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‘I told you, I wasn’t eating it, I was--’
‘No!’ Denaos flung a hand up in warding ‘Stop there, sir, for there is no end to that thought that will not make me want to punch you in the eye’
‘Just listen--’
‘No, sir You’ve given me the excellent news that we are soon to be off and that we’re having a celebration tonight My life is going exceedingly well right now I have food, drink, and the cooing to start heading back to a world where undergared I tried to talk you out of this deranged bestiality plot you’ve cooked up, and I defy you – defy you, sir – to say anything to lure me back in’
In the wake of the outburst, the stream burbled quietly Neither Denaos nor Jho entle clear of his throat and tords, shattered it
‘Eel tits’
Denaos blinked twice, cringed once, then swiftly snapped his rod over his knee and sighed deeply
‘Gods daourds and stalked to a nearby ht … tell o, before Kataria found me with the Shen’
‘Go on’
‘I was in the forest and I was … hallucinating’ Lenk stared at the earth, the i to his mind ‘I felt a river cold as ice, I saw demons in trees, I … I …’ He turned a wild, worried stare upon Denaos ‘I argued with a ue blinked ‘Did you win?’
Lenk felt his bro heavy, his jaw clench So spoke inside his head
‘Not irowled ‘I saw … Kataria there She said things, tempted me and she peeled off her shirt and … eels’
‘Eels’
‘Eels!’ Lenk shouted ‘She was there, speaking tome to stop--’
‘Stop what?’
‘It doesn’tmy brains in my skull’
‘Are … you sure?’ Denaos’ face screwed up in confusion as he stared at the young ed you in, and I should note that I saw nothing writhing beneath her fur I was there when Asper looked you over She said your fever was mild’
‘What would she know?’ the voice asked
‘It washis temple fiercely ‘What would Asper know about it?’
‘Considering the years she’s spent to studying the physical condition? Probably quite a bit’ Denaos tapped his chin ‘She started screa and ran us out a moment later, but I re’
‘Remember what? How could you know? You and Kat have both now said she went mad and drove you out like … like …’
‘Heathens’
‘Heathens!’ he spat ‘How could you knohat she knew? What happened after she drove you out? Why did she do it in the first place?’
Denaos re man with the same unpronounced tension in his body that Lenk had seen before, usuallysharp e soft The fact that there was scarcely anywhere on the rogue where he could keep a knife hidden was small comfort
‘That,’ he said, ‘is no business of anyone’s but hers I believe her word over yours’
‘Liar’
‘A good point,’ Lenk muttered
‘What is?’
‘Why so defensive over her?’ the younga brow ‘You’re always the first to suspect, yet you so willingly take her word overvisibly demented,’ Denaos replied
Lenk wanted to scowl, to snarl, but the pain inside his head was growing unbearable On wispy shrieks, the voice was agonisingly clear
‘Traitors Liars Faithless Ignorant Unnecessary’
‘Just ignorant,’ Lenkhis head ‘Just … just …’
‘Look,’ Denaos said, his tension e is entailed by displaying the object of your attention with sea life replacing her anatohtful ‘The Gods send visions to speak to the faithful, to reward theuide them,’ his eyes narrowed, ‘to warn theious’
‘Silf’s creed is silence and secrecy It’s probably ayou about this’
‘So why do it?’
‘Greed,a enitalia seeto do once this whole bloody business was over and we stood on the ht,’ Lenk replied, rolling his shoulders ‘Faret so as I could Just a cow, a plough …’
‘And her?’
Lenk froithout knohy ‘Maybe’
‘Do you reround, a slight grin for at the corner of his hter?’
His smile wormed its way to the other side of his face ‘I do’
‘You’ve probably seen her truly happy a few times, in fact’
He stared up at the sun, remembered a different kind of warmth He remembered a hand on his shoulder, a puff of hot air between thin lips, heat that sent tiny droplets of sweat coursing downthen, as he did now