“No,” Hilo said. “I’ve come to ask for your help.” For the first time in Hilo’s memory, Ayt Mada was too surprised to give an immediate reply. She stared at him for some time. “Why on earth and under Heaven,” she asked with the slow, deliberate rasp of drawing a rusted blade, “would I help the man who stood by when I had a knife in my neck, happily watching me die?” “You would’ve gladly done the same if it were me,” Hilo said. “I should have you killed where you stand right now,” Ayt declared. “After you’re dead, the barukan will kill your sister, and that will be the end of the Kauls. The end
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