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The stone … he had to retrieve it

A violation of Laws, perhaps, but there was no other option It was the stone of the longfaces – that chipped, red sphere – that had kept his body in check, that had kept it fro overwhelmed He had to retrieve it; he had to return to the sea, search the wreckage, find the da and return to noric Moreclear

Voices burbled out of the hut

Togu

Of course, he thought as he staggered toward the door He would beseech the king, convince his coe He needed the stone; they didn’t need to knohy beyond the fact that it gave him the power to move their ship The lizard, Togu had said, but that sih He could convince them He could force them

He would have believed it, too, if he hadn’t paused outside the king’s door to retch again

‘What was that?’

He pulled hi his nausea-soaked breath at the sound of voices burbling out of the king’s hut

‘There is sou’s deep voice spoke

‘Soon to be , lyrical phrase that flooded into Dreadaeleon’s ears on a song that would be soothing if the recognition didn’t shock hiht The siren … here?

‘The longfaces have just arrived, Togu,’ she continued from within the hut, ‘ahead of their master He will arrive shortly and he will expect you to be there to greet hi’

‘They haven’t arrived yet, Togu,’ another voice, this one gruff and hissing, spoke ‘There is still tifaces are not given to caution You can flee’

‘And they will burn the forests down,’ Greenhair replied sharply ‘They will find you, Togu, one way or another Ewe should understand this better than even I’

‘I do understand this,’ the speaker identified as Hongwe snarled, ‘and that is why I knohat it is you’re sending the hua, to my people I will not watch you do this to others’

‘You intend to stop this?’ Greenhair’s voice contained an edge of harwe u I can only ask that you see the stupid villainy in this plan’

Dreadaeleon, heedless of the vo pain in his sto silence that followed In the valley below, the sound of dru In the quiescence, Dreadaeleon could hear the king’s body rise and fall with the force of his sigh

‘I do what is best for ive to the longfaces’

Dreadaeleon turned, bit back a shriek as he stepped in the pile of his sizzling bile, dragged his foot on the earth as hebody would allow hireat spikes that he forced hiet below, to warn his companions, or at least one of them

He collided suddenly with a bare chest and looked up, frowning This wasn’t the one he had hoped for, but still …

‘Denaos,’ he gasped, ‘we have to get below Togu, he’s--’

‘Who cares?’ the rogue asked, on a reeking chuckle that sent hi to happen anymore?’

He wasn’t sure how e and he hardly cared The u and his conspirators when they eed Thus, Dreadaeleon wasted noar to happen, do you?’ Denaos said, laughing ‘Not as sht you were, huh? Can’t see we’re all da us, without the Gods on our side’

‘No one’s following anyone if you don’t get out of the way,’ Dreadaeleon growled ‘The longfaces are--’

‘I said who cares?’ Denaos e to the earth ‘Don’t feel bad, Dread I’ll be punished for that For a hell of a lotto eyes that had gone from sunken to two fevered, black-lined pits ‘I can’t … I can’t stop seeing her The whispering just doesn’t stop I thought it was the de I did, can’t you see?’

‘I can’t, and I don’t care,’ Dreadaeleon’s words were laced incing whines as he struggled to regain his feet ‘I … I’et down there and warn the others that--’

‘Not i to hear my sins, tell ive me now Neither would They’ He pointed to the sky ‘Whatever happens now is just … just …’

As his voice cruh the in the same instant that Denaos did not One clapped his hands over his ears; the other collapsed to the earth Dreadaeleon spared a glance for his fallen co up as he felt a presence beside him

Greenhair’s alien expression was indifference laid thick to try to choke the pity in her eyes, to no avail Dreadaeleon shot back a scowl intent on conveying all the curses and veno he dared not hear; an apology, perhaps, or a brief explanation, or an insult

Though whatever she said could have only been half as insulting as the fact that she turned fronat and strode away, towards the mouth of the valley

He snarled, reached out a hand to wrap about her pale ankle and pull her back, only to find the reason for her disregard No sooner had his fingers stretched out than they were forced to clench The pain that ripped through his, tearing vigour froh it were split open He collapsed into a quivering, curled position on the ground, unable to forh eyes vanishing into darkness, he stared at Greenhair as she walked down the valley, toward his co him coiled in a pile of his own uselessness

Dru out on snores Gohht

‘So loud,’ she whispered, clawing at her ears

Futility Trees groaning, shedding leaves Riverscurses to those who defecated in theether in ire

‘Shut up,’ she fervently whimpered, ‘shut up, shut up, shut up’

The sounds were inore Every last one rang angrily in her ears, the soft ones intolerably loud, the hts, couldn’t hear her tell herself to breathe, couldn’t hear herself chant over and over

‘It’ll pass,’ she was barely aware of telling herself, ‘it’ll pass, it’ll pass It’s just a symptom, just a symptom, just a symptom’

It was a symptom, she confirmed to herself, a symptom of the round-eared disease It had to be, she reassured herself, because it had come from him

She cursed hied across it She didn’t hear her own curses She hoped they were good ones