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"They rolled me on my face and hit me," Bonnet continued ain, I was in the botto boat The fisherman left me on the shore near Peterhead and said he would advise me to find a new ship--he could see, he said, I was not ently with a finger to loosen the ash

"At that," he said, "they did givewas in ainst the rail, gripping its wood as the single solid thing in a world gone soft and nebulous

"And did you go back to the land?" he asked, and heard his own voice, preternaturally caled to someone else

"Did I find theainst the rail, half facing Roger "Oh, yes Years later One at a time But I found them all" He opened the hand that held the coin, and held it cupped thoughtfully before hileaht

"Heads you live, and tails you die A fair chance, would yez say, MacKenzie?"

"For them?"

"For you"

The soft Irish voice was as une observations of the weather

As in a drea drop once more into his hands He heard the suck and hiss of the water on the hull, the blowing of the whales--and the suck and hiss of Bonnet’s breath as he drew on his cigar Seven whales the fill of a Cirein Croin

"A fair chance," Bonnet said "Luck ith you before, MacKenzie See will Danu coain--or will it be the Soul-Eater this ti visible save the glowing coal of Bonnet’s cigar, a burning cyclops in the ht be a devil indeed, one eye closed to huer stood quite literally between the devil and the deep blue sea, with his fate shining silver in the palm of his hand

"It is my life; I’ll make the call," he said, and was surprised to hear his voice calht, clapped his one hand hard against the back of the other, trapped the coin and its unknown sentence

He closed his eyes and thought just once of Brianna I’m sorry, he said silently to her, and lifted his hand

A warm breath passed over his skin, and then he felt a spot of coolness on the back of his hand as the coin was picked up, but he didn’t move, didn’t open his eyes

It was some time before he realized that he stood alone

PART NINE

Passionnéton, the Colony of North Carolina, September 1, 1769

This was the third attack, of whatever Lizzie’s sickness was She had seemed to recover after the first bad fever, and after a day spent regaining her strength, had insisted she was able to travel They had got no h, before the fever struck again

Brianna had hobbled the horses, and made a hasty cah the night, scrabbling up and down awater in a small canteen to dribble down Lizzie’s throat and over her stea ani in the wilderness, h to ht back to Charleston as soon as Lizzie could sit a horse

By h Lizzie eak and pale, she had been able to ride Brianna had hesitated, but finally decided to press on toward Wile that had driven her all this way now had a sharper spur; she had to find her mother, for Lizzie’s sake as well as her own

Brianna hadn’t appreciated her size forin the back row of class pictures, but she had begun to feel the advantages of height and strength as she grew older And the longer she spent in this eous they seeainst the bed frame as she eased the chamber pot out from under Lizzie’s frail white buttocks with the other hand Lizzie was scrawny but surprisingly heavy, and no more than half conscious; sheinto the full-fledged convulsion of a chill

The shivering was beginning to ease a little now, though Lizzie’s teeth were still clenched hard enough to make the sharp bones of her jaws stand out like struts beneath her skin