Page 146 (2/2)

“Yeah”

“Yeah,” she mocks “No funny joke? No cruel cuts? Just ‘yeah’?”

I rubto soak up the warmth of the fire “I don’t knohat you want me to say It is what it is Maybe she loves him too I don’t know But you know it ain’t just between you and Sefi and Valdir How many others have found out?” Her jaw clenches “Take that number and triple it Hell, multiply it by ten Gossip like that…exponential echoes” I sigh, knowing I should mind uess I care about Sefi “Seriously, what’s Sefi supposed to do? Have you killed?”

“No That is dishonorable My Queen is honorable She would challenge me Out here, I would win In a circle, no”

“Lucky for you, she’s forbidden challenges, remember? Her New Path? Alltribe no kill Alltribe Anyway, do you want to kill your Queen?”

“No,” she snaps “She is all” Her face goes blank “Maybe she will find another mate”

“And what does that tell the others? You saw her fail to draw that bow Others did too So to be queen?”

She reels back, offended “No”

“Well, ht now, she’s being the big girl You’re spitting in her eye She ht have the throne, but you’re the only one who can fix this”

She weaves a dragon tooth into her valor tail “I have never feared the eneic “Valdir is my heart I do not want it to be so, but he is When I wake, when I sleep, he is a waroes with me always”

“Well, kid It’s on you I’d like to say there’s another shadohatever out there for you, but I found mine and he’s stuck with me…”

“But sos are more important,” she says

I stare into the fire “Maybe”

“Alltribe is more important than h to rattleinto the weight of her decision Restless froard she will find the nightgaze, and he can war from the Gray

The old shaman wheezes as he sits down “What did you say to her?”