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"You’re impossible"

"True, but on the other hand, you can’t say you didn’t knohat you were getting yourself into"

"No That’s true" She said nothing for a while, and Gavin thought sheabout a red sky in the ? Thanks, Nature, I appreciate some omens with breakfast

"I…" She sounded tentative "I know that you’ve been trying, with Kip I "

"While I should have been with you Protecting you"

"Protecting me? Don’t make me hurt you" She rolled over, braced her head on an elbow "You were exactly where you should have been"

He said nothing

"So… how’s it going?" she asked

"He’s a good boy S perfectly, so far He has no idea how talented he is I put hi in there By his fingernails, but hanging in"

"He’s not that good of a fighter, is he?" Karris asked "Without previous training?"

"No, he’s not But he’s ht people They’ve made it possible for him to stay in--which is as hter there The point of hiht; it was ainst the best people rather than against the best whisperers and the best drafters"

"You’re brilliant, and your plans alork,about and you know it Misdirection indeed"

He was glad she could catch hilad to be caught His face fell How’s it going? "He’s a good boy…"

She waited for the but He could tell she kneas co

"But he’s not rin and I see his father"

"All of you Guile rin Even your father used to charm--"

"I killed Kip’s father, Karris The boy is so desperate not to be an orphan he’s latched on toI ask What will he do if he ever finds out the truth? If he came after me, tried to killhi him formidable, and the more he loves me, the more he’ll hateThrough no fault of his own, he’s a viper, Karris And the tighter I hold him to me, the more likely he is to bite me"

Karris studied him quietly "All true All beside the point You kept a secret for sixteen years fro it from a boy who hasn’t known you and will never know your brother? Child’s play What’s really going on?"

"Look, this soul-searching is deeply ain Karris, if you were falling off a cliff, and I could save only you or h I know that I can do things for the world that you can’t, I don’t care I knew I should kill you, that you were the person most likely to destroy me I knew that this… this was incredibly unlikely But I love you, so I didn’t care When I look at Kip? I’d make the rational choice And I feel bad about that, but I feel bad when I send soldiers into war I like Kip; I wouldn’t want to lose hiet to know hi I can do about that"

Someone pounded on the door "Lord Prism"

"One minute!" Gavin called

Karris had an odd intensity in her eyes "My lord, I was never helplessly in love with you--well, maybe ere children I was But in the years since, one But ed You twisted ood ht I knew you to be--Gavin--were so different But I saw that you were the kind of man orthy ofand gentle and honorable and sh to handle me and… Hold on, I know there must be some other virtue," she teased