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when they don t know what happened.
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She turned the roan back toward the tower.  Hryessa?
The young guard drew her mount beside the marshal as the two horses slowly
walked uphill.
 Stupid& they were stupid&  muttered Berlis.
Nylan looked from Ryba to the two refugees, and then to the bodies on the
cart. While he understood Ryba s logic, he couldn t say he was pleased with
the speed with which it was made and the dispatch with which it was executed.
Literally executed, he reflected sardonically.
He turned toward the gray mare, wondering again. Ryba anticipated trouble,
and in any  civilized world, that would be called murder. Yet& was preventing
abuse and death through death exactly wrong? He shook his head. The problem
was that you couldn t always be sure that a killing before the fact was
justified, visions or no visions.
He untied the leather leads to the cart horse and flicked them. The wheels
creaakked as he resumed the long climb up to the ridge, the tower, and the
smithy site.
LXXXIII
AT THE THRAP on the door, Hissl turns from the window. The knocking continues
when he does not move.
 Just a moment. The wizard composes himself and steps forward, his fingers
on the hilt of the white-bronze dagger at his belt.
A hooded figure stands at the outside door to Hissl s room and bows.  Have
you thought about the keys to your wishes?
 The keys to my wishes? How would you presume?
 You are tired of being thought of as the second wizard, as a tool to be
used and left aside. You would like position and power in your own right. The
hooded figure remains on the landing.
 Stay there. Hissl takes two steps back, still watching his visitor, then
circles behind the table with the glass. He looks from the hooded figure to
the glass, then concentrates.
Slowly, a shape appears in the swirling mists, the figure of an armsman in
brown leathers with a purple sash across the thin breastplate. Behind the
figure is a black stone tower.
Hissl does not wipe his sweating brow as he releases his hold upon the
glass.
 You are an armsman, but you come from the black tower of the devil angels.
I could kill you. He pauses.  I should kill you.
The armsman takes one step into the room and stops. He extends his right
hand, missing the index finger and thumb, but does not throw back the hood,
for all that his features had just appeared in the screeing glass.  The angels
took those from me. I cannot return to Lornth or my family. I offer you the
chance for power and position.
 How can you offer me power and position? You have nothing. Hissl laughs.
 And you have returned to the lands of Lornth, if not Lornth itself.
 My& patron would like to see Westwind fall.
 Westwind?
 That is what the evil angels call their tower and the lands they stole
from the Lord of Lornth.
 If your patron is so powerful, why does he not take this& Westwind
himself?
The armsman shrugs.  Lord Nessil could not, not with threescore armsmen.
You and the great hunter could, knowing what he knows and what you know, and
what I know.
 And what is that?
 He will have to tell you that.
 I am supposed to take that on faith? Ha! Hissl laughs again.
 Here is another token. Slowly, the armsman extends an object, bending
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forward and setting it on the table beside the glass.
Hissl looks at the thunder-thrower, smaller than he had realized.  Why
would I need that?
 So you will not take the hunter on faith.
Hissl licks his lips as he regards the metal object that radiates both
chaos and order. Finally, he says,  What does the hunter want?
 To meet with you. To plan the conquest of Westwind.
 Ha! Young Relyn of Gethen had nearly twoscore armsmen, and he failed. So
did Lord Nessil. You, your hunter, and I are supposed to succeed when they did
not?
 I was bid to tell you that more than a third of the angels who faced Lord
Nessil are dead. Four are with child or have a babe, and only one
thunder-thrower still works. Many of the angels are unhappy with the highest
angel, and the black mage has lost much of his magic.
Hissl shrugs.  If your& patron is so eager to see me& why, have him come to
Clynya.
The hooded figure nods.  He said you would bid me so. Before long, he will
come.
 I would like to see him. Hissl forces a smile.  That I would.
LXXXIV
 I LL TAKE HER. In the darkness, Nylan slipped out of his side of the bed, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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