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214 lines
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214 lines
8.8 KiB
HTML
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
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<head>
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<title>Mythlands - Chapter 30</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="imperaWeb.css"/>
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<link rel="stylesheet" type=
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<div class="section" id="xhtmldocuments">
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<h1>30</h1>
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<p>
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The backwash of that huge wave sucked them back, floundering and gasping. Jack felt his muscles weaken. Kerry thrashed and splashed, hampering all efforts
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to save him.
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</p>
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<p>
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Then, miraculously, the horses were in the water, forcing their way though the surge, with the little leprechaun clamped around the lead mount's neck.
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Without reins or stirrups, it somehow managed to get the great horses between them and the force of the flood. Jack reached a desperate hand, grabbed the
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saddle and hauled himself up, forcing Kerry in front of him. Kerry sprawled across the saddle, coughing mud and looking very sorry for himself.
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</p>
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<p>
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Still, he managed to squeeze the little leprechaun's arm.
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</p>
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<p>
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"You're a good wee man to have around, so you are."
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack didn't even have the strength the climb on. He simply held the girth and let the horse plod through the tumbling water onto the brow of the hill
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before he fell down, barely able to move a muscle. It took ten minutes, maybe more, before he could sit up and look to the east, where, far in the
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distance, water was still spewing out of the cleft that had been cut in solid rock, and as they all watched, the waters rose quickly in the basin of the
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high salt flats to form a new lake.
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</p>
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<p>
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The Black Barrow was just a bleak island in the middle of the floodwater, and then it too disappeared from view.
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</p>
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<p>
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"We've lost," Jack finally said, staring bleakly at the water where the Black Barrow had been. Tears of frustration and rage were coursing down his cheeks.
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</p>
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<p>
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"There's still Alevin," Kerry said.
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</p>
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<p>
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"That's the problem," Jack said. "I remember what the Bard told me. The dam had to go first."
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</p>
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<p>
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"Why's that?"
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</p>
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<p>
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"It was the curse. It couldn't be forever, 'cos nothing ever is. They had a rhyme for it:
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack thought carefully, then he repeated it just as Finbar had told them after they had been saved from the waterfall by the Undine women.
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</p>
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<p class="centered">
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<em>A blade to wake from deadly sleep</em>
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</p>
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<p class="centered">
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<em> A flood to free in fathoms deep</em>
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</p>
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<p class="centered">
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<em>For in the ebb the foul takes form</em>
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</p>
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<p class="centered">
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<em>To ride the night, on wings of storm.</em>
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</p>
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<p>
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He shook his head. "If only he'd smashed the dam on time. We came all this way and I …I thought we'd made it."
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</p>
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<p>
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"So now what?" Kerry asked.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I think we should get ourselves out of here."
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</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>
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Mandrake had watched gleefully as the water roared through the cleft cut in the ridge.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I did this," he crowed. "Ha. Ha-ha. And they called me <em>mad!</em>"
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</p>
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<p>
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He raised his face to the storm.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Nothing can stand before me! <em>Nothing on this world</em>!"
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</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>
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The dam bulged further and the edges of the sluice-gate began to give.
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</p>
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<p>
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"We have to move them," one of the captains said.
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</p>
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<p>
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Alevin was watching closely. "Just a minute more. We're almost there."
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</p>
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<p>
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The structure groaned again, pulled from below, pushed from above. Trunks as wide as ten men began to bend slowly, like saplings in the wind. Pieces of
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stone, where the buttresses had been laid into the solid rock, began to crumble.
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</p>
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<p>
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"All right," Alevin said. "Get the beasts out and on to high ground."
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</p>
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<p>
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The captain shouted orders down the slope and immediately the exhausted men slung the long hawsers round the buttresses, then allowed the horses to power
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their way up and out of immediate danger. Hundreds of men who had worked on the cleft were hauling now, all in unison, pulling as hard as they could.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Haul it!" Alevin roared. "Haul for Temair
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</p>
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<p>
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Then a voice shouted from high up on the lip of the dam.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Alevin! The lake!" The man waved frantic arms. "The water!"
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</p>
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<p>
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"What's happening now?"
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</p>
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<p>
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"Come up and see. The water…it's dropping."
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</p>
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<p>
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Alevin cursed through gritted teeth.
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</p>
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<p>
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He wheeled his horse and forced it up the narrow track and finally got to the rim.
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</p>
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<p>
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"What did you say."
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</p>
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<p>
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"The water, sir," the man said. "I don't know what to make of it."
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</p>
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<p>
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Alevin dismounted and strode to the lip, hardly able to believe his eyes.
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</p>
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<p>
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The water level had dropped by ten feet, and it was still dropping fast.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Too late," Alevin groaned aloud. "Too late."
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</p>
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<p>
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The future of Temair rested on his shoulders and he had failed.
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</p>
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<p>
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Suddenly, the dam shook with a powerful tremor and the water began to flow away from its upstream face.
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</p>
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<p>
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It began very slowly as the rim sagged backwards. Timbers cracked and spun outwards. Somebody down below roared orders.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Get out. Get the beasts away!"
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</p>
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<p>
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Then the dam fell. It happened in seconds, but to Alevin, it seemed to take a long time. A huge wave came barrelling down the lake, slammed against the
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timbers and drew back with such force as the waters fell that the whole dam was sucked back. Alevin ran for his life along the rim. He leapt across the
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widening gap, managed to get his fingers onto the rock, and then the man who had called the warning reached and grabbed him by the wrist.
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</p>
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<p>
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The dam collapsed with a colossal crash into the space where the lake had been.
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</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>
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From the comparative safety of the hillock, they had watched the waters rise ever upwards until the Black Barrow was completely submerged.
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</p>
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<p>
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Then everything went silent and still for a long time.
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</p>
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<p>
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"The storm's coming this way," Corriwen finally said. Her voice was flat with despair.
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack nodded. "I know. But there's nowhere to go." All around them, the floodwaters stretched over the flats.
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</p>
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<p>
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The little leprechaun was down on the ground, hands dug into the thin soil, eyes closed.
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</p>
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<p>
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"They come again," He finally said. "Bad things come."
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack had no doubt in his mind that something awfully bad was coming.
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</p>
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<p>
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Far in the east they heard a low roaring sound.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I think that's the dam," Kerry said.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Too late," Corriwen muttered. "Too late for us all."
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</p>
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<p>
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An hour later, the water began to fall again, as the floodwater drained back through the crevasse and down through the gorge. Now there was nothing to
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impede the flow and the new lake simply began to drain away.
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</p>
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<p>
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And as the storm's fury approached them, the tip of the Black Barrow slowly emerged from the subsiding water.
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack Flint felt a sense of dread shiver through him.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</body>
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</html>
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