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This all should have been quite grian kne brutal Weapon justice could be, but she detected a frisson of excitement just below his calm exterior He halted abruptly and turned toward her Then, before she knehat he was about, he wrapped an arm around her, drew her into hiered backward into Raven, who snorted in surprise She had to throw her arht

"What--as that for?" Not that she had erly touched his swollen lip "That hurt" He grinned, then winced at the pain that caused

"Well?" Karigan demanded

"If not for you," he replied in all seriousness, "I would not haveanswered They validated the worth of what I aiven up to pursue this course I mean, I know its worth, but now I know it truly You led me to it"

"Not on purpose," she pointed out "You followed me"

"You led me in other ways, as well You have awakened me to the fact there are other possibilities in this world than having to live with oppression Without you, I would not have realized it, nor would I have come to the toave her a courtly bow

She wished people would stop bowing to her "I think I preferred the kiss," she h the woods with his light They soon caht while Cade unbuckled hobbles and tightened the girth Fro until the woods fell away and they reached the road Cade extinguished the lantern

"We will have to be very careful as we near the city," he said "It is after curfew Well after, if I’an pulled her cap out of her jacket pocket and placed it on her head, tucking her braid back under They waited for a few minutes for their eyes to adjust to the dark, then mounted up and rode back in the direction of Mill City

They rode in co in a decorous pirouette now and again to relow of Dr Silk’s excavation came into view atop the summit of the Old City, his slaves still hard at work in the deep of night All too soon they cahts of Mill City wavered in the mist before them

"Be watchful," Cade said in a low voice

He didn’t need to tell her

They entered the poor neighborhood on the east side of the canal bridge Few streetlamps worked well here, and Cade stayed away frons of life at this hour--a stray dog dug through rubbish alongside a ruined building, bats swirled around a sputtering streetlamp The hooves of horse and hborhood reenthyne, the buildings but corpses of a long ago civilization But this, this was not a long ago civilization--people lived in these buildings in the here and now

All reht The lae illu in the middle of the span, two Enforcers with theestured they should head down a side street It was narrower, darker