Year Minus 1500
1
The first meeting between Geoff Cantrell and the Dai was because an orphanage was on fire.
The day had gone well enough for Geoff. He was riding through the Shaper side of the Demarcation on what he considered his rounds. He saw the smoke in the distance and decided to see what was going on.
Cantrell traveled the world. He rode through most of the human territories, sailing the seas when he reached the coasts. It took him years to circumnavigate the globe. He didn’t mind. He had nothing but time, and wandering kept people from realizing that he was immortal.
Occasionally, he would run into someone who knew him. They asked how he had been. He told them of some of his travels and things he had seen.
And he liked meeting new people and doing new things. Boredom was his enemy more than anyone or anything he ran into on the road.
So when he saw the smoke, he thought that it might be something natural, but he had met people using fires to cook for the whole community. Those had also been good times.
He kicked his horse into a trot and headed for the base of the cloud. He wanted to conserve the horse’s strength in case they had to run for it. He had no way to fight a major fire, and the horse would want to run away as fast as possible.
If there was a fight to be had, he needed to be loose so he could get away if he felt like running.
He usually didn’t feel like running unless it was against superior numbers. Then he retreated and picked off his enemies one by one until there was nothing left to fight over.
For the most part, clearing out a section of men was enough to make the rest more wary of running roughshod over the people living in the area.
Sometimes he had to do that more than once.
Geoff pulled his horse up when he saw that the smoke came from a building on fire. He thought he heard screams inside. He dismounted and rushed to what he thought of as the front door. He found a board had been set up to keep the doors from being opened from the inside.
He wrenched the board out of the way and threw it to the ground. He pushed open the doors and went inside. He hoped he wasn’t doing something stupid when he could just walk away.
“Is there anybody in here?,” Geoff shouted. He pulled up his collar to shield his face. “Hello?”
“We need help!,” called a voice. It sounded like a boy to Geoff. He started toward it. The burns he took scabbed over and healed as he moved.
Geoff paused at another door. It had another lockbar on it. He tried to get his hands around the wood, but his fingers wouldn’t fit under the space. He stepped back. How did he solve this?
“The door is barred,” shouted Geoff. “I’m going to try to kick it in.”
“Go ahead,” said the voice. “I’m holding back the flame in this room.”
“Right,” said Geoff.
Geoff pulled his sword. He stepped back to give himself room. Then he swung the blade against the piece of wood. It split apart and fell to the floor.
He slammed against the door. The panel flew out of his way. He smiled.
“All right,” said Geoff. He waved at the cloud of smoke drifting around him. “I think we should go.”
“Thank you,” said one of the kids. She waved at the other children to gather around. “How do we get around the fire?”
“I can push the fire out of our way,” said the original speaker. “Get behind me.”
Geoff nodded. He stepped out of the door. The kid made a gesture and a wind pushed the smoke and fire out of their way.
He ushered the children out of the burning building. He carried the ones that looked too small to make it on their own. He stepped outside and paused at the group of men waiting on him and his charges. He put the smaller students down so he could have his hands free.
“We didn’t set the orphanage on fire to allow them to live,” said one of the bandits. “Now we have to do things the hard way.”
“You could walk away,” said Geoff. He eyed the opposition as he stepped in front of the children. “You can come back and try to kill them when I’m not around.”
“We can kill them now,” said the spokesman. “One of these children is the future Dai. We don’t want him to grow into his authority.”
“There’s six of you,” said Geoff. “Anyone who walks away gets to live. Anyone who wants to kill these kids will get chopped up. This is my last word on this.”
“Kill him,” said the spokesman. He fell down with a knife sticking out of his eye.
The other five men hadn’t seen Geoff move. They had raised their hands to create weapons from the elements. Then their leader fell over. And then the swordsman was charging at them, blade in hand.
Three of the five controlled the earth. One controlled the air. The last controlled water. Their leader had controlled fire, and had set the fire. They had wanted the burning to resemble an accident. Now it would just look like the massacre they had hoped to avoid doing to evade any investigation.
The three earth movers pushed walls up to block their enemy from getting close to them. They had already seen his speed once. That was enough.
The air user pushed a wind across the battlefield. The idea was to throw the target for a loss so the others could deal with him.
The water master created a wave of water to cover the children. Once that was done, he intended to freeze it in place.
Neither Geoff, or the orphans, cooperated with those plans.
The immortal used the walls advancing on him to block the wind long enough for him to climb over them in a display of footwork that left the closest target stunned. That was long enough for a quick stab to the chest and a kick to free the blade.
Four left.
The water master’s wave met a wind flowing from the kids. That turned his creation into a waterspout between him and the suspected Dai. He frowned at being stymied.
The frown didn’t last long. Two steps and a swing left his neck open to the air. He clutched at the wound, trying to keep the blood from spurting into the air. A backhand chop fixed that with flying fingers and head.
The two remaining earth movers threw rocks at Geoff. He thought that was a good plan. It kept him at a distance. There was plenty of substance to use. They just needed to get lucky once to stop him from shielding the children.
The air user moved to pit his wind power against the kids. Once they took care of the knight, let the future Dai try to stop them then.
Geoff ducked through the rain of rocks, moving through where they were headed before they got there. His sword increased his reach so he just lunged at the closest man and dropped him to the ground with a stab to the neck.
The last earth mover surrounded his body with stone in a casing to protect himself from injury. He stood too close to the wandering knight now. Throwing things only worked when the target wasn’t almost in arm’s reach and coming on fast.
Geoff stabbed him through the eye slits left over in the helmet part of the thing and left him to fall.
Geoff turned to face his last opponent. He found the man trying to overcome several of the children with his wind powers. Their combined output kept pushing every blast to one side, or another.
The wanderer decided that he didn’t need to see which side won the contest of wills. He had warned the shapers to keep moving. He put his sword away as he approached the man. The air mover looked up at his closeness. A punch to the face said it was already too late for him to do anything to save himself.
Geoff kicked the man in the head after he fell down. Then he used the man’s sleeves to make bonds to tie him up. That should keep him out of trouble until they talked to someone who knew what was going on.
“Thank you,” said one of the kids. “You saved us.”
“Do you children have someone to look after you?,” asked Geoff. “I think we should find them and see about putting this fire out.”
“They live up in the big house,” said a little girl with curly hair, and not enough teeth. She pointed at a place that was smaller than the barracks the kids had been in before he had come along. He nodded.
“They’re not there,” said the future Dai. “They were supposed to go into town for supplies. We were supposed to do chores until they got back.”
“All right,” said Geoff. “How many of you can move elements around?”
A majority raised their hands.
“All right,” said Geoff. “All of the water shapers look for water. We want to use the water to put as much of the fire out as we can. Fire shapers, try to herd the fire into one spot to make it easier to put out. Earth shapers, we need you to help douse the fire with thin slats of dirt moved on the fire where you can. Air shapers, keep the smoke blowing away from us.”
The kids scrambled to follow his orders. He hoped they knew enough to do things
without hurting themselves.
“All of you,” said Geoff. He frowned at the rest of the orphans. “I want you to get buckets to help dump water on the fire. Can you do that?”
The children ran off. He hoped they stayed out of trouble while he kept the movers acting to carry out most of the work.
Within minutes, the fire was out. It wasn’t as smooth as Geoff would have liked it, but it was better than most adults he had dealt with in his travels.
The survivor woke up after everything was done. He found Geoff considering him from a few feet away.
“The sprouts say their foster parents will be back soon,” said Geoff. “Here’s your chance to come clean. Did you hurt them first?”
“No,” said the air master. “They’re being held in town until we get back. They’re supposed to be let loose when we confirm the orphans are dead.”
“Who paid you?,” asked Geoff. He frowned at the hesitation of an answer. “It’s best you give me the name. He won’t know it was you that told, and I don’t want to start using a piece of hot iron on you. It’s best to save ourselves a bit of unpleasantness that will be unpleasant for you if you don’t answer my questions.”
The air shaper looked at the dead men that used to be his friends. This stranger had sliced them apart in a minute. Did he dare try to negotiate, or did he try to make things easier for himself so he wasn’t executed like a sheep for mutton?
“Clyde talked to the man,” said the minion. He indicated the fire worker who had been stabbed in the eye in the opening moves. “He told us that he had been paid to try to disturb the succession so the Dai would not ascend to the throne in our lifetimes.”
“And these children?,” asked Geoff.
“They’re the candidates for the next Dai as far as I know,” said the captive.
“We’re going to get the foster parents,” said Geoff. “I’m willing to cut you loose afterwards, but if you cross me, I will chop you down.”
The air shaper nodded his head frantically.
Geoff had the kids help him bury their enemies. He rode out with his captive walking behind him on a tether. A few hours later, their caretakers arrived with a full wagon of supplies. They had a story about a werewolf saving them from a cell and giving them a bag of coins to buy supplies.
It would be another five hundred years before the Dai would see Geoff Cantrell again.
2
Geoff Cantrell rode into the Dai’s encampment on a horse that he had purchased when it was just old enough to carry a man in armor around. It was at the end of its life as he looked at the fighters surrounding him in their armor.
He thought he could cut any one of them down. The whole army might be a different story.
Geoff smiled as he rode through. He and his horse were of the same mind to take things slow. He didn’t need to look for trouble. It would come at him when it wanted.
“I know you,” said a thin, middle aged man. “You’re Cantrell. How are you here?”
And here trouble was in the flesh.
“Have we met?,” asked Geoff. “I don’t recognize the face.”
“I’m the Dai,” said the man. “I didn’t look like this the last time we met.”
Geoff searched his memory. Everything he had ever done was stored down in a vault that he could pick through in a moment’s notice.
His mind compared the middle-aged man in a dark robe and pants to the millions of people he had met. He didn’t see a resemblance to any of them.
“I was an orphan boy five hundred years ago,” said the Dai.
“I remember that,” said Geoff. “How did things go for you after I left?”
“I became the Dai and did some things, and then I died,” said the Dai. “But how are you still alive so long after that?”
“I made a bad deal,” said Geoff. “What seems to be the problem, Lord Dai?”
“We have blocked passage to the Animal Elementals throughout most of the Demarcation,” said the Dai. “We have forced most of them down to this valley. We are preparing to close it so they can’t come through to our side. It’s the only way I can see to make peace.”
“They’ll be able to cut through any wall you make,” said Geoff. He had spent time among the animal elementals. Their ability to create beasts from their chosen element rivaled the shapers.
“We plan to build fortifications along the areas that we have closed off,” the Dai said.
“So if they want to get to your side of the continent, they have to go around, or force their way through a defending force,” said Geoff. “Either way will eat up a lot of resources for them.”
“It will eat up a lot of resources for holding the border against them,” said the Dai.
“You can’t have everything,” Geoff said. “What happens if they try to crack your defensive line?”
“I don’t know yet,” said the Dai. “I am hoping that the force of shapers I put in place will defend our territory without invading theirs. The strategy should be sound for a few years until I can think of something better.”
“Thought about a parley?,” asked Geoff.
“Yes,” said the Dai. “They don’t want it yet. Maybe in a century, or two, they will.”
“Not exactly a short process,” said Geoff.
“Time changes things,” said the Dai. “You should know that better than anyone. Right now I am hoping that eventually things will improve so that there is a peace process in the future. Right now, it looks like war after war unless we keep them away from our side of the mountains and maintain that line.”
“I can see that,” said Geoff.
“Master Dai!,” shouted a messenger, riding up on a horse. He brought the horse to a skidding stop in the middle of the encampment. “The animals are coming.”
“Let’s look at this and see what’s going on,” said the Dai. He kicked against the ground and leaped out of the camp.
Geoff looked at the flying form and shook his head. There was no way he could beat that on Goat Fred. The horse would kill itself trying to keep up with something like that.
He let the horse amble after the shaper. Most of the camp was heading that way. He wondered how much bad news they were willing to take.
He couldn’t leave now. His path had been through the valley and down into the Animal Elementals land. Now that it was going to be closed off, he would have to find a new way to ride his route to the coast.
By the time Geoff reached the front line where the Dai stood, he had loosened his sword. He had a bow and about twenty arrows, but he was surrounded by men who had bows and could shoot further than he could.
He wouldn’t give them a chance against him with a sword in his hand.
“It looks like they’re massing for an assault up the valley,” said the Dai. “We’ll have to go down and fight them until we can clear the valley and close it.”
“Let them charge,” said Geoff. He dismounted from Goat Fred and patted the horse on the side. “Take care of him for me. He’s old but he’s been faithful. I’ll go down and hold the pass. Drop the sides of the valley on the center to close things like you planned.”
“Are you sure you can do that?,” asked the Dai.
“I’ve gotten better with a sword in the last five hundred years,” said Geoff. “Either that, or everyone else is so bad they shouldn’t carry one.”
“I understand that feeling,” said the Dai. “I will ready the earth shapers to collapse the walls of the valley.”
“Let me go down and do what I got to do,” said Geoff. “Be good for the Dai, Fred. I’ll come back to get you when I can.”
Geoff started walking down into the valley. The other army was shaping up to lead a charge across the space. He decided to wait for them halfway. It might make them hesitate.
On the other hand, it might embolden them to charge into the face of the army at the other end of the valley with the hope their animals could do more damage than the shapers could throw at them.
It wasn’t a choice he would like to make for a bunch of people who might be killed in the conflict.
Geoff stopped when he thought he was halfway down the valley. He pulled his sword and drew a line in the dirt. He put the sword away.
Either they would charge and try to kill him, or someone would come out to talk to him. Then he would know where he stood. All he was really doing was buying time for the Dai and his army to shut the pass down.
How long did he have to stall the army? How long would it take to collapse the pass?
How many would he personally have to wound and kill to hold them in place?
A small party approached. He assumed that one of them was the leader of the army. He could be wrong. The leader could be in the back of things.
It didn’t matter. He was barring their way. They probably thought he was the Dai, the shaper who could shape all the elements to his will. They wanted to be cautious because they didn’t want sandstorms dropping fireclouds on top of them.
Geoff studied the parley party. He had a rock ox, a firebird, an air horse, and a water snake of some kind. He decided that the air and water controllers had to go first since he couldn’t touch their animals with his sword. Then he could concentrate on the firebird. He didn’t care about the ox one way, or the other. It just didn’t seem that dangerous to him compared to the others.
He conceded he could be wrong in his assessment, but he was willing to improvise in the face of danger.
“How’s it going?,” said Geoff. “Geoff Cantrell for the Shapers. I have been asked to tell you not to cross this line.”
“I’m Captain Death From Above in a Streak of Fire,” said the firebird. “Why would the Shapers send you out here to parley for them?”
“I know the Dai,” said Geoff. “We talked, and I said I would come down here since he would need most of his army to close the pass. Now as you must know, I’m not a shaper. It just isn’t in my bag of skills. On the other hand, the skills I do have will allow me to inflict losses on your army that you don’t need. Just take your men down out of the valley. Then the valley will be closed. No one has to be hurt on either side.”
“So I should believe you?,” said the captain.
“I don’t have a reason to lie to you,” said Geoff. “I’m just telling you the plan. The valley will be closed whether you’re standing in it, or not. I’m just here to give you a chance to walk away. Go home and tell your leaders this way is closed.”
“What if we don’t want to do that?,” said the firebird. He waved at the valley walls. “The Dai wouldn’t have sent you if he thought you would be hurt when the walls collapsed down on us.”
“The Dai knows something about me that you don’t,” said Geoff. “He knows he can’t kill me.”
“The earth is moving,” said Rock Ox. “We need to retreat, Captain.”
“Kill him,” said the captain. He flung his firebird at Geoff. He was dead before his arm finished the gesture.
Geoff pulled his other knife from his belt as he charged forward. He wanted them to run. If they wouldn’t do that, he was prepared to cut them down.
The water snake looped around to keep him from its master. He sliced the head off as he passed. The master tried to pull his own sword as the fighter came on. A stab in the neck stopped that.
The horse and the ox carried their summoners to the enemy lines. Neither tried to contest skills with Geoff. He put his weapons away as he watched the valley vibrate. He grabbed his knife out of the captain’s eye as he jogged back toward the Shaper line.
Geoff paused as he spotted the walls of the valley starting to rush together. He sprinted toward the end of the valley. The stone encased him before he ran a hundred feet.
“How do you get out of this?,” Geoff asked himself. He still had his knife in his hand. He started to chip at the stone.
After minutes of digging, Geoff found himself walking through an ornate hall being cleaned by people chained to rails, watched by guys in different colored suits. They gave him the look of not liking him on their turf.
“How’s it going?,” said Geoff. He might as well try to be friendly first since he didn’t seem to have his armor, or weapons, with him.
“It’s a ghost,” said one of the watchdogs. “It’s not supposed to be wandering around down here.”
“We’ll have to send a runner upstairs and have the Exec look into this,” said one of the other guards.
Geoff snapped back to digging. He wondered what had happened. Maybe he had taken some kind of mental damage. He couldn’t do anything about that now. He had to get out of his tomb as fast as he could.
He worked on the wall until he was back in the hall. He looked around. A woman in a suit and skirt frowned at him. Her red hair was pinned up to frame her face. Shaded glasses covered her eyes.
“How’s it going?,” said Geoff. He smiled. “Name’s Geoff Cantrell.”
“My name is Miss Vale,” said the woman. She tapped a mace in her delicate hand. “I assist the Executive in running this portion of the Underworld. You’re not supposed to be here.”
“That’s the story of my life,” said Geoff. “As soon as I meet a pretty woman, it’s get out and don’t come back.”
“That’s because you’re still alive Topside,” said Miss Vale. “Therefore, you are not supposed to be appearing in the Underworld like this. You’re what we call a ghost.”
“I’m buried up there,” said Geoff. “I guess I keep dying and coming back to life. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
“You can’t just keep moving back and forth across the Dead Sea,” said Miss Vale. “We need to find a way to stop this.”
“I’ll let you work on that,” said Geoff. “I have to go.”
Geoff spent the next month cycling back and forth from digging to visiting the Underworld. The demons got to where they didn’t even mind that he wandered around loose as long as he kept his hands to himself. He spent a bunch of time in the company of Miss Vale. Later, he would tell her she was the only reason he hadn’t lost his mind and maintained his connection to the Underworld when he was temporarily killed.
Eventually he punched his way through the wall. He climbed out into the night, breathing fresh air for the first time in a long time. His stomach rumbled and he agreed that food would be good to have.
Geoff walked back into camp. It looked like building fortifications hadn’t started yet. He figured that was the price of government. He found a chow hall under a tent and dirt construction. He settled in and ate his fill while soldiers moved around him. No one said anything to him.
He supposed that was because of the way he looked.
“Hey, bud,” Geoff called to one of the soldiers. “The Dai still around.”
The man looked at the dirty savage in front of him. He thought about the way the savage looked at him with a friendly moon face and narrowed eyes.
“He was recalled to the capital,” the soldier said. The narrowed eyes actually looked more open. “The council can’t do anything without him to moderate them.”
“Do you know if he took my horse with him?,” said Geoff. “An older chestnut gelding. Pretty even tempered.”
“There was such a horse,” said the soldier. “He joined it to his train when they left.”
“Fred was on his last legs,” said Geoff. “Can you get a message sent to the Dai?”
“I don’t think so,” said the soldier. “Any message I sent would be stopped by the clerks.”
“Who’s in charge of the official dispatches,” said Geoff. “I have to send a note to the Dai.”
“I think the supply officer,” said the soldier.
“Let’s go talk to him,” said Geoff. He got up from the table. He snagged one more piece of bread to chow down on while they went to talk to the supply officer.
3
Geoff Cantrell sat at an outdoor table five hundred years later. He had crossed Rialt in that time more than he had counted. Then sailing on to the next continent had been the order of the day.
The times were changing, but people remained the same, and he was still fighting countless little battles as he rode around the world.
He wondered if he was saving anything, or making a difference sometimes.
He looked at the meal that was coming to his table. He decided that even if he wasn’t helping anyone else, he was making sure this restaurant was getting help staying open.
“Another server is bringing the rest of your food, sir,” said the waitress. She wore a robe with too many pink flowers that didn’t go with her complexion, or hair.
“Thank you very much,” said Geoff. “Do you mind if I start on this while I wait?”
“Of course not,” said the waitress. “Enjoy your meal.”
Geoff bowed his head in acknowledgment and watched her leave. It was a good thing he was taken, or he would be getting into trouble every place he visited that had a pretty girl on hand.
He began to slowly go through his meal. He liked sampling the food that he ordered from places. He had decided a long time ago that he only had the ability to burn rice, and he liked to enjoy what others cooked when he could.
The second waitress arrived as he picked through the first part of his meal. He sat back out of the way so that she could place the bowls down on the table in front of him.
“Thank you,” said Geoff. “The service here is excellent.”
“Thank you, sir,” said the waitress. She smiled as she walked away.
Geoff smiled as he went about the business of eating in a calm and methodical way. He didn’t have to rush things. He wasn’t going to kill someone as soon as he was done. He didn’t have anywhere to be yet.
It was the perfect day to savor the flavor that life was giving him right then.
“Cantrell?,” said an older lady. She stood outside the area marked for the restaurant. She had a familiar look in her eye that Geoff couldn’t quite place. It was like looking at something known but strange at the same time. She wore a black tunic and pants in the simple style of all the peasant Shapers.
“Would you like to eat with me?,” said Geoff. “I’m indulging myself with some money I took from some bad men.”
“That will be fine,” said the lady. She pulled a chair from the table and sat down so she could watch the rest of the outside world moving on.
“It’s been a long time since last we met,” said the lady. “You still haven’t changed.”
“Not in the cards,” said Geoff. He picked up a bowl of finger meats and tried them one at a time. “I don’t know what it means to settle down after all this time.”
“I’m afraid that I am in the same boat,” said the lady. “When I first proposed the deal I made, I didn’t think I would be facing a bureaucracy that would fight me at every turn.”
“What did you think would happen?,” asked Geoff.
“I thought I would be teaching shapers to shape different elements,” said the lady. “I didn’t think I would be running the nation with small breaks for centuries.”
“Sounds rough,” said Geoff. He put the empty bowl down and looked for the next thing he wanted to eat.
“The paperwork is backbreaking,” said the lady.
“You could always quit,” said Geoff.
“The administration would always be able to find me when I am younger with little memory of what happened before,” said the lady. “It would be more in their interest if something happened to me so they could put their own puppet on the throne and attack the Animal Shapers in the low country.”
“I don’t know how I can help you,” said Geoff. “I plan to cross the low country and head for the ocean beyond.”
A group of men approached. They all had military, or at least mercenary, bearings. Their hands were on their swords.
They stopped and surrounded the Dai. Some of them looked at Geoff. He could see they didn’t consider him important. He didn’t mind. It made it easier to kill people when they thought he couldn’t do anything to them.
“We have been asked to retrieve you for the council,” said the leader of the men.
“No,” said Geoff. He picked up a bowl of soup. “Go away.”
“Silence, outlander,” said the leader. “I will cut your tongue out if you speak again.”
Geoff laughed at him. He put down the bowl so he wouldn’t spill his soup. The other frowned at him.
“Why are you laughing?,” said the leader. A frown indicated he didn’t like being laughed at by some tramp.
“May I?,” said the Dai. She wore a smile on her leathery face.
Geoff waved at her to go ahead. He fought back the laughter until it became hiccups.
“This gentleman that you are threatening with the removal of his tongue is Geoff Cantrell,” said the Dai. “The moment you interrupted his meal was the moment he decided to kill all of you. Now I understand that you think Geoff Cantrell is a story made up to scare children. You are wrong about that.”
“Kill them both,” said the leader. He went down with a knife sticking out of his eye after giving the last order he would ever give.
Geoff stood up from his chair. He grabbed the closest two plates and flung them at the group. One of the men swept the plate coming at him aside by gesturing the air into a wall. The other took boiled cabbage to the face, making him step back.
The Dai pointed at the air shaper. A jet of fire picked the man up and flung him into the wall of a medicinal shop. He tried to pick himself up, but he had cracked his skull on impact and decided to stay on the ground and try to remember his own name.
Geoff smiled as he pulled his sword, and other knife. He had been looking at six to one odds. Now it was four to one. Things were a little more manageable from his perspective.
And one of those four was trying to get cabbage juice out of his eyes so he wasn’t likely to be more than a temporary object of interest.
Geoff danced around earth walls and fire blasts. One by one, he chopped his enemies down. He wasn’t that much faster than an ordinary man, but he had spent a lot of time practicing on hitting the same area on a human body while protecting his own.
He looked at the last man standing. The man reached for the liquids in the foods for ammunition. The Dai punched him with the air. He hit the wall beside his friend. Then the soups fell on top of him.
“It looks like you were right about the bureaucracy,” said Geoff. He cleaned and sheathed his weapons. “Now my food is ruined. I had planned to enjoy myself for the next hour, or so.”
“I will compensate you for the food,” said the Dai. “Would you accompany me to the hall of justice?”
“I suppose,” said Geoff. He grabbed a bottle of wine and put it in his traveling bag. “What about this lot?”
“What about them?,” said the Dai. She waved her hand. Stone encased the survivors instantly. “They’ll stay here until I send someone to get them. You still have your knack with the throwing knife.”
“You throw a knife a million times, you get better at throwing it,” said Geoff. “The real trick is in the draw.”
“Why is that?,” said the Dai.
“The reflexes just aren’t what they were,” said Geoff. “So you can hit the other guy a hundred times. That doesn’t matter if he’s faster than you.”
“How many have you met that are faster than you?,” asked the Dai.
“A few,” said Geoff. He shrugged at her look.
“How many of them are still alive?,” asked the Dai.
“One maybe,” said Geoff. “It depends.”
“Depends on what?,” said the Dai.
Their conversation took them from the restaurant to a law officer’s station. The Dai asked for her attackers to be picked up.
“Depends on what?,” said the Dai, picking up the thread of their conversation.
“Whether he hit the rocks, or the ocean,” said Geoff.
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