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"'Tis not true," he called "I know they say so, but 'tisn't right"

Agia, who had allowed the torn bodice of her gown to hang as it would, quickly drew it up again "I didn't knoas talking to anyone but nored the rebuke No doubt his thoughts were already too involved with the reure here - would you like to see it? You, young sieur - you've an education, anyone can tell that Will you look?" He appeared to be carrying a staff I watched its head rise and fall several ti toward us

"More trouble," Agia said "We'd better go"

I asked if it ht not be possible for the oldwalk around

He shook his head "Too heavy for reat folk would capsize us"

The prow caht, and I saw that what he said was true: the skiff was so small it seemed almost too much to ask of it that it keep the old e (he appeared older even than Master Palaehed more than a boy of ten There was no one in it with him

"Your pardon, sieur," he said "But I can't coets too dry for e so's I can show you ure?"

I was curious to see what it was he wanted of us, so I did as he asked, Agia followinginto his tunic he pulled out a s sieur"

The scroll was headed with so description of where this person had lived, whose wife she was, and what her husband had done for a living; all of which I only pretended to glance at, I am afraid Below the description were a crude ht to be easy enough First number there, that's paces over from the Fulstrum Second number's paces up Noould you believe that for all these years I've been trying to find her, and never found her yet?" Looking at Agia, he drew himself up until he stood alia said "And if it will satisfy you, I' to do with us"

She turned to go, but the oldher "Don't you heed what they say They put theure shows, but they don't stay there Souely toward the horizon "Out there"

I told him I doubted that was possible

"All the water here, where'd you think it cos it, and if it didn't this whole place'd dry out When they get to h? What's to prevent twenty? Can't be any current to speak of You and her - you coet a avern, did you? You knohy they planted 'ein with?"

I shook my head

"For the h the conduit It scared the kin to see their faces bobbing in the lake, so Father Inire had the gardeners plant the averns I was here and saw it Just a little s If a ht Onefor Cas like I always do unless I've so else I have to take care of, and there o curators on the shore with a harpoon Dead ot it, and it wasn't no manatee, but a h in Looked as good as you or her, and better than ?"

"No way of telling, for the water here pickles them You'll hear it said it turns their skin to leather, and so it does But don't think of the sole of your boot when you hear it More like a woan to walk after her The oldpath of sedge

"I told them I'd had better luck in one day for them than I've had in forty years for rapple on a length of rope "Not that I haven't caught aplenty, all kinds But not Cas I started where the figure showed, year after she died She wasn't there, so I kept working my way out After five years of that I was a ways far away - that's what I thought then - froht be there after all, so I begun over First where it said, then working out Ten years of that I got to be afraid again, so what I do now is start in thewhere it says, and o to where I stopped the last time, and circle out some more She's not where it says - I know that, I know everyone that's there now, and so, and I keep thinking maybe she'll come home"

"She was your wife?"

The old

"Why do you want to recover her body?"

Still he said nothing His pole made no sound as it slipped in and out of the water; the skiff left only the faintest of wakes behind it, tiny ripples that lapped the side of the sedge track like the tongues of kittens

"Are you sure you would know her, after so long a time, if you found her?"

"Yesyes" He nodded, slowly at first, then vigorously "You're thinking Iher up, looked her in the face, and throwed her back in Ain't you? It ain't possible Not know Cas? You wondered why I want her back One reason is the est - is of this broater closing over her face Her eyes shut Do you know about that?"