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Next: 25 – Magery

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Deline spent a few minutes focusing on her breakfast.  The bread was actually quite good; she’d have to remember to mention the place to other Claws who happened to be in this corner of the Empire.  Assuming, of course, that the man didn’t sell them out to the bounty hunters.

Carrone was hung up on false pretenses and she wasn’t about to kill someone just to prove to him that she was, as a matter of fact, willing to kill.  So there was no point in arguing that with him.

The cheese was good, too, and the sausage was actually very nice.  She sipped water from her canteen and considered him.

“I don’t expect you to like it,” she said, when her mouth was empty.  “That’s never been a requirement. I don’t think you’d like being dead, either, or being actually enslaved.”

“What do you call this?”  He shook his cuffed wrist at her.  “Seriously? I can’t go against your orders!”

“I call it being bound into the Bear.  Being tied to the totem. Being my unwilling companion.  If you were my slave, you’d be wearing a collar and shackles and be doing a lot more work,” she added dryly.  “So far, mostly you’ve just had to walk a lot.”

“And save your life a couple times,” he added.   Continue reading →