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"You see theht about it before, but that hound the skopos keeps by her is very like the ehters led their black hounds with leashes around their necks, and in their excitement the hounds snap at any person who comes near thes in their du blushed when the other three looked at her "I beg your pardon I knew the entire poem by heart before I entered the convent"

"No" Rosvita stepped away fro question We should be asking not how the black hound cohter of E how, and when, such hounds came to attend the Counts of Lavas"

A scratch came on the door and Aurea peered in "My lady!"

"Ai, God," swore Fortunatus "I forgot Sister Gerwita She was quite out of breath" He eating, if possible, even more than before

"You have news, Brother," said Rosvita, not needing an answer His expression was answer enough

Aurea opened the door all the way to ad so hard that Rosvita herself hurried over to help her to the bed "Dear God, child, I hope you are not falling ill"

"Nay, Sister, it was just the stairs and the heat In truth,I’ve seen There is so little we can do to help theht washed her thin, pale face to ivory "Alas, Sister, that we cos Brother Fortunatus told you… didn’t he?"

Nay, he’s had no chance

"We found her, Sister" Gerwita sighed heavily, shoulders drooping

"Gerwita found her," said Fortunatus sternly, never one to take credit where he had not earned it "She was the only one not afraid to tour the plague houses and the poor houses and the infirmaries She only took me there to identify the body"

"God haveall too clearly where this would lead "Go on"

"Found who?" asked Ruoda

Geraved a languid hand, unable to speak Fortunatus went on "Paloma, the lay sister from St Ekatarina’s Convent Dead of the summer fever, so the sisters at St Asella’s infir on the cheeks Her eyes weren’t sunken in You kno they look I think she was murdered, Sister, for when I met her yesterday before Lauds, she was as healthy as I am"

3

IT was obvious even fro’s walls were in poor repair But a mob of prisoners, whipped forith the lash, could not breach the hot oil and a rain of arron on their hapless foe Most of the captives died in agony at the base of the walls while Bulkezu and his army watched in a silence tes in a steady autu Hanna could do to stop the killing, nothing she could do to save the

By the tiht forward on the third day of the siege, the defenders had plugged the gaps with piles of rubble and quickly erected palisades To Hanna’s eyes, it looked as though they had ripped down entire houses for the beams and planks thrown up to fill in the weak spots, but of course from this distance it was hard to tell

All she could do was pray that Osterburg would not fall too soon All she could do was pray that what she had seen with her Eagle’s sight teeks ago had been a true vision, not a false one

"Eagle" Prince Ekkehard’s concubine, Agnetha, had been weeping She wiped at her eyes as she joined Hanna on the slope between the begh’s tent and the prince’s The guards glanced at her and away, pretending disinterest "Tell le They took my uncle away yesterday I was barely able to save his sons froed boys knelt on the dirt outside Ekkehard’s tent, heads bowed in prayer or in grief "But they took Uncle away for the attack I know he one in his place Look at how ry"

"There’s nothing you could have done" But her words sounded hollow In truth, she felt hollow "Nothing"

Even had she demanded that Bulkezu cast her back into the crowd of prisoners, that he let his soldiers lash her forith the rest, he would not have done so That one night she had spent in the ic sheAfter that, he had reeled in her leash once again and kept her close by his side, always close She had never known that hate, like a fever, could burn you out until you were only a husk