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At first she didn’t understand theas they did with the rush of the river behind her

"There! Co out of the water!"

"Behind you, you idiot!"

"Got hiain She thought e that one of those voices should sound so like that of her old friend Ingo Hope plagued her, ed on

Bulkezu squatted down beside her

"You lost" She no longer cared what happened to her She no longer cared if he killed her Or at least, at this moment, her hatred drove her "Nohat can you do except run like a whipped dog?"

"I ariffins," he said, but he did not laugh He grunted, softly She hoped the pain of his wound scalded hihs cannot turn their backs on me One defeat does not mean the end of the war"

"What do you want? What have you ever wanted?"

He was silent for so long that she sat up, brushing moldy straw from her lips with the backs of her hands Thirst chafed her throat

Still, he said nothing A shroud of silence fell, broken only by the sound of the river This river didn’t have the deep strength of the Veser It flowedover rocks and shallows, the bass her notes and the constant roaring rush of wind through the trees It re river after the battle at the tumulus, when Bayan’s uard of the Qu Bulkezu’s arh that Bayan and Sapientia had been able to lead their battered troops on an orderly retreat

Was Bayan truly dead? What had happened to his ic that had struck down Cherbu?

She could stand it no longer "If the luck of a Kerayit shaman dies, what happens to that shaman?"