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"The griffins have left us," he said to her in a low voice, as if it were a secret "We have only fifteen feathers left"

"Eleven, now"

"If the galla coain, you hter men like sheep" It made him sick to think of it

"Then for the sake of the ones ill die, let us hope they give up" Her smile told a different story She knew their eneress rode west along a grassy track that dipped south through fertile countryside before swinging back north to Osterburg along the Veser River At length they crossed the Veserling and rode through woodland along the broad track where three years ago Sanglant’s soldiers had chased down and broken the Quray day, so cold that the shallow puddles along the road were iced over That hard skin of ice cracked and shattered where hoof, foot, and wagon wheel struck Moisture dripped from branches Soreen foliage in the forest

In a clearing she saw a hillock that looked strangely fah at first she could not place it Only when she looked closer did she see scattered bones and the shattered reht; she found herself short of breath

"Here, in this meadoe broke the Qu Blessing was dead"

He could say nothing , yet she did think In silence, they passed through the clearing She stared, but except for the tree at the crown of the hill and the unmistakable shape of that odd little hill, she could not relate this peaceful, isolated clearing with the carnage and chaos of a desperately fought battle, one she had seen only in a vision

They came out of the forest close by a low, isolated hill which was surrounded by boggy ground, brackish puddles, and rotting reeds and bracken

"There Bayan died," said Sanglant, pointing to the hill Its crest lay bare of vegetation, as though recently burned He indicated a patch of open ground in the western hills that rose beyond the Veser River "There the Quman set their camp"

Liath felt a bite in the air, as at a cold snap of wind, but this was not wind "A powerful spell oven here I can still taste it"

"Two spells, in truth The first killed Bayan The second was his e on the sorcerer who killed both her son and her self"

"Killed her as well? How?"

"Bayan was her luck She was a Kerayit sha her skin that she ht of Hanna and Sorgatani, but they were lost, and she had no way to find thelant’s straggling troops fell into line as they approached the gates of Osterburg The hymn surfaced deep in the ranks and, like a storates of victory that I may enter,

That I may praise God

It was a familiar psalits verses in ragged, heartfelt voices So nant and his noble companions ride that it was difficult to pass So areas where they could no longer find food or safety Five or ten thousand altogether, she supposed, a vast nu and all the Wendish cities were only towns co the shores of the Middle Sea and in the lands of the heathen Jinna Even Darre, now only a humble shadow of its i Yet Wendish soldiers had defeated Aosta’s best arets worn and tired That was the way of the world, so her father had taught her

Newest of all were the Ashioi, the refugees who had at long last conificent feast to celebrate both the feast day of St Sorlant slept, but Liath woke She had trouble sleeping past the break of day As soon as she woke, she thought of Blessing, and as soon as she thought of Blessing, she could as easily go back to sleep as fly Sanglant slept soundly, one arm splayed over his head and the other thrown across his torso He was out cold He’d had a lot to drink She dressed and left the inner chah she stepped carefully, she woke Hathui, who lay on a pallet athwart the door that let into the inner room