15/02/2026 18:03

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You and Iare going to fight, he said. 28Equinox was well past, and the snow, still twenty inches deep, had beensettling wetly beneath the springtime sun. Thespeech was shorter than the guests might have expected, but longenough. He'd discovered that the danger wasnot so great as he'd thought.

Somewhere outside a klaxon sounded. Wasting his regiment! At least he hadn't held back from committing hismen to combat, and they'd done very well. They'd been there formore than four weeks; the general routine was familiar. The rapists seemed to be soldiers, perhapsSmoleni.