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He is lying. Heloise thought of Sigir, of the love in his eyes, his sad words as he plunged the knife into her. Men do what they want when they are in charge, and they tell themselves it’s right.
“We’re going to the capital. So are you. The Traveling People have a saying”—she glanced at Onas—“that there is no place so safe as the road when it is taken in company, and no place so perilous, when it is taken alone.”
When she finally spoke, Xilyka’s voice was thick. “When we have beaten them, and we will beat them, then you will be ready to come out from there, and I will show you how people love when they are free.”
“You lied that you don’t use wizardry. You lied that wizardry is always bad. You lied that you were good and that what you want is to protect people. And when you’re not lying, you’re just wrong, and you always have some fine story for why up is down and black is white and you’re not really wrong at all. Why should we believe you now?”
“Should I take vengeance? For your mother? She wouldn’t have wanted that. She liked life to go easy. She never stood on honor, or justice, or any of those things that didn’t put food in your belly or fix the thatch.”
Men have ever been weak. The same loss that makes a woman into a Mother and leader of a band will drive a man mad. They shrink from pain. Could you imagine one of them having to bear a child? This is why all mothers strive to spare their sons from grief. It takes so little to break them.
I swear it in the Shadow of the Throne.” Heloise stepped close to him. “We have stood in the Shadow of the Throne,” she whispered, low enough that only they could hear. “It is cold, and it is dark, and it is empty. You swear it in my shadow now, in the shadow of my war-machine. And I accept your oath and swear my own, that if you ever break yours, I will make you pay.”
you don’t want to talk about it because it spoils your stupid legend. If killing a devil isn’t a great act, then maybe we don’t need to be so frightened of them. And if we don’t need to be so frightened of them, then why do we need an Order at all? Or an Emperor?
“I am no wizard,” the Nightingale said. “My gifts come from the Emperor.” “There is no Emperor!” Heloise felt her legs shaking. “The Sacred Throne is empty! It looks like it’s been empty for a thousand winters! He’s a made-up story! Just like the devils!” “The devils are real!” The Nightingale held up the head as proof. “So are bears! So is the pox or a dust-devil, or any other thing that can kill us! Doesn’t mean you have to burn villages.”
“The devils smashed your precious army just as surely as my Order. You cannot deny them.” “Not trying to,” Heloise hissed back, “but neither am I using it as an excuse to be just like them.”
“She is helping us because she wants to see the enemy beaten,” Heloise said, “because she wants to help everyone. Everyone. Traveling People, rangers, heretics, and Imperials alike. And if that’s not why, if a few words of truth are enough for her to withdraw her help, then she can stay here on the road, and I will fight the devils myself.”
