Was it right to offer Kem only scraps? Surely Ao also deserved her son knowing that she’d loved him even when she hadn’t always known how to show it, except through criticism. As children, El and Ao had never been warned, never been taught, never been corrected or scolded, never anything, because they were only atoners, sacrifices who would be consumed, sooner or later, by Spore. So why bother? Warning him, correcting him, scolding him: those were Ao’s ways of letting her child know she cared.

The Sun Chasers rolled onward through Woodfall Province. Despite everything—the speed of the carriages, the wardens around her, the viper in her heart—she winced to see the dusky green and orangey-brown dyes of the villagers’ clothing, colors she never saw around Orledder. The snatches of local songs and the rhythm of speech of the local dialect made her twitch. She kept looking for people to charge out of the forest on their bull elks and demand she be turned over to the harsh justice of Duenn Manor and Kem dragged off, despite everything. She was grateful they were in the northeast region, far from the southwest where Lord Duenn ruled. She was glad they had left him in Orledder Halt. Let him rant and spew. He was stuck behind the blocked road. The trap had sprung on the hunter instead of the prey.

Late in the afternoon, they passed the wrecked remains of a hallow-wood plantation: young trees hacked down; charred greenwood. It even smelled as if the vandals had taken a shit by the road to show their contempt. About ten laborers were raking debris. They jolted nervously at the sound of the carriages and called out. Three armed men appeared, bows ready. When they recognized the warden banner, they waved the laborers back to work.

“Things aren’t looking so peaceful at Pelis Manor North,” said Xilsi with an unusually grim frown. “But I guess we’re about to find out.”

58 THE GREAT LINEAGES

THE GREAT LINEAGES have always influenced imperial policy and, at times, have dictated the decisions made by the emperor.

In the days of the Seven Golden Kingdoms, these lineages called themselves clans and spread their kin and clan-homes widely throughout all seven kingdoms. Thus, as the clans grew in power, it scarcely mattered if a clan member spoke Forsi or Indical, if they wore west country plain-garb or southron glitter-cloth, if Ghorsim was at war with Asdiria. The clans welcomed their own into their clan-homes, no matter where they’d come from or how far they’d traveled. A clan member might be born in the west, with a westerner’s accent and name and looks, but would be welcomed in an eastern or southern hall as easily as if she had been born there alongside her clan-cousins.