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Bluepearl added, ’Spindle will hold back on a sharper, Captain, with the e’s name on it’

’Literally,’ Toes threw in, ’and thata wizard and all’

’Yes? And how often has it made the difference in the past, Toes?’

’Well, uh, there’s been a bad string of, uh,circumstances-’

’Abyss below,’ Paran breathed ’Quick Ben, if we don’t knock that sorcerer out we’ll be feeding roots a drop at a time’

’We know, Captain Don’t worry We’ll stahed ’Toes, find bows trundled out and issued to everyone without a munition or spell in hand, twenty arrows each, and I want them to have pikes as well’

’Aye, sir’ Toes clie,around his neck and kissed it Then he headed out

Bluepearl spat onto the ground ’I feel sick every time he does that’

A bell and a half later, the captain lay alongside Quick Ben, looking down on the lint of helht

The Pannions had not bothered to send scouts ahead, nor was their coluree of overconfidence that Paran hoped would prove fatal

In the soft earth before Quick Ben, the wizard had set a half-dozen twigs, upright, in a rough line Faint sorcery whispered between theister peripherally Twenty paces behind the two ed circle of ritual; six twigs from the same branch that Quick Ben had used, jabbed into thea bladder filled ater Beads of condensation glistened froh The wizard reached out, hovered an index finger over the third twig, then tapped it

Shank saw one of his twigs twitch He grinned, whispered the last word of his ritual, releasing its power The bladder shrivelled, suddenly empty