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271 lines
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
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<title>The Shadowmaster - Chapter 6</title>
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<h1>
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6
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</h1>
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<p>
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"<em>Thin</em> places," Megrin began.
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack and Kerry exchanged surprised glances. Major Macbeth, Jack's guardian had spoken of the <em>thin places</em> on that first fateful night when their
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journey had begun. That night they had fled from the horde of nightshades and come tumbling through the Farward Gate to Temair.
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</p>
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<p>
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Megrin smiled as if she had read their thoughts. Jack wasn't quite sure that she <em>hadn't.</em>
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</p>
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<p>
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"Thin places," she repeated. "Where worlds meet. Where there's always the danger that evil things, things from dark worlds, will try to break through to
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bring their shadows with them. A battle that's been fought forever, and always will be, but I imagine you know all this already."
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack and Kerry both nodded tentatively. From what the Major had told them, the thin places where worlds joined could sometimes let evil through. And in
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their travels, they had seen evil a-plenty. They waited for her to go on.
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</p>
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<p>
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"The thin place on Uaine was breached some time ago, but we, the <em>Geasan</em> didn't know it then."
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</p>
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<p>
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"What's a Geasan?" Kerry asked.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Oh, the council of enchanters. Those who know the old ways and keep them alive. Anyway, we had our work cut out, believe you me. But the dark forces, and
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the nightshades they have unleashed in our summerland, are gaining strength.
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</p>
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<p>
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"And what we need now is another Journeyman," Megrin said quietly. "To do the Sky Queen's work and stand against those dark forces."
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack felt as if he'd been punched in the stomach. She looked him in the eye.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Yes, Jack Flint. <em>Another</em> Journeyman. And that shouldn't surprise you."
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</p>
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<p>
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"I came to find my father," he blurted, unable to hold it back.
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</p>
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<p>
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Now Megrin smiled, but there was sadness in her expression.
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</p>
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<p>
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"You have come a long way, and I don't know if I can help you on that quest. Jonathan Flint. Ah, there was a fine man."
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack's heart began to hammer. He bit his tongue, forcing himself to listen.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I met him and his lady, Lauralen, many years ago. They came to the Summerland, deeply in love, to live a while on the edge of the sea where they could
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watch both sunrise and sunset. It was a peaceful time then.
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</p>
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<p>
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"But then, oh then, came foolishness and ambition. Greed and envy, and the thin place in a man's mind was breached, and in came the darkness."
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</p>
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<p>
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"What happened to them?" Jack couldn't hold back. It was the first time he had heard the name Lauralen. Could only be the mother he had never known?
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</p>
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<p>
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"The <em>Journeyman</em> made it his quest to hold the breach. And for a time the evil was thwarted and held at bay. But then something happened, in a very
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dark place where even the <em>Geasan </em>cannot see, and Jonathan and his lady, they…"
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</p>
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<p>
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She paused, searching for the words. "They were no more seen in Uaine."
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</p>
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<p>
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"Like, they vanished?" Kerry asked. Corriwen just listened entranced.
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</p>
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<p>
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"They were never seen again. The <em>Geasan-Eril, </em>the enchanters council<em> </em>have worked long and hard to find out why."
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</p>
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<p>
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"The lady," Jack said almost unable to get the words out through the powerful emotions that flooded him. "Lauralen? Could she have been my…"
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</p>
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<p>
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"Your mother? Oh, yes. I'm sure of that. You have her grace and your father's eyes.
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</p>
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<p>
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"But what happened? Who…When?" Questions tumbled in a torrent. Megrin held a hand up.
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</p>
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<p>
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"We'll get to that before dawn, Jack Flint. Now let me do the talking."
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</p>
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<p>
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Megrin sat back in her rocking chair and began to speak. Her voice changed, became deeper and more serious than before:
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</p>
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<p class="break">
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***
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>For a long time, Uaine had been blessed with peace and harmony.</em>
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>
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But as night follows day, darkness always opposes the light. In all worlds it has been so, ever since the beginning. Always, the dark seeks thin places
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where it can break and wreak its malice. The servants of the Sky Queen use what power they have to hold it at bay.
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</em>
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>And when it does break through, the </em>
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Journeyman
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<em>
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is summoned. How, only the Sky Queen knows. She chooses a good man as her champion, and his quest is ever to turn back the dark and preserve the light.
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</em>
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>Before he became </em>
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Journeyman,
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<em>
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Jonathan Flint travelled here many years before. A boy not much older than yourself, Jack Flint, on a mission of his own. He came through the Farward
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Gate, searching for his friend Thomas Lynn, a boy who had fallen into another world, who knows where. He had sought him in other worlds and would not
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give up. Perhaps that was why he was chosen.
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</em>
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</p>
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<p>
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<em> </em>
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack and Kerry exchanged another look. The story of Thomas Lynn who had disappeared in Cromwath Blackwood decades ago, and then reappeared dreadfully
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injured and completely mad, was a local legend back home. Nobody really believed it was true.
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>
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When he returned with his lady, Summer still ruled in Uaine. But not for long. The Copperplates of Uaine, long scattered and hidden in secret places,
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has fallen into the wrong hands, and now they have been put back together and used to open the dark way down.
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</em>
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>The time has now come to remedy that.</em>
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</p>
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<p>
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Kerry couldn't help himself. "What are the Copperplates?"
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</p>
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<p>
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"One and twenty leaves of a great book, each hidden and protected by a <em>geas, </em>a powerful spell. One and twenty enchantments woven by a <em>Geasan</em> in ages long past, the enchantments that together brought peace and plenty to Uaine."
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</p>
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<p>
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"Don't tell me somebody's nicked them?"
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</p>
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<p>
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She raised her eyebrows in question.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Swiped…I mean <em>stolen</em> them."
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</p>
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<p>
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"A good guess, Kerry Malone. Someone has indeed…er, <em>swiped</em> them. The Journeyman took on the quest of bringing them back after night-stalkers
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brought their foul mischief. Now Uaine lives in terror of the darkness, and that darkness is spreading ever wider. We fear it will flow over the whole
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world like a tide."
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</p>
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<p>
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"So why can't you get these Copperplates back?" Corriwen asked.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Oh, don't think we haven't tried. But the one who found them, and brought them together, he was the most powerful <em>Geasan</em> of us all. Except for
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one."
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</p>
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<p>
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"Like a warlock?"
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</p>
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<p>
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"A spellmaker, spellbinder. The seventh son of a seventh son. Once a good man too, but turned and twisted by the power of the Copperplates to dark thoughts
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and darker ways. I do know, for I'm the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. And he is my brother."
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</p>
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<p>
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She sat back and swept her gaze over all three, expecting more questions but they waited for her to speak.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Now here you travellers are."
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</p>
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<p>
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"I came to find my father," Jack said, trying to explain that he had plans of his own, plans that didn't involve Copperplates or spellbinders or anything
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else. Yet, somehow, he knew he was about to get sucked into this world's affairs. The Book of Ways had made it clear that he had to pay his passage.
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</p>
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<p>
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"And we came to help him," Corriwen said.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Yeah," Kerry pitched in. "All for one and each for everybody else."
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</p>
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<p>
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"A good sentiment," Megrin said. "Three friends good and true. And on a quest.
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</p>
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<p>
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"We have to go west," Kerry blurted. "The Book of Ways said…" He looked at Jack, wondering if he'd said too much, but Jack didn't bother trying to
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hush him up.
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</p>
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<p>
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"But we lost it," Corriwen broke in. "It guides us and they stole it. And our swords."
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</p>
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<p>
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"And something else?" Megrin asked gently.
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack nodded. "My father's heartstone."
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</p>
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<p>
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"Ah, the fairyglass heart. I wondered if it would come back. And if it's here, then all is not lost. Not by a long way. Not that it's going to be easy,
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mind. But that's for tomorrow and the days to come.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Now I've done my share of talking, its your turn. I want to hear your story."
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack began to talk, describing the night of the Halloween party when the creeping dark had swallowed Billy Robbins and then hunted them through the
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passageways under the Major's house to Cromwath Blackwood and through the ring of standing stones to Temair.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Then we met Corrie," Kerry said. "And she was in big trouble."
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</p>
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<p>
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They couldn't stop him as he told how they'd fled across Temair, hunted by creatures Jack had only read about in legends, the final apocalyptic clash with
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the Morrigan, then the other perils when they found themselves in Eirinn.
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</p>
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<p>
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"And then," Jack said. "I came here to search for my father. I told them to stay behind, because if my father couldn't make it back, then there had to be
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something stopping him, something dangerous."
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</p>
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<p>
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He tried to frown, but couldn't.
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</p>
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<p>
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"But they followed me through and first thing we know is there's things in the dark hunting us down and then the villagers caught us and stole the
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heartstone and our weapons."
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</p>
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<p>
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"And the Book of ways," Corriwen said. "They said we were evil and tied us up for the nightshades."
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack looked at Megrin. "I <em>have</em> to get the heart back, and the Book of Ways. And I want the sword that Hedda the Scatha made. If I find my father,
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he can use it."
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</p>
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<p>
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"If..." Megrin shook her head and got up from her chair.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I think you should get a night's rest by the fire. You've had a hard day."
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</p>
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<p>
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She laid down thick reed mats near the hearth and began to douse the oil-lamp wicks.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Get some sleep and give me some quiet time to think. I have a birthing to attend in the early hours. We'll talk in the morning."
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</p>
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<p>
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She disappeared silently. Jack, Kerry and Corriwen settled down wearily to rest. Very soon they were asleep together by the glow of embers.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</body>
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