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"To be honest," Karigan replied, s but exhausted froh, "I don’t understand itmask was an object of unknoer--the fact that I’m here proves it, and even its broken remnants retain a certain amount of power" She picked up the shard once es, but counter-reflected in her right eye, turning her iris silver She blinked, and the illusion was gone

All at once her reserve of energy drained away The morphia was not entirely done with her yet, and her exertions left her shaking She lay down, right across her Rider unifor that Cade carefully pried the ers and placed it on the table next to her bed, and covered her with a blanket

"Good night, Green Rider," he whispered, and he kissed her forehead

In the present: Captain Mapstone

"So as you can see," Master Goodgrave explained, pointing at the glass, "we have cleaned the entire panel, and it has clarified some of the details with re to be so high up above the floor of the records roolass craftsmen, virtually surrounded by the intense colors of the stained glass do, really, the subtle shades and details that had co She wondered what it had been like, before the doh the glass She could only ies of weather only lent drama and movement to the scenes

By Zachary’s stillness, she could sense that he, too, was overwhelrave and his helpers had only just finished theirof the panel that depicted the triu War She saw ripples in banners and cloaks she had not noticed before, the eht on ar had added depth and dimension to the scene And there was more

"We had taken these to be horse, "but we thought it odd they were slightly out of proportion when the rest of the scene was so masterfully crafted As we cleaned, we realized they weren’t horsemen at all"

Laren gasped when she sahat he was talking about No, those were not men at all, nor were those horses They were p’ehdrose, part man, part moose The size of the moose bodies colass craftshed softly behind her "There you are, Captain, your roaned P’ehdrose? They were more myth than fact They certainly had not been seen in modern times If they had ever existed, they were quite extinct Had they once existed? The legend was that the horn now in her keeping had once belonged to Lil Aiven to her by a p’ehdrose So, asn’t there o ti one mystery, it appears you’ve opened another"

"The only mystery is why I pinned ue to help us when no one has ever claimed that part in history in the first place"

"Perhaps they had their reasons," Zachary replied

"They must have died out by the end of the war"

"Perhaps, or they went into hiding when the Scourge began Keep in end until just a few short years ago"

"You’re not saying there could still be p’ehdrose out there, are you?"

Zachary shrugged "There have been stranger things"

A pause in their conversation allowed Master Goodgrave to start rattling off the techniques he and his assistants had used to clean the glass Laren did not listen, but wondered about Zachary’s words It was true, the Eletians had receded into myth until they chose to reveal thee had been a terrible tiic after all the terrible uses Mornhavon the Black had ood users froic, it was all corrupt Even the Green Riders had been forced to hide their brooches--with spells, ironically--to preserve them

Could it be the p’ehdrose had hidden themselves to avoid persecution? Any docu the Scourge, along with any other objects or writings that had anything to do with the p’ehdrose

Master Goodgrave cleared his throat and was about to resume his lecture, when they were buffeted by a cry come from some far distance, a cry of pain that ered and grabbed a railing A great gust swirled up fro documents in a vortex The one cry was followed by the hushed echo of ghostly voices, and Laren gli around theroaned

"Hold on," Zachary said

She was already holding the railing with a deathly grip that left her knuckles white, but he wrapped his arh to protect her from the structure’s collapse

"Your Majesty?" the Weapon, Travis, called froht," Zachary replied