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“SO YOU TELL ME ABOUT Shamans and stuff, and I’ll tell you about the Duchy,” Kaj said.
“I’ve been fighting them with you, remember? For the past age,” Dun said.
“And you still know nothing, Bridgetown.”
“I know the Duchy are the bad guys, and we’re the good guys.”
“That demonstrates exactly what you know then, doesn’t it?”
“Oh?”
“There’s no one Duchy for a start.”
“Seemed like it when we were fighting them.”
“Nope, it’s a collection of factions overseen by the Bureaucracy.”
“So? They all oppose us.”
“Sure, but they fight among themselves too. That could work to our advantage if we’re off amongst them.”
“Okay, seems sensible.”
“’Bout time some folk was,” Kaj said. “Your plan was to bumble up there on your own and do what?”
“I dunno. Follow Myrch’s help and see what he needed.”
“Gets better! Your plan was to follow the voices in your head? Until... ?”
“Until I get there? It sounds stupid if you say it like that.”
“Uh-huh.”
They walked along the vast causeway in silence for a while, the road slowly curving up and onward.
“Ask him what his plan is,” Kaj said.
“What?”
“I said, ask him what’s going on.”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“Oh,” Kaj said. “How does it work then?”
“I can’t really get in touch with him.”
“Why not?”
“Being a shaman is a bit one way. We receive messages, but we’re not transmitters. I have to wait till he talks to me.”
“Sounds all a bit rubbish to me.”
“You wanted to know about it,” Dun said.
Kaj sighed loudly.
“What now then?” she asked.
“Get to the Duchy and find Myrch, I guess.”
“Any clue where he is?”
“I don’t think he knows himself.”
“He’s being held prisoner?”
“No, not in so many words.”
“You can bet your kluff that we will be, if we don’t go in there with a better plan than that.”
“Okay, genius, what do you suggest.”
“Don’t know yet. We’re still at least a full span walk away so we can get a better plan by then, hopefully.”
“I guess.”
“You never know, crazy dead guy might have called back in by then.”
They sat down beside a weird box in one of the wider parts of the causeway. It seemed as good a place as any to sneak a bite to eat. Between the two of them, they weren’t too badly off for rations. Kaj had planned for a longer search than she’d needed to find Dun. He chewed thoughtfully.
