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"But you would never--!"

"Sorgatani would never, would she?"

"She cried, afterward"

"Yet folk will look at her and see a foreigner A demon"

"Yes, truly, so they will" With a sad smile, Hanna lifted her hand to touch Liath’s dusky cheek "I aain, at last"

Liath’s throat was choked, and her voice tree to say without bursting into tears

2

THE convent hid in a ravine whose entrance was so cleverly concealed that Liath would have walked right past it and keptsoutheast on the trail, on into the wilderness Hanna turned aside where honeysuckle concealed a path They h cliff walls of streaked stone Two h for the packhorses to squeeze through A bird whistled, and Hanna responded with a shout to identify herself The clop of hooves and stamp of feet threeird echoes into the air These ceased when the ravine opened into a neat jewel of a valley A strea its banks Beyond, a substantial stone wall blocked the valley’s mouth, but it had crumbled in three places where floodwaters had eaten away its foundation Fence segaps

Beyond, a low stockade surrounded a ashed long hall and a collection of outbuildings Chickens clucked Goats bawled Fruit and nut trees stood in tidy rows Freshly turned earth arden

Everyone turned out to greet theed robes, and a dozen nuns of varying ages dressed in sober wool robes and holding rakes and shovels and scythes in their hands A party of Ashioi could have devastated their ranks in moments, had they only knohere to find the her horse behind with one of the Lions She was still very irl Liath remembered from Heart’s Rest--her first true friend--and yet the years had te different as well: the good nature, the pragmatic eye, and the true heart re, she pinched her lips together in way thatcould erase pain What had she suffered that she did not speak of? Those gathered hereHanna could not be misinterpreted: they trusted and liked her

Liath dismounted and approached with reet her The journey had turned the cleric’s hair to silver, and she was as lean as a scarecrow, but she had a ruddy gleale! Or must I call you otherwise? We are hopelessly behind in our news How do you fare?"

Liath greeted her in the for arms in the way of courtiers who do not quite trust each other but hope to by reason of theirtale I have business here with Mother Rothgard Is she here?"

Rosvita shook her head "She is gone"

Disappointment did jab She felt it under her ribs "Gone where?"

"Dead" Liath heard no grief in Rosvita’s voice, only weariness "So we discover, arriving here ourselves only two days ago Here is Sister Acella, who stands as s out First, Liath greeted those few of Bertha’s retinue who had survived--the sergeant and a dozen or soso few of thereeted her respectfully and with every evidence that they were relieved to be reunited with the woman who had marched them to their doom Each member of Rosvita’s schola made a pretty introduction; the only one she recalled froone as lean as he once was chubby The nuns of St Valeria watched from afar as Sister Acella led her into the hall and sat her at a table, bringing a pitcher of ale

"The Lions and the other Eagles will be thirsty, too," said Liath, noting how only Rosvita and Acella sat with her Hanna had not come inside A pair of nuns watched her with uncomfortably intent interest from the shadows at the far end of the hall, but they did not approach

"They will be taken care of," said Acella "Tell ladly, if you’ll tell ard and how she died"

The tale was quickly told Autu hall Mother Rothgard had died after falling fro the thatch Floods had uprooted the wall, and wolves, growing bold, had killed four nuns over the course of the winter Weaker souls would have abandoned the site, but few chose the isolated, difficult life at St Valeria’s in any event and those left had voted to bide in the hall and rebuild rather than flee the onslaught of so many troubles