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"Look," he said softly, turning the book towardto one line Written in Latin like the others, but there were unfa words

"Mohawk?" Jamie said He looked up, into Ian’s face "That is a word in an Indian tongue, surely One of the Algonquian tongues, no?"

"Rains Hard," said Ian, quietly "It is the Kahnyen’kehaka--the Mohawk tongue, Uncle Rains Hard is so Walker, Six Turtles, and Talks With Spirits"

"I thought the Mohawk have no written language," Jamie said, one ruddy eyebrow lifted Ian shook his head

"Nor they do, Uncle Jae,--"and if ye work out the sound of the words" He shrugged "They are Mohawk na moment, then without comment bent his head and resumed his translation

"I had one of the sapphires, Rains Hard the other Talks With Spirits had a ruby, Strong Walker took the diamond, and Six Turtles had the eram--whether it should be four points, for the directions of the compass, or five, in a pentacle But there were the five of us, sworn by blood to this deed, so we laid the circle with five points"

There was a s changed, becoh the writer had paused, then taken up his story at a later point

"I have gone back to look There is no sign of the circle--but I see no reason why there should be, after all I think I must have been unconscious for some time; we laid the circle just inside the mouth of the crevice, but there are no marks in the earth there to sho I crawled or rolled to the spot where I woke, and yet there are marks in the dust, made by rain My clothes are da dew, or sweat fro in the sun; it was near midday when I woke, for the sun was overhead, and it was hot I am thirsty Did I craay from the crevice, and then collapse? Or was I thrown some distance by the force of the transition?"

I had the , somewhere inside my head It wasn’t that I had heard it before, and yet the words had a dreadful familiarity I shook my head, to clear it, and looked up to find Ian’s eyes on me, soft brown and full of speculation

"Yes," I said baldly, in answer to his look "I ale a phrase, looked up He saw Ian’s face, and mine, and reached to put his hand on mine

"How much could ye read, lad?" he asked quietly

"Quite a lot, Uncle," Ian answered, but his eyes didn’t leave "--a brief sraht--but I think I understand it Do you?"

It wasn’t clear whether he addressed the question to lance--then I turned back to Ian and nodded, and so did Jahtened on hted with an expression of profound satisfaction "I kneeren’t a fairy, Auntie Claire!"

UNABLE TO STAY AWAKEin his flight toward bed to seize Rollo by the scruff of the neck and immobilize him while I removed Adso fro like a snake Holding the cat by his own scruff to avoid being disemboweled, I had carried him out of harm’s way, up to our bedroo at once to Jahting a fresh candle Unfastening his shirt with one hand and thu the book open with the other, he sank down onto the bed, still absorbed in the reading

"He couldna find any of his friends He searched the countryside nearby for two days, calling, but there was no trace He was verra o on; he was in need of food, and had nothing but a knife and a bit of salt with him He iven hied to a man named Otter-Tooth, she said--a er had touched one away Little ripples of unease kept tickling over ers My family, indeed

I had told her that Otter-Tooth was perhaps one of "my family," unable to describe the peculiar kinship of time-travelers in any other way I had never met Otter-Tooth--at least not in the flesh--but if he was the ht he was, then his was the head buried in our ss

Perhaps I was at last going to learn who he had really been--and how on earth he had co end

"He wasna e "Couldna catch so round-squirrel with a snare, and in the middle of summer, forbye!"

Fortunately for Otter-Tooth--if it was indeed he--he had been familiar with a number of edible plants, and see pa and persireat feat, for God’s sake," I said "They look like orange baseballs!"