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"And you believe what you saw?" His eyes ide, the disbelief in the I knew all too well To know so in your heart was true, but to be unable to speak of it, to tell others what you knew

"No one would believe me, either, Ash And I convinced myself it was just a dream, one I lived over and over"

His arned to keep you safe" I nodded and he continued "I failed you once I won’t fail you againLarkspur"

I blinked away a wash of gratitude, which was closely followed by a shot of anger "Then why the hell have you treated ?" The words snapped out and Ash gavesure you didn’t become an Ender To think you couldn’t do it This is not a job for the long-lived and uninjured, if you haven’t noticed"

My jaw dropped and I spluttered "You were trying to getsuch a bastard?"

His chuckle reverberated through towho a bastard?"

Ouch I flinched away froize and I realized he was still trying to get ive up Toan Ender And soht be an ass, but in his oay, he was looking out for me Even after all these years

We wove our way slowly through the passages until voices brought us to a standstill "Is that who I think it is?" I whispered

Ash frowned "I sure as hell hope not"

With her high-pitched soprano tones, Belladonna was a hard one to confuse with anyone else She laughed at so ht we could have been sardines in those tin cans the humans liked so much He drew his cloak over us except for our eyes Now the cloak e in the darkness

From the shadoatched Belladonna draw close "So you see, your Highness, my mother thinks it’s best if this"--she waved her hand in the air, flickering her fingers several ti she’d previously worn--"illness runs its own course, without the intervention of healers She wants to see our portion of the fathened"

We both stiffened under the confines of the cloak Anger burned upI had not to lurch out, hobbling on one leg, to bash Belladonna until she told us everything