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Sohts will overshadow the days Nights of blood Peaceful days -- days when Meggie showed hi she had only been able to tell hiht Ny in blossoone, flowers that whispered when you touched theht up to the sky, moss-women who appeared between their roots as if they had peeled away frohts of blood
They did what they could to cover up the traces of the fight and left, taking the horses with them There was a note of fear in the stae women as they left They’d seen with their own eyes that their allies knew asas their enemies did
Snapper rode back to the robbers’ camp with the horses and most of the men The camp was moved almost daily At present it was in a dark ravine that becahter even by day They would send for Roxane to tend the wounded, while Mo went back to where Resa and Meggie were sleeping at the deserted farm The Prince had found it for them, because Resa didn’t want to stay in the robbers’ caed for a house to live in after all those homeless weeks
The Black Prince accompanied Mo, as he so often did "Of course The Bluejay never travels without a retinue," mocked Snapper before they parted co, could have dragged him off his horse for that, but the Prince restrained him
They traveled on foot Itwalk for their tired limbs, but their footprints were harder to follow than a trail left by horses’ hooves And the far there
The house, and the dilapidated far the trees as unexpectedly as if someone had dropped and lost them there There was no trace now of the fields where food for the farrown, and the path that used to lead to the nearest village had disappeared long ago The forest had sed up everything Here it was no longer called the Wayless Wood, the name it bore south of Ombra Here the forest had as es: the Fairy Forest, the Dark Wood, the Moss-Wo Man was to be believed, the place where the Bluejay’s hideout lay was called Larkwood
"Larkwood? Nonsense" was Meggie’s response to that "The Strong Man calls everything after birds! He even gives birds’ nah they can’t stand the birds Battista says it’s called the Wood of Lights, which suits it loorms and fire-elves in a wood? And all those fireflies that sit in the treetops at night
Whatever the name of the wood, Mo was always captivated afresh by the peace and quiet under its trees It reminded him that this, too, was a part of the Inkworld, as much a part of it as the Milksop’s soldiers The first of thethe trees with pale gold, and the fairies were dancing as if intoxicated in the cold autuht They fluttered into the bear’s furry face until he hit out at them, and the Prince held one of the little creatures to his ear, s as if he could understand what its sharp, shrill little voice was saying Had the other world been like this? Why could he hardly re ht, cruelty and beautyso much beauty that it sometimes almost uarded by his uards today As Mo and the Prince casty, a morose expression on his face Gecko was always on the htly protuberant eyes had earned him his name One of his tame croas perched on his shoulder The Prince used the crows as ers, but most of the time they stole for Gecko from the markets; the amount they could carry away in their beaks always amazed Mo
When he saw the blood on their clothes, Gecko turned pale But the shadows of the Inkworld had obviously left the isolated farht
Mo almost fell over his own feet eariness as he walked toward the well The Prince reached for his ar with exhaustion
"It was a close shave this time," he said quietly, as if the peace were an illusion that could be shattered by his voice "If we’re notfor us in the next village The price the Adderhead has set on your head is high enough to buy all of Ombra I can hardly trust my own es recognize you Perhaps you ought to lie low here for a while" Mo shooed away the fairies whirring in the air above the well, then let the wooden bucket down "Nonsense They recognize you, too"