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"Is it possible that all I have ever been taught is wrong? That the outer see does not reflect the inner heart? Can it be that you have stolen from some more worthy soul that handsoiven to you by God? Do so many trust you because of your beauty and your clever words while darkness eats away at your heart? Do you not fear the judgment of God and the terrors of the Abyss? Can it be that you have corrupted the queen and the Holy Mother both, with your bindings and workings? What would yourwhat I saw?"

"Enough!" His anger, sparking suddenly, died swiftly as he got control of hiotten the passions,’" he said, as if to hi himself of a lesson he had not yet learned and wished devoutly to comprehend

"‘Virtues alone hed and moved on

"What uards

"Take her to the dungeon I’ll deal with her later" He and Henry descended the broad steps and soon the lauard estured with his spear She saw no reason to fight the the ay, to the guards’ staircase that spiraled down into the palace and farther yet, into the bowels of the hill where lay the dungeons in which those wicked souls were confined who had cos, but even when she was marched down a dark corridor, thrown into a cell scarcely wider than her outstretched arms, and left in blackness to sit on moldy straw, she did not, entirely, despair

Ai, God, Villah’s

King Henry had becos, possessed by the very daih had freed from the stone circle at St Ekatarina’s Convent

But in those last eon, there had been no sign of Hathui

6

DUCHESS Rotrudis was dying The cloying smell of her sickness lant stood as close as possible to thealthough, even so, no freshening breeze stirred the air inside the rooht and with incense set in three burners around the chaued by her bedside, ignoring the half-conscious wo faintly on the bed

"Nay, I was born first Deacon Roill confirm it!"

"Only because you’ve offered her the biscopry once Mother is dead! Everyone knows that because I have the birthmark onwomen looked ready to come to blows, and their respective attendants reseht over a juicy bone

Lord Wichs stretched out in front of hi a smirk on his face as he watched his older sisters shriek and quarrel while their arded beside them He hadn’t even kissed his mother’s hand when he’d come in the roorimace as he took in the shrunken body of the once robust woman

"I pray you, Cousins," said Sapientia, atte Surely your mother knohich of you was born first Surely a midwife attended the birth"

"The midwife is dead, poisoned by Imma!"

"Liar and whore! We weren’t e when the old wo to do with it But you’ve never answered how the deacon’s record cao"

"Oh! As if it wasn’t you who had the idea to do it, Sophie!"

Wichman had paid ht in on a litter to be placed by the hearth, where he, too, was now dying, from wounds taken on the field Zwentibold reroan escaped hi woman as evidently his current concubine hastened forward to dab his lips ine It was easy to let the gaze linger on the curve of her body under her light gown, hiding little, pro aze off her

"How can it be you don’t knohich of you was born first?" de from one sister to the other The two looked alikewo behind them Imma had her mother’s nose, while Sophie bore the red-brown hair that had, evidently, distinguished their dead father The innocent question unleashed a torrent of abuse and accusations, hurled from one to the other