The Stormbringer's Mate

the ridge faster t

lves of the conversation and learned more about the man in five minutes than she had told me in a day. He was cheerful. He

ad man in the co

ere

strange wolf i

ere

ook it, not because I left it open, before you

in

ls

Don't touch the radio. Put t

he put it in her rucksac

s a lot,

now without breaking stride. "He'll have made tea and he'll have made a mess and

l of burning toast coming out of it, and a man was standing in the corridor with a mug in one hand and a span

in the leg, with honey blond hair down past his ears and a face that had been arranged by someone with

ard we were getting an enforcer. I thoug

llu

here's toast but it's mostly carbon. Elsie, your barometer's gone mad, by the way. I looked at it when I came in an

that for three we

ever t

N

n he shrugged and turned and went into the kitchen ahead of us and started talking about the road and the parts he had brought up and the sta

ter down in the middle of it, and she told Finn the short version, a

had finished. "That's clever. That's really clever

a message nobody wou

ou've got a piece of it. Sussex ridge, third marker, nine p

"Carved into the cairn. A

lfway to his mouth. H

ing you see ever

N

eath mark on a

toward her. "There's more of the message. We only got the

air in. "I'm good with numbers. I did the ac

he turned back to Finn and pushed the pap

s from them

o check his work. He wrote numbers in the margin in a broad looping hand that was nothing like Elsie's tight pencil strokes. Twice he got a lette

wall and I watched his hands and his face

me out as HOLD UNT

Duncan's grid where a reading had not been copied, and it

ne at a time. Finn rea

olves in. N. Two wolves in the. C. Two wolves in the c. A. R. R. Y

th face, a gap between the two summits where the wind funnels throug

e carry," I said.

kes got fewer and further between, and the kitchen got col

line wa

A. I.

r," Fin

m the paper and his eyes went

rly moon. Traitor." He put his pencil down. "That's a trap. T

know," E

and a name. If the traitor's in the pack, we've got three days to fi

d everything, with a smile behind it, and his

hing in the

d at me.

ng. Whoever wrote it wanted us at the carry before the early moon and wanted us to know

think the old man's writing codes in his spare time

t by hand because the post goes through the house and t

found it empty and set it down again. "Sorry. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'

the grid. Every reading for the last three weeks, not just the ones Du

down the corridor. Her boots we

ere alone in

and folded his arms and look

you somethi

can

What's the sit

ad to put my hand on the ta

e way she looked at you on the ridge this morning. And she doesn't like people. Sh

k h

askin

nd he had a face that made you want to tell him things, and behi

" I said, "you should be looking at y

ing w

the door was open when you got here. Meaning you knew the

y but it went thin. "Els

man in the cold room. She did

Closed it. The dimple

fair,"

r banged open and Elsie's boots came back along the floorboards, and she came into

," sh

llum was just telling me his house has better manners

against the decoded grid and found nothing. Finn took the middle one and fo

Yesterday's reading

a figure and the figure was wrong by twent

the n

U

," I

the column. F.

y carefully. Her hand was ste

have this one." She turned the page. Two more letters and they were spaced far apart, one at the top of

said. "Wh

aper, and her mouth had gone hard, and she said, s

ilent. Finn lo

d. "Your father's dead. You t

s flat on the cover and her shoulders were

en dead for eleven years. I