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"Oh, Marius, help me," I whispered, even as the sun poured down on the tree-lined pathways and endless green fields "Please, please help me "

And then another vision shocked ain, but there was no sunlight; this was a real place soh the eyes of so strides at incredible speed But as this so's destination? Now, this vision was being sent; it was powerful, refusing to be ignored But why?

It was gone as quickly as it had come

I was back in the cruh the open archway at the rushing figures; hearing the high-pitched cries of victory and jubilation,

Come out, my warrior, where they can see you Come to me

She stood before me with her ar? For a moment I didn'tthe eyes of the woaze They fell down on their knees as she and I cahtly; I feltAkasha, this is a lie, a terrible lie And the evil sown here will flourish for a century

Suddenly the world tilted We weren't standing on the ground any over the tin roofs, and the wo their foreheads to the mud

"Behold the el"

Then in an instant, the village was a tiny scattering of silver roofs far below us, all that ain on the wind

I glanced back, trying in vain to recognize the specific location-the dark swahts of the nearby city, the thin strip of road where the overturned trucks still burned But she was right, it really didn't matter

Whatever was going to happen had now begun, and I did not knohat could possibly stop it

Chapter 26

THE STORY OF THE TWINS,

PART I

ALL EYES WERE FIXED ON MAHARET AS SHE paused Then she began again, her words seeh they came slowly and were carefully pronounced She seeer to reexamine what she meant to describe