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"What didn’t you tellfrom me"

Her kisses ceased, and she sucked in a breath as if she had been slugged in the gut

"I overheard you and Weiwara speaking today I know other people have said… things Whispers Comments What is it that you fear to tell me?" His voice cracked a little Now that he had found a hos any person wishes for: a mate, shelter and food, a community to live in, and children to follow after him But perhaps it wasn’t to be "I know maybe you tried to tell me before, but I didn’t want to hear it If it’s about a child, Adica You know that no matter what, I will never leave you"

She let all her breath out in a rush "It’s true," she said in a low voice, face pressed against his hair as he shifted to try to hear her "I’ll never have a child It’s--it’s part of the fate laid on me as Hallowed One"

No need to pretend it didn’t hurt to have it spoken plainly He had begged God to soften Tallia’s heart so that theyagainst hope to give Lavastine the grandchild the dying count longed for But in the end, God iser than the human heart

He kne that Adica’s soul was as bright as treasure, and that he’d been deceived in Tallia all along, shtened and selfish and hollow He pitied Tallia now, seeing how trapped she had become in her own lies Yet it seemed cruel for God to deny Adica what she deserved

He could not argue with fate Nor would he deepen Adica’s sorrow by trying to protest what he had no control over

"It’s true we’ll be sad that we can’t make a child between us But surely, beloved, we need not turn away froh needing shelter Wasn’t I one of them? Didn’t a kind man take me in?"

He wept then, a little It had been so long since he had thought of Aunt Bel and his foster father, Henri Had they ever shown hiiven to their own kin? Whatever the truth of his birth, they had raised him with their own They had opened their hearts Maybe it was up to him to do the same for another child, now that he had found his true home

"Did he?" She held him as if she meant to crush his ribs She was so tense "Did kind folk take you in?"

"So they did I told you the story We’ll find a child, Adica Or two children Or five Whatever you want That’s hoe can serve God, by giving a hoh But just in case--"

"Just in case?"

He rolled over on top of her, pinning her beneath hi like, but I can’t recall how he says it"

"’Prayers can’t row unless seeds are thrown in with the ers tweaked a nipple

"Just so," he agreed "Maybe a child won’t come from your woo through to get a child for thelect it"

"Again?" She laughed

Again

Morning came The day passed uneventfully Adica had so ot to see her At dawn she rose to welcome the sun; after this she reat weaving that she and the other Hallowed Ones would weave in only seventeen days At ers or to the visiting warriors ca away the evil spirits that thronged around the village, checking the newly slaughtered swine for disease, reading entrails for signs of good and bad fortune, watching the flights of birds for clues about the course and severity of the upco winter

So the next day passed as well, and the one after There were acorns to be gathered, swine and geese to be fattened up before the winter slaughter forced theh the cold season More adults,men, walked in to Queens’ Grave every day frouard the Hallowed One Alain helped build shelters for them behind the safety of the embankments He took his turn at watch, and in the afternoons tried with Urtan’s and Agda’s help to build a catapult while nearby Beor trained his groar band how to fight with staves, halberds, and clubs Bark or skins sewn together over a lattice of tightly interwoven sticks made crude shields