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What did that make him now?

Spider’s Fort had been built over the ruins of another town, thick stone walls raised on a low hill to make it a fortress So rassy land around that the brooding watchtowers and ive it the look of aat the center of its web There were many more soldiers here, and even a ca out to the southeast: circular pavilions of white cloth dyed a pale gold under the light of the setting sun Soldiers were driving stakes into the ground at an angle along the east-facing slope, like a defense against cavalry

"Do you think they have the Holy One here already?" Maklos grinned "I can sneak in along the old stone walls and get a look inside"

"No, I e, I spent a season here as a soldier" He spat, as though ridding hi the war The Cursed Ones spread their net wider every year So far have they coo" As the other two began to protest, Alain lifted a hand "I can understand their language Can you?"

"Truly," adalleos, "I can’t understand their speech" Maklos crossed his ar raid

"Even if I can’t get close enough to see into the fort, I can at least hear the gossip of the sentries What do you know of these old walls? Is there one route better than the others?"

"Along the northern slope you’ll find the ground dug through with old trenches and fallen walls You can alleos drew in the dirt with a stick "The fort’s walls thrust out like a ship’s prow at the narrow end of the hill" He scraped a deep line diagonal to the walls he had outlined "Move up along this cleft To your left you’ll see an old terrace that used to be an herb garden There was an old stair there that was hidden by the queen’s ic before the soldiers had to abandon the fort In the corner of the garden, where three walls con that will open the weaving and let you through" He showed Alain how to place his hands and press the "Go up the stairs There’s a hidden place where you can see into the fort"

"So be it," said Alain

He ate, and drank, and fussed over the hounds, waiting for nightfall He took only his staff, a knife, and a water pouch, refusing the shield, spear, and sword offered to him by Maklos "The staff is the only weapon I use," he said, "and a shield will only get in alleos slipped a s it "We have little enough, but this is a good time Open your left hand" He poured oil onto Alain’s pal these words: ‘Let the swift god Erekes place his hand upon my brow and make me invisible to all my enemies’"

Alain hesitated The oil s tart and displeasing

"This isat his ear, he rubbed the oil into his face while led on his lips, but he felt no different

Night brought the waxing crescent ether with the light of the stars that Alain could creep away froround was mostly flat, but here and there pocked with depressions and rubble, easy enough toseen whether or not the ic worked Fires burned on the walls above He heard the noises of ca about ships and the sea, in odd contrast to the dust sliding under his feet, the hanks of dry grass his hands closed over at intervals, and thick patches of fennel rising up before him

Once he had to lie low as a patrol strolled past Maybe the spell hid him, or perhaps only the shadows did He rose as soon as they were safely away and continued on in a crouch, hurrying fro his knees on ragged stone, sround rose steeply beneath his feet Above, torches burned, the edges of their flaring light obliterating the nearby stars Figures azes were turned farther out, across the open ground to the concealing woodland beyond

He scrah the rubble of tued this lower slope of the hill In an odd way it was as though those old sharpened senses, borrowed through dreahed under the touch of the wind Insects burrowed An owl passed overhead, calling a warning that no man but he could hear: "Beware! Beware!"