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"Easy pickings," said Last Son "Look there!"

A person dressed in stiff skirts bounded onto the road and ran right toward thele, who had been allowed to pass by his troops unharht where she was a target for every arrow and anxious spear Five other ave way into a sloping side

But Last Son was pointing to the far west, not at the people below "I see the signals, froht sunlight on the faces of obsidian hand had not looked west He surveyed the sprawling battle, spreading in the valley as some units retreated and others advanced but in no order whatsoever Here, the Wendish flourished; there, they collapsed A in one place at the hand of the Wendish and in another place appearing on the side of the Varren levies, rode a wo tabard, only plain mail, a battered shield, and a serviceable sword He kneho she was all the same No man could stand before her, who dealt death on all sides: the Lady of Battles, beloved of hu at?" asked Last Son

"Never hand "Our ill be done for us, as they slaughter their own kind Hold the men back on all flanks I’ll hold to ainst those who raise arave hiuard Other Eikato see the carnage, so at the air and rubbing at an ear as at a change in weather

There was a change, a cold wind blowing out of the east and a hard hot iron scent, ain and again Rain pattered in the trees Wind ainst the unnatural leash holding it in: The power of his staff battled the storuish because of the shouts and screa out of the valley, a shriek lifted froh away, buried under the din

The hu no fear, it halted before hiue

"She is here The holy one is with you I ahed "What manner of animal are you?" he asked, because this one was like no other huold and bead baubles and headdress customarily worn by women and it nize theo to the holy one, lord"

Its lack of fear intrigued hie with a lift of his hand The creature called Berda darted into the Eika army

A duel between chiefs had broken out on the road belohere it leveled out, but its outco An itch tickled his eyes He shrugged uneasily, not liking the taste of the air

He lifted his standard, testing the wind An oldThis was not sorcery, then, but so natural Perhaps after all it was only the tension of the stor over theic, as they had been since the day he bound the old sorcerer’s ic into his staff

He held his position, as still as stone, waiting for the tide

The thuon rolled along, nestled within their ranks They were like the ocean, stretching in every direction as far as she could see: a pair of the past the bole of an ancient oak; a line of twenty to either side on the road; heads dipping in and out of sight in the woods; a sea of backs e it was to see huolden-blond hair common to the Alban race Conrad the Black’s first wife had been a woue had charmed Conrad and her milky-white skin, next to his dusky complexion, had caused a stir at court when she first arrived They were a handsoered the Alban queen by stealing the princess away froe how the ed at their back, heard as fury in the forest reaches Rain sprayed theet hit by a squall, it faded off h she wasn’t cold The horses felt it, too, or perhaps it was only the presence of the Eika--that unnatural s in the sun--that unnerved them