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"They’re hateful, cowardly wretches" Yrene crossed her arms and scowled at the man tied to the cot "Utterly pathetic," she spat toward him--the demon inside him

The man hissed Yrene only smiled The man--the deh or fall to her knees "Show me Do whatever it is you do, but show , she laid them atop the man’s chest He screamed and screacontinued

Borte said, "It’s not very exciting with thelare As if this were a conversation they’d already hadduty, if you’d prefer"

Borte rolled her eyes, but turned to Aelin, looking her over with a frankness that Aelin could only appreciate "Any other rinned "Not yet Soon, perhaps"

Borte grinned right back "Please Please spare lanced toward the healer radiant with light "How rumbled

Aelin asked Chaol, "And how many can she do every day?"

"Fifteen, at y than others to expel, so those days it’s less"

Aelin tried to do the math on how many infested soldiers were left on the field "And once they’re cured? What do you do with the "See what their stories are, how they wound up captured Where their allegiances lie"

"And you believe them?" Fenrys asked

Hasar patted the hilt of her fine sword "Our interrogators are skilled at retrieving the truth"

Aelin ignored the roiling in her stomach

"So you free them," Gavriel said, silent for minutes now, "and then torture them?"

"This is war," Hasar said simply "We leave the their lives only to find a new arly joined Erawan," Chaol said quietly "So Yrene can tell, when she’s in there, anted it or not She doesn’t bother to save those who gladly knelt So most of those she does save were either fools or taken forcibly"

"Soht for us," Sartaq said "Those who pass our vetting process are allowed to begin training with the foot soldiers Not asped, her light flaring bright enough that Aelin squinted

The

Black, noxious vo away the smell Then the black smoke that rippled fro out an arm to brace her The healer only took a perch on the arave her a e such a feat was renant … Aelin shook her head in wonder

Yrene said to no one in particular, "That deone now?" Aelin asked

Yrene pointed to the azed upward

"Thank you," was all the man said, his voice raw

And human Utterly human

CHAPTER 67

Rowan followed Aelin as she e of the Silver Lake She stopped only now and then to pick up any hile enemy weapons There were few

The others had dispersed, Gavriel lingering to learn how Yrene healed the Valg, Fenrys heading off with Chaol to anate royals seeing to their troops

They would leave in two days, if the weather held Two days, and then they’d begin the push north

Thank the gods Even though they were the last beings Roished to thank

Aelin halted at the rocky shore, peering across the mirror-flat expanse now choked with debris She rested a hand atop Goldryn’s hilt, flaly into the red stone itself

"It would take years," she observed, "to heal everyone infected by the Valg"

"Each of those soldiers has a family, friends ould want us to try"