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Grandh her skeins of yarn Recently she and Lala and some of the other women had journeyed down to Mirwellton for supplies and there she visited the spinner who ood head for dyes Grandmother spent precious silver to replenish her supply

She decided to use sky blue yarn The eternal meadow, the heaven of her people, was always perceived to be “somewhere up there” above the clouds and beyond the stars, so using the color of the air seemed appropriate

She reth of yarn She tied knots into it,in prayer, “Dear God, our shepherd, keeper of the eternal uidance for those who are Your faithful on Earth” And on she went, focusing only on the prayer and the forn from God

When she finished, she held in her hand a round, knotted wad of yarn, and she threw it into the fire The smoke would carry her words to the sky and beyond, and she waited, gazing into the fla of inspiration

The flaed, and separated again in their ele ca she sat there, but she’d had enough It was time to move her old bones and stretch

But then a glowing erew in her vision, a depthless golden flaht with colu within it like a forest She wanted to avert her eyes, but did not dare

The whiteness sucked her in until she was surrounded by it and the coiling, flaring trees All else—the encampment and Hawk Hill—was lost to her

It was as if a door opened then and cold blasted her and diht, made the trees of flame dip and sputter like candle flah a tunnel, of being touched by ti came a faint, black breath of command: Awaken the Sleepers

And that was it She was thrust froht, out of the vision, and found herself blinking at her very ordinary caht the word of God and heard it, and she nohat she had to do Shethe ancient ways of herdistances in a short time

She stood Though her bones ached, she did not feel weary, but renewed, excited, invigorated She must now speak with her people and Captain Immerez

SARGE’S GIFT

“This sasMake it rain blood ye infantry Keep in step ye infantrymen”

At ti cadences allowed Beryl to transcend pain and disco her aloft from the cares of the physical world up toward the dark of the heavens and peace, till she felt nothing at all

Only to be yanked back to Earth by her guard jangling her chains, which sent shards of glass ripping through muscle and tendon She screa and drenched with sweat, the gold chains strung tautly about her body She beca around her and the sweat cooling on her skin The tre the chains anew and sending the glass shards slashing again