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The two ghosthounds ca and sat right away, panting A fewfor He’d beenit--who else would the Tonton wait on with such disciplined patience? Still, his heart lurched and quickened

Up close Full power The night dark gaze tethered him Circled him Considered him Then In the black water deep of the Pathfinder’s eyes, there was a ripple

He s

We have ot about Mercy’s crippled ankle The one she broke an had to set herself Did a bugger of a job--her oords--an got left with a lih from a lifetime of toil She don’t ask fer no favours She don’t let herself fall behind But she’s taxed by the pace, I can tell

By one two leagues, jest halfways there Weak to begin with, her flight up the hill an through the woods oin I hate to, but we’ll hafta stop an rest soon I bite down my frustration If I was on iven way to a scrubby grassland The day’s bloo Hot an sticky an close We skirt a leery path around a lonesome farm, keepin to a narrow ribbon of jack pine Some cack-handed fool’s bin hackin it hard fer firewood

Can you believe it? Mercy shakes her head in disgust

A few steps on, we see the fools In a field in front of a tyreshack, a Steward couple quarrel furiously over a broken plough A pair of kids, fifteen or so, bein kicked in the pants by nature They’re in to keep around the shack clear an the track to the road too, but that’s it Billows of bramble an chokeweed romp the fields Tethered to a spindlebush next to the shack stands a neat red pony

Wait here, I tell Mercy

Keepin low, I dash through the chokeweed, slip the pony’s tether an lead hioin easier, I says Lemme help you on She steps in my cupped hands, I boost her onto his back an we hurry aithout notice

Once we’re well gone I says, They’ll find life a bit harder without no pony

Froht well be the last straw Thee You can see there ain’t no trust between ’em They probly hardly know each other It won’t takefoundations

Let’s hope, I says

That was a half-decent place, not so long ago, she says Resettlement, the Tonton call it I call it what it is Stealin Whoever had that bit of land stole from ’em, they was earth-wise Not like them hopeless kids No, they would of watched an listened an worked through the seasons They would of learned from their patch of earth What it needs What it don’t need How they could live together That takes years

I know she’s thinkin about her green valley at Crosscreek The cradle of her toil an care an hope Wonderin if it’s in good hands or gone to ruin Her small wooden shack shaded by pines The red bench by the door The h saw that mess, he’d spit fire, I says It’s his dearest wish to have soood land To work the earth Fer us to be settled

An you? she says Is that what you want? A life workin the land?

I ain’t thought about it s on hts away

I told Mercy a lie I have thought about it A life workin the land

Lugh’s alanted the sa To be planted in one place To live by the heartbeat of the earth Its rise an fall an rise an fall Where nuthin changes, but everythin changes When as little, he’d kneel in wonder to the first grass of spring I’d trample it as I tried to do the sah Of course I did We belonged together We was irl Fair an dark We took it as a given that we’d be together all our lives It would never of occurred to us that ouldn’t But that was before Before the Tonton caot changed ferever