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Even over the crackle of the blazing bush, Dreadaeleon could hear the accusation intoned in Denaos’ voice He lofted a brow, then lofted it higher as he heard Asper’s feet slide aggressively across the sand and her hand clap on the rogue’s naked back An instant of reue’s arm around the priestess, the sensation of impotent fury that followed

He hid his scowl, strained to stifle hi between her clenched teeth

‘You say nothing of what happened,’ she snarled to hi’

‘Asharowled ‘You know the difference’

‘I don’t knohy it matters so much’

‘No, you don’t’

By the time he heard her break away fro down the sandy hill, the blood boiled in his ears with enough fury to render him deaf to all else, save the thunder in his own head

You fool! You FOOL! What was she doing while you were scenting out the to to save the ani in decidedly filthy lancing down the hill ‘How’s the progress over there?’

Maybe it’s not like that … Maybe she’s talking about so else Let’s re ood for the sinuses

‘Really, though,’ the rogue continued without his reply, ‘I’m not sure why it needed to be a secret Chances are she’d be i like this’

She doesn’t need to know anything, he muttered inwardly She doesn’t need to know that you can’t even control yourself while he … He felt his teeth threaten to crack under the strain of their clenching She knows all about his bodily functions, doesn’t she? No … no, stop thinking like that, old man He’s a cad … a liar … a rat

He probably seduced her, tricked her … I’m still the bettera fire that gave no heat that Dreadaeleon could feel His head throbbed, but he didn’tpoured into his stare as he felt the criht flicker behind his eyes

The better man with all the power

Too late, Kataria realised that not everything could be learned from the wisdom of the elders For years, she had been content to accept their categorisation of the human menace as a disease It had made sense when she had only four notches in her ears

Humans contaminated, infected, multiplied, spread It was how they had bred to the point where they threatened land and people, where they began to require a cure Still, she was forced to admit, certain aspects of the elders’ wisdom left out key information

Such as onset tiht as she stared down at the strain that sat against the reed hut Perhaps one year and six days was enough to be infected beyond the point of a cure That made sense now that she had six notches in her ears

After all, she thought resentfully, how long has it been since you felt the urge to kill him?

‘Six days’

‘What?’ Her eyes ide, as though fearing he could hear her thoughts with those puny little ears

‘Six days since we landed,’ Lenk elaborated

‘Shipwrecked,’ Kataria corrected

‘I was trying to be optimistic’

‘It doesn’t suit you’

‘Fine,’ he grunted ‘Six days since ere shipwrecked on an island forgotten by man and abandoned for dead by the very people we so foolishly trusted to co death surrounded by an ilare upon her ‘Happy?’

‘Well, now you’re just being negative,’ she replied ‘What’s your point, anyway?’

‘My point is that I’ve had enough of it,’ he said ‘Enough loincloths, enough lizardh forbidden islands’

‘Better than berserker purple wo, diseased wounds, surely’

‘I haven’t forgotten those’ He rubbed the bandages upon his leg thoughtfully ‘And I’ve had enough of that, too’

‘Enough adventuring?’ Her tone was as sly as her sht it was all you wanted’

‘No one wants to be an adventurer They just do it when they can’t get any other work’

‘Your grandfather was an adventurer,’ she offered ‘He wanted to be one’ She frowned at his puzzled expression ‘Or so you said’

His face twitched, an expression of doubt flashing across his features like sparks off flint She held her breath at the sight, waiting for the question that would inevitably follow He didn’t ask it, didn’t have to The doubt upon his face twisted to an all-telling despair in an instant as he undoubtedly realised he couldn’t re

HisHe had said that, but he was huard to his past, save for brief flashes of irl he once knew, an i Even those days he spoke of slid by swiftly, into memory and out, back into darkness

To look at hiht her own memories to the surface When she looked upon him out of the corner of her eyes, his silver hair was a pelt, his eyes were faded and cloud-covered, his breath slow and stagnant In those brief glier Lenk; he was a beast, and he was sick

When she looked at Lenk, it was difficult to see hi dying, struggling with the symptom of his own memories

And you knohat happens to sick beasts

She closed her eyes, trying to forget the sound of shrill whi under the crunch of pitiless boots

‘Yeah,’ Lenk suddenly whispered, ‘he asn’t he?’