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She smiled at him aardly "Um, I don’t work the sheets anymore, Kylar"

He flushed "No, I wasn’t--I’m sorry I" He turned and made his way to the castle

39

Feir Cousat and Antoninus Wervel e’s Pass after noon As they approached Black Barrow, the evergreen forest that carpeted the foothills ended Feir hunkered down in his coat against the deep autuht took his breath away No one had lived in Black Barrow for seven hundred years The land should have been long overgroith grass, trees, undergrowth It wasn’t The grass, at the least, should have been an autuo, the decisive battle of the War of Shadow had been fought in the early sureen He saw the raw depression where a farmer’s stone fence had been pulled froht not be used as rown in the bare depressions that ly only days before Ti his eyes, Feir saw rass beaten flat byfeet, holes for the firepits and latrine pits of an abandonedthat could be looted had been taken long ago, but everything that reed

That didn’t only apply to the land Two hundred paces away, the bodies began First, a few e of the battle, and then hundreds, and then thousands, until in the distance the ground lay under a black blanket of the dead The epicenter of death was a perfectly round do the city and the hill where the castle had once been At the base of the doines on broken wheels, half-consumed by fires, tottered but hadn’t fallen despite the centuries

The doic in the land itself, miles across, called the Dead Demesne Outside the circle, time continued, wind blew, rain fell Inside the Dead Dereat shoulders, readying himself He cupped his hands close to his face and conjured a fire with his Talent Then he stepped across the boundary into the circle of death Nothing happened He let the fire die

"That’s odd," he said aloud Antoninus grunted in assent Feir squinted at the air

The Dead Demesne--like Black Barrow itself--was Emperor Jorsin Alkestes’ work He had made it lethal to use the vir within the circle, but because vir had similarities to the Talent, there was always so the Talent Little things would be different, like e But Alkestes’ weave was gone

Feir rubbed his scruffy beard It was good for him He wouldn’t have to factor it into the work he’d come here to do But soood

Exa the air over the circle in the same way he had exaic He could feel an eics Jorsin had woven didn’t break without leaving a trace Unfortunately, he couldn’t tell much except that that the weaves had been broken recently But to break a spell Jorsin Alkestes hadCuroch would have required so soi or V&uuine anyone with a shred of sense or decency participating in such a scheme So that meant V&uuround and sealing the dead, were perfectly intact Feir didn’t think they would be so easily broken, either He hoped not

Feir scanned the distant trees, suddenly queasy that unfriendly eyeswithin them He walked across the plain quickly, the air curiously odorless even as he approached the first body