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Araris Valerian, arguably the greatest swordsht

He met her eyes for a breath, winked at her once, then closed thehtened her spine slowly and made sure her emotions and expression were under control as she turned back to face Invidia and the vord Queen

Invidia was s at the Queen, her expression, beneath its chill veneer, balanced between terror and glee Then she inclined her head and swept out of the chamber

The vord Queen said, to Isana, "This will only cause ain, and the walls and ceiling of the chae nothing I will kill Octavian I will kill you all"

In the silence that followed, Isana suppressed a surge of fury How dare she? How dare this creature threaten her son?

No, Isana thought to herself, gri the ht

"There's always a fire," Amara said, her tone dull "Why is there always a fire?"

"Fire's a living thing," Sir Ehren replied He stared at the city as A up at it froees strea river, directed by eleionares of Riva "If you don't control it, it looks for food, eats, and grows It's in every house in the city, and it just takes a h I i to do with it, too"

A wind shriek as it dived toward the pair of Cursors speaking at the side of the causeway Amara idly lifted a hand andhimself at the hostile fury in a rush of wind, and as the two ht, a specter of a long-legged horse Like a dozen others in the past hour, the clash was brief Cirrus's lashing hooves rapidly drove the windmane away

"Countess," Ehren said "I understand that you were in the city"

Amara nodded She felt oddly detached froht, smooth and unruffled She wasn't calm, of course After what she had seen, only anumb The terrified, wounded flood of hu if she hadn't seen so much worse within Riva's walls as the feral furies overran thees back and forth between Riva and Aquitaine"

Ehren studied her intently for a moment Then he said, "That bad?"

"I saw an earth fury that looked like a gargant bull knock down a building being used to shelter orphaned children," she said in a level tone "I saw a pregnant woman burned to black bones by a fire fury I saw an old woed down into a well by a water fury, her husband holding her wrists the whole way He ith her" She paused,over the placid, inflectionless calm of her own voice, and added, "The second minute orse"

Ehren folded his arms and shivered "I hate to think ould have happened if the High Lords hadn't been able to return to the city to drive some of the ferals away"

"True," Aht?"

"Perfectly"

The little Cursor nodded "And the Count?"