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Min could only shake her head It was as if Leane had beco it, she could hardly believe Come to that, Leane actually looked different For all of the ith brushes, there was not a hint of paint or powder on her face that Min could see, yet her lips seeer She was a nified fivefold

Siuan was not quite finished, though "And if this country lord is one like Logain?" she said softly "What will you do then?"

Leane drew herself up stiffbacked on her knees and sed hard before answering, but her voice was perfectly level "Given the alternatives, what choice would you make?"

Neither blinked, and the silence stretched

Before Siuan could answer -- if she iven a pretty to hear it -- the chain and lock rattled on the other side of the door The other tos in cal she had her belt knife Fool thing to wish for, she thought Just get me in worse trouble I’uard --

The door opened, and aleather jerkin over his shirt filled the doorway Not a fellow to be attacked by a young woman, even with a knife Maybe not even with an axe Wide was the word for hi on his head were more white than not, but he looked hard as an old oak sturuffly "Will you walk, or o, either way, but I’d as soon not have to carry you in this heat"

Peeking past hirayhaired but just as hard, if not quite so big

"We alk," Siuan told hi Lord Gareth won’t like being kept waiting"

Promise to walk or no, each man took one of them firmly by the ar man’s hand encircled Min’s arht bitterly She considered kicking his booted ankle to see if that would loosen his grip, but he looked so solid she suspected all it would earn her was a sore toe and being dragged the rest of the way

Leane appeared lost in thought; she halfestures with her free hand, and her lipswhat sheover again Introspection wrapped Siuan, too, but she wore an openly worried frown, even chewing her underlip; Siuan never showed thatfor Min’s confidence

The beaed common room of the Good Queen’s Justice did less Lankhaired Admer Nem, a yellowed bruise around his swollen eye, stood to one side with half a dozen equally stout brothers and cousins and their wives, all in their best coats or aprons The farer and satisfaction that lares orse, pure hate The rest of the walls were lined six deep with villagers, all garbed for the work they had interrupted for this The blacksmith still wore his leather apron, and a number of women had sleeves rolled up, ar a themselves, the elders as much as the few children, and their eyes latched onto the three woht this s had ever witnessed She had seen a croith this mood once -- at an execution

The tables had been re brick fireplace A blufffaced, stockythereen silk, hands folded in front of hie stood beside the table in a fine, gray wool dress embroidered hite flowers around the neck The local lord, Min supposed, and his lady; country nobility little better inforuards situated them in front of the lord’s table and ray stepped forward, and the ive ear," the woman announced, "for justice will be meted today by Lord Gareth Bryne Prisoners, you are called before the judgment of Lord Bryne" Not the lord’s lady, then; an official of some sort Gareth Bryne? The last Min remembered, he was CaptainGeneral of the Queen’s Guards, in Caelanced at Siuan, but Siuan had her eyes locked on the wide floorboards in front of her feet Whoever he was, this Bryne looked weary

"You are charged," the woht, arson and destruction of a building and its contents, the killing of valuable livestock, assault on the person of Adold and silver It is understood that the assault and theft were the work of your companion, who escaped, but you three are equally culpable under the law"

She paused to let it sink in, and Min exchanged rueful glances with Leane Logain would have to add theft to the stew He was probably halfway to Murandy by now, if not ain "Your accusers are here to face you" She gestured to the cluster of Neive your testimony"

The stout man eased forward in a blend of selfi at his coat where the wooden buttons strained over hishair that kept dropping into his face "Like I said, Lord Gareth, it was like this "

He gave a fairly straightforward account of discovering theain near a foot taller and turned the ood as he got The lantern fell, the hay went up, and the rest of the fa out of the farmhouse into the predawn; the prisoners were seized and the barn burned to the ground, and then the loss of the purse froht the part where Lord Bryne’s retainer rode by as so tree liain -- this ti -- Bryne cut hih, Master Nem You may step back"

Instead, a roundfaced one of the Nee to be Admer’s wife, joined hi pan or a river rock And flushed with soood, Lord Gareth, hear? Whip theood, and ride them to