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Two: the WiseMothers, ere born out of that ancient conflagration and who had spread the nests of their children across the northern lands But when he sought the spirit of their slow minds in the aether, he could not find theh in the eyes of God

When he cah above the fields, the lines of battle had already been drawn and overrun, but soldiers on all sides stood in an uncanny stillness, frozen by the guivre’s stare He stood on the edge of a steep hillside torn by an avalanche It was loose with debris, too dangerous to cross or descend

He called The guivre swept a wide circle and carabbed the hounds by their collars and led the a tree trunk that had fallen out into the open space toslipped sideways under their weight The hounds yelped in panic The guivre swooped low as the log gave way and rolled out from under Alain’s feet Its claws fastened on his shoulders, and the startled hounds were silenced as they, too, were yanked upith the collars biting into their vulnerable throats Their weight seeuivre plunged with dizzying speed down along the barren slope and over its desolation of splintered and juetationcowslip and vine-pinks that had taken root since last auturound--the steep slope dropping precipitously into a hollow backed up into a trio of low hills--had protected the walls of Kassel from destruction Here the uivre ski the north and east flanks of the town Soldiers were fixed at attention along the walls No one pointed, and if any screa of wind and a distantto find a voice

Made aze, every creature there stood helpless

Ahead lay the scene of the worst slaughter: a line of siege works overtaken by a charge, men fallen every which way and horses broken doounds and shattered li the road--froraded foundation of the old roadbed, strung so straight and turning at such precise angles that it could easily be seen to be the work of the old Dariyan Eed the bluff that separated the valley froher forest to the east Many soldiers stood paralyzed on the road and within the trees Along the hills, Eika corpses lay strewn in horrifying nuleamed white bone re galla

A score of galla poured down along the ra both despair and pain

He kicked as the guivre dropped low over the high end of the ramp He and the hounds tumbled to earth, and because he released their collars they bounded away, barking as they found theon fallen on its side The bodies of the two horses and the driver rapped in the tangle of harness The cart held a tiny house built over its bed, which remained mostly intact, but the axles had splintered and the wheels shattered into a dozen spars and slivers A single body sprawled in the alla They had crossed into this world through a rent in the fabric of the universe; the guivre’s stare could not hold them They flooded down the raon and that one isolated figure

He heard thelant--they could not find his essence, the substance that caused hi the road while, in a le mounted soldier drew close to face hialla The iron heat that roiled froe burned his skin and coated his tongue with a sour flavor But the black pillars--each a void--eddied around the body fallen in the road They did not approach or retreat; they seeht between purpose and confusion

"He serveddeath," said the Lady of Battles "I wondered if any hand could stop him while his mother’s curse protected hione under the wheels and been besides pierced through his abdoon’s crash His on’s helm had been severed and the fanciful helle griffin’s feather had couardian that held off the galla