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Me an Tracker forge ahead, closin in on Lugh He’s bin holdin fast as leader fer some time I noticed he wouldn’t yield to Tommo a little while back I s’pose he’s ot tiside him We’re nearly there, I says I’ll take it frolance His beauty’s ashed by the h on his right cheekbone, jest like mine Put there by Pa to mark us as special We two, rare Midwinter twins The boy old as the sun, child of our ht-time, bein in her brother’s shadow You’d hardly take us fer kin, Lugh an me, let alone think we shared our mother’s womb
Fall back, I tell hie ht ahead, with his chin set to mulish He starts to speed up So I do too Before I know it, we’re racin each other Neck an neck I glare disbelief at hih
He makes no answer He’s pushin hisself Breathin hard Nostrils flared Jaw clenched But he’s bin flat out runnin too long
With a shake of my head, I kick up my speed Fine! I says Be like that!
I pull away easy We leave hilance back He’s stopped Bent double with his hands on his knees His chest heaves as he pulls in air Ash, Creed an Tommo hafta swerve around him
What a time he picks to lock antlers I’ll hafta have speech with hie to blow
We crouch behind a cluster of rocks, well up the hill above the bridge We git our breath back as we take in the lie of the land Tracker flops betweenout to cool
Nero sails down onto my head His claws needle my scalp As I pick hiht leg It’s a ht of th’others, I untie it It ht away He’s scratched a pyraed our ht He’ll seeat e an terrain all around It’s jest like Jack drew fer me, with a stick in the dirt An how I drew it fer h this op To a tee it’s how he said it ’ud be He’s a good detail man, Jack, that’s fer sure
They’ve built on the iron ree Added soe deck an beams Plain an sturdy, forty foot froash of a rocky ravine The Eastern Defile It’s a savage axe-slash in the body of the earth In its belly, far below, runs the wrath of fast water A thread of river, silver in the night, fuives a lohistle Hope you got a head fer heights, she says to Lugh If you wanna trade jobs, my offer’s still open
What? You don’t think I’it the hus
Specially if it’s built by the Tonton, says Creed
Slaves, you mean, she says They’re the ones buildin New Eden
Okay, I says, let’s run through this one more time I tap Tommo’s arm Jest barely touch hies
His dark eyes glitter, unreadable in the night There’s a mocky little se Quick job Okay? His rough voice lays down each word over-slow, over-clear
Heat scorches my cheeks Of late, he’s bin makin like I talk down to him Which I ht from the front Ike used to worry about that But Tommo don’t ask fer no quarter fer his deafness He don’t need none We fought our way outta soht spots an Tommo ain’t never let us down Not once have I treated his that he makes like I do He knows it irks me That’s why he does it