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The Leering began to crack with power, the stone vibrating and hu, barely able to see it from the haze of stea out, Lia touched the i hand
As Lia closed her eyes, she saw in her irl and every wo In her ainst the burning ie and watched it sear their flesh with a brand they would wear the rest of their days The kystrel was a token of their power, but their power ca the stone – a binding of a Myriad One inside their body The Myriad Ones were given complete control over the hetaera, to use them as they wished until they were finally persuaded to kill the them available to join with another hetaera The cycle had been repeated over and over for centuries Young girls, inexperienced in the ways of power and manipulation, were suddenly wiser than their liest irl barely thirteen at the tiirl, the one who had made the final oaths and promises was Hillel
Lia felt the power of the Mediuht began its work Every hetaera had a brand on her shoulder, the brand of the twin serpents The Blight infected the Leering and every wo what she was doing The Blight would take the fore the land The disease would be transh a kiss Lia’sIt would co stealthily Every kiss froue Every victi and slow death It would take tian to understand as causing the plague Then every hetaera would be hunted and killed Women would be forbidden to read or study froue, secret after secret, until everyone in every kingdom had been destroyed The last man alive would be the Earl of Dieyre She saw hilow disappeared from her hand The curse had been invoked
The Mediuil
Lia wept at what she had seen She sobbed as she realized that she was causing the death of untold thousands Hundreds of thousands Her hand had brought the plague that would destroy the world, save those who escaped on the ships She remembered the Aldermaston of Tintern, how he said that the naood and evil by many She remembered Maderos at Muirwood Abbey after she had passed the maston trial
This hand – will impact the lives of ood as well as for evil But to those who know the truth, they will always hold you in reverence for what this hand will yet do
With tears strean of the eight-pointed star The irrevocare sigil bound the curse to the Leering forever
It was done
Lia knelt at the foot of the Leering and sobbed, wracked with eht burned through the stors Colvin ith Hillel Somewhere, the man she loved ith a woman she hated A woman who Colvin believed was Ellowyn Demont And one kiss froht her the password to open the slit in the outer wall of the Abbey Her feelings oppressed her with crushing weight Colvin was in danger – i a threat She could feel both loo in front of her eyes, a shadow that blinded her to all other thoughts Thrusting through the dark shaft of stone, she entered the roo by the shaft leading to the Blight Leering The shaft was covered by a length of silk cloth, a narrow sheet that rustled as she disturbed the air with her presence The shi sheet looked like an Apse Veil
"Maderos!" she cried, joining him around the ay "Maderos, where is Colvin?"
The look he gave her was stern He turned away and sain "Billerbeck Abbey" He stared up at the length of sheet and stepped back from it "Yes, your pethet is there"
"Maderos, please tell me Has he…has he fallen? I know he is with her…"
Maderos waved his hand impatiently "Do not ask me, little sister Do not ask me about the pethet What if he has fallen, eh? What if he has kissed the hetaera? Does that alter what you must do now?"