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"What kept you?" Durnik whispered to the little o"

"I was checking the slope," Silk replied "The whole is starting to ooze through the snow like cold gravy Then I went up and pushed ainst one of the stones of the wall It wobbled like a loose tooth"

"Well," Durnik said in a tone of self-satisfaction, "it worked after all" There was a pause in the snowy darkness "You led voice

"The theory was sound," the smith answered in an offhand sort of way "But you can never be actually positive about a theory until you try it"

"Durnik, I' hook sailed overhead

"We've got onethe troops into place Do you want to go back and tell Yarblek to send up the signal to Mandorallen?"

"My pleasure," Silk replied "I want to get out of here before we're all hip-deep in mud anyway" He turned and went off into the dark

Perhaps ten minutes later, when the last fissure had been opened and the entire north slope of the hill had turned into a slithering e ball of blazing pitch arched high in the air over the city In response to that prearranged signal, Mandorallen's engines e their heavy stones high over the rooftops of Rheon to slaainst the inside of the north wall At the sa hooks tautened as the Nadrak an to move their tea and grinding along the top of the hill as the weakened wall began to sway

"Howto stand?" Barak asked as he came out of the darkness with Lelldorin at his side to join theive way under it" The groaning creak above the the inside as Mandorallen's catapults stepped up the pace of their deadly rain

Then, with a sound like an avalanche, a section of the wall collapsed with a peculiarly sinuous motion as the upper portion toppled outward and the lower sank into the sodden earth There was a great, splashing rumble as the heavy cascaded into the slush and mud of the hillside

"Aonly on dirt," Durnik observed critically

"Under the circulad they did," Barak told hiht ways to do things" The big Cherek chuckled "Durnik, you're an absolute treasure, do you know that?"

Another section of the wall toppled outward to splash onto the slope Shouts of alarh the streets of the fortified town