The Glass Word Read Online Free PDF Page B

as with us.”
    â€œAre you speaking of obsession?”
    â€œI would call it dedication.”
    The witch was silent, and the more minutes that passed,the more convinced Serafin became that Eft had adopted the right tone. At the same time, it was clear to him that the mermaid had meant every word seriously. That frightened him a little, but he also admired her determination. She was right. He would go with her, no matter where.
    â€œWhat is your name?” asked the witch finally.
    Eft told her. Then she added, “And this is Serafin, the most skillful of the master thieves of Venice. And friend of the mermaids.”
    â€œYou are mad, but you are also brave. That pleases me. You are a strong woman, Eft. A dangerous woman, for others and for yourself. Be careful that the scales don’t tip too much to your side.”
    It had never occurred to Serafin that sea witches could be wise. Behind the fearsome facade there was far more than the bestial hunger for human flesh.
    â€œDoes that mean you are letting us go?” Eft spoke matter-of-factly, without any emotion.
    â€œI am not only letting you go, I am going to help you.”
    The witch’s words might have impressed Serafin, but that didn’t mean he wanted her for a companion. No, not at all.
    But the witch had something else in mind. “My handmaidens will take you back to your companions. Wait there for a while. Then you will find out what I mean.”
    And that was what happened.
    The face of the witch withdrew from the bubble and sank into the darkness. Serafin discerned its warped outlinesin the shadows one last time before the fire bubbles all around went out and the titanic being became one with the darkness.
    They returned the way they had come. As they broke through the surface and saw the light of day over them, Serafin uttered a thankful sigh. Perhaps he wasn’t the first human who’d survived an audience with a sea witch, but certainly one of the few. He’d learned as he listened to her, and his picture of the world had become yet a little more faceted, livelier, more varied. For that he was grateful to her.
    Dario and the other boys helped them out of the water, up onto the floating corpse of the old sea witch.
Full of evil thoughts,
cried a voice from the deep into Serafin’s mind, and now he found it even a little more disgusting to place his feet on the dead flesh of the corpse and to support himself on his hands while climbing up onto it.
    Lalapeya awaited them on the ridge of the lifeless scaled tail. The sphinx did not smile, but she acted relieved. It was the first time since their flight from Venice that Serafin saw anything in her expression other than grief and sorrow.
    They took turns reporting what had happened and were not interrupted by the others one single time. Even when Eft told what goal she’d named to the witch, no one argued.
    Egypt, then,
thought Serafin. And in an absurd, nightmarish way, it felt
right.
    An hour or two later the water began to boil, and something mighty rose from the sea.

T HE H EART OF THE E MPIRE
    T HE SUNBARK FLEW LOW, FOLLOWING THE COURSE OF THE frozen Nile. It was buffeted by the winter winds, but at least no snow was falling, which could have forced them down.
    Merle gazed out through the window slits. Below them the land lay dazzlingly white. The once green banks of the Nile hardly contrasted with the desert anymore—everything was buried under a thick layer of snow. Here and there a frozen palm grove protruded from the ice, and sometimes she saw ruins of huts, the roofs crushed by the weight of the snow.
    Where are all the people? she wondered.

    â€œFrozen to death, perhaps,”
the Queen said in her thoughts.
    Only perhaps? Merle asked.
    â€œIf the Pharaoh had not already incorporated them into his mummy armies.”
    You think he would have completely wiped out his own people to fill his army?
    â€œYou must not think of the Pharaoh as an