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“Just one word,” she said in a faint voice “‘Slave’”
• • •
As I had predicted, sleep proved elusive The sea grew turbulent colass of the porthole with rain and howl through the myriad channels in the fabric of this ship Fornella lay on her back, breathing slow and regular I lay on my side, turned towards the hull I had removed my shoes but was otherwise fully clad whilst she was naked, sloughing off her clothes without the slightest flicker of e into the bed beside me as I turned my back We lay in silence for the better part of an hour, robbed of rest by the wind and the sheer oddness of our circumstance
Finally, she said, “Do you hate me, my lord?”
“Hatred requires passion,” I replied
“Ah, The Cantos of Gold and Dust, verse twenty Don’t you think it a trifle conceited to constantly quote your oork?”
“The verse was drawn fro by the tribes of the western ave a soft laugh “So I do not stir your passion? Hardly surprising, given your preferences Still, a woman accustohted” I felt her shift behindto lie on her side “Who was he? The man you said you loved?”
“I will not discuss that with you”
So because she gave a sigh of a to stir your passion, at least as far as it relates to your lust for knowledge A srittedif I didn’t in fact hate her after all I sat up, turning to find her regarding looleam of her eyes “Then tells off the bed “Seliesen Maxtor Aluran,” I said
I had expected laughter, cruel and , but instead her tone was calmly reflective “The Hope of the Alpiran E husband’s army My people do not hold to notions of fate, the concept of invisible forcesto shape our destiny is anathema to a people cleansed of superstition But there are tiain, her warainst my shoulder There was no desire in the way she held to me, at least none I could sense, just a need for closeness “My sorrow for your loss, honoured sir,” she said in for h Council, so he knows the Ally’s schemes better than most, and even he is blind to their true nature, their ultimate purpose However, its servants have often spoken of a man, endless in years like us, but not in thrall to the blood of the Gifted A man who has lived many lifetimes and walked around the world more than once The Ally is drawn to power, as I said, and what greater power is there, than the defeat of death itself?”
“It seeks him?”
“Indeed, but never has it found him”
“And he has a naed with every lifetime as he passes from nation to nation One of the Ally’s creatures, the one they call the Messenger, caught his scent so himself Erlin”
CHAPTER ONE
Lyrna