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"He&039;s in there," the old woht be that he&039;s dead already," said another, a man of about thirty winters "That would be the ers crouched on a bluff a quarterthe powries and the goblins A pair of foiants had also been in the town earlier that day, but were out now, probably hunting refugees

"He should not have gone down there, and I told him so," the old woman asserted "Too ave a knowing ser To thesbury, an orphan boy who had been taken in by the town When Roger&039;s parents had both died, the co was to send him south to Palmaris, perhaps to the monks of St Pre-cious But the folk of Caer Tinella, truly a bonded coer with therief and sickness

For Roger was a poor, skinny waif, so obviously frail His physi-cal develope of eleven, stolen by the same fever that killed his parents, and his two sisters, as well

That was several years ago, but to these worried townsfolk, Roger, who looked much the same, was still that little lost boy

Tosbury, but Lockless, Roger Lockless, a tag given hier couldn&039;t open, or slip through, or sneak around Tomas reminded himself of that often as he looked to Caer Tinella, for in truth, he was also a bit worried But only a bit

"A line o&039; the emphatically toward the town Her eyes were sharp, for indeed a group of gob-lins ed-looking huhboring coh or hidden deep enough in the woods Now thethe towns as encampees understood what grier useful to the powries and goblins

"You should not be looking upon theroup turned as one to see the approach of a portly man, Belster O&039;Comely "And we are all too close to the towns, I fear Would you have us all captured?" Despite his best efforts, Belster, the jovial innkeeper who used to run the very respectable Howling Sheila in Dundalis, could not e to his voice He had coees from the three towns of the Timberlands: Dundalis, Weedy Meadow, and End-o&039;-the-World Belster&039;s coh, quite unlike the more recently displaced people of Caer Tinella and Landsdown, and those of the handful of other sreat port city of Paler known as Nightbird, were far frooblins, to be sure, but when they found the teroblins, powries, even giants, their prey

"We will make a try for them, as I promised," Belster continued "But not so soon Oh no We&039;ll be no good to our fellows dead! Now co to be done?" the old worily

"Pray, dear lady," Belster replied in all sincerity "Pray for theree that Roger rand time of it by now

Belster didn&039;t miss the smirk, and moved to speak with Tomas alone

"You wish that I would doTomas&039; look "And so do I, my friend But I have a hundred and fifty underthose from Caer Tinella and about," To, to guard theht I risk ainst the toith so many lives at stake?"

"I do not doubt your wisdom, Master O&039;Comely," Tomas said sincerely "You vow to raid the tohen the tioblins are lax, but the powries not so A cunning lot, well trained for war Their guard will not drop"

"Then what am I to do?" asked a distressed Belster

"Keep to your duty," Tohty, not to those already in powrie clutches"

Belster eyed thewhile, and Toentle le huh his protective web

"You cannot save them all," To his head before Belster finished "Do not play the fool&039;s game," he scolded, and Belster realized for the first time that Tomas&039; earlier smirk was not derisive, was not in re-sponse to his hesitance in going into Caer Tinella "If you attack openly," Tomas continued, "then expect to be routed And I fear that our powrie and goblin friends would not be satisfied with that, but would expand their search of the forest until all of us were hunted down and taken prisoner - or slain, in the case ofto be of any use"

"So you agree with my decision to hold? Even to retreat our line?"

"Reluctantly," Tomas replied "As reluctantly as do you You are a man of conscience, Belster O&039;Comely, and fortunate are we of Caer Tinella that you and yours have co the support He couldn&039;t help another glance in the direction of the occupied town, though, his heart breaking at the thought of the tor

Another curious onlooker atching the procession of slaves as the goblins led theer Lockless knew the workings of the town better than any other Ever since the invasion, he had been in Caer Tinella nearly every night, oblins and powries lay their plans for the area, or overhearing talk of the greater war being waged not so far to the south More than anything else, the crafty Roger Lockless knew his enemy, and knehere they were vulnerable When he left the town before dawn each day, his slight fraees in the nearby woods And so careful was he in his stealing that therobbed

His work three nights previous re achieve-ment to date He had stolen a pony, the boss powrie&039;s favorite oblin sentries, who, as Roger had previously discovered through so that very night on a horse

Both were hanged in the town square the nextman, barely oblins meant to kill one of their prisoners; he had heard the about it before dahich prooblins had caught Mrs Kelso stuffing her hly disagreeable fellow na as an exa at the trees with the rest of the poor prisoners, oblivious to the fact that she had only hours left to live

Roger had witnessed much cruelty in the last feeeks, had seen several people butchered for no better reason than the fact that a goblin or powrie didn&039;t like the way they looked Always, the prag thief would shake his head and look the other way "Not my business," he often reminded himself

This was different Mrs Kelso was a friend, a dear friend who had often fed hi the streets of Caer Tinella He had spent years sleeping in her barn, for though her husband had little use for hientle Mrs Kelso usually ushered thetoward the barn

She was a good lady, and Roger found it hard this day to shake his head and say, "Not hter, and even if he were, there were a pair of huge fooblins, half that number of powries, and probably ten ti around in the forest and the neighboring villages He had hoped to get Mrs Kelso out of town before the dawn, but by the tirim plans for her, the prisoners had already been roused, lined up, and placed under heavy guard

One probleer repeatedly told himself The pris-oners were chained to each other ankle-to-ankle, separated by five-foot lengths of chain, each person chained to two others For added security, the shackles on each prisoner were not apair and were finelyof a slave to the right, the other chained to a slave on the left Roger es-tih both locks, and that only if Mrs Kelso and the two prisoners chained to her kept still and cooperated