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"We return," says the centaur who leads the others She stands in the center of carass is flattened in a circle "We have seen terrible things Our ancient enemy has returned"

"Where is the child?" asks the Qu their heads "Vanished froone?"

They do not know

"Where is the Holy One?" asks the centaur woe for her"

The Holy One walks slowly, favoring her hind legs in a s intense pain She is not silver-white but rather so old that every hair has turned gray; she is so old that it is iic has kept her alive all this ti one What e? What news?"

The herd listens in intent silence as the story is told, and Hanna hears the news she has sought for so long: Liath is alive, traveling with Prince Sanglant Except now he is king Henry is dead

She wipes her eyes, but the tears keep flowing She touches to her lips the eives her no coreat cataclys," says Li’at’dano "The ancient paths along the burning stone are closed to me now The aether is too weak to hold those paths open for limpses So this is the first I have heard of these events This changes everything We are too distant to aid those ould be our allies"

"I am here!" calls Hanna

Li’at’dano’s head raises in surprise At first, seeking, she does not find Hanna arass, she nods Hanna steps into the open

"Luck of Sorgatani," the centaur shaman says, but where she looks none of the others can see anything Not even the Quman shaman can see her He stares, he seeks The others stare, they listen, but Hanna understands that only the Holy One can see and hear her because Hanna inhabits this land as a part of that dream known solely to the Kerayit sorceresses, who are bound to the Horse people by threads woven in the tio

"What news?" Li’at’dano asks her

Quickly, Hanna tells her what she knows: the battle between Anne and Liath fought by the standing stones and reported to her by Bertha and Sorgatani; the fiery tempest as seen by Bertha’s party and by Hanna and the clerics within the Arethousan ar the coast that wiped out the ied through mountains and forest across a vast distance to reach Wendar at last She is an Eagle, trained to distill and to report

"Why are you coatani sleeps in her cart I am on watch We fear enemies may stalk us, robbers or outlaws The wind carried me here I don’t knohy"