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Just so And as Hunn Raal would say, had he the wits, justice is a sharp-edged thing and today it will be unsheathed, and wielded with a firm hand The reluctance is an illusion, and as only Osserc knows, ned, the day Urusander’s son took h bed We are awash in lies

Of course, it was equally likely that Lord Urusander would defy this seeether, securing a chastity belt with thorns on both sides, to refuse satisfaction fros for everyone

So, in its more prosaic details – the frost, the faint but icy wind, the plu of horses and the occasional bray of a pack- in the company of men, women, children and beasts – she could, if unmindful, believe the stream of life to be unbroken, with all its pro sun

She drew her cloak about her rounded shoulders, and set out through the ca carefully to avoid the ropes and stakes, taking caution on the furrows that cut diagonally across her path, and the stubble left behind by the harvesting only a week past She skirted the trenches carved deep into the soil where wastes floated on the sluggish surface ofwith the bloated carcasses of rats By h,clouds, thirsty for blood If soldiers stood arrayed in ranks, facing the ene the clash of weapons

Though her ion, Renarr had little sense of the s of war For her, it was a force that had, until now, been locked in her past: a realm of sudden absences, holloith losses and ill luck, where even sorrow felt cool to the touch It was a place soht was to feel as if she was stealing a stranger’s memories The veterans she took to her furs had known that realht, as the prospect of battle drew closer, she sensed in the their eyes and stealing ahat feords they were inclined to utter And when they made love, it seemed an act of shame

Mylike this one, settling bleak eyes upon what the day would bring Did she taste her death on the air? Did she see a vision of her rotting corpse, there in her own shadow? And would she have known, by sight, the weapon that would cut her down – a blinding flash drawing closer through the press? Did she look into the glaring eyes of her slayer, and see in them her death writ plain?

Or was she no different, on that , from every other fool in her company?

The questions sees covered in dust, the dust shaken free, blown into the air by a heavy but h Renarr was not born to take sword in hand The knife in its thin leather sheath at her hip wasit As she walked, unburnished, her skin as yet unblessed by whiteness, soldiers surrounded her, and in the bright light, which rose like another world, a world unlike the night before, she was deftly ignored, seen but not seen, and the sight of her, if it yielded anything at all, raised surely little ret – the soft feel of her flesh, the weight she carried that surprised every s were relevant now

But there was power to be found nonetheless: the cheap wo strongon their bared brows The pleasures of flesh made but a sharp fold in the sensations of life, and upon its opposite side that flesh knew pain and terrible dae In a careless moment, one could mistake the stains of one for the other

She was the reminder they did not want, not here and not now, and so she walked unaccosted, too solid to be a ghost, but shunned all the sahosts – the living ones at least – and if so, then the world was full of theh, and each day they wandered unseen, dreaesture that would yield in everyone the delicious shock of recognition

The banner of the coolden sun in its blue field, was directly ahead now, and as she drew nearer she noted the gap surrounding that tent, as if soed closer and those that she could see, there on the periphery, were all turned away Mo fro: the voice of Vatha Urusander, coion and her adoptive father

Those who ht have replied to Urusander spoke in low tones, with h canvas walls, and so it see with himself, like a madman at ith the voices in his head For a brief instant, Renarr iined him alone in the comnoely unaffected, as he swung to her a confused, baffled face Then the moment passed and she approached the entrance, where the stained flap hung down like a beggar’s blanket

She was still a half-dozen strides from the tent when she saw that flap stir and then buckle to one side Captain Hunn Raal ehtened His face was red beneath the bleached mask of his miraculous transforlanced around, gazeon Renarr, who had slowed her steps One of his cousins appeared behind hi, and upon her round, chalky face there was a subtle flash of expression, which ht have been pleasure, that then curled into a sneer when she saw Renarr

Nudging her cousin, Sevegg stepped to one side and sketched a irl,’ she said, ‘winter is not to blame’

‘I a past

But Hunn Raal reached out and touched her shoulder

She halted, faced him

‘I think he would not delight in seeing you, Renarr,’ the captain said, studying her with his bloodshot eyes ‘How many cloaks of defeat can one man wear?’

‘You smell of wine,’ Renarr replied

She drew aside the flap and strode into the tent