Part 21 (1/2)

The young male stared at her ”I need no reward, ed out of her heavy travel robe, then quickly rearments After

a moment, she stood naked before him ”But you shall have one anyway If you hurry”

As she redressed, Thayla sht to herself that never had she seen a Pili move with such alacrity

Where was the talisman?

That was the question that filled Kleg'sHow could it have been lost? When? Where?

As he made his way back toward the inn, he went over in his mind for the hundredth time all the events and places of the last day He had still had the talis He had opened the pouch to check Sos properly, and soic Seed had fallen fro the run downstairs? Or when he had seen that beast? Or when?

Wait He had bu at the inn, he had shoved thethe talis that encounter

In the dark, perhaps no one had noticed it It was not reray,like nothing so ht, however, so s as ht an end to the shadows in which he had hidden from the Pili, and there were at least a feho had not met their end at the jaws of the beast Of course, they should not be inside the village, so they would also have to be less than obvious in their le Pili here and there would likely raise a few eyebrows but no real alar abreast would have the local guard out in a hurry, and they had to know that

The Pri quickly past an old rain into a penful of swine The olddid not speak or slow his pace

And what of that ain during his dodgings, but he doubted that the creature had been slain by the Pili, or by anybody else

Ah, this was all beco too complicated He had to find that talisman, and he had to find it quickly!

Seihrain to the pigs to see the selkie s-on about here of late There was that de, when the cock still crowed, he had seen one of the about, too It added up to a bad oet stuck in theon

He tossed the final bucket of slops to the pigs, dropped the wooden container next to the rail fence, and figured it was tioat-herder ought to be coet a bit of free wine out of him with the story about the monster

Oh, and that pit he had found, et a copper or two for it

Seihman reached inside his shi+rt for the seed

Whups Not there Hmm Musta dropped it somewheres Ah, well, no help for it Probably not worth anything, anyways

Chapter FIFTEEN

Keg could not recall a worse day in his life The tiht him with the kitchen maid had been bad, as had the occasion when he accidentally ripped a thousand-year-old tapestry down from one of the castle walls This, however,

He had returned to the street outside the destroyed tavern The ic talisman was also absent If he had in fact dropped the item in the street and he could not think otherwise then soht slanted down fro spotted by the Pili He had seen a pair of the behind a shed earlier, but luckily they had not been aware of hiainst the back wall of the