CHAPTER 53
When Penrys woke in the dim light before the sun’s rising, for a moment she thought she was still hiding in the stand of bushes, abandoned by Dzantig, until the differences in the birdsong registered. Country birds, not town ones.
Her shield still held. Is that a permanent improvement, or can I thank whatever contribution Vladzan made to the chain’s power? I wonder how long the stolen power lasts?
She dressed quickly, settling Tak Tuzap’s gifts on her belt. She’d ended up using a cord around the breeches and cutting down the belt for the tunic with his knife, and when she’d made to give it back to him, he’d pressed it on her, with its sheath.
“You’ll be needing this more than me, minochi. And this, too—I brought it for you.”
He’d taken off his own belt, and revealed the wea
