Kerr,Katharine - Deverry 07 - A Time Of War

A TIME OF WAR

Days of Blood and Fire

KATHARINE KERR

Pronunciation Notes

Vowels are divided by Deverry scribes into two classes: noble and common. Nobles have two

pronunciations; commons, one.

A as in father when long; a shorter version of the same sound, as in far, when short.

O as in bone when long; as in pot when short.

W as the oo in spook when long; as in roof when short.

Y as the i in machine when long; as the e in butter when short.

E as in pen.

I as in pin.

U as in pun.

Vowels are generally long in stressed syllables; short in unstressed. Y is the primary exception to this

rule. When it appears as the last letter of a word, it is always long whether that syllable is stressed or not.

Diphthongs generally have one consistent pronunciation.

AE as the a in mane.

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AI as in aisle.

AU as the ow in how.

EO as a combination of eh and oh.

EW as in Welsh, a combination of eh and oo.

IE as in pier.

OE as the oy in boy.

UI as the North Welsh wy, a combination of oo and ee.

Note that OI is never a diphthong, but is two distinct sounds, as in camoic, (R-noh-ik).

Consonants arc mostly the same as in English, with these exceptions:

C is always hard as in cat.

G is always hard as in get.

DD is the voiced th as in thin or breathe, but the voicing is more pronounced than in English. It is

opposed to TH, the unvoiced sound as in th or breath. (This is the sound that the Greeks called the Celtic

tau.)

R is heavily rolled.

RH is a voiceless R, approximately pronounced as if it were spelled hr in Deverry proper. In Eldidd, the

sound is fast becoming indistinguishable from R.

DW, GW, and TW are single sounds, as in Gwendolen or twit.

Y is never a consonant.

I before a vowel at the beginning of a word is consonantal, as it is in the plural ending -ion, pronounced

yawn.

Doubled consonants are both sounded clearly, unlike in English. Note, however, that DD is a single

letter, not a doubled consonant.

Accent is generally on the penultimate syllable, but compound words and place names are often an

exception to this rule.

I have used this system of transcription for the Bardekian and Elvish alphabets as well as the Deverrian,

which is, of course, based on the Greek rather than the Roman model. On the whole, it works quite well

for the Bardekian, at least. As for Elvish, in a work of this sort it would be ridiculous to resort to the

elaborate apparatus by which scholars attempt to transcribe that most subtle and nuanced of tongues. As

those who have been following the earlier works in this series know, a certain Elvish professor of Elvish

has chosen to waste his supposedly valuable time by disputing this obvious point. Since the man refuses

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to see reason and stop his scurrilous attacks upon us, my publishers and I have been forced to sue for

redress in the malover of the gwcrbrets of Aberwyn, much as it distresses us to waste the clearly valuable

time of this court. Although the case has yet to be accepted for deliberation, readers will be kept

apprised of future developments, never fear.

THE WESTLANDS

Summer, 1116

RUBEUS

Of all the figures that give us omens in the element of Earth, this be the most dangerous and dissolute,

unless it pertain, thanks to the overall reading of the map, to days of blood and fire. And should it fall into

the House of Iron, then the loremaster must destroy the map immediately, proceeding no farther, for

naught good will come of peering into such a future.

The Omenbook ofGwam, Loremaster

PART ONE

Puer

Unless this figure fall into the House of Bronze, that is to say, the seventh country on our map, or into the

House of Gold, the fifth country where dwell art and song, then it be ill-omened, bringing dissension,

injury, and the lust for revenge.

The Omenbook ofGwam, Loremaster

Round Cerr Cawnen the meadows lay marshy, crossed by a thousand streams, most no more than

rivulets, and dotted with pools and hogs. With his face and hands lard-smeared to Keep the blackflies

from biting, Jahdo picked his way through the high grass to hunt for brooklime and colt’s foot. To the

north the mountains that the dwarven folk call the Roof of the World towered out of blue mist, their

peaks shining white in the summer sun. To the south the rolling meadows spread out into farmland, dotted

with trees, and here and there a plume of smoke from a farm wife’s kitchen rose like a feather on the sky.

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In his pure boy’s tenor Jahdo sang aloud, swinging his wicker basket in time to the song. He was so

entranced with this wide view, in fact, that he stumbled, stepping out into empty air and falling with a yelp

some four feet down into a gully carved by a stream.

He landed on soft grass and marshy ground, but the basket went flying, hitting the water with a plop and

floating away. He scrambled up, decided that the sandy stream bed offered the best footing, and

splashed after the basket as it rounded a turn and sailed out of sight. Jahdo broke into a shuffling sort of

trot, keeping his feet under the knee-high water, travelling, quite inadvertently, in near silence, hidden by

the banks of the deepening stream. At another twist in the watercourse, he caught his runaway basket,

which had beached itself onto a strip of shore at an eddy. When he picked it up, something shiny caught

his eye, a little disk of metal, pierced and hanging from a leather thong. He grabbed it, hoping for a

dropped coin, but the thing was only pewter, engraved with a strange squiggle. He slipped it into his

pocket anyway, stood for a moment panting for breath, and realized that he heard voices

Just ahead the leafy shadows of trees danced on the water. Up on the banks stood a copse, where a

man and a woman talked on the edge of anger, though they kept their voices down so low that Jahdo

could guess they met in secret. He began backing away, slipped, and fell with a splash and a curse,

‘Here!’ the woman shrilled ‘A spy!’

‘I be no such thing, good lady.’ In a wail of protest Jahdo clambered up. ‘Don’t hurt me.’

Tall, blond, with ice-blue eyes as cold as the northern peaks, a young man jumped down onto the sandy

strip of shore bordering the stream, grabbed his arm and hauled him out of the water. When he

recognized Verrarc, a member of the Council of Five that ruled the city, Jahdo began to stammer

apologies. Verrarc grabbed him by both shoulders and shook him hard,

‘What are you doing here?’

‘Gathering herbs, sir. My sister she be ill. Gwira the herbwoman said she’d treat her, but it was needful

for me to go and do some gathering. To give her due fee, I mean.’

Verrarc threw him to his knees. As he looked up at the tall, hard-muscled man towering over him, Jahdo

felt the world turn all swimmy. Verrarc’s blue stare cut into his soul like the thrust of a knife.

‘He does tell the truth.’ Verrarc’s voice seemed to come from far away.

‘That’s of no moment. Kill him.’ The woman’s voice hissed and cracked. ‘We mayn’t risk - kill him,

Verro!’

Jahdo whimpered and flung up his hands, half-warding a blow, half-begging for his life. When he tried to

speak, his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, and he gasped for breath. Verrarc laid on^ hand on the

jewelled hilt of the sword slung at his hip, then considered him for an achingly long moment. His stare

seemed normal again, merely the look of an angry man, not some strange ensorcelment.

‘I know you. You be the rat boy.’

‘I am, sir.’ He found his voice at last, but in his terror he could only whisper. ‘Jahdo Ratter.’

‘Kill him now.’Wrapped in a black cloak with the hood well up, the woman crouched on the edge of the

gully.

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‘Hold your tongue, Rae!’ Verrarc snapped. ‘I’ll not be hurting the boy. He’s but ten summers old, and

no threat.’

‘Verro!’ Her voice, this time, whined, as petulant as a toddler. ‘Kill him. I want to watch.’

‘Hold your tongue! He be valuable, this lad, and besides, the herb-woman does know he’s out here.’

With a snarl she sat back on her heels. All Jahdo could see of her were grey eyes and pale cheeks,

streaked with sweat. No doubt she found the black cloak a burden on such a sunny day. Verrarc ignored

her, slipped one arm around Jahdo’s shoulders, and turned him round.

‘Look, lad, as one man to another, I ask you: are you really going to be telling anyone about what you

did see here today?’

All of a sudden Jahdo understood, a love affair.

‘Of course not, sir. It be none of my business, bain’t?’

Verrarc winked and grinned.

‘Not in the least, lad, not in the least. And don’t you go worrying. No harm will come to you, as long as

you hold your tongue.’

‘Thank you, sir, oh, a thousand thanks. I’ll never say naught, I swear it. And I’ll gather my herbs

somewhere far away, too.’

Verrarc looked deep into his eyes and smiled. It seemed that his blue eyes turned to water, that his gaze

flowed over the boy like warm water.

‘Good. Good lad. Now, just trot back down along the stream, like, and go on your way.’

Jahdo followed orders, running as fast he dared, never looking back until he was a good mile away. He

climbed out of the gully and stood for a moment, shaking his head. Something odd had happened, down

there by the water. Or had he fallen asleep and dreamt it? He’d seen something, someone - Councilman

Verrarc and a lady, and they were sneaking out behind her husband’s back, and he’d sworn to speak

not a word of it. Fair enough, and he’d certainly keep his promise, especially since he wasn’t even sure if

it were true or just a dream, or even a rumour. The city was full of rumours, after all. Maybe he hadn’t

seen a thing. He was sure, as he thought about it, that he’d seen no one but Verrarc, sitting by a stream.

By the time he’d filled the damp basket with herbs, he’d forgotten the councilman’s name, and by the

time he was heading home, all he retained was a sense of fear, linked to the grassy bank of some stream

or other. A snake, perhaps, had startled him; dimly he could remember a sound much like the hiss of a

snake.

Although there were a scattering of villages farther west, Cerr Cawnen was the only town worthy of the

name in that part of the world, the Rhiddaer (the Freeland), as it was known. In the midst of water

meadows lay Loc Vaed, stretching in long green shallows out to blue deeper water and a rocky central

island, the Citadel, where stood the fine homes of the best families and, at the very peak, the armoury of

the citizen militia. The rest of the town crammed into the shallows: a jumble and welter of houses and

shops all perched on pilings or crannogs, joined by little bridges to one another in the rough equivalent of

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city blocks, which in turn bristled with jetties and rickety stairs leading down to the stretches of open

water between them, where leather coracles bobbed on ropes. Toward the edge of town, where the lake

rippled over sandy reefs, big logs, sawn in half and sunk on end, studded the surface of the water and

served as stepping-stones between the huts and islets. On the lake shore proper, where the ground was

reasonably solid, stood a high timber-laced stone wall, ringing the entire lake round. Guards stood on

constant duty at the gate and prowled the catwalk above, turning the entire town and lake both into an

armed camp. The forty thousand folk of Ccrr Cawnen had more than one enemy to fear.

It was late in the day by the time Jahdo trotted through the gates to the stretch of grass that ringed the

shore, and he knew he’d best hurry. Not only did the memory of his fear still trouble him, but he was

worried about his elder sister, who’d woken that morning doubled over with pain. Clutching his basket

tight, he jumped his way across the shallows from log to log, then elimbed some stairs up to a block of

buildings, all roofed with living sod or vegetable gardens. Most of the stilt-houses had wide wooden

decks round them, and he leapt or clambered from one to another, dodging dogs and goats and small

children, ducking under wet laundry hung to dry, calling out a pleasant word here or there to a woman

grinding grain in a quern or a man fishing from a window of his house. At the edge of the deeper water he

climbed down and helped himself to a coracle tied to a piling. These little round boats were common

property, used as needed, left for the next person wherever one landed them. With his basket settled

between his knees, Jahdo rowed out to Citadel.

Normally, poor folk like him and his family never lived on the central island, but his clan had occupied

two big rooms attached to the town granaries for over a hundred years, ever since the Town Council had

chartered the lodgings to them - on condition, of course, that they ‘did work most diligently and with all

care and patience both of man and weasel’ to keep down the swarms of rats in the granary. Everyone

knew that rodents were dangerous enemies, spreading filth and fleas, befouling much more food than they

outright ate. To earn their food, clothing, and other necessities, the Ratters, as their family came to be

known, also took their ferrets round from house to house all over town. Wearing little muzzles to keep

them from making kills, the ferrets chased the vermin out through holes in the walls, where the family

caught the rats in wicker cages and drowned them and their fleas both in the lake - not the most pleasant

of jobs, but growing up with it made it tolerable.

The squat stone buildings of the public granaries clung to a cliff low down on the citadel island. Getting to

the Ratters’ quarters required some of a ferret’s agility: first you climbed up a wooden ladder, then

squeezed yourself between two walls and inched along until you made a very sharp turn right into the

doorway. When Jahdo came into the big square chamber that served as kitchen, common room, and

bedchamber for his parents, he found white-haired Gwira, the herb-woman, brewing herb water in an

iron kettle at the hearth. The spicy scent, tinged with resin, hung in the room and mingled with the musky

stink of feircts.

‘Where’s Mam, Gwira?’ Jahdo said.

‘Out with your Da and the weasels. They’ll be back well before dark, she told me. Don’t know where

Kiel’s gone to.’

Dead-pale but smiling, his elder sister, lanky dark-haired Niffa, was sitting at the rickety plank table

nearby and drinking from a wooden bowl. Although she glanced his way, her enormous dark eyes

seemed focused on some wider, distant view. A dreamy child, people called her, and at root, very

strange. Jahdo merely thought of her as irritating.

‘You be well?’

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‘I am, at that.’ Niffa blushed as red as the coals. ‘I never were truly ill.’

When Jahdo stared in puzzlement, Gwira laughed.

‘Your sister be a woman now, young Jahdo, and that’s all you need to know about it. It’s needful for us

to set about finding her a husband soon.’

Vague boyish rumours of blood and the phases of the moon made Jahdo blush as hard as his sister. He

slung the basket onto the table and ran into the bedchamber. At one end of the narrow room lay the

jumble of blankets and straw mattresses that he, his elder brother, and his sister slept upon, while at the

other stood the maze of wooden pens, strewn with more of the same straw, where the ferrets lived. Since

his parents were out hunting, only one ferret, a pregnant female, was at home and surprisingly enough

awake in the daytime, scooting on her bottom across the straw as if she’d just relieved herself. Jahdo

leaned over her slab-sided pen, built high enough to keep the other ferrets out and away from her tangled

ball of a nest, all heaped up straw and scraps of cloth. Tck-tek deigned to allow him to stroke her soft

fur, then reached out her front paws in a long stretch, casually swiping her bottom across his fingers to

mark him as hers.

‘Oh ych, Tek!’ Jahdo wiped his hand on his trousers, then remembered the pewter trinket in his pocket.

‘Here’s somewhat for your hoard.’

When he dropped the disk in, she sniffed it, then hooked the thong with her fangs and, head held high to

drag her prize, waddled back to her nest and tucked it safely away. Some ferrets were worse than

magpies, stealing shiny things to wad up with rags and bits of old leather into a treasure-ball. They liked

socks, too, and stole belt buckles if you didn’t watch them, dragging them belt and all into their nests.

As promised, his parents came home not long after, bent under their burdens of caged ferrets and damp

traps. Dark-haired Lael, going grey in his beard and moustaches, was a tall man, built like a blacksmith,

or so everyone said, while blonde Dera was a mere wisp of a woman even now, after she’d borne three

healthy children and two that had died in infancy. Yet somehow, when she got in one of her rages, no one

thought of her as slight or frail, and her blue eyes always snapped with some new passion or other.

‘Back, are you?’ Lael said with a nod at Jahdo. ‘Help me with the weasels.’

They carried the cages into the bedroom and opened them one at a time, grabbing each ferret and

slipping off its tiny leather hood. As much as they hated the hoods, the ferrets always seemed to hate

having them off even more, twisting round and grunting in your lap. For creatures that weighed no more

than five pounds at the absolute most, they could be surprisingly strong. Jahdo got the first pair unhooded

easily enough, but their biggest hob, Ambo, was always a battle, a frantic wiggle of pushing paws.

‘Now hold still!’ Jahdo snapped. ‘I do know you do hate it, but there’s naught I can do about it! Here,

just let me get the knot undone. It’s needful for you to wear them, you know. What if you ate a big meal

and then fell asleep in the walls? We’d never get you back, and you’d get eaten yourself by one of the

dog packs or suchlike. Now hold still! There! Ye gods!’

Free at last Ambo shook his sable length and chittered, pausing to rub himself on Jahdo’s arm, all

affection now that his work day was over. He backed up for a running start, then leapt and pranced,

jigging round Jahdo’s ankles. When the boy could finally catch him, he dumped Ambo into the common

pen, where the ferret began rummaging round in the straw on some weaselly concern. Dera came in with

clean water in a big pottery dish and a wooden bowl of scraps of jerky. She set them down inside the

common pen, then laid down some fine chopped meat for Tek-tek.

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‘Food for you later,’ she announced to Jahdo.

‘Is Gwira still here, Mam?’

‘She is. Why? Don’t you feel well?’

‘Naught like that. I just did wonder.’

‘Well, then, don’t stand in the straw like a lump! Come out and see for yourself.’

Jahdo followed her out to find his elder brother home, sitting at the far end of the big table and sharing a

tankard of beer with Lael. The eldest of the three and almost a man, really, Kiel was a handsome boy,

with yellow hair like their mother’s, and almost as tall as their father, but slender, with unusually long and

delicate fingers as well. At the nearer end of the table, the herbwoman stood, picking over the herbs

Jahdo had brought back.

‘Be those herbs good?’ he asked.

‘Perfectly fine, indeed,’ Gwira said.

The herbwoman stayed to dinner that night, sitting down at the end of the table next to Dera and across

from Niffa, where they could all gossip over their sauced pork and bread about possible husbands, while

Lael mostly listened, voicing only the occasional concerned opinion about one suitor or another. Kiel and

Jahdo pretended indifference, but at the same time, they said not one word to each other, either, lest they

miss something. As the second oldest person in Cerr Cawnen, Gwira knew a good bit about most

everyone,

‘Well now, with your pretty face,’ the old woman said at last, ‘you might nock an arrow for high-flying

game, young Niffa. Councilman Verrarc’s been known to stop by here for a word or two on occasion.’

‘He does come to see Mam, and I’d not be marrying him if he were the last man left alive under the

moon.’

Although Niffa spoke quietly, cold steel rang in her voice.

‘I doubt me if he’d marry a ratter, love.’ Dera broke in. ‘So don’t you worry.’

‘Beauty’s bettered a lass’s fortune before this.’ Gwira paused to hack a bit of gristle with her table

dagger. ‘Why do you hold him in disdain, lass?’

‘He’s like reaching into a pond and touching a big old slimy newt. I hate him.’

Dera and Lael both raised an eyebrow at this outburst. Niffa buried her nose in her cup of watered ale.

‘Well, there was that scandal.’ Gwira said. ‘Him and that Raena woman, the chief speaker’s wife from

over in Penli.’

‘That near cost us the alliance, it did,’ Lad said. ‘A lot of us might not vote for the young cub again, I tell

you, after that botch.’

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‘Worse for her, it were,’ Gwira broke in. ‘Her husband did put her aside, didn’t he? Who knows what

happened to the poor woman after that?’

‘If the young cub did want her as much as all that,’ Lael growled, ‘he might have married her decently

when he had the chance.’

‘I hear Raena did go back to her people in the north in shame.’ Dera turned thoughtful. ‘But I don’t

know. It takes two to twist a rope, I always say, and there was somewhat about that woman I never did

like. I doubt me if she were but an innocent little chick to Verro’s fox, like.’

‘Um, well, mayhap.’ Gwira pursed her lips. ‘Our Niffa might not be able to do better when it come to

coin and calling, but there’s no doubt about it, she can do much better when it come to character. I’ll be

putting some thought into this, over the next few days, like.’

‘Think of Demet,’ Niffa mumbled. ‘The weaver’s second son.’

Everyone laughed, relaxing. Gwira nodded slowly.

‘Not a bad choice he’d be. Good steady man, his father, and prosperous, too.’

Jahdo laid his spoon down in his bowl. All this talk of Councilman Verrarc had made him feel sick to his

stomach, and cold all over, as well. He should tell Gwira how he felt, he knew, should tell her about -

about what? There was some incident he wanted to tell her, just because she was old and wiser than

anyone else in town. Something about some event out in the meadow. Hadn’t something scary

happened? Yet he couldn’t quite remember what it was, and the moment passed beyond returning.

Yet, not two days later, the boy recovered a brief glimmering of the memory, though not enough to save

him. Early on that particular morning, Dera sent Jahdo over to town to claim some eggs and meat that

one of the townsfolk owed them.

‘Your Da be across, too, love,’ she said. ‘See if you can find him when you’re done.’

Jahdo had rowed about halfway across the lake, his back turned to his destination, of course, when he

saw the ceremonial barge pushing off from Citadel and heading his way. With a few quick strokes he

moved off its course and rested at his oars while the squat barge slipped past, painted all silver and red,

riding low in the water. In the middle stood a false mast to display the yellow and green banners of Cerr

Cawnen, which hung lazily in the warm summer air. At the bow clustered a group of men in rich clothing,

embroidered linen shirts belted over knee-length trousers, the common style in this part of the world, with

short cloaks thrown back from their shoulders. Jewels and gold winked in the rising sun.

As the barge slid past, Jahdo saw Councilman Verrarc standing at the rail. His heart thudded once as the

councilman looked his way. Since only some fifteen feet separated them, Jahdo could cleaily see that

Verrarc had noticed him, that the councilman frowned, too, and turned to keep him in view for a minute

or two after the barge went past, Again Jahdo felt his mouth turn parched, and the sensation made him

remember his meadow fear and the image of a woman, wrapped in black and hissing as she spoke. Yet

all the boy knew was that in some obscure way Verrarc’s image had sparked the memory. With a cold

shudder he forced the recollection away and rowed on to town.

The family who owed them for the ratting, the Widow Suka and her son, had slaughtered a goat just the

day before. Some hundred feet from the lake’s edge, her house perched on a erannog piled up so many

hundreds of years before that the construction had turned into a real island, with trees and topsoil of its

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own, a little garden, and a pen for goats, which, every day in summer, the widow’s son rowed over to

the mainland for the grazing. While she nestled eggs safely in the straw in Jahdo’s basket and wrapped

chunks of goat up in cabbage leaves, Jahdo strolled to the edge of the erannog and looked over to shore.

Down by the gates in the wall a crowd of people stood round, all staring toward the gate itself. Jahdo

could just pick out the tall form of Councilman Verrarc toward the front of the mob.

‘Now what’s that?’ Suka said. ‘Looks like a merchant caravan’s coming in.’

‘It does, truly. Ooh, I wonder where they’ve been?’

‘If you want to go see, lad, I’ll keep the food here and cool for you.’

Leaving the boat behind, Jahdo made his way to shore on foot, hopping from log to log. He arrived at

the edge of the crowd just as the gates swung wide and a line of men and mules began to file through.

Since he was the shortest person in the crowd, Jahdo couldn’t see a thing. For a few minutes he trotted

this way and that, hoping to find a way to squeeze through to the front, decided that he might as well give

it up, then heard muttering and oaths from the front of the crowd. The press began to surge backwards,

men swearing and stepping back fast though without turning to look where they were going. Jahdo tried

to run, nearly fell, nearly panicked, and cried out.

‘Here, lad!’ Lael grabbed him. This be a bit dangerous for someone your size. Hang on, and I’ll lift you

up.’

‘Da! I didn’t even see you.’

‘Ah, but I did see you, and I was heading your way.’

Riding secure on his father’s shoulders jahdo at last discovered the cause of the commotion. A pair of

merchants on horseback, a pack of ordinary guards and a string of heavily laden mules had all marched

by when, at the very end of the line, a man-like figure strode in, leading an enormous white horse laden

with sacks and bundles. It was one of the Gel da’Thae, swinging a stout staff back and forth and side to

side in front of him as he walked, as if he were clearing something out of his path.

He stood perhaps seven feet tall, roughly man-shaped with two short-ish but sturdy legs, a long torso,

two long arms, and a face with recognizable man-like features - but he was no man nor dwarf, either. His

skin was as pale as milk in the places where it appeared between the lacings of his tight leather shirt and

trousers, but his black hair was as coarse and bristling-straight as a boar’s. At the bridge of his enormous

nose his eyebrows grew together in a sharp V and merged into his hairline. His hair itself plumed up, then

swept back and down over his long skull to cascade to his waist. Here and there in this mane hung tiny

braids, tied off with thongs and little charms and amulets. The backs of his enormous hands were furred

with stubby black hair, too. His cheeks, however, were hairless, merely tattooed all over in a complex

blue and purple pattern of lines and circles.

As lie walked, he turned his head this way and that, to listen rather than look, because where eyes

should have gleamed under his furred brows were only empty sockets, pale and knotted with scars.

‘Oh!’ Jahdo spoke without thinking, in his piping boy’s voice that cut through the noise of the crowd.

‘He be blind.’

With a toss of his maned head the Gel da’Thae stopped walking m front of Lael and swung toward the

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Kerr, Katharine - Deverry 07 - A Time Of War

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