The Day of Blood will be dread and awful. But it is not the end of the tribulation. Hear my voice, O faithful of Vasyllia! There will come a time when brother will slaughter father, for he will not recognize his face. Brown-faced Gumir will attack white-faced Vasylli, but he will be stabbed in his back. No one will know the face of his enemy in the darkness and the chaos. Nor will he know the face of his friend.
—From “The Prophecy of Llun” (The Sayings, Book XXIII, 2:4-7)
CHAPTER FOUR
The Sons of the SwanAfter Mirodara left, Llun could not face his thoughts. He opened the smithy and threw himself into his work with the kind of abandon he had only really felt in the early days, when his body hardly noticed the strain of smithing. It was a surprise to him when he looked at the window to
