The Next Chapter
The kind of illness that kills you is stronger than health. So you’ve got to remember that health is the more illusory of the two, and that it never wins in the end. Illness does. It kills, my sweetest, splendid girl.
I’ll tell you a fairy tale, Olanda. Once upon a time there were some people who were a little wealthier than others, because they had more strength and knew how to win when they were fighting with the others over love, a hunk of meat, a better place to rest, a warmer cave — and they worked it that everyone was afraid of them and let them rule over them. This made them wealthier still. Then they began to be very different from the ones who were poor. Different, because they had better things, better access to knowledge, travel, spells and prayers. And they k
