Chapter 72
November – 3,390 BC
Earth: Village of Assur
NINSIANNA
Shouts and the whistle of arrows cutting through the air came from both sides of the rooftop where Ninsianna squatted, useless, on the village granary. Why, oh why, had she allowed Mikhail to talk her out of taking up a position on the south wall? Or the north one if he was worried they might be overrun?
Through that thread which connected her to her husband, she could sense that cold, disembodied ruthlessness he developed whenever he invoked the killing dance. Looking at Mikhail's spirit-light through the dreamtime the way that Papa had taught, she could see he was encircled in a brilliant blue light that acted as a hard, impenetrable shell. In one way that light was reassuring. It made him indefeatable in battle. In an
