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The Caprine were one of thethat they were exempt from the army The fact was that many chimaera tribes ured ill for holding weapons, or they were aquatic, or they were ti and slow There were as many reasons as there were tribes, and it hy Bri: tooat all, and certainly not for fighting seraphiht of the chimaera army had always been drawn from some dozen of the fiercer tribes, and it ith surprise that Akiva recognized one such in the center of this huddle A Dashnag, arown, but even a s a slender deer centaur girl in his thick arms--her hand was clamped over her own mouth; it was she who had screae in her sweet sainst the boy’s side, and though Akiva couldn’t know precisely what had brought these folk together in this moment, the tableau was siels had done to Eretz: Through terror, they had united it against the the centaur girl aside, gently, and there was fear in his eyes, but he would defend these folk Akiva’s swords were in his hands, but he didn’t want theht "Haz--" he started to say

His brother turned to hi at his eyes "That’s strange," he said, cutting Akiva off "I could have sworn I heard so down here"

It took Akiva a beat to understand, and then a rush of relief--and reprieve, and gratitude--flooded through hi his brother right The Dashnag boy atching the All the Caprine and the two Da A baby started to hter "Must have been a bird," Akiva ventured

"A bird," Hazael agreed And… he turned away fro steps in the creek, casual, even a little corew on reedy stalks at the water’s edge, tucking it into a notch in his mail It was still there

He took it out now, and presented it to Liraz Akiva tensed, wondering if he was going to tell her that they had spared a whole village worth of chih a boy, would certainly grow into a soldier What would she think of that? But Hazael only said, "I brought you a present"

Liraz took the flower, looked at it, and then at Hazael, expressionless And then she ate it She chewed the flower and sed it

"Hive flowers often?"

"Yes," he said He probably did Hazael had a way of enjoying life in spite of thesoldiers, and worse, being Misbegotten "I hope it wasn’t poisonous," he said lightly

Liraz just shrugged "There are worse ways to die"

32

DEATH RULED THEM ALL

"There you are," said Ten, exasperated, catching up to Karou in her spying place

"Here I a?"

"Who?"

"The sphinxes Where did he send them? To do what?"

"I don’t know, Karou To Eretz, to do what they do Can we get back to work?"

Karou turned back to the court The soldiers had gathered around Thiago in a knot, all watching the sky where the Shadows That Live had vanished Go, she willed herself Go ask But she just couldn’t find it in herself to stroll over and feel all those eyes settle on her in that flat way they had, or to put forth her voice and breach their silent, watchful intensity

So when Ten put a hand on her arm and said, "Come Emylion, then Hvitha We have an army to build," Karou was almost relieved Coward

She let herself be led

After two days of Nur’s ain, though Raththat they’d fashioned for his back--and Sveva felt the burden of her sister’s life lift from her own shoulders Sarazal would be fine, and they’d find their tribe again, just… not right away It was a hard thing, going in the wrong direction, but it was far too great a risk to go north Too many seraphim lay between them and ho her thoughts out over the land, i notes that her mother could just unroll and read She almost convinced herself of it; it was too hard to adels spared us, she thought to herfrom the hter and heavier at the sael with eyes like fire, and another with a bog lily tucked in his arht to her mother, don’t kill them

The herd moved south toward the mountains, with their rued the A pair of Hartkind joined therow It wasn’t safe to travel in large groups Well, nothing was safe, but you did what you could Unless they had dense tree cover, they ht, when seraphiht onto the darkness

Lell rode on Sveva’s back, and it see in the world now to hoist her up there whenever they got , and fall into step behind Rath, where she could keep a good eye on Sarazal

"I can’t wait to run again," said her sister under her breath oneas they plodded up a hillside at Caprine pace

"I know," Sveva said And then, at the top of the hill, they got their first glie, their snowy peakswith the clouds like soood to be alive"

The seraph patrols were having poor hunting The land was too big and wild, its inhabitants scarce and getting scarcer

"So, when they had coes were rare; more common were simple farms where small clans lived off the land, but these, too, they’d been finding deserted In the evenings, around the fire, soldiers still cleaned their swords, but it was more of habit than necessity The country seemed to empty ahead of thehosts persisted Soh they all kneould have been a reistics--for those few freed creatures to warn this whole vast land of the coh there was no evidence to support it, was that it was the rebels

"Why won’t they show theion "Cowards!"

Akiva wondered the sa Where were the rebels? He happened to know that it wasn’t rebels warning the folk

It was hilamour and slipped from his tent Wherever the next day’s sas to lead thee or far off the folk and hoping they would have the good sense to stay gone

It was soh, and his exhaustion was not sustainable, but he didn’t knohat else to do What can a soldier do when ht soh It should have

But it didn’t