"She has gone to the sea again, to an ending in...
"She has gone to the sea again, to an ending in the sea
He didn't think they would careThat they could possibly care about that, any of them, but he saw then that he was wrongAll four of them, even the grim, warlike one with the brown hair, grew abruptly still and then turned, almost as one, to look west past the slopes and the sand to where the sun was setting over the water
"I am deeply sorry to hear that," said the man named Alessan"I saw her do the Ring Dive in ChiaraShe was beautiful and astonishingly brave
The brown-haired man stepped forward, an unexpected hesitation in his eyesHe wasn't as stern as he had first seemed, Scelto realized, and he was younger as well He stopped, in confusionThe other man, the Prince, looked at him with compassion in his eyes
"She was from Certando, BaerdEveryone knows the story
Slowly, the other man nodded his headBut when he turned away it was to look out toward the sea againThey don't seem like conquerors, Scelto thoughtThey didn't seem like men in the midst of a triumphThey just looked tired, as at the end of a very long journey
"So it wasn't me, after imitation chanel handbag all," the grey-eyed man was saying, almost to himself"After all my years of dreamingIt was his own Fool who killed himIt had nothing to do with us He looked at the two dead men lying together, then back at Scelto"Who was the Fool? Do we know?"
She was gone, claimed by the dark sea far downAnd Scelto was so tiredTired of grief and blood and pain, of these bitter cycles of revengeHe knew what was going to happen to this man the moment he spoke
They ought to know, she had said, before she walked away to the sea, and it was true, of course it was trueScelto looked up at the grey-eyed man"An Ygrathen bound to the King many years agoNo one very important, my lord
The Prince of Tigana nodded his head, his expressive mouth quirking with an inward-directed ironyNo one very importantWhy should I have thought it would be otherwise?"
"Alessan," said the younger man from the front of the hill, "I think it is overI think the Barbadians are all dead
The Prince lifted his head and so did SceltoMen of the Palm and of Ygrath would be standing beside each other down in that valley
"Are you going to kill us all knock off balenciaga bags now?" Scelto asked him
The Prince of Tigana shook his head"I told you, I have had enough of bloodThere is a great deal to be done, but I am going to try to do it without any more killing now
He went to the southern rim of the hill and lifted his hand in some signal to the men on his own ridgeThe woman went over and stood beside him, and he put an arm around her shouldersA moment later they heard the notes of a horn ring out over the valley and the hills, clear and high and beautiful, sounding an end to battle
Scelto, still on his knees, wiped at his eyes with a grimy handHe looked over and saw that the third man, the one who had tried to ask him something, was still gazing out to seaThere was a pain there he could not understandThere had been pain everywhere today thoughHe had had it in his grasp, even now, to speak truth and unleash so much more
His eyes swung slowly down again, away from the hard blue sky and the blue-green sea, past the man at the western edge of the hill, past d'Eymon of Ygrath slumped across the King's chair with his own blade in his breast, and his gaze came to rest on the j12 chanel watch two dead men beside each other on the ground, so near that they could have touched had they been alive
He could keep their secretHe could live with it

EPILOGUE
THREE MEN ON HORSES IN THE SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS LOOKING over a valley to the eastThere are pine and cedar woods beyond, hills on either sideThe Sperion River sparkles in the distance, flowing down out of the mountains, not far from where it will begin its long curve west to find the seaThe air is bright and cool, with a feel of autumn in the breezeThe colors of the leaves will be changing soon and the year-round snow on the highest peaks of the mountains will begin moving down, closing the pass
In the tranquil green of the valley below them, Devin sees the dome of Eanna's temple flash in the morning sunlightBeyond the Sanctuary he can just make out the winding trail they had ridden down in the spring, coming here from the east across the borderIt seems a lifetime agoHe turns in the saddle and looks north over the rolling, gradually subsiding hills
"Will we be able to see it from here, later?"
Baerd glances over and then follows his chanel quilted bag classic black gaze"What, Avalle and the Towers? Easily, on any clear dayMeet me here in a year's time and you'll see my green-and-white Prince's Tower, I promise you
"Where are you getting the marble?" Sandre asks
"Same place as Orsaria did for the original towerThe quarry is still available, believe it or not, about two days' ride west of us near the coast
"And you'll have it carried here?"
"By sea to Tigana, then on river barges up the SperionThe same way they did it back then Baerd has shaved his beard againHe looks years younger, Devin finds himself thinking
"How do you know so much about it?" Sandre asks with lazy mockery"I thought all you knew was archery and how not to fall on your face when you were out alone in the dark"I was always going to be a builderI have my father's love of stone if not his giftI'm a craftsman though, and I knew how to look at things, even back thenI think I know as much as any man alive about how Orsaria built his towers and his palacesIncluding one in Astibar, SandreWould you like me to tell you where your secret passages are?"
Sandre laughs aloud"Don't boast, you presumptuous fake gucci watches maso