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Formidable, except that they were all dead now

TheHis crested helmet had been half torn off his head, his wolf’s mask ripped clean off, but the death wound had cos

"Poor suffering soul,"beside hilant: the sah, broad cheekbones, and deep-set eyes, although this man’s eyes, like a deer’s, were a depthless brown Despite his wounds, he hissed a curse through bloody lips when he saw Alain loo over him, and in an odd way, Alain felt he could understand hih you defeat me, you’ll never defeat my people, beast’s child"

"Hush, now," said Alain "I hope you find peace, Brother--"

Laoina stepped up beside hih the man’s throat "Sa’anit! So dies another one!" She spat on the Cursed One’s face

Alain rose "What need to treat him cruelly when he already dies?"

"How is a quick death a cruel one? That is better than the death his kind give to their human slaves!"

"So may they do, but that doesn’t es, then we have lost more than one battle If we lose mercy, then we ood hand, he gestured toward the carnage left by the phoenix Blood stained the sand and leaked in rivulets out into the sea, soon lost a waves

Laoina stabbed her spear into the sand to clean the blood off of it When she looked up, she aze, warily respectful "Maybe there is truth in what you say But they stillat his wounded arht, suddenly and vividly, of Lavastine and of the way Bloodheart’s curse had, so slowly, turned the count into stone Yet when Alain touched his swollen, hot fingers they hurt terribly, and he could still feel bone, flesh, and skin Even to turn his wrist caused enough pain toto stone

The sea hissed as waves sighed up onto the beach and slid away again, leaving foaers pulled a bush away to reveal a cave’s mouth

Alain stayed on watch while the others dragged out a slender boat, deep-hulled, with clinker-built sides, a steering oar, four oar ports on each side, and a single mast, and shoved it down over the sand and into the water before fastening down all their gear and looted weapons as ballast Alain whistled, and the hounds caer and fresh, to pile in with theht heavy ropes fastened to hooks at the ste them over the side He stationed hi waves, he drew a bone flute out of his pouch and began to play

They came, first, like ripples in the water Two creatures reared up fro as foauely human shape, with the sharp teeth of a predator The skin of their faces and their shoulders and torsos had a sheeny, slick texture, as pale as ots The first dove, swiftly, and slapped the surface of the water with a muscular tail

Alain stared "He’s suht--" He reeled as the boat rocked under his feet How long had it been since he had dreahand?

But he was dead, wasn’t he? The dead did not dreahand since the centaur sha at the sea, it was like dreaain

If he was already dead, then he could not die again, even frorasped Adica’s shoulder, and turned her so that he could kiss her on the cheek

"Maybe the poison makes you lose your wits,"apprehension was as strong as the salt smell of the sea, yet she was too practical to weep and h her pack while, as Two Fingers played the flute, the merfolk circled in reluctantly

A second pair arrived, and a third, and suddenly the boat lurched under Alain, and he sat down hard onto the floorboards, clutching at the side with his good hand His staff clattered against the sternpost He caught it just before it tu softly Laoina spoke soft words, as though she were praying, and stared in wonder and horror as the ht the ropes in their clawed hands and, to the tune of Two Fingers’ flute, pulled the boat onto the sea