'Folly!' spat Taliktrum. 'Why do we waste our time with these children?'
At that moment Pazel leaped up and dashed toward the wagon. 'Pazel, no!' hissed Neeps, but he paid no attention, lurching through mud and marshwater, until at last he reached the hard surface of the road.
Except for pale moonlight the wagon sat in darkness: the bog-lamps were at the other end of the train, hovering about the Volpeks as they worked. No one looked back along the road.
If he was stunned to see Thasha, she looked ready to faint when he emerged from the Fens. Disbelief and joy and fear mingled in her eyes. 'P-Pazel? How-'
'Keep your head down!' he begged, tugging a loose sack over her golden curls. 'What are you doing here?'
'What are you?'
'Get out of that wagon!' he said. 'Climb down, hurry!'
Thasha shook her head firmly. 'No.'
'You blary fool!' he hissed, tugging at her arm. 'You're in terrible danger! Climb down!'
Still Thasha refused. 'Neeps was right. You're in danger when you're with me. And this is my last chance to get away.'
'But why are you with him?'
'Hitching a ride, isn't it obvious? As we came into Ormael I heard Ket tell Latzlo the animal-seller that he was leaving the Chathrand and heading north-'to collect something very special that was left for me there.? I didn't know what he meant, and I still don't. I just knew he could get me out of the city. But he didn't go directly; first he went to a poor part of Ormael and met this wagon team. I chased 'em on foot until dark, then climbed in. Ket himself is under that canopy. Only he's not just a soap man, he's-Neeps!'
For Neeps had appeared beside them, looking mortified. 'Have you both lost your minds?' he said. 'They're almost finished with that blary tree!'
The boys begged, and even tried to pull her bodily from the wagon. But she shook them off.
'I tried to fight them aboard, to build a counter-conspiracy like Ramachni wanted. But they're too vicious. They killed Hercуl.'
'We don't know if… I mean, I went to the morgue-' Pazel tried to break in.
'They sold you to the Flikkers. And then poor Reyast. He came and told me he was your friend-and I put him to work looking for the Shaggat. No more! Ket keeps talking about a ship. I'll stow away, ride it as far as I can, then find another-'
'It's not a ship,' said Pazel. 'It's a shipwreck. And I blary well know he's more than a soap man! He's the evil sorcerer Ramachni was looking for, and you can bet your eyeballs he's not done with the Chathrand. Diadrelu's with us, and she thinks his name is Arunis-'
The moment the name left his lips, disaster struck. The little dog two wagons ahead launched itself into the air with a berserk howl. It landed running and reached them in a matter of seconds, biting and snapping at their heels. The bog-lamps whipped about and screamed toward them. Pazel just had time to shove Thasha under the tarp before they arrived, circling the boys like wasps, blinding them, singeing their arms with cold fire.
The sorcerer did not leave his wagon. Only his voice emerged.
'How did they escape?'
The voice was silk-smooth, and somehow all the more chilling for its gentleness. The men aiming crossbows at Pazel and Neeps glanced at each other in distress.
Finally, one said: 'There's a loose slat in the roof of the pigpen, sir. But I never dreamed it was possible to escape that way! The little one's cut his shoulder. He must have squeezed through-somehow-and then pried the slat open wider for his friend.'
'Nail it fast.'
'Oppo, sir.'
'And inform them all: henceforth you shoot to kill.'
The mage cleared his throat, violently. The boys could see nothing but the glow of his pipe, which came and went under the dark canopy. Then they heard a soft chuckle.
'You wanted a little food to see you back to Ormael, eh?'
Pazel and Neeps shot each other a furtive look. They nodded.
'Idiots,' said the voice. 'You would not have survived the night. There are creatures in the Fens that thirst for living souls and gulp them down like wine. Stray but a little in the dark, and they have you. How lucky you are that my little dog heard your whispers. Oh, he is not a woken dog-not yet. But he is clever. He knows I do not like just anyone speaking my name. And he has very sharp ears.'
The glowing pipe made a swift motion. 'Get them back in the pigpen.'
He didn't recognize us, Pazel thought, and then: Of course! We're caked with mud!
The door of the 'pigpen' was opened and the two boys hurled inside, where the other youths backed away in fear-they at least knew quite well that Pazel and Neeps had not come from among them. A moment later the wagons began to roll.
By the light of the bog-lamps (which went on pestering them) Pazel saw some two dozen filthy, frightened captives. He and Neeps tried befriending them, asking their names, where they came from, if the Flikkermen had caught them, too. But for nearly an hour not one replied to their questions.
Finally, a girl with bright round eyes asked, 'Are you ghosts?'
Then Pazel understood: this was the Haunted Coast, after all, and he and Neeps had seemingly appeared from nowhere. 'Of course we're not ghosts!' he said. 'I'm an Ormali, f'Rin's sake! Arun-Ah, that man, what do you call him?'
'The Customer,' said a small frightened boy.
'The Devil,' said the girl.
'Well, the man who bought us from the Flikkers works for him, too,' said Pazel. 'We gave him the slip. If he ever catches up we'll be in trouble all over again.'
Eventually the others had to concede that Pazel and Neeps were human. Then everyone began to whisper at once. The prisoners were from Ormael and Йtrej, and nearly half, including all the girls, came from a distant Tholjassan town famous for its sponge-divers.
'But shipwrecks are different,' they said. 'What do we know about wreck diving? And this is the Haunted Coast.'
Pazel leaned forward and whispered, 'What are we looking for?'
Twenty voices replied in unison: 'The Red Wolf!'
On this matter Arunis had already addressed them. Many treasures might be found on the Lythra, and he would take them. But he didn't care about anything so much as a red iron statue of a wolf with its left forepaw raised. They were to seek this artifact above all things. No one would go home until it was found.
Pazel and Neeps were fools, it was agreed, to get themselves caught over a few wormy biscuits.
'We weren't after biscuits,' said Neeps. 'But I'm a fool anyway. Ket bought that dog off a bloke at Tressek Tarn. I watched him bring it aboard. If only I'd remembered!'
'What does he mean, not woken yet?' asked the girl. 'Can sorcerers wake up an animal, just like that?'
'No,' said Pazel firmly. 'My mother used to talk about woken creatures. She said they were a great mystery. No one could force a waking, she said, and no one knew why the number of woken animals was increasing.'
'And my mother talked about four-legged ducks,' put in someone.
'Hush, you!' growled Neeps. 'My mate's the son of a mighty conjurer. If she says it can't be done, it can't, even by a mage who's returned from the-'
'Neeps!' Pazel hissed, grabbing his arm. The others were frightened enough.
A silence. The girl trained her unreadable eyes on Pazel.
'Too bad your mother's not here,' she said.
All through the night the wagons rolled. Fallen trees blocked the road several times again, making the Volpeks grumble and peer nervously into the Fens. Dazzled by the eerie lights, Pazel could see almost nothing of the Fens, but strange cries of birds and animals echoed in their depths, and often the horses started and pranced with fear. He wondered where the ixchel were now.
It was nearly impossible to sleep, for there was nowhere to lie down except on top of someone else. Still Pazel must have dozed off, and this time he dreamed of thirst-terrible thirst-as he dragged himself out of an
