Page 29 (1/2)

Dorian asked, "And if their queen su steps, and then Bronas there, her brown eyes blazing "Don’t answer, Glennis"

Such disrespect, such infor stare on Manon "You are not our queen, despite what your blood est Despite this little skirmish We do not, and will never, answer to you"

"Morath found you just now," Manon said coolly She’d anticipated this reaction "It will do so again Whether it is in a few months, or a year, they will find you And then there will be no hope of beating thee to unsheathe her iron claws "A host of doms rallies in Terrasen Join theo," another voice said, co closer The pretty, brown-haired witch from earlier Her brooold "I don’t see e should bother helping thehteous do-gooders," Manon crooned "Surely this would be your sort of thing"

The young witch bristled, but Glennis held up a withered hand

It wasn’t enough to stop Bronwen, though, as the witch looked Manon over and snarled, "You are not our queen We will never fly with you"

Bronwen and the younger witch stor to let thehtly "Our family, you will find, has a hotheaded streak"

Ruthless

What Manon had done tonight, leading the Ironteeth to this camp … Dorian didn’t have a word for it other than ruthless

He left Manon and her great-grand on, and went in search of the spider

He found Cyrene where he’d left her, crouched in the shadows of one of the farther tents

She’d returned to her huled, bundled in a Crochan cloak As if one of theer in Cyrene’s eyes wasn’t for the goat stew

"Where does the shifting come from?" Dorian asked as he paused before her, a hand on Damaris "Inside you?"

The spider-shifter blinked up at hiiven her a worn brown tunic, pants, and boots, too "That was a great feat ofsharp little teeth "What a king it ed, unrivaled"

Dorian didn’t feel like saying he wasn’t entirely sure what h to reclai but his father seeood place to start

Dorian kept his stance relaxed, even as he asked again, "Where does the shifting co to so, to find that I had a new place withinnew had taken root" Her small hand drifted to her middle, just above her navel "A little seed of power I will the shift, think of what I wish to be, and the change starts within here first Always, the heat comes from here" The spider settled her stare on hi-with-no-crown, then be it That is the secret to the shifting Be what you wish"

He avoided the urge to roll his eyes, though Da far easier said than done Especially with the weight of a crown

Dorian put a hand on his stomach, despite the layers of clothes and cloak Only toned e: first think of what you want to becoe within my e into so you have not seen"

"I can invent certain traits--eye color, build, hair--but not the creature itself" A hideous sic of yours Change your pretty eyes," the spider dared "Change their color"

Gods daht of brown eyes Pictured Chaol’s bronze eyes, fierce after one of their sparring sessions Not how they had been before his friend had sailed to the southern continent

Had Chaol an to send aid? Hoould Chaol even learn where he hat had happened to all of them, when they’d been scattered to the winds?

"You think too "

"Better than too little," he ain He could have sworn it had been in amusement

Cyrene chuckled "Do not think of the eye color so much as demand it"

"How did you learn this without instruction?"

"The power is in me now," the spider said siic snake toward the spider She tensed But his entle and inquisitive as a cat Raw ic, to be shaped as he desired

He willed it toward her--willed it to find that seed of poithin her To learn it

"What are you doing," the spider breathed, shifting on her feet