"Oh. Those books."

"Yeah. Those ... " I realized that he was ragging me.

"I haven't had time, Murgen. Although I did find out that we're going to need a translator. They aren't written in modern Taglian."

"I was afraid of that."

"We're taking the ghostwalker south with us."

The sudden shift surprised me. Lately he has been so paranoid he will not mention Smoke, by name or otherwise, for any reason, even in a non-Taglian language.

There is always a crow around somewhere.

I replied. "I assumed we would. The resource is too valuable to leave here."

"We don't want anyone to know if we can help it."

"Uhm?"

"The Radisha already wonders how come we find him so interesting that we'll take care of him and keep him alive. She no longer thinks there's any chance he'll recover. If she puts much thought into it she might start adding things up." He shrugged. "I'll talk to One-Eye. You two can smuggle him out when nobody's looking."

"One more thing to do in my copious spare time."

"Hey. Enjoy it while you can. Soon we'll get to sleep for ages."

He is not a religious man.

2

"I got to do everything," One-Eye grumbled. "Anything that's got to be done, just stick it on old One-Eye. He'll take care of it."

I sneered. "That's only if you can't find Murgen first."

"I'm too old for this shit, Kid. I ought to be retired."

The little black man had a point. According to the Annals he is about two hundred years old, still alive mostly because of his own clever sorcery. And good luck beyond what any human being deserves.