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<title>Spellbinder - Chapter 20</title>
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<h1>20</h1><p>In Wolfen Castle, Fainn sat hunched beside the pit in the floor where deep fires glowed. His eyes were closed, but he could see them now, four of them on two stolen horses.</p>
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<p>The vision was blurred, as if seen through a dark veil, but he smiled to himself, a grating little chuckle that held no warmth or any humour. It was the kind of laugh that would send shivers down a man's back, had they heard it, though there was no-one to hear, not here in Fainn's low domain.</p>
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<p>Now he could see them, and they could never escape.</p>
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<p>He crouched there like a long spider, feeling the baleful heat that swelled from the underground pit, breathed in the acrid smoke that formed layer on layer near the arch of the ceiling. He clenched tight the snake-stave that was now mended.</p>
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<p>There was something else about the fugitives that he didn't quite know, something very important and very powerful. He had felt it, sensed it.</p>
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<p>He didn't know what it was. But that would change.</p>
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<p>He would find out as sure as day follows night.</p>
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<p>He opened his eyes and spread the fingers of one hand over the heat of the pit and chanted words that no-one else in Eirinn could understand.</p>
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<p>At the edge of the valley where the mist had drawn back, lightning cracked down from a black sky.</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>They stopped, exhausted. Kerry swayed in the saddle as if still half asleep. The horses stood, heads down, steaming with sweat and panting for breath.</p>
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<p>They were in the trees now, and the sounds of pursuit had faded.</p>
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<p>Corriwen had seen the trackway that led off the main road and had wheeled her mount, almost pitching Connor off the horse. Without a pause, he jumped down, sword in hand and in two swipes, felled two bushy saplings and as soon as Jack's horse passed, he shoved the cut ends deep into the ground, effectively hiding the path from the main road.</p>
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<p>"Once a poacher…" He grinned brightly as he climbed back on. In seconds they were in deep cover. Corriwen stopped at a small dell and they waited in total silence as the pursuit approached, holding their breaths as the cavalcade clattered past on the main road without slowing, and faded into the distance.</p>
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<p>"They'll soon work it out," Jack said.</p>
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<p>"But it'll take them more time to work out where we turned off," Connor said. "They might be big hard men, but I know woods. They won't catch me again, I can tell you."</p>
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<p>When the sound of horses had disappeared completely, they followed the track deeper into the forest. Kerry still hadn't said a word, but he still shivered. Finally Corriwen led them off the trail and they kept going through the trackless trees for hours before risking a stop by a stream. Corriwen dug a hole in the bank and gathered enough wood for a fire, using the overhang to hide the smoke.</p>
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<p>Jack led Kerry close to the heat. He walked as if he was half asleep, and allowed himself to be sat down on a log.</p>
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<p>"He's cold," Jack said. </p>
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<p>"I think that snake got him," Connor said again. "He faltered, but then he recovered. Said he was fine."</p>
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<p>He dragged fingers through his tangle of tawny hair and removed some burrs that had caught.</p>
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<p>Corriwen put both arms round Kerry, offering him her own body heat, feeling the faint tremor of his shivers, while Jack fretted. After ten minutes or so, Kerry blinked and seemed to come awake. He looked around him, bewildered.</p>
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<p>"Where are we?" His voice was faint, barely a breath.</p>
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<p>Jack was beside them in an instant. He touched Kerry's cheek, where the fire had warmed it. The cold had dissipated a little. </p>
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<p>"We had to run," he said. "You were sick."</p>
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<p>"I'm starving," Kerry said. He yawned widely. "Anything to eat?"</p>
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<p>Jack almost laughed, and then he almost drew back a fist to knock Kerry's head from his shoulders. They'd have been safe and gone if he hadn't disappeared. His anger subsided as quickly as it flared. Hadn't Kerry looked after him when he was poisoned by that dark touch between the standing stones of Temair?</p>
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<p>"We have to take a look at you," he said. "Connor here thinks you might have been bitten."</p>
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<p>Kerry still seemed to be in a daze, like a sleeper who has not come fully awake. He allowed Jack to roll up the leggings Rune the Cluricaun had made them. Jack felt a shiver run through him when he saw the twin bite-marks on Kerry's pale skin. </p>
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<p>"That don't look too good," Connor said, crowding in close. All around the puncture wounds, Kerry's skin was turning blotched black, and the bites themselves were weeping. Jack touched the spot. Kerry didn't even react. The whole area seemed nerveless.</p>
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<p>"What cures snake-bite?"</p>
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<p>Corriwen didn't know. Neither did Connor. Jack had read something about serums, back home in the real world, but he also knew you had to be sure which kind of snake had done the biting, and he knew there would be no serum for a snake that had been magicked from a wooden stave by somebody like Fainn.</p>
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<p>"I could tie it off," he said, "But then he'll get gangrene or something."</p>
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<p>Corriwen drew a knife. "I could heat the blade and burn it."</p>
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<p>Jack stayed her hand. "If we have to. But I don't want him to lose a leg. First we'll try a poultice. See if we can draw the poison."</p>
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<p>Kerry still seemed to be half-dreaming and made no objection while Jack pasted some of Rune's cure-all mixture and bound the wound with a wad of burdock leaves held with a scrap of leather. They eased him over to a nearby oak and sat him down to rest, hoping the poultice would have some effect.</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>Far away in the bowels of Wolfen Castle, Fainn the Pict had not moved from his seat beside the fire-pit. He stared down into the red heat and finally a picture began to form.</p>
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<p>He saw them faintly, by the light of a fire. They were beside a river, three of them around the embers. Two horses were hobbled some way off. A waterfall sprayed a white line from a narrow cleft a short distance upstream.</p>
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<p>Dermott had scoured the road, up and down for twenty miles, and it was clear they had cut off the track and into the forest.</p>
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<p>Silently Fainn rose from the edge of the pit and crossed to the great table and the relief map of Eirinn.</p>
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<p>He could still see them, again as if through a veil, but it was enough for him.</p>
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<p>He bent over the map, following the road where it meandered into the valley and through the dark forest that stretched to the edge of Dermott's landhold to the mountains in the north.</p>
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<p>A long finger traced the road, then moved off to the left, to the north until he found the river. He followed its course in its twists and turns until he reached the narrow waterfall.</p>
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<p>A slow smile grew on his face.</p>
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<p>He stalked out to find a fast messenger.</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>"What's that?" Corriwen asked. She had led the horses under the tree where they could graze on its leaves. </p>
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<p>The brown bag was hitched to a saddle-horn, and Jack recognised it immediately.</p>
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<p>"It's Brand's bag," he said. "He must have forgotten it."</p>
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<p>Yet even as he spoke, he knew that couldn't be true. It was the bag Score Fourarm had stuffed them into on the first day they'd met. And the bag Natterjack and Thin Doolan had used to hide their well-gotten gains in the castle. The last Jack had seen it was when Tig and Tag had come scrambling down from the tower.</p>
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<p>There was no way Brand would accidentally forget it. He had left the horses for them when he knew he could wait no longer. Jack unhitched the bag and opened it. Immediately the scent of smoked bacon made his mouth water. He reached inside and drew out a whole ham. </p>
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<p>Connor's eyes opened so wide they could have popped out.</p>
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<p>"Witchery is what this is," he said. "But I don't care. I could eat a scabby horse, hoofs an' all."</p>
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<p>Jack opened the bag further and peered inside. It was dark and looked as deep as outer space, but he reached inside again and his hand found something cold and smooth. It was heavy too, but he managed to get a grip on it and slowly drew it out.</p>
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<p>This time Corriwen audibly gasped.</p>
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<p>The harp in Jack's hand sparkled. Even in the firelight he could see the sheen of pure rich gold on its intricately carved arch. It was maybe a yard high and wrought with such wonderful craftsmanship that it simply glowed as if lit from within.</p>
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<p>"It's beautiful," Corriwen said.</p>
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<p>"But it's broken," Jack said. "All the strings have been cut."</p>
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<p>The strings flopped in tangles, woven from threads of pure gold.</p>
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<p>"Tell me I'm seeing things," Connor said. He had stuffed his mouth with a bite of ham, but hungry as he was, he spat it out to let himself speak.</p>
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<p>"If that's what I think it is, then we're in real trouble."</p>
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<p>Jack held the harp close to his chest. Under his tunic, the heartstone did not beat, but he felt it vibrate, like a tight plucked string.</p>
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<p>"And Dermott's going to hunt us to the ends of Eirinn. He'll never stop."</p>
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<p>"How do you mean?"</p>
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<p>"They stole the harp. Your tumbling girls. That's what they were there for."</p>
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<p>"I'm still not with you."</p>
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<p>"Haven't you heard the stories? Everybody says Fainn used dark magic to help Dermott find the golden harp. The <em>Dagda</em> harp. And the Cerunnos Cauldron. I never really believed it until I was up in that cage and saw thon spellbinder sit beside the cauldron. It's got the Horned God carved on it and they say you can get anything you want from it, and it never runs empty."</p>
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<p>"I think Rune said something about a harp. Or maybe Finn McCuill."</p>
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<p>"That's how Dermott was able to keep famine at bay. He had all he needed while the rest of Eirinn went hungry. He must have been behind it all."</p>
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<p>Jack and Corriwen exchanged puzzled glances. They looked at Connor who took the hint and started to talk.</p>
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<p>"My Da, that's my foster Da, he was a woodcutter. He was old when he and Mam found me, half drowned and just a baby. My real Mam, she was dying already, but she had bore me up to save me, so they thought. They were old, but they gave me a home and raised me as theirs and I done my best for them till the end."</p>
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<p>They listened quietly. Connor closed his eyes for a moment then continued.</p>
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<p>"Da loved the old tales. Just a woodcutter, but he remembered everyone of them, and that's how I know about the harp. The Harp of the Seasons."</p>
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<p>"I read about that," Jack said. "When I was little."</p>
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<p>"Hear him out," Corriwen said.</p>
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<p>Connor smiled. "It were a long time ago in Eirinn, and the sea people, the <em>Fir Bolg</em> they were at war with real folk. And they were winning that war. They had took hundreds captive and slit their throats or strangled them and put them in the bog-tarns of CorNamara, which is what they did, for they worshipped dark gods and that was their sacrifice.</p>
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<p>"Anyhow, the king of the West, the Dagda, he said enough of this and he gathered all the chiefs together and they raised a high stone on Tara Hill, the real Tara hill, not that one in the east that everybody says is Tara. This hill was the sacred place to the Sky Queen and the Dagda said if she came to Eirinn's aid he would give her his son, whose name was Conovar the Fair. Like sacrifice him. All the chiefs said this was a mighty thing to do, and they made him chief of chiefs over them.</p>
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<p>"Then, when it came the midsummer and at sunrise, the time for the sacrifice, and Conovar lying on the rock, a sunbeam came through the stones and blinded the Dagda, so his knife, when it came down, hit the rock and shattered into a million pieces that swirled around his head, all sparkly like, and among the sparkles, the Sky Queen appeared in the ray of the sun.</p>
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<p><em>Enough</em>, she tells him. <em>You have shown your heart and your courage for the good of Eirinn. I pledge my aid to you and your people down the ages.</em></p>
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<p>And then she tells him she will send a champion who would lead them against the Fir Bolg and drive them back into the sea. This Champion, she said, would find three sacred things. The Cauldron of Cerunnos, which would never empty and would ensure the land was never hungry. The Harp of the Seasons, which would ensure the spring would always come and summer after that in came in proper order and make the land green. And also there was the Invincible Club, which would defeat any foe.</p>
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<p>"Then, from the west, comes this travelling man, who says he has been called to pledge to the Dagda. Strange in his ways and his talk, they say, but he did all that she promised and then, he led the armies out to the badlands where they took the revenge on the Fir Bolg for all their atrocities and killed them by the thousand, and the rest were driven back to the sea where they still live in the kelp and the deep channels. Except for a few who escaped to the bare mountains far away and became Fell Runners.</p>
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<p>"And then, when there was peace, the Dagda, he went back to Tara Hill alone to thank the Sky Queen, and that's when she showed her real self to him and they fell in love. That's part of the story they maybe made up, but it sounds good. Anyway they had a daughter, but nobody knows anything about her. </p>
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<p>"The Sky Queen says that peace will last a long time, but people would covet the three great talismans, so they must be hidden in a secret place that only the Traveller and the Dagda's son would know. The harp would sing its harmony and the Cauldron would see Eirinn was never hungry. The Club was sent far away to keep it from ambitious men."</p>
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<p>Connor looked up.</p>
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<p>"And that's the story as my Da used to tell it. But these past years, the seasons have turned up all wrong. Snow in summer. Frost in spring. Ice and hail and storms. The crops fail and the cattle die while Dermott the Wolf gorges like a pig and holds the other chiefs to ransom."</p>
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<p>"And you think this is <em>that</em> harp?"</p>
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<p>"It's the way my Da told it, and he heard it all down the generations, word to ear. It's the harp all right. Can't you just feel it try to sing?"</p>
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<p>He reached and touched the gleaming surface.</p>
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<p>"This harp's been silenced." His eyebrows gathered down and his face took on a look as if a storm were gathering.</p>
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<p>"Dermott, or that Fainn, he must have cuts its strings and stopped its song. And for that, folk have gone hungry and sick. My fosterers, my Da and Mam, they got hungry and then got sick and then they died, leaving me to scrape in the woods."</p>
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<p>He took the heavy sword in his hands. A slow tear ran down his cheek.</p>
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<p>"When I get the chance, I'll cut Dermott down for what he's done."</p>
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<p>Corriwen patted Connor on his shoulder, then simply swamped him in her arms and hugged him tight. Jack made himself busy, carefully stashing the harp back in the bottomless bag.</p>
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<p>"Brand must have left it with us for a reason," he said after a while. "I don't know why, but if you're right, then Dermott really will keep hunting us, so we have to get away, as far as we can. We should move at first light." Corriwen agreed. Connor shrugged. His smile came back, if a little tentatively.</p>
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<p>"Whatever you think. I'm just happy to be out in fresh air again."</p>
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<p>"You told us Dermott hunts with dogs?"</p>
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<p>"And kills with them."</p>
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<p>"So we have to put some distance between them and us. He'll find us quickly enough."</p>
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<p>"Which way?" Corriwen asked.</p>
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<p>Jack opened his satchel for the first time in days, and drew out the ancient Book of Ways.</p>
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<p>"Let's hope its still working," he said, opening it as the first blank page. In the light of the fire, the words slowly appeared, line by line. Connor looked on, mouth agape.</p>
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<p class="centered"><em>Flee from chase, but find no hide</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>Journeyman has far to ride</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>Evil eye counts every stride</em></p>
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<p class="centered extraspace"><em>Peril lurks on every side</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>Climb bare hill but ware the mire</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>North from sound of thunder fire</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>Find the shore and walk the strand</em></p>
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<p class="centered extraspace"><em>Yet ware the tide and ware the sand.</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>In the night the lost await</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>Hunger stalks on runners gait.</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>Where the ocean finds lands end</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>Seek a haven, seek a friend.</em></p>
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<p>"Now that's really clever," Connor spoke up. "More witchery."</p>
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<p>"It doesn't sound promising."</p>
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<p>"What's it say? Never learned to read, myself."</p>
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<p>Jack read the words out slowly, then repeated them.</p>
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<p>"We have to go north," he said. "But there's warnings all over it."</p>
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<p>"We have to find the Homeward Gate," Corriwen said.</p>
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<p>"I'll come along, if you want," Connor said. "Sure, it's been a rare chuckle so far, and anyway, I know every trail, and if I don't, I can find one."</p>
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<p>"Have you ever been north?" Jack asked.</p>
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<p>"Never been anywhere but here, "Connor said. "Though I truly think I've outstayed my welcome. Up north, there's sour badlands. Bogrim and Fell Runners and the like, so they say, but maybe up there is better than down here, with Dermott in full cry. And if you could use another sword-arm, I'm your man till the end."</p>
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<p>Connor stuck his hand out and Jack shook it firmly.</p>
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<p>"The more, the merrier," he said, though he didn't feel merry at all. "We'd best get some sleep, because we have to be up and away before they know it."</p>
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<p> </p>
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