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In her world I accepted, without question, the further mission I would fulfill I would enter the flesh of the soldier’s son I would undergo a change and becoh the great house where they raised their warriors, but also throughout their stonewalled hives, and even to the crowned ones who ruled theic that turned the intruders back and saved the People

All this I knew so clearly when I wandered outside my feverish body Each time I came back to my tortured flesh as es of that other life and the knowledge of that world ghosted through my fevered brain

Onthe day Dr Amicas seemed pleased to see me awake, but I did not share his optimism My eyelids were crusted and raw, as wereillness made all my senses preternaturally sharp The coarse sheets and wool blankets were a torment I rolled my head toward Spink I wanted to ask him if Oron had recovered, but Spink’s eyes were closed and he was breathing hoarsely Nate was still in the bed to ht He looked terrible In a few short days the illness had sucked the flesh fro hi open as he breathed andto hear, and I could not escape it The day droned past me I tried to be ht aveto do except lie in bed and be sick I hadn’t the strength to hold a book, and could not have focused my eyes if I did No one cah to talk I felt that there was so important I had to tell someone, but I could not remember what it was or who stronger, but as the sun faded into night, ed back into a sleep that was neither rest nor true sleep My dreaed demons round my bed, and I could not escape them I woke from a dream in which I was trapped in the freak tent to find myself in the dimmed ward I sat up and discovered that Spink had no hands or aret out of !" I shouted at the orderly who cas are fine I’ht on a pillow full of snow I tried to throw it off , "It will cool your hot head It may break the fever Lie back, Burvelle, lie back"

"I didn’t give liquor to Caulder I didn’t! You have to make the colonel understand It wasn’t me"

"Of course not, of course not Lie back Cool your head Your fever is burning your brain Lie still"

The doctor pushed me back into the cold softness of the fat man’s embrace "I used to be in the cavalla!" he told me "Too bad you can’t be a ranker likenow Not even a scout Maybe you can be a fat man in a sideshow All you have to do is eat You like to eat, don’t you?"

I sat up suddenly The softness of the cold pillow had wakened a brief connection of ht in the ward Diures tossed I held tight to what I knew, desperate to share it, to avert my future betrayal of my people "Doctor!" I shouted "Dr Amicas"

Someone in a doctor’s apron hurried to my bedside It wasn’t Amicas "What is it? Are you thirsty?"

"Yes No It was the dust, Doctor The dust they used Dried and powdered shit from a sick man To make us all sick To kill us all"

"Drink so"

"Tell Dr Amicas," I insisted

"Of course Drink this"

He held a cup to ulped it down It soothed my mouth and throat "Thank you," I said "Thank you" And I fell back, through fever dreae ride into that other world

Tree Woether in a little bower of flowering bushes, not far froe of the world She sh yet Be patient You need to consuth in their world If you try too soon to cross back with him, you cannottogether in the eaves of a forest A soft rain was falling She had brought me a leaf, folded like a cup In it was a thick, sweet soup, warm and delicious I drank it and licked the residue froly