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He laughed, then, with a careless wave, walked past Bugg

The proble dragged along Wherever their believers went This one had vanished from memory everywhere else, as extinct as the Holds themselves

So T’lan I of the Jheck Soletaken worshippers of their ancient lord, and, from the potential resurrection of that ancient cult, a possible return of the T’lan Ie the madness

What had driven him to act now, then? In this particular , and he suilt

Awoke Tehol Beddict He sat up, looked round It was nearing late afternoon The tapping was repeated and he glanced over to see his bodyguard, weapon drawn, standing at the roof’s edge on the alley side The erly frouard’s side

Down in the alley below a shape was crawling along beneath a stained tarp of soress towards the corner

‘I ad But sufficient cause to wakethings, after all Well, on a norht be a if we follow its tortured journey’

The shape reached the corner, then edged round it

Tehol and his co the wall, then into the aisle leading to the entrance to Tehol’s house

‘Ah, it is paying us a visit Whatever it’s selling, I’ a conundruain, what if it is selling some horrible disease?’

It reached the doorway, slipped inside

The bodyguard walked to the hatch and looked down After a moment, Tehol followed As he peered over he heard a familiar voice call up

‘Tehol Get down here’

‘Shurq?’

A gesturing shape in the gloouard ‘I think she wants privacy You can keep an eye on the entrance froreed’ He climbed down the ladder

‘I have a proble I can do for you, Shurq, I shall Did you know you have a spike of some sort in your forehead?’

‘That’s my problem, you idiot’

‘Ah Would you like ood idea, Tehol’