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“No”
He wipes his ass with snow and pulls up his trousers He considers me and nods in approval “You come from no one I too come from no one” Then he turns and stumbles back to the fire
“The Queen knows about you and Freihild,” I say
He wheels back, and with one step closes the distance I have to step back to look into his eyes
“It’s not my business what you do with your cock But at least have the decency not to undress Freihild with your eyes like a titaniu kind And others notice, even if they’re too afraid of you to say it”
I slip past hi
THE OBSIDIANS ARRANGE THEMSELVES in a crescent and groan a song of farewell to the last sliver of sun as it dips beneath the horizon, not to be seen again until suic quality, this sendoff The dark months of winter are a reality the Obsidians have left behind While Olyoes repairs, they will return to their cities and highrise penthouses and skyhook bars and brothels in the cities of Cie clans to suffer the season
Sefi gives us a blessing before we go, dipping her finger in blood and pressing it to ard’s When she coh with her nail to leave a sash
I wave dramatically at Pax as the Snowball takes off to the cla behind on a tow cable As I fly, Freihild looks joyfully ahead while Ozgard plays with his jeweled rings
Half an hour’s flight finds us beside the ruins of the Valkyrie Spires We drop the skull by the site Ozgard and his acolytes have prepared for the Godspeak at a rise We set down south of it and hike up I raise our therard and Freihild douse the skull and tion fat and lay out a circle of scales etched with runes
Soon fire leaps along the skull and the pine beneath Freihild and I sip heated grog to ward off the chill as Ozgard finishes laying his runes She looks so young in the firelight I can barely reer the save her
“I saw you and Valdir speaking in the shadow,” she says “He returned haunted Did you give him some Gray wisdom?”
“Nothing he doesn’t already know”
The fire crackles between us She knows I know
“I have tried to end it before It is a war in here” She opens her hand over her heart “Sefi gaveelse” She looks out at the snow “She is stubborn She is the strength in the bond She must release him But she will not I do not knohat to do”