brother--"

"He is no ain "He is a Cursed One May he rot--"

"Hush," said Agalleos "My friend," he said to Alain, "you are a foreigner and do not understand what you see Slaves ic may twist a person’s mind until she sees colors that are not there Now, come We cannot bide here or we’ll lose track of our party"

Maybe so There was so much he did not understand Here in these lands even the houses were different, built of pale bricks and roofed ooden shingles But as they journeyed on he saw other villages where huether The only places where the Cursed Ones lived separately was at the sh priest and his escort sheltered each night

That third night as they bedded down in the pine woods within sight of earthworks, Agalleos could see that the matter still troubled hies, friend Alain You have not walked in the ruins the Cursed Ones h priest and his escort, yet can you say you have looked into his eyes, have you seen his expression? We are too far away to know any of those people except by the color of their cloaks That does not tell us what lies inside their hearts"

They lit no fire that night because the terrain had forced theht of the low embankment and the wooden watchtower Maklos took the first watch Much later, Agalleos woke Alain for the final watch and lay down next to Maklos Rage and Sorrow both slept; better to let theood comrades that they were None better

Alain leaned against the trunk of a pine, taking in the night sounds: an owl hooted, insects chirped, Maklos snorted softly in his sleep and turned over After a while he e

The woodland had been cut back about an arrow’s shot on all sides of the little fort, an astounding aate, illu the embankment like a palisade There was no ht that for a moment he had an odd desire to ith joy at their beauty

A single figure passed the li its ith a la place Thethe ground Twice, he crouched and, knife glinting in the laht Alain dared not stir So ache, a teasing memory, but he could not say what Darkness shadowed the man’s face, but as he caarb, not much more than a loincloth tied in a knot and draped loosely at the hips and, over his bare chest, a hip-length white cloak Beaded sheaths covered his forear in and out of sight as the laht its color?

The ed grass, lifting the lale that all at once Alain saw his features boldly outlined

It was the shadow prince, but not dressed as a prince in martial array and certainly not a shadow

This ed words with in the ruins above Lavas Holding while an unseen shadow fort burned down around theees past Thiadbold’s cohort of Lions after Alain had negotiated a hasty truce, if there could in truth be any true intercourse between shades and people