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The art at first probes the stone, licks at it, soaks into the pores of granite Spreads There is a counter song, a song of aging and weathering, of weakness and erosion, freezing and thawing

It reverberates into the weakened portions of the wall adjacent to the breach The song of the guardians is in too much disarray to repel it They try to rally, to find harone and they are in chaos, like an orchestra playing out of tiony rather than coreat, but they onlytheether, to help them

Listen to me! Follow me!

But the voice of the one once known as Pendric is lost in the cacophony He has spent sodistrust and hate that he cannot heal them

The nonliving rock of the breach gives way as though it has undergonein but a fewhole in the wall

At first there is nothing more, then the bedrock upon which the wall is built ruuardians near the breach rise up in a crescendo of pain They begin to die Mortar fails, cracks widen, ashlars edging the breach crumble and fall

The cry of the guardians escalates into a scream

MERDIGEN’S RETURN

Dale was pleased The tower guardians, instead of playing ga serious discussions about the wall and its workings Not that she could understand it all, and not that they weren’t passing ale around now and then to, as Itharos put it, “assist in the thinking process” They filled up scrolls with equations and drawings, ued theories and philosophy At least they were doing so

Alton had continued with his inspections and reported the wall, the section nearest the breach, was still oozing blood, soes in the cracks, usually the eyes watching him At times it was only one pair, at others it was several Today he’d hurried her into the wall, and he see Even her passage through the toall felt…tense? Stiff? Not the usual fluid sensation like passing through water but almost brittle The wall had not trapped her this ties assured her they would speak with the guardians to ensure her passage back was safe

Dale shuddered and tried to focus on what the towerOld Sacoridian or words frouess at At times they were so incomprehensible in their discussions that she found herself dozing off Suddenly a question rang through the tower that brought her fully awake

“So who started the song?” Fresk de?”

Everyone stared at hiu to do with it, Winthorpe claimed it was Theanduris Silverwood, Itharos speculated it was the stonecutters theinated the song

“We were not there to know the origin,” a new voice said, “nor did we think to ask”

Dale whirled in her chair and standing there in the en with his pack on his back and his staff at hand Two others ith hi-bearded, solemn fellow and a wispy woman with leaves in her hair

When the tower guardians saw theht Even Cleodheris sreet the travelers