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Photo from www.dars-home.com.
Tao: That’s your friend? The frog? We traveled all the way from the Mydlands for that?
Dar: Well, every journey must have a destination.
Tao: And a point, I would have thought.
Tao: Shortness of breath. Ringing in ears. I hear that’s what happens when you fall in love.
Dar: No.
Tao: Well, it’s a powerful state. Some say it’s the cure to all things. Others say it’s the worst disease you can get.
Dar: Tao, I’m in love with Kyra.
Tao: Yes, but attraction goes beyond loyalties.
Tao: This place was once a circus.
Dar: What’s a circus?
Tao: A place where people perform tricks and live by their wits.
Tao: I’ve seen a few of these troupes in my travels. Not many of these people are related by blood, mostly by spirit only. They come from everywhere. Some are outcasts. Others come seeking adventure.
Dar: Ruh says never start a fight, but make sure you always finish one.
Tao: Ruh would say that.
Sorceress to the eagle Sharak: The Ancient One did find out, didn’t he? You were wise to be cautious. I was not. And now we both suffer. I can now remember our love, but you have always remembered it. And yet we can not be together. I wish you could understand me.
Tao: Why teach a wolf to attack something that looks like a man?
Dar: She’s teaching it to kill.
Tao: Killing of men doesn’t seem like much of a circus trick.
Baha: I do not have them. I am merely a go-between, sent with a message to offer a trade for your friends’ freedom.
Tao: I can see she loves you, too.
Sorceress: You put a curse on that woman, didn’t you? You punish her just as you punished me, with loneliness.
Ancient One: Where did you hear that? Have you been communing with Seers? Oh, they’re such vicious gossips.
Sorceress: I’ve learned many things.
Ancient One: Yes, but not much about any of them.
Tao: The Downs may be more beautiful than the Territories, but I’m starting to think it’s much more dangerous. At least in the Territories, you know what the evil is.
Ancient One: All these mortals afflicted by their need for others. Your Zuraya, the Beastmaster, even a prodigy of mine disappoints in that domain. You see, love is a wasteland of need and compulsion. It’s freeing to detach oneself from it, don’t you feel?
Seer: I do feel, Ancient One, unlike you. Don’t you have compassion for anyone but yourself?
Ancient One: Compassion serves no purpose and neither does this conversation.
Seer: Love created this world. You’ve lost sight of that, and it will be your undoing.
Baha: King Zad once told me he wanted an angel from the sky. The Uplands is close enough.
Tao: What if they won’t fight?
Dar: For their lives? They’ll fight.
Tao: I’ve seen men who were too afraid before.
Dar: You’ll have to hit them harder this time. Try using your other hand.
Dar: Are you sure you can do this?
Tao: I must. Evil thrives when good men do nothing.
Tao: How dare she do that to me!
Dar: At least I found a way to shut you up when I need to.
Tao: Zuraya, you’re wrong. Baha has your friends.
Zuraya: How do you know?
Tao: Because he does this. He takes people who won’t be missed, like your friends, and sells them as slaves.
Zuraya: He told me he was a go-between.
Tao: Well, he’s made himself a very rich man by going between people and their freedom.
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