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She always carried a knife on her She never went anywhere without it "Step back, and avert your gaze All of you!"

"Yes, Holy Mother" The soldiers spoke with gratifying respect, and they moved away obediently

Adelheid turned her back, but Alexandros only took a pair of steps to one side without looking away No doubt he had seen worse things in the east, since the Arethousans were known to have a wicked lust for tor their captured enerant life or deal death with a single thrust She knelt beside the man, whose fetid stink almost overwhelmed her until she closed her mind to it She turned her face away and took in a deep breath of cleaner air and, turning back, shoved the blade up between his ribs

Heenough to hold him and she had breath hich to speak

"Ahala shin ah rish aalla ashir ah luhish Let this blood draw forth the creature out of the other world Coalla, for I bind you with unbreakable fetters This blood which you must taste that I have spilled, makes you els whose hearts dwell in righteousness, coht as a galla shuddered into being, called away from the other side She twisted the blade Thein a way that grated on her nerves She dropped him and stepped away Behind her, a soldier retched, and another began to cry in terror The galla’s darkness took on substance as it drank froalla, you will do as I coh of Austra"

A ripple ran through that towering darkness as her will took hold It slipped through the stone battlee, and its voice rang like the blacksh of Austra

It descended through the air in theto earth on the road only a few paces fro to the right to escape it, yet the wind on which it scudded pushed it straight into his path It glided over hih him The voice of bells sed his screaround A cla of dru horns that died away There was Hugh, who did not hest, who brings punishment down on those who simmer evil in their hearts!

"No one is safe froreed "The galla cannot be harmed, only banished They are implacable"

"You are the only sorcerer who kno to raise them," he added

She did not answer Out from the ranks stepped a creature with the body of a woman, the head of a fox, and a bow that reached from head to knee Even the Enemy desires beauty, and this creature had beauty in her forleaet Antonia cursed under her breath

The galla did not veer to avoid the missile Indeed, it seemed to shift to meet it Where the arrow pierced, a void of pure black snapped open, and the galla sizzled and vanished, popped right out of existence, as if it had never touched this world

"Fletched with the feather of a griffin," said Adelheid angrily "He has outwitted you, Holy Mother"

"Griffin feathers are not easily come by In time, he will use up his entire store, or beco to let his arrow fly It is only a reed General Lord Alexandros, looking at her and her bloody knife "Only a ard and five centuries of cavalry, their bestthe rest of the are train to travel as swiftly as they could At h the month of Quadrii, they met scouts, a band of men loyal to the duchess who had fled the town and were ca on the eastern road

Their leader, called Adalbert, boasted a pair of grueso uselessly at his side He wept, seeing Duchess Liutgard appear before hi as he swore fealty

"Here is your regnant, coard said, stepping aside to reveal Wendar’s banner and Sanglant, as still mounted

They knelt and bowed their heads

"You have served your lady well," said Sanglant, nodding to her to go on He could see that she wanted no lengthy obeisance but rather swift news