25
Adelaida stood alone in a circle of brandished spears. Just outside her peripheral vision, she felt, more than saw, Batuk try to break through the circle to reach her. He didn’t, whether kept behind by the Vasylli or Etchigu or both, she couldn’t tell. She had no time to guess. Any minute now, some frightened warrior of her father’s would simply run her through. Then there would be no one to stop the Artisan’s designs.
She was so intent on surviving that she had no time to think of what had just happened. Her father had just died.
“Don’t move!” someone yelled at her, though she hadn’t so much as twitched.
Afraid to look at anyone, lest they think she were trying to bewitch them, she looked down. She immediately wished she hadn’t. Mirnían was hardly recognizable as human—more a jumbl
