First: Running in the Bear Empire
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By the time they reached the cabin, Deline was thinking that maybe she should have let Carrone carry her after all – except he was not in any better shape than she was.

She stopped him when they could see the stone roof of the building and walked widdershins twice around the place until she could find the wards and their key, and then used her personal token as Claw to unlock those wards – in this case by taking her necklace and, with a quiet incantation in a language that had been, if her sources were correct, already old when the bear made this land, sticking the necklace into the hollow of an ancient tree.

“Now we can go in.”  She gestured him forward.  

“What would have happened if you hadn’t done that little dance?”

“The house might have eaten us in our sleep – or possibly, nothing at all might have happened.  This way, it will keep other people a decent distance away.”

“Your magery is a strange, strange thing.”  He shuddered. “I don’t know how it isn’t sorcery.” Continue reading →