Page 21 (2/2)

Reasonable men had qualities that made them what they were A reasonable ic over faith, and honesty over logic With these three, a reasonable es, with force over weakness, reason over force, and personality over reason

Assu he had all three

Denaos liked to consider himself a reasonable man

It was around that last bit that he found hi And, as a reasonable

He hadn’t been intending to, of course The plan, shortsighted as it as to get Dreadaeleon far away fro with inter pain They had done that, dragging him into the forest From there, the plan became survival: find water for Dreadaeleon, food for themselves

He had liked that plan He had offered to go searching It would give him a lot of time out in the woods, alone with his bottle

Then Asper had to go and ruin everything

‘Hot, hot, hot,’ Dreadaeleon had been whispering, as he had been since he collapsed on the beach ‘Hot, hot …’

‘Why does he keep doing that?’ Denaos had asked

‘Shock, mild trauma,’ Asper had replied ‘It’s ?’

She had glowered at hi the wizard over her shoulder ‘Mostly that you aren’t helping reed ould divide the workload You carry hi’

Denaos had se and pointed ‘There’s a rock’

‘Look, just take hi the unconscious wizard down and propping hiainst a tree ‘He’s not exactly tiny, you know’

‘As a matter of fact, I didn’t know,’ Denaos had replied ‘Frolanced at the dark stain on the boy’s trousers ‘In every possible sense of the word’

‘Are you planning on taking him at all?’ she had demanded

‘Once he dries out, sure In the meantime, his sodden trousers are the heaviest part of hilowered at hi to the wizard ‘You shouldn’t lanced to the burning torch in the rogue’s hand ‘He lit that’

‘I don’t think heat a sooty spot where he had narrowly avoided the boy’s first ical outburst ‘And afterward, he pissed hio, I’ll call it valued, but not invaluable’

‘He can’t help it,’ she had growled ‘He’s got … I don’t know, so’s happened to hiain?’

She slowly lowered her left arm from the boy’s forehead ‘It’s not ih We can rest for a moment, but we shouldn’t dawdle’

‘Why not? It’s not like he’s going anywhere’

‘It’d bea scowl upon him, ‘that I’d prefer not to spend any more time in your coh yours is such a sound investment of my time’

‘At least I didn’t threaten to kill you’

‘Are you still on that?’ He had shrugged ‘What’s a little death threat between friends?’

‘If it had co But it was you’

The last word had been flung fro in his skull and quivering He had blinked, looked at her carefully

‘So what?’

And she had looked back at hi to hide the hurt in her stare and ward her from the question he had posed It had not been the first time he had seen that stare, but it had been the first time he had seen it in her eyes

And that hen everything rong

Like any ious by necessity He was an ardent follower of Silf, the Severer of Nooses, the Sermon in Shadows, the Patron Denaos, like all of His followers, lived and died by the flip of His coin And being a God of fortune, Silf’s omens were as much a surprise to Hiht to call hinise those o a reasonable and religioustheuntil the forest had given way to a sheer stone wall, too finely carved to be natural He hadn’t cared about that; he followed it as it stretched down a long shore, where it cruh its cracks

Perhaps, he wondered, it would lead to some form of civilisation Perhaps there were people on this island And if they had the intellect needed to construct needlessly long walls, they would certainly have figured out how to carve boats He could go to them then, Denaos resolved, tell them that he was shipwrecked and that he was the only survivor He could barter his way off

But hat?

He glanced down at the bottle of liquor, its fine, clear a about inside a very well-crafted, very expensive glass coffin He smacked his lips a little

Maybe they accept promises …

Or, he considered, maybe he would just die out here That could work, too He’d be devoured by dredgespiders, drown in a sudden tide, get hit on the head with a falling coconut and quietly bleed out of his skull, or just walk until starvation killed hi as he would never have to see her again

‘Do you re at him

He had nodded He remembered it

Theirs had been an encounter of mutual necessity: hers one of tradition, his one of practicality She was beginning her pilgrie ofto avoid parties interested in h

It wasn’t unheard-of for people with either probleet the job done Though, it had to be said there were a fair bithis problem than hers

They haddragon, capable and in no shortage of wounds to inflict or mend, and so the man and the woone out the gate, trailing behind a man with blue eyes, a bipedal reptile and a she-wolf

She had smiled nervously at him

He had s after,’ she said He had thought he could ia in her s it down ‘And suddenly I was in the e and Lenk I wanted to run’

So had he He hadn’t been planning on staying with theer than it took to escape the noose, let alone a year But he had found sooals that, occasionally, helped people

Opportunity, however nificant

‘And I couldn’t help but think, through it all,’ she had sighed, looking up at theme another normal human"’ Her froas subtle, all the more painful for it ‘Back when I had no idea who you were, you see I could count on We were the same, both from the cities, believed in the Gods, knew that, no matter what happened, we had each other to fall back on So I stayed with theht you were …’

A sign, he had thought

‘But you are what you are’ She had looked up to hi desperate in her left ‘Aren’t you?’