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"I put it back in your pouch while you slept It still does not work for ris and pulled it out In the daylight, she could look at it without squinting It rested in her palainst her skin

If ht Writing appeared on the lower half of the orb She knew the answer, even though she could not understand the writing Myif she should even hope The reply was the same The spindles did not move

"I ahtful

"Why?" Lia asked, disappointed She had never known her parents, so she did not knohether to assu at the writing Maderos had said the writing was Pry-rian

His voice was soft, his expression consoling "If they were alive, they would never have abandoned you The night I gave you the Gifting, I felt it very strongly When I touched your head, I sensed that your parents were nearby I sensed their feelings for you Through the Medium even the dead are near They loved you fiercely, Lia You were not abandoned by the her eyes and a sudden swell in her throat, as she tried to s "That is kind of you to say"

"And I have been unkind to you since I first awoke in the kitchen It was a struggle learning to trust you Worse, I have not slept soundly until last night For the first tiht, I really slept and rested" He shook his head, chuckling, and stood Extending his hand to her, he helped her up as well His hand was cold fro chill

"Where is your hunter?" he asked, looking around "I thought he would have found us before now"

Lia’s stomach lurched, as if Colvin had kicked her

With the orb’s help, they found the body discarded in a gulch It was in an unburned portion of the thicket, with three arrow shafts protruding fro in disbelief It was too awful to be real The stiff, pallid body was not Jon Hunter No, he was full of life, energy, exuberance Not this thing – this cracked shell Then she cried, great wracking sobs Colvin knelt next to her, his bloodied face sharing her grief He put his arm around her

She loved Jon Hunter He was part of her earliest memories, especially those of Pasqua’s kitchen He was one of the Alderh to be sent into the Bearden Muir to save therief had a sharp edge to it, cutting deeply – so deeply

She looked at Colvin in desperation "You are ahim back to life!"

Colvin was duether as hard as she could "I know you can do it It begins with a thought, just like you said I know the Mediu out of her dress "I know it can happen All those ossuaries were e hi Gift his life back Please!"

He looked stricken "Lia, the Mediuh to revive the dead I do not doubt that It is written of in the tomes, but there is rarely an Alderh in the Medium to do it Do you understand me? It requires an Aldermaston, I tell you Not a maston Not me"

"If you believed…"

He shook his head abruptly "It is not that, Lia If the Medium constrained ht now, it whispers in my heart that I should not even atteht, but that did not make the taste any less bitter The Medium had its oill She covered her mouth as another round of sobs forced their way to her lips Jon Hunter was so hi to outsone His beard and hair, always so disheveled, his clothesthat he died in the middle of the Bearden Muir

What would the Alder to tell him, that because of her, Jon was dead Hoould he react? Would his teret? He had sent Jon to bring her back Kneeling by the body, she fidgeted with the end of his leather belt The Alderht even banish her from the Abbey permanently

She did not want to leave the body in the Bearden Muir, but they lacked theso of his back to Muirwood He was a wretched too, yet she wanted others to remember him as she alould