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Coda: Morning
The girl stopped and pulled open the front of her cloak, breathing heavily. She touched her hand to her side; the bleeding had stopped for now; and her eyes closed for a moment. Then they snapped open, she tossed her head on its slender neck, and she limped on, the only living person in all the long valley up to the line of hills in the east.
Rain had fallen the night before and the sky was still grey, and a fitful wind was blowing up from the West, stirring the bare trees in their muddy fields.
Spring was a way off yet.