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"How far along had your one before the snow came?"

"We had the north bank fairly well blocked off by then The south bank should be si to take Then we’ll start on the walls that’ll block off the benches"

"Do you think your fort down by the river’s going to stay put when that spring flood comes down the ravine?"

"It should, cousin We didn’t build it out of pebbles We levered large boulders off that shelf that runs along both sides of the river Things went faster that way, and if a boulder’s so big that it takes a hundred e it, it’ll probably stay put no matter howabout floods e picked the spot, though I was just looking for a place that’d be easier to defend"

"How did you learn so much about land warfare, Skell?" Narasan asked curiously "I thought you Maags did your fighting at sea"

Skell san and I were only boys, we joined the crew of a Maag ship captain called Dalto Big-Nose, and Big-Nose was faold, no matter where it was--at sea or on land His crew learned about fighting on land the hard way We knohich kinds of barricades are the et across because we used to have to cli-Nose wanted Abehind one, but he learns a lot et over them"

"Ah," Narasan said "That would be educational, I suppose"

Zelana quietly calanced at Red-Beard’s handiwork "Very nice," she observed

"Good reeted her "I was sort of hoping that you’d stop by Is it possible that the river used to be a lot wider than it is now? Those rocky benches about halfway up the sides of the ravine look to o"

"They were," she replied "There was once a vast inland sea where the Wasteland is now, but Father Earth shuddered and shifted, and that sea broke loose and ate its way down out of those ht want to use those benches e go upriver, Narasan," Sorgan suggested "It looks tothe riverbanks The benches seem to be wider and not so cluttered up with boulders and thick brush, but that’ll coht now, I think ourSkell’sthe ene we do If Skell’s men pack up and erous down at the botto flood’s going to take theet a little suspicious?"

"I’, "and I can’t see any way around the proble the model of the ravine "What are all these little cuts that run down from the rim?" he asked Red-Beard