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Easy? Dale wondered It was true that his burden was greater, and his frustration ier between hiuardians And it wasn’t as if she didn’t knoas at stake—she knew all too well She was not, however, going to feel guilty about it

At least, not until reveille

Alton had nowhere else to go It was either back to his own tent or to the wall He chose the wall

He knew the ith his eyes shut, so walking through the dark with only weak illuuards nodded to him as he passed by Otherwise the world was quiet and the air frosty, the enca to hied for that sense of peace, which he had not felt since the as breached Back then, he’d known his place in the world and had no reason to doubt the future The breach had changed everything, and all he could see in the future was disaster

He paused before the toall The granite shone in the starlight, and he slipped off theaunt knitted for hi stone It was not fair that others should be able to pass through it and speak with the tower guardians By all rights, by his birthright, he should be able to pass through the toall and couardians, but now, as always, the stone before hiht

He thought Karigan ht understand his frustration better than Dale She’d been on the other side of the wall; she’d dealt with the dark powers there He almost reached for the letter still unread in an inner pocket and stopped hier, he knew that But he wasn’t sure she would understand him

Alton sat on the ground, leaning against the wall, his cheek and ear pressed against it as if listening for a heartbeat, but he heard nothing, of course In thehe’d take a ride to inspect the wall and the breach He had not seen the eyes in the wall since that one tih he always felt watched and as if there were conversations going on about hi Maybe the eyes watched hi

He gazed above the fringe of treetops, toward the heavens and there shihts Alton wondered if h the lore of the land interpreted the lights in ods did not speak to him

In the quiescence, Alton’s eyes started to close He did notto stone, a statue of granite, a memorial to the one who tried and failed

He fell asleep there, leaning against the toall, the side of his face pressed against granite Were he awake, he hts on the wall, an aura of green aglow around him that faded in a breath

In the deepest places inside his mind, however, he did hear a heartbeat, his own in rhythm with that of the wall

FLIGHT AND PURSUIT

Estora would never again be it, that was As far as she was concerned, her father, the king, or anyone else for that matter, could lock her in the castle and toss the key in the moat, and she would not complain In fact, if she returned safely to Sacor City, she would obey her father, she would ht an extra candle at chapel in gratitude to the gods

She rode with four ruffians One of them usually scouted the way ahead, two rode with her front and back, and the fourth lagged to detect pursuit Her hands were bound before her, nu the only to spell the horses She had never ridden so hard or for so long before

She had lost track of the days since that horribleto whisk her away to who knehere, only to be slain right before her eyes by the leader of the ruffians, who had then grabbed Falan’s bridle and swore that if she resisted, he would cause her grave pain When she opened her mouth to screa crop to strike him, but he had wrested it from her hand and snapped it in half

Her eye was still half-closed with the swelling, but the blow had not hurt as , followed by the screaht? Lord Henley? What of the stalwart Weapon, Fastion? Lord Amberhill? Had any of them survived?

Every tiht about what must have been a massacre, tears threatened to cascade down her cheeks, but she was detered to release all the emotions that had built up within her, she dared not reveal her weakness to her captors; she must not weaken herself

So she rode on, through vast stretches of woodlands, along deer trails and dry streaiant white pines Once she would have found the scenery beautiful and wholeso winter, the rusts and browns, the dying vegetation, and the sky crisscrossed by branches like an enclosing net

She knew they traveled west, for they followed the fading sun, riding into the narrow shadows of tree trunks like cavalry into the waiting pikes of infantrymen

The ruffians spoke little to her, or to one another In their deh none wore any device They called their leader Sarge and he rode just ahead of her He set the pace, deterth of their ride for the day, and spoke only to bark out orders They were soldiers on awould send a swift and deadly force after thee that their capture by king’s men would result in the ultimate punishment