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Sister Ariel’s face stilled, her lips going white "For your sake, I strongly suggest you come up with other reasons when the Gatekeeper interviews you So how about you shut yourto join our sisterhood?"

It took a long tih for her to nod

They rode together through the rain and soon the city e cloud "It’s called Laketown," Sister Ariel said, "for the obvious reasons"

The city and the Chantry rested at the confluence of two rivers, which s of the city and the Chantry rested on islands in the reservoir, the nearest of which was fifty paces froes connected every island to its neighbors and several to the shore, but streets theated the ays Soardless, the punts moved far faster than they should have

Vi and Ariel entered the part of Laketown that had grown on the shores by the bridges, but all the merchants seemed to be huddled in their daub-and-wattle ho

"By soic we still can’t duplicate, the islands are actually floating," Sister Ariel said "The entire dam can be opened and the islands flushed out into the lake in times of war Of course, we haven’t had to do that for centuries And a good thing, too I understand towing all the islands back up here is a lot of work"

"It’s beautiful," Vi said, forgetting herself "The water’s so clean"

"This city was built at a tiic was used to benefit farmers and fishermen There were special streams in every city that would take the stains out of your clothing There were plows that could be pulled by a single ox that would break six furrows in a single pass There were free public baths ater as hot or cold as you wanted Charic as a tool, not only as a weapon In Laketown, the slops and nightsoil are supposed to be thrown into these pipes that--see, no smell?--that take theet everyone to obey even a sensible law--like not throwing nightsoil in the water you drink--so the lake itself has spells that cleanse it"

Sister Ariel led theed out into the rain to take their horses and Vi took her bags and stepped onto the punt She took some co to capsize As soon as they were settled on the loet seats, the punt began rabbed the side of the boat in a white-knuckled grip

Sister Ariel sic, on the other hand," she said, "we can do It’s just too much trouble, these days" They skimmed quickly into the ater streets and the little boat turned on its own

"There are currents that shift on the turning of the glass If you knohat you’re doing, you can get fro downstreaed into an enorest one of them all "Behold the White Lady The Alabaster Seraph The Chantry The Seraph of Nerev And for you now, Vi, ho before, but only now as they approached it did it beco was carved in the likeness of a winged, angelic woman She was too solid to actually be alabaster, too perfectly white to be ht of this dreary day Vi iht As they came closer, Vi saw that what looked froe in the statue-building’s surface were actually s and decks for the myriad of roo stone was the sas were half-unfurled, and she bore a sword in her left hand, point down, and a cool look on her face As the punt circled around the back of the island, Vi saw that the Seraph’s right hand held a set of scales behind her back, with a feather on one side and a heart on the other

Hundreds of docks crowded the back side of the island, and despite the rain, dozens of boats were loading and unloading all ht to the nearest set of docks, passing beneath an arch of living wisteria, impossibly still in bloom with a riot of purple flowers The punt careeted theo with them," Sister Ariel said She paused, then added, "No threat theyinitiation, but it is a possibility May whatever god you believe go with you And if you believe in none, good luck"

The worst part wasn’t that the last god Vi wanted with her noas Nysos, to whom she had offered her body and soul and the blood of so ood wishes sounded absolutely sincere

21

The first step was breaking into the city Kylar knew there had to be dozens of sglers handed out at Sa’kagé parties He did knohat he was looking for, though It would be hidden within a few hundred paces of the walls, and it would eon tracks, and it would be somewhere close to one of thethe city, a s had lined every road: taverns, farmhouses, hostelries, and any of the innumerable trade houses that catered to travelers who hadn’t the coin for accoms

The Ceurans had taken everything They had disht the ine the frenzy the Sa’kagéto decide which tunnels to collapse and which to salvage, hoping to preserve their oay out of the city if all else failed

Hefrom shadow to shadow He had eschewed invisibility for a hazy black, hoping it would be harder to see than the odd distortions of sleet hitting soiven hilers’ entrance He finally found a large, low rock sitting feet from the main road with trees on either side of it It was perfect If the rock swung open, son onto the main road unseen and leave no tracks Kylar brushed the sleet away froon wheels grinding against the rock This was it

Ten ress Every two minutes, he had to hide as a sentry made his rounds, and every five minutes a different sentry overlapped from the opposite side Kylar couldn’t blah He just couldn’t find the catch that opened the door Maybe it was the sleet, ers cluht

Iht all the tiht affected Kylar more profoundly than he expected He’d lived forhis master was dead In all those months, Durzo hadn’t bothered to coht himself his master’s best friend Even when Aristarchos ban Ebron had told hiht that his relationship with Durzo was special In a way, learning all the great men his master had been made Kylar feel better about himself But time had moved on, and apparently so too had Durzo Whatever brief i life, it was finished