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“I should hope not,” Birchat the object in his hands “When does he think he can deliver on his next task?”

“He said it requires so He doesn’t want tothe delicacy of the task I’ll return to ensure everything is carried out”

Birch grunted “Good Anything else?”

Beryl never heard the horseled when she sensed so behind her She whirled, her hand on her saber, just in tie rock in its hand The rock struck her temple and she crashed backward into the stable wall

Flurries of crackling snow speckled Beryl’s vision while haed on the inside of her skull At any uts she felt so ill Through the blizzard in her vision, shedown at her

“This one is no Mirwellian officer,” said a distantly familiar, abrasive voice, “but a Greenie She betrayed her old lord”

“I know,” Birch saidher out of the way till now She’s had nothing to tell the king”

“Should we kill her?” asked the horseman

When Beryl shifted her gaze to look on him, her stomach lurched She closed her eyes, but the snow still crackled and popped behind her eyelids If they killed her, at least it would end her misery

A silence followed as they decided what to do

“No,” said the rough voice “We’ll let Grandmother decide”

Oh, good, Beryl thought Grand

She cracked her eyes open Starlight gleaainst his chin like a finger She blinked Yes, it was, in a way, his finger, for he had no hand Just the hook

They made her stand The world reeled and finally she lost the contents of her sto into unconsciousness

Grandmother stared at the Mirwellian officer, whom the captain’s men dropped like a sack of sand onto the tent platforht The wohtful lump on her head and was, fortunately for her, quite unconscious Captain Immerez appeared pleased with hiht a very fat mouse