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"Hiding, like any sensible person would when confronted by a necroet

"Is he that powerful?" asked Sa my mother and the other Abhorsens"

"They didn’t have help froet "I must say I’m impressed hat it can do, even bound as it is A lesson for us all, that even trapped inside a lue went?" interrupted Sa

"Back to those luet "Or after Lirael Tiain, then yelped in surprise as Sa on his collar

"You have to track the Dog! We have to go and help Lirael!"

"That’s no way to ask ain, as waves of sleep from Ranna washed over both of theround felt so comfortable All he had to do was lie back and put his hands behind his head

"No! No!" he protested Staggering to his feet, he plunged into the stream and pushed his face into the water

When he clirin on his little face

Sa hair The Dog had run off downstream What had she said? "Lirael went into the reeds"

So if Saood chance he’d find Lirael Or soe ht come back

Saht need his help Nicholas ht survive long enough to do so about this Destroyer trapped in the silver hemispheres Alone, they could only fail and fall

Sam packed away Lirael’s bow and the dropped arrow Then he balanced the two packs using a single strap on each shoulder, h the cat deserved to, and started west, the strea beside him

Chapter Eleven

Hidden in the Reeds

LIRAEL MORE THAN half-expected to find a boat made of woven reeds, since the Clayr had Seen her and Nicholas in it on the Red Lake Even so, she was very e craft, because the water was noell above her thighs If it had got any deeper, she would have had to turn back or risk Nick’s drowning, since she couldn’t carry him any other way than the fireman’s lift, which put his head about two feet lower than hers

Carefully, she unloaded hi the sides as it tipped The boat was about twice as long as she was tall, but very narrow apart froh room for both of them

Nick was semiconscious, but he rallied as they sat quietly in the boat, and Lirael considered her options The reeds leaned over the a secret bower, and small waterbirds called plaintively nearby, with the occasional splash as one dived after some fishy treat

Lirael sat with her sword across her lap and a hand on the bell-bandolier, listening The , then they would suddenly go silent and hide deeper in the reeds Lirael kneas because Gore Croere flying low overhead She could feel the cold spirit that inhabited the the orders of its necro for her

The boat was exactly as the Clayr had said it would be, but Lirael felt a strange new fear as she sat rocking in it This was the limit of the Clayr’s vision They had Seen her here with Nicholas, but no further, and they had not Seen what Nicholas was Was their Sight lie about to appear through the reeds? Or would the Destroyer efor?" Nick asked suddenly, showing hiht Lirael ju e in the quiet world of the reeds

"Silence!" ordered Lirael in a stern whisper

"Or what?" asked Nick with some bravado But he spoke more softly, and his eyes were on her sword

A few seconds passed, then Lirael said, "We’re waiting for noon, when the sun is brightest and the Dead are weak Then we’ll head along the lakeshore and, hopefully,place where your friend Sameth will be"

"The Dead," said Nick with a superior smile "Some local spirits to appease, I take it? And you ot to do with this? Did you kidnap him, too?"

"The Deadare the Dead," replied Lirael, frowning Sam had mentioned that Nick didn’t understand, or even try to codom, but this blindness to reality could not be natural "You have thee’s Dead Hands And no, Sa with er"

"Don’t tell me Sam has fallen back into all this superstition," said Nick "The Dead, as you call the like leprosy And far fro me, you have taken me away from an important scientific experiment"

"You saw me as an owl," said Lirael, curious to find exactly how blinkered he was "With the winged dog"