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Dorian decided he didn’t need a hidden place to practice Which was lucky, since there was no such thing as privacy in the Crochans’ camp Not inside the camp, and certainly not around it, not with the sharp eyes of their sentinels patrolling day and night

Which is hoound up sitting before Vesta at Glennis’s hearth, the red-haired witch half asleep with boredo for the tenth time that hour, "seems like a colossal waste of time" She flicked a snohite hand toward thewhere the Thirteen kept up their honed bodies and instincts "You could be sparring with Lin right now"

"I just watched Lin nearly knock Iivewith her"

Vesta arched an auburn brow "Nofrohed "I’ to concentrate"

None of the witches, even Manon, had questioned why he practiced He’d only o, that the spider hadhis raw ed

Their focus was on the Crochans On the trip to Eyllwe that would likely happen any day now

He hadn’t heard any , but if it could divide Morath’s forces even slightly to venture south to deal with the’s stronghold … He’d accept it

He’d already offered Manon and Glennis what he knew regarding the kingdoer brothers Adarlan’s e Eyllwe’s army, so any hope on that front was impossible, but if they mustered a few thousand soldiers to head northward … It’d be a boon for his friends

If they could survive, it would be enough

Dorian closed his eyes, and Vesta fell silent For days, she’d sat with hi for any of the shifting that he atte his hair, his skin, his eyes

None of it occurred

His ic had touched that stolen shifter’s power--had learned it just enough before he’d killed the spider

It was now a ic to become like that shifter’s power Whether it had ever been done with raw ic before, he did not know

Be what you wish, Cyrene had told hi

But Dorian kept peering inward Into every hollow, eh ToTo sneak into Morath and find the third key To then offer up all he was and had been to the Lock and the gate

And then it would be over For Erawan, yes, and for hiht to the throne Hollin, who had been sired by a Valg-infested man as well Had the demon passed any traits to his brother?

The boy had been beastly--but had he been human?

Hollin had not killed their father Shattered the castle Let Sorscha die

Dorian hadn’t dared ask Damaris Wasn’t certain what he’d do should the sword reveal what he was, deep down

So Dorian peered inward, to where his ic flowed in him, to where it could move between flame and water and ice and wind

But no matter hoilled it, how he pictured brown hair or paler skin or freckles, nothing happened

She was nowith three other brooh to fly with them to Eyllwe No, she’d have to learn about the fro up two of the brooot they used the redwood," her Second said, studying the brooms in her arms "A hell of a lot easier to carve than the ironwood"

Manon could still feel how her own hands had ached during the long days she’d whittled down her first broo of ironwood she’d found deep in Oakwald The first two ventures had resulted in snapped shafts, and she’d resolved to carve her broom more carefully Three tries, one for each face of the Goddess

She’d been thirteen, ht about the zipping current of power that called to the wind, that flowed through the brooms and carried them into the skies Each stroke of the chisel, each pound of the hammer that transformed the block of near-impenetrablebroom itself

"Where’d you leave yours?" Manon asked