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He faced about again "Now, Oreb, I want to keep going the way I was before I turned around Around before him with the staff as he spoke
"Good Good"
"There isn't a pit at my feet, by any chance? Or a tree that I'o"
"And so will I" He stepped forward confidently, cutting and thrusting as he walked-and see the roadway still Stopping, he called, "Hello!"
A distant voice answered, "Heard me, did yer?"
"Yes Yes, I did I heard your stick"
Thecontinued, but there was no further reply
Under his breath he asked, "Can you see him, Oreb?"
"Bird see"
"That's the way Keep your voice down One un, or anything of that nature?"
"No see"
Deep and rough and somewhat nearer now, the distant voice said, "Dinna have such Yer neither, bucky"
"You're right," he said There was a faint, ude h'ears"
"Tolerably so"
Nearer still "How's yer een, bucky?"
"My eyes?"
OrebWatch out"
"Ho! Won't hurt hiested a second night chough hopping along the road, its depth a huge bird as tall as aswivels of slug gun"
"Did yet, bucky?" A second rattle followed the final word
"Yes," he said "What is it?"
"How's yer een?"
"My vision, is that what youthe spectacles he had found in his pocket, he added, "A little worse than h voice was close now "Yer can read" A deep chuckle "H'only ther wind's blowed yer candle h'out" Wind rhyer's mouth
"You're not from Viron, I take it"
"Nae froain, followed by the rattle
"I believe I recognized that sound this time-a sword blade in a brass scabbard A-hard leather-touched his fingers, and he was reh the hand that gripped his arer than Xiphias's had been
"Want ter feel a' her?"
"Yes, I do May I draw it?" His hands had found the throat of the scabbard, a throat that was covered with leather too, like the rudiuard and the rest of the hilt
"Canna see h it in my hand, without the scabbard I needn't, if you'd prefer I wouldn't"
"Yer a h'officer, bucky?"
"Aof the sort"
"Yer talks like such Aye, pluck"
The blade hissed from the scabbard, heavier than the knobbed staff and nearly as long He erly over the flat, then wiped it on the sleeve of his tunic
"Got h'it h'off a dead coof," the rough voice confided "He dinna want h'it nae ain and held it out, touching soain, soft old canvas, and cool h as his chin
" 'Tis er's outsized hands brushed his "Want ter feel a' eted apprehensively on his shoulder
"No," he told the stranger "Certainly not"
"Craw, ain't h'it? Thought 'twas a man H'on me hunkers sae yer can reach Have yer feel, bucky" His left wrist was caught between fingers as thick and hard as the staff, and guided toward a mat of coarse hair He was conscious of a faint reek of sour sweat
"You have a beard," he said "So do I" The nose ide and proy hair that fell to the stranger's shoulders
"Took ain "Here's er"
"I'd rather not," he said; two fingers were forced into the empty socket nevertheless
"H'other's ther same Feel a' her?"
He was forced to "You're blind," he said "I-I kno banal it sounds, but I'er ruet a notion a' me clock?"
"Yes," he said, afraid that he would be forced to touch the stranger's face again "I should warn you, though, that Oreb doesn't like being held He'll probably fly if you attempt it"
Oreb contradicted him "Touch bird!"
"Dinna think he never did, not nae live 'un"
"Touch bird!"
"Seen lots, 'fore me een was took H'oreb's his nao-the friend for whoh he called that I'iven this one the sa of a new one" He felt Oreb leave his shoulder and added, "He's going to you, I think"
"Lit h'on me whin A fin'er, H'oreb, an' speak h'up h'if h'it pains yer"
"No hurt"
He felt a pang of jealousy that he quickly suppressed "I've already introduced Oreb, so I ought to introduce myself as well My name is Horn"
"Horn An' H'oreb"
"Yes," he said, and felt Oreb return to his shoulder
"What would yer say ht be, bucky?"
"Your na resuht's alk Was talk Never heard nae name like Horn Nor H'oreb neither"
"It means raven," he explained as he strode after the steady tapping of the stranger's sword "It's fros Calde Silk, the friend I spoke of, was an augur"
"H'oreb Horn Silk Coht be Cotton, here"