Late-night Thoughts

She could return to Caemlyn, and hope to counter whatever they might be whispering there about her fitness to run Suffex.
Or she could go back to the ducal seat of Suffex at Bannock, where it seemed that Barnabas for one thought that her duty lay. She did not like what she had been told about Zular ordering its defences in her absence.
Depending on the news that she hoped to get tomorrow concerning Jarlath, she could attempt to hire a ship to take her northwards up the coast. That would need a very bold captain and crew, given the risk of action by Hespan and the stories of all sorts of horrors told by the refugees from Smugglers' Cove.
Finally, she could attempt to follow Fred into the Calamari. That seemed her least plausible course of action, though. Fred was well capable of looking after himself, although she wondered how his quest could have taken him so far from the Shreken. In any case, she was much too far away to have any realistic chance of catching him. She recalled the strange words of Aliester Mireaux, and wondered how what she had learnt might relate to what he had told her. [15308]

Meanwhile, deep in the Calamari, the Thoabath was wondering whether he might have miscalculated. Perhaps he should have simply let the Stick Man dispatch the others. It wouldn't have been as he had planned it, but it would certainly have amounted to a betrayal. He had decided against that because there would have been the risk that the pieces of the amulet that the others carried might have finished up buried so deep in the sand that he might never find them. The Stick Man had proved a more formidable foe than even he had anticipated, though.

His mule, not surprisingly, had fled and was nowhere in sight. His chances of ever catching up with the others seemed remote, unless they should return for him. That was not so unlikely, though. For all the power he had put into his words, he knew that all three of the others were very strong-minded, in their different ways. The influence of his words would wear off before too long, though by then they might have left him too far behind for it to be practical for them to come looking for him.

1. Meanwhile...

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree