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. He frowned deeply at Sybella and Amade-us. Let her walk a battlefield.Let me speak privately with Althea s law-makers.Your freedom might be closer than you think. Or a lifetime away, Tristan muttered. Don t underestimate Sybella.Not for a moment, not anywhere.Because she knows I want you. With that he strode away toward the campsite, and Rogan watched,fascinated, puzzled, confounded.He had never understood the finer pointsof law, much less looked closely at a legal document.Deep in the bowels ofAlthea was a library stuffed with them, and a dozen lawmakers wouldgladly answer anyone s question on any subject.It saved the Guard round-ing up wrongdoers who had broken the laws of the land in all ignorance.It was an odd kind of servitude which chafed Tristan.Sybella took hishand, kissed him, took the wood from him, chased him from the work ofsetting the fire.By night he warmed the warrior s bed as a husband, and ifhe had been there by choice, he might have been glad to.Strange, Rogandecided, that the moment a request or a desire became a command, itbegan to smart.He wondered if Sybella even realized she treated him like a hound,like furniture.She was obsessed with him, so blinded by his beauty, shehad not yet seen his intelligence, and she crimsoned with rage whenanyone, man or woman, cast interested, beguiled eyes at him.It would come to blood again, perhaps sooner than she realized.InAlthea, she would not be able to stipulate who could approach Tristan, andwho could not.Neither her skills nor her fury were known there.Naturewould take her course, unless Tristan forgot his honor, got out and ran, andkept running, always a mile ahead of the Brandel hunters.Rogan waskeenly aware of a great, raw chasm looming ahead of them, and just then,he could see no way around it.61 The wood was wet, but a handful of black powder spat, crackled andwoofed in the hearth, and a fire was burning brightly in minutes.Thevenison sizzled in a black iron skillet, and a kettle of water was soonboiling.When the meat came off the pan, a batter of wheat and rye flourwas poured on, and Rogan took his turn to stand vigil over it whileAmadeus made nettle and ginger tea.Tristan busied his hands with thehorses, the waterskins, the packs, any chore he could find, and Rogandivided his attention between the skillet and the long slope up which theyhad just ridden.Visibility was fine.The view back to the valley separating Harbendanefrom Sheld was uninterrupted, beautiful with streams and woodland, andbeyond them, the fortified watchtowers.Spaced a few miles apart, theyangled away into the north, pointing the way to Nordheim.To the south,the lowlands were a patchwork of fields, bright with the fresh green ofspring crops, the white blossom of orchards.No one was moving on the eastbound trails yet.They had made goodtime, and there were scores of ways out of Sheld.This was just one, and noteven the best trail.Bardolf s men could never hope to search them all. We ll be lucky, Amadeus said, thrusting a steaming mug intoRogan s hand. I ve Seen nothing moving on the ways behind us, and ifthey were there, I would See them. He gave the younger man a smile thatcreased his face deeply. A shaman has his uses, occasionally. He does indeed. Rogan turned back from the view and relaxed. We ll camp tonight at a croft I know.At this time of year, the shepherdsshouldn t be using it.If they are, we can share food and water.And then.Althea. Which road will we take to the city? Sybella wanted to know. Once we pass by Listow, there s no way Bardolf can send an armedparty after us.Those roads are patrolled, Damiel won t have Bardolf scavalry there, any more than Bardolf will have Thered in cavalry on hisprecious highroad.We ll go in by Harbendane High Bridge. The bridge? Amadeus echoed. I heard it was burned. The old bridge was, Rogan said bleakly as year-old memoriesaroused a shiver in his marrow. Landpirates were on the other side,driven down out of Nordheim by a longer, harder winter than anythingeven the oldest of us could recall.We d already fought four battles in tenweeks.We were poor in manpower and horses, and some of us were stilllimping, with half-healed wounds. We heard this, Sybella mused, as far away as Galshorros. So you burned the bridge," Amadeus observed. If the landpirates had made it over, Rogan said quietly, we d havebeen defending the Vale of Althea itself.We were spread too thinly,shaman.The Nordheimers would have been at the walls of Althea in a day.I was one of those who went out with pitch and oil.We drenched the ropes62 and set them alight
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