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afford to spend afew days thoroughly searching the area. He d make sure Ry
wentback with him Crispin had a ceremony planned in thePunishment Square
that would make the one he d pulled off withRy s brother seem like an
afternoon s chat withfriends.
Meanwhile, though, the
Galweigh s Eagle chased downthe second longboat. Let Andrew giggle and squirm
over thespectacle of the gorrahs feeding frenzy while they devouredthe
capsized crew on the first longboat; Crispin had things hecould be doing.
He went forward to the pilot s cabin, and followed the lastof the soldiers
down the ladder to the deck of the
WindTreasure.
He had a few bad moments he didn t likeheights, and he discovered that being
inside the
Heart ofFire was much less disturbing than dangling on a rope ladderhalfway to
heaven, with that crazed pack of feeding gorrahs beneathhim and nothing
between him and his death but the tiny, distantdeck of a damaged ship.
He almost climbed back up the ladder, but he didn t trustsoldiers to be able
to find what he was looking for and transportit to the
Heart of Fire
. So he steadied his breathing, driedhis palms
one at a time on his shirtfront, and workedhis way down the ladder one
wobbly step after another.
Had a bit of trouble with the ladder, eh? a Galweighsoldier asked, grinning.
Most do that first time.
Crispin memorized the boy s face. Dark-haired, dark-eyed,dusky-skinned:
typical Zaith. They all looked alike to Crispin,except when they were
screaming and dying. Still, he noted the gapbetween the front teeth, and the
mole at the corner of the mouth.He would make a point of remembering that
face. He said, Thesoles of my boots are plain leather, and too thin and slick
forsuch a climb. Unlike yours, which have rubber soles. Heturned and walked
away, thinking of ways that he could be sure thesoldier would meet his death
before the crew returned to theairible.
He hated having people laugh at him.
When the boy went back to his duty, Crispin closed his eyes andsmelled the
air. Honeysuckle and rot, the scent that his silentpartner told him was the
scent of the Mirror of Souls. It wasclose. The scent permeated the ship.
The voice said, If they d taken it with them, the scentwould be stronger over
the water. You could follow it straight tothem. But the smell of its magic
ends here.
He walked aft, following that compelling odor. He closed hiseyes, tasting the
air with Karnee senses. If he Shifted, he thoughthe would be able to track it
down faster. In Karnee form, his nosewas a thousand times as sensitive as it
was in human form though it was good when he was human. But if he Shifted, he
wouldshow what he was to the watching Galweighs and hedidn t wish to give
them that much information about him, evenif he did intend to see them all
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dead at the end of the mission.People had a nasty habit of surviving no matter
how carefully oneplanned; he always kept that in mind and acted accordingly.
He smelled its presence faintly in one of the cabins, but onlyfaintly. So in
human form he followed his nose to the hatch, anddown the gangway, then
through the crew areas and at last into thecargo holds. His eyes lit up and he
laughed out loud at the sightthat greeted him there. Row after row and shelf
after shelf ofartifacts from the Ancients. In the first two rows alone,
herecognized a distance viewer that didn t look too far fromserviceable, an
eavesdropper, a marvelous matched set oftransmuters, and half a spell
amplifier that would at least serveas a source of repair parts for the broken
one he had back home. Ofcourse there were plenty of things he recognized as
useless ormerely decorative, and another, larger mass of things hecouldn t
recognize at all.
Mine, he whispered. A wondrous trove all in itself,he thought worth a
paraglesiat, worth a
House, worth powerand more power, and all of it was his. But the trove was
nothingcompared to the single final treasure he sought. The Mirror ofSouls
might rest in such an obvious hiding place, though he doubtedit. The scent of
it lay strongly in the hold, but he felt certainRy would have hidden it before
he abandoned the ship.
He cast around the room, and on the far forward bulkhead hefound proof that
his instincts were good. The scent of the Mirrorof Souls was strongest there,
but the ropes that scent permeatedhad been hastily cut, and lay in a tangle on
the decking.
Crispin smiled. He would have to backtrail. He smelled Ry stouch on the ropes,
and that of another Karnee this one astranger to him and a third person.
Human. He decided totrail the
Mirror first, and to focus on the people second.
Then he had a thought that both startled and amused him. SupposeRy knew that
he, Crispin, was the one who would come after him.Recently Ry had seemed to be
aware that Crispin spied on him whilehe slept. If he knew that, and if he were
trying to be cleveragain, he would hide the artifact someplace where Crispin
wouldhave an especially difficult time finding it.
Ry hunted with his nose, and he knew Crispin did, too. He duse that. He would
hide the Mirror down farther. In the bilge.
Crispin wrinkled his nose just thinking about it; his exquisitesense of smell
came with a few drawbacks. It would be almostuseless in the conflicting sea of
stinks that would fill aship s bilge.
And he was fastidious, having nearly conqueredhis animal nature; he was proud
of that fact. But he could, whennecessary, get a bit dirty. He sighed and
headed for the stinkingbilge.
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