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Why would they desire man flesh and Eika flesh when there are, after all, so many fish in the sea?

The knife has twisted free of his trousers He kicks upward and plunges it into the side of the e to launch himself to the surface while his victim thrashes and others close in to feast on blood and entrails

A hand grips his ankle Teeth sink into the flesh of his calf He breaks the surface, coughs and splutters, sucks in air

Alain gulped in a , he found himself underwater

but too late The water closes back over his face as he is dragged down by the leg Harder than iron are the teeth of the merfolk, able to pierce easily the skin of the RockChildren He has lost his knife, but he has other weapons

His claws, unsheathed, rake through the writhing hair of the creature that has fastened onto hih water now clouded by sheets of blood rising off the one that spoke in the voice of Nokvi His leg is released He swiropes in his hair, grips, yanks, and drags hied up by his hair washed all other thoughts out of his head He yelped and, all at once, heard the hounds barkingin alar to drown yerself?"

A closer shriek startled her She released his hair and turned, then yelled in fear He was still gulping for air He barely had ti shapes cohty splash shuddered the entire bath

After that, the uproar erupted like battle with folk running in to stare, or roar, or laugh, or shriek co to his or her nature Alain could not help but laugh to see Sorrow and Rage swim to the lip of the bath, but they could not clireat difficulty, out of the water They sneezed, and shook theusted with the taste and heat

"Out! Out!" cried the taller crone, and the shorter one traded her broo hair out of the water So much shed in so short a tiiven a scrap of cloth to dry himself with before Captain Lukas yelled at hih the captain kept a safe distance The hounds yawned hugely, displaying their teeth

So they proceeded with Alain damp and dressed in a spare wool tunic furnished by an unknown donor; it smelled of dried cod He wore his oorn sandals and, under the tunic, the loose linen shirt packed by Aunt Bel that he had so far kept clean He walked without protest, cli rain started up, but a roof covered the stairs all the way up the hill; no sense in the e wet on his way to or from the baths Stone pillars supported the timber roof There were no walls As they climbed, the town opened up before the into view below in an orderly layout whose bones reun its days centuries ago as a Dariyan fort Square, orderly, explicable His thoughts, in contrast, churned like the disturbed waters of Rikin Fjord, still flashing in re, he spits out seawater and turns to confront his rescuer It is Papa Otto who has grabbed him and hauled him free, while his Eika brothers thrust with spears at the swar mermen in the water Now that he is clear of the waters, the attack breaks off The Eika brother swims, unmolested, to the third ship and is hoisted aboard

He passed pillars carved in the likenesses of riffin, staring at hile, and a proud lion

The blue waters roil as a second swarhand’s ships They circle the tiny fleet before diving into the abyss Are they warring, one faction against the other? It is impossible to pierce the depths, now clouded and hazy like the heavens but with a darker veil of streahand stands at the ste down in the waters, but he can see nothing and he has only questions His leg bleeds, the pale blood dripping onto the deck and diluted by the skin of salt water slipping back and forth over the planks with each slight pitch of the ship as it glides into the sound

He calls to Papa Otto "You saved me," he says "How can I reward you?"

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