"You think that Vale still lives!" Lily shifted herself so that she lay on top of Anest, probing his eyes.

After several long moment, Anest shifted her off him and began dressing himself.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to go have a look at the body," he told her. "This shouldn't take long."

The eyes of Anest, Belloc, Baldric, Celedhan, Garnak and Brogan glittered in the torchlight as the two gravediggers went about their task, grumbling about the late hour as they exhumed the body. At last they reached the new pine of the casket that had been buried only hours before. The casket was lifted from its hole, laid upon the ground, and pried open to a collective hissing intake of breath.

"That's Ganny the Stablehand! He's been missing for months! What devilry is this?"

But Anest only nodded, looking very tired. To Baldric, he muttered, "Vale was no assistant to Darrow. Whence came you by this claim? From Darrow himself?"

Baldric sighed and shook his head. "Like so much that is associated with Vale, I am and remain uncertain."

They retired then, each with his own doubt and uncertainty to trouble his sleep.




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