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The witch snorted "No threats from the White Demon?"

Oh, she knew, then Who Manon ho they all were

"Or are the rurandmother?" The witch brazenly surveyed Manon from head to boot A bolder look than Manon usually allowed her eneutted at her hand, but here you are Hale and onceus Perhaps the rumors about your defection aren’t true, either"

"She broke fro off Vesta’s wyvern and prowling toward Abraxos The Crochans tensed, but o, when she lay upon Death’s doorstep Saw the iron shards my friends reain taking in the beautiful, well-spokenthe power that radiated from him--and the keys he bore "And who, exactly, are you?"

Dorian gave the witch one of those char smiles and sketched a bow "Dorian Havilliard, at your service"

"The king," one of the Crochans murmured from near the wyverns

Dorian winked "That I am, too"

The head of the coven, however, studied him--then Manon The spider "There is more to be explained, it seems"

Manon’s hand itched for Wind-Cleaver at her back

But Dorian said, "We’ve been looking for you for two ain tensed "Not for violence or sport," he clarified, the words flowing in a silver-tongued ht discuss matters between our peoples"

The Crochans shifted, boots crunching in the icy snow

The coven leader asked, "Between Adarlan and us, or between the Blackbeaks and our people?"

Manon slid off Abraxos at last, herweapons "All of us," Manon said tightly She jerked her chin to the wyverns "They will not harnaled the command Then the Crochans’ heads would be torn from their bodies before they could draw their swords "You can stand down"

One of the Crochans laughed "And be re you? I think not"

The coven leader slashed a silencing glare toward the brown-haired sentinel who’d spoken, a pretty, full-figured witch The witch shrugged, sighing skyward

The coven leader turned to Manon "We will stand doe are ordered to do so"

"By whom?" Dorian scanned their ranks

Noould be the time for Manon to say who she hat she was To announce why she had truly come

The coven leader pointed deeper into the camp "Her"

Even from a distance, Dorian had h the sky But now, surrounded by them … No mere myths But warriors Ones all too happy to end theainst the snow and gray peaks Though -faced and beautiful, there were just as ed, some even elderly How old they must have been to become so withered, Dorian couldn’t fathom He had little doubt they could kill him with ease

The coven leader pointed toward the neat rows of tents, and the gathered warriors parted, the wall of brooht

"So," an ancient voice said as the ranks stepped back to reveal the one to whoe, but her hair hite with it Her blue eyes, however, were clear as a mountain lake "The hunters have now becoe of her ranks, surveying Manon There was kindness on the witch’s face, Dorian noted--and wisdo, he realized, like sorrow It didn’t halt hi a hand onto Daht you so weout over the rocks "We mean you no harm"

Damaris warmed at the truth in her words

"This time," the brown-haired witch who’d spoken earlier

"Who are you, though?" Manon instead asked the crone "You lead these covens"

"I a before the city fell" The ancient witch’s eyes went to the strip of red cloth tying Manon’s braid "Rhiannon found you, then"

Dorian had listened when Manon had explained to the Thirteen the truth about her heritage, and who her granda

Manon kept her chin up, even as her golden eyes flickered "Rhiannon didn’t make it out of the Ferian Gap"