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.Whiskers moved to sniff at it and quickly retreated.Loki explained while he continued to search his pockets.‘From the shores of the Ghast Sea in the distant east.Grows on a single tree on a single beach each year, and a different beach every time.If you eat it, it will give your skin a fog-like quality, yes fog, not frog, for a short while.Makes you very hard to see.It also makes you violently ill, so use carefully.’Next came a little vial of brackish liquid.Farden wrinkled his lip at it.Loki looked up.‘Beggarbeet sap.I’m surprised you didn’t see this stuff in Paraia.It smells worse than anything you can imagine.Might be useful.’‘How?’‘You said you’d make it up as you went along.’Loki then dug out a length of ship’s rope, crusted in salt, a long yet impossibly thin dagger for doors and their locks, a hat with a mop of blonde hair sewn into its hem, and two pages that looked as though they had been ripped from a spell book.Farden nudged these warily.‘I told you.No magick.’Loki ignored him.‘A few magick markets discovered a little while ago that burning certain spells had the same effect as reading them out loud.It’s not a popular trend, seeing as it involves the burning of some very expensive books and paper, but for those who can’t manage the feel of magick, it’s perfect.These are light spells.Specifically, bursting spells.They’ll blind anyone.’‘Where did you get all this stuff?’‘I told you, I’ve a habit of finding things.’Farden shook his head.‘And why should I trust you?’Loki left his things in a pile by the mage’s knees and returned to his spot on the other side of the fire.‘Because, mage, you need all the help you can get.You could barely walk twenty miles today.You shake every time you think of your armour.’Farden resented it, but he was right.He could feel the weakness lurking inside him, as though a leech had wriggled its way to his heart and was gorging itself.It stung to accept the help of the god, but he had to.‘Fine,’ he said.He gathered the god’s supplies and then got to his feet.As if to prove Loki’s point, his legs wobbled unsteadily.‘But don’t you get to thinking I’m in debt to you for helping me.Or for saving my life.I didn’t ask for either,’ he said, as he walked away.Whiskers looked up but stayed by the fire.‘You don’t ask for a lot of things, Farden, and yet they come to you nonetheless.Fate, I believe you humans call it.Besides, I’m just protecting my investment.How exactly am I supposed to deliver a message to a dead man?’ Loki called after him.For some reason, and despite the warm breeze, Farden shivered as he walked back to his little shack.‘Don’t worry.I died once.I don’t intend to do it again any time soon,’ he said.All he needed was his armour back.Loki waited until he was almost at the door of the shack before asking his last question.He knew the mage wouldn’t answer, but he asked it anyway.‘I understand blaming us gods for your misfortune.I understand blaming your magick too.I even understand seeking out this sort of life, and burying your past in solitude and nevermar.What puzzles me most of all, mage, is why would somebody who lives like you want to live forever?’Farden hovered at the door.He felt no anger at the question, no shame, just an intense feeling of puzzlement.After a moment of silence, listening to the breeze and the undulating sea, he stepped indoors and slammed the rickety door behind him.Farden took a moment to stand in the middle of his dark shack and look around.The faint orange glow of the fire outside threw a little light through the windows.The mattress in the corner beckoned to his tired legs and leaden eyes.The corner of a little cloth bag poking out from under the stove beckoned as well.Farden let himself move toward the latter.Bending down, hearing his knees click, Farden slid the cloth bag from its hiding place and looked inside.The bag was emptier than he remembered.He looked at the mattress, then back at the bag.He would regret it tomorrow, he knew it, but for now… His body and mind itched to feels its numbing claws, its warm glow, to banish his bothersome thoughts.It had been over three weeks, and his body was crying out for it.Maybe just a little, he thought.No pipe, just the good old fashioned way…Farden stuck his fingers into the bag and pinched a grape-sized amount.Rolling it between his fingers he tucked it between his teeth and his lip while he folded the bag away.He shed his cloak and went to his mattress [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]