Into The Darkness

Two years from now, Leuba might, on a good day, pay some attention to a warning. Now she didn't even understand it. Her mother's toile might have meant something, but not when she was intent on her game. "Ma-ma!" she said happily, and went right on after the closest chicken.

The chickens were a lot faster than she was, but she had a singlemincled determination they lacked. Garivald was heading toward her to pick her up when she did manage to grab a hen by the tail. The hen let out a furious squawk. An instant later, Leuba started crying: Sure enough, it had pecked her.

"There, see what you get?" Garivald scooped her off the ground.

Leuba, of course, saw nothing of the sort. As far as she was concerned she'd been having a high old time, and then one of her toys unaccountably went and hurt her. Garivald examined the injury, which was [..min..].

"I expect you'll live," he said. "You can stop making noises like branded calf"

Eventually, she did settle down, not so much because he'd told her as because he was holding her. When he set her down again, she starts after the nearest chicken. This time, luckily for her and the fowl, it spit her and escaped.

"She's a stubborn thing," Garivald said.

A

"Bread," she answered. "What's left of last night's stew is still in the po peas and cabbage and beets and a little salt pork thrown in for flavor."

"Any honey for the bread?" he asked. A

A

He broke the bread, dipped some in the honey, and ate it. A

"City people will do anything to be in fashion," A

Garivald nodded again. "That's right. I'm not sorry there aren't any ley [..und. med, ount nor..] like a her to started t spied that?" [..t inso at's for the pot: or grunted the stew own on..].

She set the iron pot it to of black [..] A

"Aye. If somebody there could tell Waddo what to do without coming here, Waddo would just up and do it, no matter how hard it was on the village," he said. "Waddo's one of those people who kicks every arse below him and kisses every arse above him."

He waited for A

"Some of those people just have itchy feet - they go when and where they choose," Garivald said. "Never could see the sense of it myself-, I've always been happy to stay right where I am." But he finished eating in a hurry, while A

Leuba squalled angrily. A

Half the people in the village were out to see Herpo. Despite what Garivald had said about not wanting a crystal nearby and about being content where he was, he craved the news and gossip the spice seller had, and he was far from the only one.

And Herpo had news: "We're at war again," he said.

"Who is it now?" somebody asked. "Forthweg?"

"No, we already fought Forthweg," somebody else said, and then, doubtfully, "Didn't we?"

"Let Herpo speak his piece," Garivald said. "Then we'll know."

"Thank you, friend," the spice man said. "I will speak my piece, and then I'll hold my peace. We are at war with" - he paused dramatically - the black people up in Zuwayza." He pointed north.

"Black people!" a gra

But a gray-haired man said, "Nay, Uote, these black men are real.

There were a couple of 'em in my company in the Six Years' War. Brave enough, they were, but would you believe it, they had to learn to wear clothes. Their country is so hot, they said, that everybody there goes bar naked all the time, even the women." He smiled, as at the memory o something pleasant he hadn't thought of in a while.

Uote's face looked like curdled milk. "You shut up, Agen! They've idea!" she said. Gan*vald wasn't sure whether she disapproved of Agen having the nerve to tell her she was wrong or of people - especial women - ru

Herpo said, "I don't know about this naked business myself, but know we're fighting'em. I expect we'll lick'em pretty cursed quick, too just like we did the Forthwegians." He looked at Uote out of the come of his eye. "You going to tell me the Forthwegians ain't real, too?"

She looked as if she wished he weren't real. Instead of answering him though, she showered more abuse on Agen. He was the one who' embarrassed her in front of her fellow villagers. He bent his head and It her curses run off him like the rain. Under the wide brim of his hat, he was gri

"Along with the news," Herpo said, "I've got ci

Garivald had tasted fire peppers a couple of times, and didn't fancy them. He bought a couple of quills of ci

"Those will perk up the winter baking," A

"Nothing very important." Garivald gave another shrug. "We're at war again, that's all."

Istvan walked along the beach on the island of Obuda. Scavengers had taken most of the meat from the skeleton of the Kuusaman dragon that had fallen. It skull stared at him out of empty eye sockets. He bared his teeth in a fierce grin; a Gyongyosian might feel fear, but he wasn't supposed to show it.

A lot of the dragon's fangs were missing. Some of Istvan's comrades wore one or more as souvenirs of having thrown back the Kuusamans.