“Heck, if nothing else it’s afree meal,” smirked Tedi. “Why are you interested in the Collapseso much all of a sudden?”

“I don’t know,” replied Arik.“Lately, I’ve been having dreams of what I think the old times musthave been like. I guess it may just be not knowing what all of theolder people know and frustration at their stubborn refusal to talkabout it.”

“You mean you are not afraidof calling down the Dark One on your family?” askedTedi.

Arik combed backed his shoulder lengthbrown hair with his fingers and sat on the back stoop. “How are wesupposed to believe that story about the Dark One if nobody is evenwilling to talk about him?” he quizzed. “You know, Tanya laughedabout the Sordoans believing in that story. She called us Sordoans.She knows an awful lot about what I want to know. I’ve got to gether to open up and tell me.”

“You have a better chance ofher opening up a cut on your lip,” laughed Tedi. “Why don’t we goout in the forest and see what game we can find. I doubt thebandits are still around if the peddler got through, but we can goout the south end just in case.”

The boys headed along the shore towardsthe south end of Lorgo. When they reached the quay, the woman inthe green dress stepped out in front of them. Tedi grabbed Arik’ssleeve and the boys ran out to the end of one of the docks. Thewoman slowly marched after them and paused not ten feet from theend of the dock where Arik and Tedi stood with no escape. The womanstood staring at them, her long black hair twisted into a singlebraid as thick as an oar shaft. “Who are you?” shedemanded.

For several moments, the boys ponderedtheir position. Certainly they could leap into the sea and shewouldn’t follow or maybe they could just run past her. When theyrefused to answer and the woman realized that they still planned toevade her, she moved her hands and the boys were frozen in placefrom the neck down. Arik tried to move his arms and legs andfailed. His body refused to listen to his commands and it tingledlike he was just doused with a bucket of ice-cold water. Only hishead moved and he realized that it was sweating. Looking at Tedi,he realized that his friend was experiencing the same thing withsweat pouring down his face.