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‘How long have you… er, been here?’
‘I have no idea, but it seems like for ever’
She looked round, then nodded ‘Me too’
‘Alas, I believe your pet has died’
‘Oh! So it has’ She frowned down at the broken leash in her hand ‘I suppose I won’t be needing a new one, then’
‘Don’t be too certain of that,’ the s here Day after day But listen, you can have mine-I never use it, as you can see’
She accepted the coiled leash ‘Thank you’ She took it out to where her dead dog was lying,back towards itsa trail of blood
Everything see, she realized, her own i’sthe loop over until it encircled the torn neck Then she lowered the bloody, spit-lathered head back to the ground and straightened, holding the leash loose in her right hand
The , isn’t it?’
‘Yes’
‘And we thought life was confusing’
She shot hilance ‘So we am dead, are we?’
‘I think so’
‘Then I don’t understand I was to have been interred in a crypt A fine, solid crypt-I saw it ainst thieves, with casks of wine and seasoned s she earing ‘I was to be dressed inall my jewellery’
He atching her ‘Wealthy, then’
‘Yes’ She looked back down at the dead dog on the end of the leash
‘Not any more’
She glared across at hier ell, pointless ‘I have never seen this town before It looks to be falling apart’
Aye, it’s all falling apart You have that right’
‘I don’t knohere I live-oh, that sounds odd, doesn’t it?’ She looked round again ‘It’s all dust and rot, and is that a stor?’ She pointed down the ely luathered above denuded hills
They stared at the tears of jade
‘I was once a priest,’ the ainst his feet and lay there, gasping, with blood dripping fro, we closed our eyes and sang all the louder’
She regarded him in some surprise ‘You were a priest? Then… why are you not with your god?’
The ed ‘If I knew the answer to that, the delusion I once possessed of enlightenhtened ‘Oh, we have a visitor’
Approaching with a hitched gait was a tall figure, so desiccated that its liht but rotted, weathered skin stretched over bone Long grey hair drifted out unbound fro scalp