tered against his head, and the bones of his chiseled features
glistened with rainwater. He seemed heedless of his condition
as he crossed the room to confront them.
Par and Coil rose slowly from where they had been working.
“You can’t go back to the Vale,” Morgan said quietly. “There
are Federation soldiers everywhere. I can’t be certain if there
are Seekers as well, but I wouldn’t be surprised. The village is
under ‘Federation Protection’-that’s the euphemism they use
for armed occupation. They’re definitely waiting for you. I asked
a few questions and found out right away; no one’s making any
secret of it. Your parents are under house arrest. I think they’re
okay, but I couldn’t risk trying to talk to them. I’m sorry. There
would have been too many questions.”
He took a deep breath. “Someone wants you very badly, my
friends.”
Par and Coil looked at each other, and there was no attempt
by either to disguise the fear. “What are we going to do?” Par
asked softly.
“I’ve been thinking about that the whole way back,” Morgan
said. He reached over and put a hand on his friend’s slim shoul-
der. “So I’ll tell you what we’re going to do-and I do mean
‘we’ because I figure I’m in this thing with you now.”
His hand tightened. “We’re going east to look for Walker
Boh ”
VI
Morgan Leah could be very persuasive when he chose,
and he proved it that night in the rain-shrouded
Highlands to Par and Coll.
He obviously had given the matter a great deal of thought,
just as he claimed he had, and his reasoning was quite thorough.
Simply stated, it was all a matter of choices. He took just enough
time to strip away his wet clothing and dry off before seating the
brothers cross-legged before the warmth of the fireplace with
glasses of ale and hot bread in hand to hear his explanation.
He started with what they knew. They knew they could not
go back to Shady Vale-not now and maybe not for a long time.
They could not go back to Callahom either. Matter of fact, they
could not go much of anywhere they might be expected to go
because, if the Federation had expended this much time and
effort to find them so far, they were hardly likely to stop now.
Rimmer Dall was known to be a tenacious enforcer. He had
personally involved himself in this hunt, and he would not give
it up easily. The Seekers would be looking for the brothers ev-
erywhere Federation rule extended-and that was a long, long
way. Par and Coil could consider themselves, for all intents and
purposes, to be outlaws.
So what were they to do? Since they could not go anyplace
where they were expected, they must go someplace they were
not expected. The trick, of course, was not to go just anywhere,
but to go where they might accomplish something useful.
“After all, you could stay here if you chose, and you might
not be discovered for who-knows-how-long because the Feder-
ation wouldn’t know enough to look for you in the Highlands.
He shrugged. “It might even be fun for a while. But what would
it accomplish? Two months, four months, whatever, you would
still be outlaws, you would still be unable to go home, and
nothing would have changed. Doesn’t make sense, does it? What
you need to do is to take control of things. Don’t wait for events
to catch up with you; go out and meet them head-on!”
What he meant was that they should attempt to solve the
riddle of the dreams. There was nothing they could do about the
fact that the Federation was hunting them, that soldiers occupied
Shady Vale, or that they were perceived to be outlaws. One day,
all that might change-but not in the immediate future. The
dreams, on the other hand, were something with which they
might be able to come to grips. If the dreams were the real thing,
they were worth knowing more about. The old man had told
them to come to the Hadeshom on the first night of the new
moon. They hadn’t wanted to do that before for two very sound