Spirit Walker Read Online Free PDF

local problem. Why, I’ve talked to a dozen captains, and all of them have seen serpents this spring down in South Port! You figure it—we’ve had four warm years in a row, and with each warm year, the dinosaurs in Hotland get a little more active, and you know as well as I that a serpent can’t always take on a saur and come out alive. Maybe there’s been an explosion in the number of sailfins over the last few years, and they’ve cut into the serpents. That would explain why the serpent hatch has been low. But I tell you, that this year, here in the East, the serpents are wiped out!”
    Ayuvah said, “You have no proof. We can only hope that the serpents come back.”
    Scandal smiled. “That’s just Pwi talk, not to be taken seriously by real men. We both know the world doesn’t work that way. We must do more than hope.”
    At another table, a brawny trader with a high voice began swearing loudly, drunkenly. Everyone turned to watch him, and Scandal frowned at the disturbance. The young servant, Valis, brought in more dishes: meat pies and rolls, blueberries in cream. “Do you really want me to roast a hog?” he asked.
    “No,” Scandal sighed. “I really want you to get in the kitchen and wash the dishes.” The servant left.
    Scandal shook his head in wonder, “I have to leave that idiot in charge. He’ll burn this place down to a heap of ashes while I’m gone. Here, try these blueberries.” Scandal said with a sigh, urging bowls on Tull and Ayuvah. “I got these fresh this morning from a hermit up on Finger Mountain. He grows them special. They’re marvelously piquant, almost tart I'd say—yet still deliciously sweet.”
    Tull and Ayuvah scooped some berries from the bowls with their wide fingers, and tasted them. “Aaah,” Tull said. “They taste as blueberries should only taste in a dream.”
    “You’d never guess the secret of growing such flavorful berries!” Scandal said. “You’ll never guess!”
    Tull scooped some more and chewed them with obvious delight.
    “It’s the soil,” Scandal said. “See, the farmer grows them in goat dung. It’s what gives them that marvelous piquancy. They’re grown in almost pure goat dung!”
    Tull put the berries down, “Ayaah,” he drawled. “You are what you eat.” Then he smiled and leaned back in his chair and looked at Scandal. “So you want us to take a trip with you out into the Rough, help you drag a wagon nine hundred miles over mountains, fighting off the slavers from Craal with one hand and dire wolves with the other? All in the hope that we can catch some serpent hatchlings in a beer barrel and somehow keep them alive long enough to put them in the bay?”
    Scandal nodded.
    Tull pulled at his beard, and the bracelet of red and blue clamshells on his wrist rattled softly. “That sounds to me like Pwi talk, not to be taken seriously by real men. We both know the world doesn’t work that way.” He added with finality, “None of the Pwi will follow you to Seven Ogre River.”
    Scandal suspected that Tull was right. He nodded glumly, his gaze downcast at the table. “I know,” he said. “But, Tull, you’ve got that look in your eye. My departed wife once put it succinctly. Even when you were just a child, she said you had ‘Revolution in your eyes—twin fires of rage and idealism.’ Now, if you could just put that idealism to some good use.” He stared away. “But I don’t blame you. It sounds like a fool’s plan. It’s all I could come up with. I’m no Spirit Walker … I can’t see into the future with any degree of certainty, but if we don’t do something, well then, we’re in trouble. Even if there are still some serpents out there, we can’t survive another year without the fish harvest. Men will keep leaving town. And if enough men keep leaving, you don’t have to worry about the slavers living in Craal. They’ll come here.”
    Tull reached out and grabbed Scandal’s arm, startling him. “The men won’t