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Froe point they could seein the ed wreck of a substantial orchard A number of trees had fallen, most likely torn down by the storhosts, but h, I suppose, ifhosts of all" His hand curled around her elbow, and the gesture gave her courage

"Years ago The Quh this place when I was their captive There are no good memories for rass and fescue had swept over the ruins, grown everywhere they could take root Hawthorn and twining canes of raspberry had found a foothold as well Nettles thrust up where the last stains of ash mottled the earth Soon The Fat One would overtake what the princes had built and cover it in flowers, although only a few dusky violets bloomed now

"It’s late in the season for violets," she said, pointing to a spray of delicate petals

He cocked his head, considered her, then follohere she led "It’s the cloud cover I fear we’ll face a late growing season And a short one"

"I forgot about the town," she added "I don’t knohat happened to the town After the palace burned, it was still standing The flaht, all of us in the king’s progress King Henry stayed in the hall of a prosperous one? Where did it go? Did Bulkezu burn it down? I don’t remember"

An odd spark of color caught her eye and she knelt and swept aside chaff and dirt and ash and the detritus of years of abandonment to uncover a brass belt buckle shaped in the fored to one of the Lions who died in the fire" She looked up Fortunatus was s his face into sharper planes, but sooad that drove theoing, then Fortunatus was the arm that steadied Rosvita whenever she faltered

"Liath burned down the palace," she said, although he asked nothing "Hugh attacked her He meant to rape her She was so scared She called fire She never meant to Her fear burned down the entire palace She killed a dozen or ently "I was here when it happened"

"Ai, God, of course Of course I forgot I came late We came over the hill, the Lions and I We saw the s Stephen, asn’t a Lion yet but he wanted to become one …" Once started, she could not stop herself, not even when the story wound into that terrible captivity a the Quman She babbled on for a time while Fortunatus waited and nodded and listened and less word to show that it mattered to him that these memories overwhelauze of round, the rain of words abated

"I’m sorry," she said

He smiled in a way that warmed her heart, offered her a hand, and helped her to rise "We all must speak sometime You endured much"

"Not as much as others Not as , unless you were the one who chose who lived and who died"

His hand touched her shoulder, but a ghost clutched her heart She remembered Bulkezu’s voice as clearly as if he stood beside her "Mercy is a waste of time If I choose, I will leave ten behind for the crows"

"It was always ten," she whispered "For them, life And for the rest, death"

"It was not truly your choice, Hanna If you had not chosen, then ten more would have died At least you saved ten where you could You ive yourself I pray you" He had tears on his cheeks

"Thank you, Brother"

He kissed her on the forehead as a benediction He was a cleric, after all, able to plead with God on behalf of those who have repented and those who suffer although they are innocent

Froht cast by the fire although not the fire itself, tucked aithin the stone walls of the chapel One of the soldiers laughed, another Stephen, an older man who had ridden for years with Lady Bertha She knew all their laughs now, their favorite sords and curses; she knew Ruoda’s confident ith the dogs and Gerwita’s fear of the big boarhound called Mercy, Jero when he had to speak withattention to hih She knew each silhouette, such as the one ath of wall as aimlessly as a sheep