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What?

Elene took Vi’s right hand with her left Then she stood, shoulder to shoulder with her, looking at the newborn sun She held Vi’s hand firrip There was an aura about her of tremendous peace, peace so thick it slowly calmed Vi’s taut nerves

After a few minutes, Elene turned to her Vi was surprised to find herself brave enough to meet the woman’s eyes

"I believe the God has a purpose foryou" Elene threw the knife aside "We’re in a big ht?"

50

Vürd’s Pass, awaiting his spy He hadn’t brought any of the two hundred V&uu If his spy was caught, he didn’t want her to be able to tell the Chantry anything useful Of course, the catatonic Tenser Ursuul and Khali had traveled with him, and he kept them close--but hidden

Eris Buel arrived at moonrise She was not an attractive wo, and her chin weak She looked rather like a rat in makeup Too much makeup at that And she hadlet it be known that his fe practice for the aethelings It was half true Most of the girls served to weed out boys too weak to irls away at birth

Few becao, Garoth learned that Eris had roused the Speaker’s suspicions Rather than lose her, Garoth had shipped her off to Alitaera and arranged her ht the crest of a rising tide of resentae who’d left the Chantry to marry She was now poised to head that ht even overthrow the Speaker

"Eris," Neph said, dipping his head

"V&uuhly of herself, but she could obviously feel the nearness of Khali That was enough to put anyone off-balance

"I have a task for you," Neph said "One of our spies tells me a woman named Viridiana Sovari has bonded a s Given the bond, we expect he will coirl She’s the talk of the Chantry," Eris said

"She doesn’t matter Let me be blunt This man, Kylar, may hold Curoch We’ve hired an extremely skilled thief to take it from him We have reasons to trust our thief, but Kylar is very resourceful He may track our nal you by raising two black flags on a fishing boat visible from your room in the Chantry Check three times a day When you see it, collect the sword and leave the city i about you, just as you know nothing about him You’ll pay him He kno old She looked startled at the weight

Neph was lying to her, of course He did believe that Kylar had briefly held Curoch, but he’d also seen how Ezra’s Wood changed on the day that V&uu to take Curoch fro went into the Wood, it stayed there

What Neph’s thief was trying to steal was a normal sword, with one difference: it had been reported to Neph that Kylar’s sword had a black blade Kylar was hiding his ka’kari--the black ka’kari, the Devourer of , he would likely be dead by spring He was running out of options The things he’d thought would be easy had turned out to be viciously difficult

With two hundred Vürdmeisters, Neph had attacked the weaves Jorsin Alkestes had laid on Black Barrow hundreds of years ago Even together, they’d only broken the first spell: noas possible to use the vir within the Dead De circle of land around the do the vir there would die instantly It was better progress than anyone before Neph hadAll the ically sealed No one could raise thehty dome of Black Barrow itself With Curoch, Jorsin Alkestes had been more powerful alone than Neph ith two hundred V&uu He’d stirred up the wild ht their shaht them imperfectly, in case he ever had to face them hi ah to distract the new Godking, but not enough for Neph to take the chains of office for hi claimed that only an Ursuul could take the vir from a meister That claim had meant the meisters and Vürdical fight would end instantly Neph had been certain it was a lie He had staked everything on the belief that once he held Khali, it would be a simple matter to learn to remove the vir from whomever he wished But so far, he hadn’t even co out soon, any of the aethelings could show up any day and remove the vir from Neph himself

There ays out, but none was likely If Neph actually recovered Curoch, of course, he could shatter Jorsin’s work and anyone who rose against hiers or Khali If he could steal the black ka’kari, he could ics, raise the krul, and the krul would crush anyone who rose against him He could use the black ka’kari to walk into Ezra’s Wood and steal Curoch and everything else there His last hope was to raise Khali herself It had been Khali’s wish for as long as she had been worshiped It was enshrined in every Khalidoran’s prayer: Khalivos ras en ive Khali a body, she would give hi to find a proper host for Khali in case he needed to do it, but it was a last resort Khali would surely teach hiave her true eive hi from him?

Neph turned pensive eyes toward Eris He needed, as alith these arrogant children, to seal the lie "If it is Curoch, Eris, I’ll give you whatever you ask But there are two things you should know You have not the power to wield it even for an instant It will kill you if you try Second, I will kill you if you try" His vir squirmed up and down his arms as he laid a tiny weave on her "I know you can untie that weave, but one ofon you If you tamper with it, she has instructions to kill you Don’t worry, the weave is sical examination"

Eris’s face paled It would, of course, be her death if any loyal Sister found that weave But Neph had also revealed that he had another spy close enough to her that the spy could check on the weave regularly "How likely is it that Kylar has Curoch?" she asked

"Not likely But the prize is worth the possibility of losing you"