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Alain didn’t like it, but he understood he had no viable alternative The world could not be changed in one day or one year and it was possible it could not be changed at all It was just possible that this trivial and even selfish act of kindness toward a crippled, illegitihed a hundred reat and powerful of the land Dog, as they were all calling the boy noas sitting in a corner slurping down porridge and had shown no fear in the barracks with , coughing, laughing, and singing out crude jokes

"Soot to wash him," added the captain "Calos, you take care of it, as you brought him in"

"Jochim, you take care of it," said Calos "What of this estured toward Alain, who stood quietly to one side

"Let s you say coerated casualness over to the door and squinted along the porch Sorrow and Rage regarded him with their dark eyes When they saw Alain, they thumped their tails on the plank sidewalk but did not otherwisetinized him Alain saw it in the smile trapped on his lips, in the way he scratched at his forehead to give hi to do while he considered, in the way he tapped a foot three tio see the lady," he said to the air He turned back to beckon his sergeants closer "I’ll need a dozen one"

"There’s to be a sweep of the southwest quarter this afternoon, Captain"

"Proceed as usual"

"Yes, Captain"

"If you will" The captain indicated to Alain that they would walk together "Surely you have co Alain a chance to answer, he began issuing orders to the dozenout to accompany them

They stood in the dusty forecourt of what had once been a merchant’s warehouse complex but was now both barracks and stable There were two long warehouses linked at their northern ends by a spacious hall An open kitchen and se sheds fenced in the southern end of the compound The men lived in one half of the hall, their horses in the other There were three troops quartered here, one in each structure, about three hundred men in all if Alain’s estimate of the size of Captain Lukas’ troop was correct Men lounged by the open doors of their living space keeping an eye on the cos of the other soldiers, friends and rivals alike Dogs slunk along at the base of each porch, looking for scraps of food or a friendly pat They kept clear of Sorrow and Rage, but a rare bold bitch ventured up and sniffed them over A cart laden with manure trundled past, pushed by a pair of soldiers headed out to the fields The open dirt yard stank of sweat and shit and urine and dust and that peculiar intangible scent ofeach other up for weakness A pair ofin loud voices

"Eh, those Varre boars! Look, there goes the ass-licking captain now!"

Alain glanced at the captain, but he took no mind of the words In fact, Captain Lukas seemed not to have understood thee he could not understand, but one that Alain could The swirl ofback to allow the hounds to pass without challenging the nervously away from the entrance into the stables, so disoriented Alain that he felt the world spinning around hiered and reached out to catch himself

they skate into Rikin Fjord across a skin of still water so clear that he dreams he can see fathoo out of glittering rock But that is only an illusion What he sees are the backs of a swar around his hull

One surfaces

No fish, these, but an entire tribe ofthem On deck, soldiers exclaim Always, as they crossed the northern sea, they sailed with an escort of merfolk off their bow and behind the stern These here, he thinks, are hter ground

"Beware!" calls Deacon Ursuline, a his counselors

Papa Otto calls froathered here I don’t like the look of these! I think they mean to do us harm!"

As if the words are sorcery, the boat heels starboard His heels skid backward and he grabs the rail to stop hiets his feet up and under hi to port side so abruptly that he cannot stop hi, and plunges into the cold blue water of the fjord