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Marking the wagon and the riders, she staggered as if hit The tho stood beside her caught her They held her, because she could not walk The wagon’s driver brought the conveyance to a stately halt in the rassy field She jerked out of their arainst the side with a thud, yanked the shroud off the body, and saw his slack face

Wind raked through the trees and rippled the grass

What greater cataclysm can there be than this, that which tears the world asunder?

This is the poison that strikes deep, the bee’s sting, the nectar of anguish How can it be that life goes on? What point is there in living? Ai, God So we fall into the Pit as the black Abyss rips open under our feet

3

DEAD Dead Dead

All the rest, hands touching her and pressing her this way and that, voicesaway, the roar of the wind and the shuffle of feet and hooves and wheels grinding on dirt and doors shutting and an unexpected laugh heard down the distance and the trickling splash of water and a cough, all this was noise

She sank into the tide

"Let o to her"

Not party to the store, Hanna stuck close to Liath until the body was laid on a bier in the nave of Hersford’s church La the aisles and blazed beside the Hearth at the eastern end as dusk fell Liath clung to his dead hand She said no word; she was lost Father Ortulfus scattered sprigs of cypress over the body Mother Obligatia was carried in, with her attendants and Sister Rosvita at her side Seeing that others attended Liath for the tiood idea?" Ivar dogged her path as she crunched along the gravel ay that led along one side of a dorratifying or aggravating "I heard some awful story just now, that one look from her eyes and you’re a dead uivre’s stare that paralyzes you You h It’s true that if you looked on her, you would die"

"Well, then, I’, not now!"