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Suddenly urgent, Sazed pulled out a s--a scent tinmind--and slipped it on his thuhter It was a mustier, dirtier smell A smell not only of death, but of corruption, unwashed bodies, and waste He reversed the use of the tin it, and his ability to s

He continued on, carefully entering the village proper Like roup of ten large hovels built in a loose circle with a well at the center The buildings ood, and for thatching they used the sa branches fro with a fine nobleman's manor, stood a little farther up the valley

If it hadn't been for the sreed with his gazetteer's description of Urbene For skaa residences, the hovels looked well e lay in a quiet hollow aot a little closer that he found the first bodies They lay scattered around the doorway to the nearest hovel, about a half-dozen of them Sazed approached carefully, but could quickly see that the corpses were at least several days old He knelt beside the first one, that of a woman, and could see no visible cause of death The others were the same

Nervous, Sazed forced himself to reach up and pull open the door to the hovel The stench froh his tinle chamber It was filled with bodies Most lay wrapped in thin blankets; so heads hanging liaunt, nearly fleshless bodies ithered li eyes sat in desiccated faces

These people had died of starvation and dehydration

Sazed stumbled fro different in the other buildings, but he checked anyway He saw the saround outside;about in swarnawed human bones at the center of the roo deeply through his mouth Dozens of people, over a hundred total, dead for no obvious reason What possibly could have caused so many of them to simply sit, hidden in their houses, while they ran out of food and water? How could they have starved when there were beasts running free? And what had killed those that he'd found outside, lying in the ash? They didn't seeh from the level of decomposition, it was difficult to tell

I must be mistaken about the starvation, Sazed told hiue of soical explanation He searched through his medical coppermind Surely there were diseases that could strike quickly, leaving their victi behind their loved ones Not taking any of the animals from their pastures

Sazed frowned At that

He spun, drawing auditory power fro tin, the sound offro open the door, looking again on the sorry dead The corpses lay where they had been before Sazed studied the until he found the one whose chest was ht The n death His hair had fallen out, and his eyes were sunken into his face Though he didn't look particularly starved, Sazedhim because of his dirty, almost corpselike body

Sazed stepped toward the man "I am a friend," he said quietly The man remained motionless Sazed frowned as he walked forward and laid a hand on the man's shoulder

Theto his feet Dazed and frenzied, he scra to the back of the roo at Sazed

"Please," Sazed said, setting down his pack "You mustn't be afraid" The only food he had besides broth spices was a few handfuls of meal, but he pulled some out "I have food"

The man shook his head "There is no food," he whispered "We ate it all Exceptthe food" His eyes darted toward the center of the roonawed on, placed in a pile beneath a ragged cloth, as if to hide them

"I didn't eat the food," thea step forward "But, there is other food Outside"

"Can't go outside"

"Why not?"

The lanced toward the doorway The sun was nearing the horizon, but wouldn't set for another hour or so There was no mist Not now, anyway

Sazed felt a chill He slowly turned back toward thethe day?"

The man nodded

"And it stayed?" Sazed asked "It didn't go away after a few hours?"

The man shook his head "Days Weeks All ht hi tihts

But for thethe day, then to stay--if this ine the skaa, frightened in their hovels, a thousand years of terror, tradition, and superstition keeping the outside

But to remain inside until they starved? Even their fear of the h to make them starve themselves to death, would it?

"Why didn't you leave?" Sazed asked quietly

"So as if to himself "Jell You knohat happened to him"

Sazed frowned "Dead?"