Extraits

She was already turning away. “That and much more, if it will help my brother. Thank you, Drisker, for all you are doing for him. But I will not hold you to more than that. I will not blame you if you fail.”

She walked from the clearing and into the shadows of the trees beyond, fading into the mist.

But I will blame myself, Drisker thought, keeping the words to himself.

Drisker waited for Tarsha to approach, beckoning her closer when she hesitated. He forced Tavo to his knees, then placed both big hands on the girl’s shoulders. “We have a decision to make, and we must not make it lightly.

But the blade still presses up against his neck, and his magic still will not respond to his efforts to summon it, so his own attempts to free himself fail as the hands of his captor tighten further.

A winter tableau, stark and compelling.

Not a hundred yards from the west gates of the fortress walls of Paranor, a small clearing is revealed within the giant old growth, barely visible through the curtain of new snowfall. An earlier snow leaves the clearing and the surrounding forest in a foot-deep covering of white. Darkness no longer shrouds the world, as the night has diminished and the first glimmerings of dawn have surfaced on the distant horizon.