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’Be quiet, I’th returns, even as atch! See, you are standing! Oh, hoonderful! And -- no, stay away, please Unless you want a pat? Do you want a pat? If so, youat once!’

Mok stepped between the hound ’Garath, we have need of her, even as we have need of you There is no value in continuing this enmity’

’He can’t understand you!’ Lady Envy said ’He’s a dog! An angry dog, in fact’

The hulking creature turned away, padded slowly to where Baaljagg stood facing the storlance at hi sees so, mistress’

’What? Out there?’

They hurried up the pinnacle’s slope

The bergs of ice had captured a prize Less than a thousand paces away, at the very edge of the sh-walled on two sides hat appeared to be a latticework of wicker, and surmounted by frost-ri more than a broken, torn-away piece of a port town or city A narrow, crooked alley was indeed visible between the tall, warped houses As the ice gripping the base of the structure twisted to some unseen current, the two opposites sides ca the brokenbeneath the street level, croith enors and what appeared to be massive inflated bladders, three of them punctured and flaccid

’How decidedly peculiar,’ Lady Envy said

’Meckros,’ Mok said

’Excuse uleh is an island, mistress We are, on rare occasion, visited by the Meckros, ell in cities that ride the oceans They endeavour to raid our coastline, ever forgetful of the unfortunate results of the previous raids Their fierce zeal entertains those a the Lower Schools’

’Well,’ Lady Envy sniffed, ’I see no occupants in that… hbourhood’

’Nor do I, mistress However, look at the ice immediately beyond the remnant It has found an outward current and now seeks to join it’

’Goodness, you can’t be suggesting-’