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Chapter 114

Andross Guile stood in his cabin, exa himself He stood, shirtless, with no hood, no cowl, no dark spectacles, the curtains open He looked at his hands, his arms, and then, last, he looked at his eyes The broken red halo he’d been hiding for one He still had all his colors--sub-red, red, orange, and yellow--entwined halfway through the irises of his shocking blue eyes, but they were in balance now

He’d seen the Blinder’s Knife work before--and it didn’t work like this That knife killed But when he looked at his shoulder, it was flawless, not even the skin broken He looked at his eyes again, certain it was some trick But there the halo was, stable And he felt hale He felt better than he’d felt in fifteen years, twenty He’d had to sink into his own discipline in order to keep the red fro hi

Noas siood ten years left in his eyes

This, this changed everything

So before dawn, Kip washed ashore He couldn’t take credit for swith to float and breathe for the last few hours He crawled far enough up the sand not to get pulled out to sea and collapsed like a beached whale

He woke to so at his pockets, around noon He floundered, slapping their hands away, afraid he was under attack He sat up, and saw that there were at least a dozen bodies washed up on the beach around hi Kip blinked up at hi over his shoulder He was dressed in a dirty white tunic and cloak adorned withfroht beach, didn’t I?" the young man said "Lucky, aren’t I?"

Kip looked down the beach and saw the young hy on the beach He must have seen all the dead from the water and decided to loot what he could Kip was thirsty "You have any water?" he croaked

"In the boat Food, too"

Kip stood with difficulty The young man didn’t help hiainst the brightness "Oh no," he said

"Bit slow, aren’t ya?" Zymun said He stepped forward and punched Kip in the face

Kip fell and sat heavily in the sand He checked his nose, eyes streaht side, it wasn’t broken He stood sloalked over to the dinghy He halfway eover He hadn’t had one of those before Plus he was lightsick Every part of his body hurt He had a gash along his ribs and his left ar Zy Kip had hurt his fist But Zyht now sounded as appetizing as gargling sewage--and Kip was feeling about as agile as a hundred-and-twelve-year-old o He had no doubt that Zyot in the boat

"Take off that belt and give it to me Then tear off a strip of your shirt and tie it around your eyes," Zymun said "Slowly"

Kip did both He felt Zyed forward, tearing off his blindfold

Zy in the water, halfway to cli into the boat, and he had the pistol leveled at Kip’s face "Back Back!" he said "I can’t hold on here for long, so if you’re not seated and blindfolded in five seconds, I’ back onto his bench, Kip pulled the blindfold back up, defeated He’d almost done it Almost The cloak of failure draped easily around his sluain