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"Okay," Call "

He started down the path he knew led toward the river His footsteps beat a pattern, step-shuffle, in the quiet

The rooh was evenrush of shadow Carefully, Call picked his way along the rocky path to where one of the boats was tied up at the river’s edge He tried to brace hiet down on his knees to crawl into the boat

Part of Master Rockmaple’s lecture on elementals had covered those that could be found in the water According to him, they were often easily persuaded by a s The only problem was that Master Rockmaple had talked theory but hadn’t explained any technique Call had no idea how to do this

The boat rocked under his knees Mie and whispered, "Okay, I feel really stupid doing this But, uh, et downstream and I don’t kno to -- look, could you try to keep the boat fro around? Please?"

The ele, didn’t offer any response

Luckily, the current already ran in the direction he was going Leaning out, he pushed off the riverbank with the heel of his hand, sending the boat wobbling toward the center of the river He felt ahe had no way to stop the boat

Recognizing there wasn’t ainst the seat at the stern and resigned hiainst the side of the boat, and every so often, a fish would rise, pale and glowing, to dart across the surface before disappearing into the depths again

Unfortunately, it didn’t see to the ele Call dizzy At one point, he had to shove off a stalaground

Finally, he canized, the one near Rufus’s office He looked around for so his hand into the cold, black water didn’t appeal to hi frantically

The prow bu to have to juet the boat to press itself against a ledge like Master Rufus did Bracing himself, he stepped over the side and sank iing his bad leg against the side of the boat For a long moment, the pain took his breath away

When he recovered, he realized his situation was even worse The boat had drifted into the middle of the water, out of his reach