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"Not for so many as serve her now"

"Why needs she so many soldiers?"

He flicked a fly off his arm and sank down into a squat He was so thin that he looked likely to topple over if the wind caht see things, and come to your own conclusions"

He blew his nose and wiped mucus aith a forearht She fears some will take from her the duchy as they did before Her Wendish brother took it from her I saw that, I did" He tapped his, his chest was sunken, yet he squared his shoulders a little, proud of what he remembered and what he had worked out, a co of his noble rulers "Now she’s gathering soldiers to fight, she and that one they call Conrad the Black I’ve seen him, too Him and his lady wife, the one they call our queen"

The one they call our queen

There, in his heart, Alain felt the tremor, the pain of the affection and loyalty he had offered her which she had rejected She had turned on him twice over She had tried to kill hier had purchase It no longer dug deep He was sorry for it, that was all, that folk caused pain because of their own fears He was angry because folk did do so uilty alike because of their own fears On his own account, he was free of the burden of desiring revenge That gave hith

"Lady Sabella Conrad the Black Tallia Who do they ht?"

The s of the great nobles?"

"Why must they cast out the innocent folk who lived honestly in Autun, such as you and these others?"

Thein each of his exhaled breaths fro, fixated on the hounds, and that one word slipped again fro"

The hounds waited patiently, heads lifted as they sniffed the air Out in the woods he heard the rustle and snap ofAfter a while Alain realized he would receive no answer

"What of this child? Where are his kinfolk?"

The man picked at a scab below his lower lip "Mother’s dead Has none else"