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Brand asked that the body of the Accursed One be brought to hi of all the world But the body was not to be found In the night, Zedar the Sorcerer had cast an enchant away the one he had chosen as arath said to him, "Torak is not dead He only sleeps For he is a God and cannot be slain by any mortal weapon"

"When will he awaken?" Brand asked "I ara answered, "When once again a King of Riva's line sits on his northern throne, the Dark God aken to do ith hi, "But that is neverl" For all knew that the last Rivan King had been slain with his faain the wo will rise to claim his own, as the ancient Prophecy foretells More cannot be said"

Brand was content and set his araraks And when that was finished, the kings of the West gathered before the city of Vo Mimbre and held council Many were the voices raised in praise of Brand

Soonthat Brand should henceforth be chosen as ruler of all the West Only Mergon, ambassador of Imperial Tolnedra, protested in the name of his Emperor, Ran Borune IV Brand refused the honor, and the proposal was dropped, so that there was again peace a those assembled in council But in return for peace, a deos spoke first in a loud voice "In fulfillment of the Prophecy, there must be pro ill coain Mergon protested "The Hall of the Rivan King is e sits upon the Rivan throne How many a princess of Imperial Tolnedra be ith a phanto will return to assume his throne and claim his bride From this day forward, therefore, each princess of Imperial Tolnedra shall present herself in the Hall of the Rivan King upon her sixteenth birthday She shall be clad in her wedding gown and shall abide there for three days against the co If he comes not to claim her, then she shall be free to return to her father for whatever he on cried out "All Tolnedra shall rise against this indignity No! It shall not be!"

The wise Goriain "Tell your Emperor that this is the will of the Gods Tell him also that in the day Tolnedra fails in this, the West shall rise against him and scatter the sons of Nedra to the winds and pull down the ht of the E the ht of the armies before hireed and were bound to it

When that was done, the nobles of strife-torn Arendia ca of the Mimbrates is dead and the duke of the Asturians also Who now shall rule us? For two thousand years has war between Mimbre and Asturia rent fair Arendia How ain?"

Brand considered "Who is heir to the Mimbrate throne?"

"Korodullin is crown prince of the Mimbrates," the nobles replied "And to whohter of the Asturian duke," they told hiht before Brand, he said to them, "The bloodshed between Mimbre and Asturia must end Therefore, it is my will that you be wed to each other and that the houses which so long have warred shall thus be joined"

The two cried against the judgment, for they were filled with ancient enarath took Korodullin aside and spoke in private with hiara withdrew Mayaserana to a separate place and was long in converse with her Nopeople But when they returned to where Brand waited, Mayaserana and Korodullin were content that they should be wed And this was the final act of the council that met after the battle of Vo Mis and nobles one final tiht here that is good and shall endure Behold, we have araks and they have been overthrown Evil Torak is quelled And the covenant we haveus prepares the West for the day of the Prophecy when the Rivan King shall return and Torak shall wake froain for empire and doreat and final war has been done We can do no more And here, perchance, the wounds of Arendia have been healed, and the strife of more than two thousand years may see its end So far as may be, I am content with it all

"Hail, then, and farewell!"

He turned froarath and the queenly woara by his side They took ship at Camaar in Sendaria and set sail for Riva And Brand returned no doms of the West

But of his co, what may be true and what false few men may know

Part One - ARENDIA

Chapter One

VO WACUNE WAS NO MORE Twenty-four centuries had passed since the city of the Wacite Arends had been laid waste, and the dark, endless forests of northern Arendia had reclaimed the ruins Broken walls had toppled and been sed up in the moss and wet brown bracken of the forest floor, and only the shattered stu to mark the place where Vo Wacune had stood Sodden snow blanketed the mist-shrouded ruins, and trickles of water ran down the faces of ancient stones like tearsGarion wandered alone down the tree-choked avenues of the dead city, his stout gray wool cloak drawn tight against the chill, and his thoughts asstones around hireen, sun-drenched fields was so far behind hi haze, and he was desperately homesick No matter how hard he tried to hold onto the him The rich s of Durnik's ha echo of the last note of a bell, and the sharp, clear faces of his playmates wavered in his reer be sure that he would even recognize theht he could not hold on to it