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"I don’t knohat chance brought the professor to that spot on that day," Lorine continued, "but he found me It’s all hazy to ht me here I was tended till I healed, and then he presented n citizen of the empire I couldn’t read them, of course I also don’t knohat it cost him to buy those papers, but I knoasn’t just a little" A sed hiht I’d be sent back to the hed and said that if I stayed, that we’d have to work out an agreeable wage Not only did he saveme into his household, but he paid me I live in luxury,off, he and Mr Harlowe have taught me to read and write, too I can read liht another dimension to it, made it all too real "There should be no slavery," she said

"It is the way that it is," Lorine replied with a shrug "Soenerations, as I did When the emperor came, he made slaves of his eneht, it had not always been so But much of the empire’s populace would not know there was any history prior to the emperor

"You have a kind heart," Lorine said, "but it is safest not to speak those things aloud People who are against slavery and speak of it, well, they tend to disappear"

On that sober note, Lorine left Karigan to her ruminations As she watched the sht about what Lorine had said about the e his enemies after his rise to power She wondered about her friends, so many whothe destruction of Sacor City If any had survived, they may have been enslaved What had become of her father and aunts? The aftermath of the war and all the destruction reat fear

She leaned her head against theframe Did she really wish to knohat had become of her friends? Of her family?

It was too painful to contehts with a renewed deter in the first place

SEEING CONDOR

It wasn’t until the following day that Karigan was invited to return to the old Josston h this ti breakfast, and the professor was busily going over schedules and duties with his students, all except for Cade who, it appeared, was senior in ranking to the others Instead Cade finished his breakfast and stood to leave On his way out he paused by her chair

"Have a pleasant day, Miss Goodgrave," he said, and thenimmediately and nodded She didn’t think anyone else noticed their exchange, although Lorine watched Cade leave Was that longing in her eyes? Briefly Lorine’s gazeon her plate of eggs

The day could not pass quickly enough Brownish-gray clouds still billowed overhead, and upon Karigan’s visit to Raven, Luke voiced his hope that they’d get soht and ood run," he told her, "but I won’t hurt their lungs out in that filth" He jabbed his finger out the stable doorway at the sky

Karigan tended Raven till once again he shone, and she even took to pulling his rown bushy He didn’t like itwhinny and an authoritative sto When she did all she could for Raven, she returned to the house and to her roo up Raven and just leaving? Fronificant information about how the world had turned outShe paced in front of her , arms crossed She only came to the sa was preventing her except the fact that the professor kept her safe, clothed, and fed If she ventured out into the world without a plan, there would be no escaping the e could she hide? If she was busy hiding, how could she find a way back to her own tiet home while under the professor’s protection rather than while out in the world trying to fend for herself The problem was, she had no idea how to proceed She’d not done much to find her way home because she didn’t knohat to do It was aln, soht that, ods had put her here, they’d show her the way ho Not even a hint Maybe the gods intended for her to stay in this tiine why, just as she could not fathoht her here in the first place

"Bloody damnation," she muttered She was supposed to have the ability to cross thresholds, to pass through the layers of the world, which somehow included tiic, and there had always been soic and the First Rider, or Queen Laurelyn of lost Argenthyne Would any of the "pieces of time" of the Eletians have survived? Even if she could find one of theBlackveil and searching for one, or by going to conquered Eletia, without knohat remained of that country, she wouldn’t kno to use it Not precisely, anyway She could end up anywhen