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Couldpeace? He had to hope so He had to believe that Adica and the other Hallowed Ones kneay to coax peace out of conflict and hostility That was the purpose of the great weaving, wasn’t it? To end the war between the Cursed Ones and hu, Adica carried her cedar chest out of the shelter, threw Alain’s few belongings out over the threshold and, before he realized what she was about, set the shelter on fire

"Adica!" He grabbed her, pulling her back as flames leaped to catch in the crude thatched roof

She was shaking, but her voice was steady, ale whined, keeping their distance frohest point of the hill, with the stone circle a spear’s throay, they stood alone as the flaees fro the raht and the power of the stones A few children scouted out the billow of rising smoke, but older children snatched them away and vanished down the slope of the hill No one disturbed theh the se raised her head and loped away toward the lower ra onto the ay set inside the palisade, squinting toward the village below, pointing and e like an echo of the smoke beside thee that had caught on fire

"That’s our house!" He tugged her forward to see

She said nothing She did not seem surprised

"The only tiht as tinder did, burning as hot as the fire "You do think you’re going to die!"

"Nay, I don’t think it, love I know it" She didn’t weep as she held his hands She had gone long beyond weeping She held his gaze, willing him not to speak "I could not bear to tell you before, my love That I have been happy is only because of you Everything that is good you’ve brought to me I would never have it otherwise But reat weaving"

Panic and disbelief flooded him Heat from the flames beat his face It could not be true He would not let it be true

"I’ll never leave you, beloved" His voice broke over the faless all along? He hated the fixed, almost remote expression that now molded her features into the mask of a queen far removed from her subjects "I’ll ith you into death if I have to I won’t let it happen I won’t I won’t lose you!"

"Hush," she said, co him "No need to talk about what is already ordained"

But he would not give it up He had stood by while Lavastine had died He hated the grip of helplessness, a claw digging ever deeper into his throat "No," he said "No" But he remembered the words of Li’at’dano, that dahen he had fallen, bloody, dying, and lost, at the foot of the cauldron That iven him a new life in a place he did not know He remembered what Adica had said, the first words he ever heard her speak

"Will he stay with me until my death, Holy One?"

Li’at’dano had answered: "Yes, Adica, he will stay with you until your death"

"Hush," she whispered "I love you, Alain How could I wish for anything ether?"

"I won’t let it happen!" he cried, anger bursting like a stor and boo? There wasn’t a cloud in the sky The shelter roared as flae, from their house, billowed up into the clear sky The shrill cry of a horn cut the phanto over the scene The adults stationed up on the palisade ay, along the rae, down at the cleft, began barking, and first Sorrow and then all the other dogs joined in until cacophony reigned

"The Cursed Ones!" cried the people, clahtened "They have come to kill our Hallowed One!"

Alain ran down through the upper ramparts and clambered up onto the ay to see for himself The Cursed Ones had conized their feather headdresses, short cloaks, and beaded arlinted off them Many wore hammered bronze breastplates Each warrior wore a war mask, so that aniuivres, snarling panthers and proud hawks With shouts and signals, they spread out to e and also around the tu around to the east The largest group, perhaps ten score, fore and the hill The sun’s light crept down the western slope of the tumulus as the sun rose over the stones