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Kaldrosa wore her garter on her left arlimmered even in the darkness She was, of course, pretty, with olive Sethi skin, a throaty laugh, and a hundred stories, some of which she clai, and she wore a tabard with his white gyrfalcon, its wingtips breaking a black circle "It’s tion Brant poked his head in the tent, then entered He still needed two canes to walk "The scouts have returned Our elite Khalidorans think they’re setting an ao through dense forest The only way is through the Hunter’s Wood If it really exists, it’ll wipe us out If I were facing fourteen hundred men with only one hundred, I don’t think I could do any better"

If the situation had arisen a an wouldn’t have hesitated He would lead his arends be daend walk--and devour thousands The ferali had shaken Logan’s conviction that he knew the difference between superstition and reality "They’re Khalidoran Why didn’t they head north for Quorig’s Pass?"

Agon shrugged It was a week-old problem This platoon wasn’t nearly as sloppy as the Khalidorans they knew Even as they fled froan’s army, they’d raided Cenaria had lost a hundred on could make was that they were an elite unit from some Khalidoran tribe the Cenarians hadn’t encountered before Logan felt like he was staring at a puzzle If he didn’t solve it, his people would die "You still want to hit thean,hi on leading the cavalry through the Wood yourself?"

Logan nodded If he was going to ask men to brave death from some monster, he would do it hion said He’d served nobles long enough to an said, accepting his helo kill some Khalidorans"

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V&uuh He cleared his throat noisily and spat the results into his hand Then he tilted his hand and watched the phleg his eyes to the other V&uu Borsini, who blinked incessantly, they gave no sign that he disgusted theh to beco faintly, figures were laid out in round "This is only an estian Gyre’s forces are in red, roughly fourteen hundred men, west of the Dark Hunter’s Wood, in Cenarian lands Maybe two hundred Ceurans pretending to be Khalidoran are the blue, right at the edge of the Wood Further south, in white, are five thousand of our beloved eneht the Lae’knaught directly since you were all still at the tit, so let ic, we are what they were created to destroy Five thousand of thean at the Battle of Pavvil’s Grove, so we must tread carefully"

In quick detail, Neph outlined what he knew of the deploy details where it see over the V&uu theeneralship that they had never learned Whenever a Godking died, the an First the heirs turned on each other Then the survivors rallied an anew until only one Ursuul remained If no one established do would spread to the meisters Neph didn’t intend for that to happen

So as soon as he was certain that Godking Garoth Ursuul was dead, Neph had found Tenser Ursuul, one of the Godking’s heirs, and convinced the boy to carry Khali Tenser thought carrying the goddess would mean power It would--for Neph For Tenser, it meant catatonia and insanity Then Neph had sent a sie to Vürdmeisters at every corner of the Khalidoran eious call, every V&uu soitimate escape And if Neph tamed these first V&uus in nearby lands, when Vürdmeisters arrived from the rest of the e Godkings were good at, it was inculcating submission

"The Dark Hunter’s Wood is between us," Neph motioned to encouard, a bare fifty men in all, "and all these armies I personally have seen over a hundred ed Ever If this werethis to your attention" Neph coughed again, his lungs afire, but the coughing was calculated, too Those ouldn’t bend the knee to a youngold one He spat "The Ceurans have the sword of power, Curoch Right there," Neph gestured to where his phlege of the Dark Hunter’s Wood

"Has the sword taken the form of Ceur’caelestos, the Ceurans’ Blade of Heaven?" V&uu one with a grotesquely large nose and big ears tointo the distance Neph didn’t like it Had Borsini been eavesdropping when the scout reported?

Borsini’s vir, the ical power, filled his arms like a hundred thorny black rose ste like living tattoos in Lodricari whorls, blackening hience and power, Borsini was only in the eleventh shu’ra Neph, Tarus, Orad, and Raalst were all twelfth shu’ra, the highest rank anyone aside fro could attain

"Curoch takes any shape it pleases," Neph said "The point is, if Curoch goes into the Hunter’s Wood, it will never coht for ages"

"But there are three armies here," Vürdmeister Tarus pointed out "All outnu to claim the sill most likely end in death, but may I remind you," Neph said, "if we don’t try, ill answer for it Therefore, I will go I a to me, so my death will cost the e his e, and all of them knew it

Vürde--"

"Khali has," young Borsini interrupted before Neph could Dammit! "Khali has sent me a vision," he said "That’s why I asked what the Ceurans call the sword Khali told est of us, the most dispensable, and the fastest V&uu You are to await her word by the prince’s bedside Alone"