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"I knowlook to Yrene’s still-flat abdomen "Many would not risk it at all"

Yrene paused "Is there a threat?"

"No, but any pregnancy, especially in the earlyThat’s without the horrors of war, or using your ic to the brink every day"

For a heartbeat, Yrene let the words settle in "How long have you known?"

"A feeeks My ic sensed it on you"

Yrene sed "I haven’t told Chaol"

"I’d think if there were ever a ti keep around the to find a way to tell hi that burden on hirowing in her … She hadn’t wanted to distract hiainst, just in having her here, fighting beside him

And for Chaol to know that if he fell, it would not be her life alone that now ended … She couldn’t bring herself to tell him Not yet

Perhaps it made her selfish, perhaps stupid, but she couldn’t Even if thechaun counting the days, she had ith joy And then realized what, exactly, carrying a child during ould entail That this war , or in its final, horrible days, when she gave birth

Yrene had decided that she’d do everything in her power toborn into a world of darkness

"I’ll tell hiht," Yrene said a shade sharply

From the open hall doors, shouts rose to "Clear the way! Clear the way for the injured!"

Eretia frowned, but rushed with Yrene toan already-bloodied stretcher and the near-dead ruk rider atop it

The horse beneath Chaol shifted but stayed fir the lower battlements of the keep walls Not as fine a horse as Farasha, but solid enough A bravehearted beast who had taken well to his brace-equipped saddle, which was all he’d asked for

Walking, Chaol kneould not be an option when he dish about how hard Yrene was already working, the sun barely risen But he could fight just as well from horseback--could lead these soldiers all the sa too far for him to count, Erawan’s army launched at the city for another day of all-out assault on the walls

The ruks soared, dodging arrows and spears, snatching soldiers fro them apart Atop the birds, the rukhin unleashed their own torrent of fury in careful, clever passes organized by Sartaq and Nesryn

But after five days, even the e towers, which they had once easily shattered into scraps oftheir way to the walls

"Ready thenearby The captain shouted the coathered just before dawn

A few bands of Morath soldiers hadhooks into the walls these past two days, hoisting up siege ladders and droves of soldiers with theh the warriors of Anielle had been unsure what to do with the demon-infested men who came to slay them, they’d obeyed his barked commands Quickly staunched the flow of soldiers over the walls, severing the ties that held the ladders to thee towers that approached … those would not be so easily dislodged And neither would the soldiers who crossed the e that would span the tower and the keep walls

Behind hinaled through the lantern system Sartaq had demonstrated how to use that they needed ruks to fly back--to knock the towers down

But the ruks werea pass at the far rear of Morath’s ar lines in order It had been Nesryn’s idea last night: to stop going for the endless front lines and instead take out those who ordered thee tower neared, s clipped--hauled it closer Soldiers already lined up behind it in twin columns, ready to storm upward

Today would hurt

Chaol’s horse shifted beneath hiauntlet-covered hand on the stallion’s armored neck The thud of metal on metal ed by the din "Patience, friend"