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“My visions have disheartened me once again.”
—The Codex of Jasal the Great
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... Now you die, Fal’kin bitch ... The Ken’nar defender woman called, her mind-words filled with bloodlust.
Mirana screamed. Before she could grapple for her long knives, the woman gurgled on a cry as a sword plunged through her neck and into her throat from behind.
Hot, red blood sprayed Mirana. She flailed to get out from under the ghastly shower as the Ken’nar’s body collapsed on top of her. With a shove, she pushed the corpse from her. She spat out blood that found its way into her mouth and wretched on her hands and knees, seeing nothing more than the dark form of her savior as he rode away.
She collapses to her hands and knees. Blood from the deep gash in her side drips onto the paving, the rain and sleet creating little red rivulets in the grout. Teague lies, unmoving. A sob of pain, of desolation, escapes her mouth as she slowly lifts her head.
“It is over, child. Give it to me.”
She shook her head to dispel the vision fragment. She had to move. She had to find Lord Garis. If she didn’t, Two Rivers Ford would be just the beginning. The Ken’nar would march, unstoppable, across Kinderra. The saving power of Jasal’s Keep, if it existed, would never be known. Teague would die. She would fail at the keep, at everything, if the Ford fell to the Ken’nar.
If the Ford fell.
She sucked in a breath. Her three Aspects rose sharply. They begged for release. Her heart was on fire. She swore she would not take an amulet and wreak the awful destruction she witnessed through her keep vision. But could she do something to save the Fal’kin? With an amulet? Now? If she did, would they remain alive by her hand, only to die by it later at Jasal’s Keep?
If she didn’t act now, the Fal’kin of an entire province would be wiped off the face of Kinderra. Her province. Her people. People whose lives she had already put in jeopardy.
Mirana scrambled back onto her horse, drawing his head toward the direction of the land’s end. “Ashtar! Run!”
