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."Things have been happening, MistressLotana, and that's the truth.As to what, you'd have to ask the likes ofbetter than I.""There was a murder here, a few tendays ago.A note was left behind.We wouldlike to arrange to see it.""How did you know I had it here?" He frowned."You are good."Well, actually, we hadn't known it was here.We were going to ask his helpgetting access to it.Andrea started to say something, but I stopped her."You know that Lotana isbetter than you are.You perhaps don't want to know how much, or all that isinvolved."I made a mystical sign.It didn't mean anything, not on This Side, althoughSister Berthe ofToulouse the nun we used to call "Sister Birtha de Blues" would have beenproud at how easily I did it.Rewnor raised a hand."Ah.I see."Andrea glared at me, irritated at how I was interfering, but I spread my handsin apology."I'm sorry, Lotana, but there was no avoiding it.Rewnor wasalways going to see that there are great forces involved.Friend Rewnor issafest just giving us the note and staying out of all this.""Well." A ghost of a smile kissed her lips, and I wouldn't have mindedjoining it."If you think so.Iwould have preferred to enlist his help, despite the danger, but."We were out of there, the paper in hand, within two minutes.* * *The note was written in the blocky printing that Andrea used to teach at herschool in Home, for bothEnglish and Erendra.The Warrior Lives it said, in big brown Erendra letters, now flaking.And below, in English,just:Don't try to find me.Please.I'm getting closer."No, dammit, there's nothing I can do with it.He just dashed it off, andPage 83ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlwhile he used blood, it isn't hisGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlblood.I can't use things he's only casually interacted with for a locationspell, or I'd be able to track anybody, anywhere, just by sorting through afew quadrillion oxygen molecules to find one that the quarry breathed."Andrea was not happy.Neither was I, as I stood next to the window, trying to fan the fumes outside.Andrea's attempt to see if the note could be used to trace Mikyn had involvedsome odorous compounds, and I didn't need for any of the inn's servitors tosmell the sulfur and hellfire of a magician's preparations.Below, the horses were saddled, and the others waited.We didn't absolutelyhave to get out of town right now, but in whatever direction he was traveling,Mikyn was heading away from us as time went by, and we wouldn't be able tocatch him by standing still.Wait for word of another Warrior killing? That was possible, of course, butdangerous.Why would some travelers ones with suspiciously too much money intheir kip be hanging around Fenevar? Agood question so best to be sure it wasn't asked.Much better to move alongthe coast in either direction, and see if a farrier named Alezyn had beenthrough, and when.We took the back stairs down to the alley, and to the horses.Tennetty had brought a fairly broad selection, from a dull, listless graygelding pony for Ahira who never liked a horse to have a lot of spirit orspeed; I think he would have preferred a lame one, really to a prancing pintomare for herself.I checked the cinch strap, then swung to the broad back of my chestnutgelding, his torn right ear suggesting that he'd lost out to a stallion atsome point before he'd lost out to the gelder's knives and irons.He wanted tomove faster than I was interested in, but, thankfully, Tennetty had equippedhim with a vicious twisted-wire bit, and we quickly agreed that we'd proceedat my pace, not his."So?" Jason asked, coming abreast of the dwarf as we started off in a slowwalk, down the main street toward the coastal road through the swamp, maybe amile ahead."Where are we going?"Ahira shrugged."Tromodec is about two days that way, Brae three the otherway.What we have to decide what I have to decide is if we let the search forMikyn trump looking into the Ehvenor matter."Ahira was, by common consent, including mine, in charge strategically andthat's in part because he didn't make decisions arbitrarily."Anybody got anyadvice?""Brae," Andrea said."It's one step closer to Ehvenor." At that moment a cloudpassed in front of the sun, so that a shadow quite literally fell across herface.There was something in her expression, something I couldn't quite name.Obsession, perhaps? Compulsion, maybe? I dunno."Tromodec," I said."A couple days probably won't make much difference, we cancatch up with Mikyn quickly.Tromodec is closer; it means knowing somethingsooner.By at least a day." And we'd be two days farther away from Ehvenor andFaerie.We could probably find out all that was known about the things comingout of Faerie anywhere along the coast, and I had little preference forexamining the buzz-saw close up [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]