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“I was born this way,” he had said Not unkindly, though I had stared at hied as if overfilled, misshapen, like a potato

He lay propped up in his bed, a jug and goblet on the table close at hand, lit by dusty sunlight No one cah tower, just a nurse to clean hih the

“Born broken” Each sentence gasped between breaths “I had a twin, and ere birthed they had to break us apart A boy and a girl, the first joined twins that weren’t both boys or both girls, they say They broke us apart But we didn’t break even And I gotthis” He lifted a twisted ar so were a labour of Hercules

He had reached out frorave shroud, that hat those sheets ivenbut with my mother’s picture inside, so fine and real you’d swear she was looking right at you

“Garyus,” Taproot agreed, breaking a silence I’d not noticed

I shook off the h” None of your damn business, I wanted to say, but when you’re far from home and poorer than church mice it pays to curb your pride Garyus was the only one of them I had time for, really He couldn’t leave his room Not unless someone carried him So I visited Possibly it was the only duty I’d ever kept “Well enough”

“Good, good” Taproot wrung his hands, squeezing out his approval, a pale wrestling of too-long fingers “And Hauldr Snagason, how stands the North?”

“Cold, and too far away” Snorri set down his e his teeth

“And the Uuliskind? Still fair? Red goats for es?”

Snorri narrowed his eyes at the circus- his mind “Have youbeen to the Uuliskind? The Undoreth would remember a circus, and yet I’d never heard of an effelant before today And that reminds me I must see this beast”

Taproot smiled: narrow, even teeth behind thin lips He uncorked the ruies, but you can see how it is with me I pry I question I devour travellers’ tales I store each snippet of information” He tapped his forehead “Here Watch me!”