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‘Can they actually talk?’ that surprised Skell a bit

‘The ones I came across could They claimed that they were traders, but I didn’t believe the around’

Skell squinted at the river ‘How far upstream is that waterfall?’ he asked

‘About twice as far as it is fro that far upriver from the streambed that leads up to the top, but the river calets out of the mountains’

‘Good We’ll be able to row my ship and my brother’s on up to that streambed, and I’ll take ten or fifteen men on up to the top We’ll look around a bit, and then I’ll send somebody back down to lead the rest of the men on up there to join us’

‘It’ll probably work out better that way,’ Nanton agreed

‘Is your flock up there, Nanton?’ O to be a war up there, though, I’ll move them to a safer meadow’

‘It sounds to me like you’re very familiar with those mountains,’ Skell said

‘I’ve spentmy flock back down in the autumn’

‘Wouldn’t it be easier if you just kept them down here in the lowland?’ Skell asked hirass up in the mountains is better, and I don’t have to spend allthe sheep away froet very worried when they see a few hundred hungry sheep co over the hill’

‘I wonder why,’ Skell said with no hint of a smile

3

It took the River Vash to the place where Nanton’s little stream came down out of the mountains Skell anchored the Shark on the upriver side of the stream and then rowed his skiff over to the Lark to confer with his brother ‘I’o’s friend doesn’t really want a crowd trailing along behind when he leads us on up to the area we need to scout, so I think I’d better keep things fairly tight Nan ton knows the lay of the land up there, so he can save ood side of hi back to "don’t offend the natives", I take it,’ Torl noted

‘Let’s keep things quiet as long as we can Why don’t you stay here? Put thethe bank of the river here There’ll be a lot of ships co sizeable nuh so that we don’t have Trog ships backed up all the way down to the riverto take with you?’