Chapter 10 Chapter 10 Suddenly Discovered

Time and tide never wait for man, this is an eternal adage.When sailors and fishermen say this, they simply mean that the timing of a boat's journey is determined by the sea, not by human convenience.But sometimes I lie here, after the tea has relieved the worst pain, and I wonder about that statement.The tide does wait for no one, and I know that to be true.But what about time?Did the era in which I was born wait for my birth?Were those events, like the great wooden parts of the Seintans clock, suddenly falling into place, linked to the timing of my embryonic development, driving my life?I don't think I'm great, and yet there are many, many things that would have been different if I hadn't been born, if my parents hadn't temporarily succumbed to carnal desires.Will it get better?I don't think so.Then I blinked, trying to focus my eyes, wondering if the thoughts were coming from me or the potions in my blood.If only I could ask Chade one more time, one last time.

As the afternoon turned to night, the sun was gradually setting, and someone pushed me to wake me up. "Your master is looking for you." That's all he said, and I suddenly woke up.The seagulls circling overhead, the fresh air at sea, and the swaying hull of the ship reminded me of where I was.I got up quickly, ashamed that I had fallen asleep without even knowing whether Chade would settle comfortably.I hurried towards the stern, towards the cabin. I found Chade in the cabin, occupying the small table, bent over an open map, but the main focus of my attention was the large pot of fish soup.Without taking his eyes off the map, he gestured for me to eat it myself, which of course I was happy to obey.With the thick soup was a kind of rough bread used on ships, and a bottle of sour red wine.I didn't really realize how hungry I was until the food appeared in front of me.While I was wiping the bottom of the plate with a piece of bread, Chade asked me, "Is it better?" "Much better," I said. "How about you?" "It's better." He said, looking at me with my familiar eagle eyes.He looks fully recovered and I'm relieved.He pushed my plate away and spread the map in front of me. "By nightfall," he said, "we'll be here. It'll be a lot harder to get ashore than it was to get aboard. If we're lucky, there may be a timely wind, or we'll miss the time when the tide is calmest and the waves The current will be stronger, and maybe we'll have to guide the horses ashore in the dinghy. I hope not, but you'll have to be prepared just in case. When we're ashore—" "You've got karyse seeds on you the smell of it." I couldn't believe my words, but I could smell karesseed and oil on his breath, and it was real.I ate carris seed cake at Spring Festival, everyone has that kind of cake at Spring Festival, and I know that even a little sprinkle of carisi seeds on the cake can make people suddenly full of sudden acceleration, Dizzying vitality.Everyone celebrates the "Spring Festival" like this, anyway, it only happens once a year, so it doesn't hurt.But I also know that Burrich warned me never to buy a horse that smelled of callesseed, and he also warned me that if anyone dared to add carerse to any of our horses Seed oil is caught by him, and he will kill the man.Slaughtered alive with bare hands.

"Really? That's really strange. Well, if you have to swim with the horses, I suggest you put your shirt and cloak in an oilskin bag and let me carry it for you on the boat, so that when we land, you At least two more dry clothes to wear. From the beach, we'll go to—" Burrich said that if you feed a horse a carris seed once, the horse will never be the same again. It will treat the horse Make an impact. He said you could use it to win a race, or tame a wild stallion, but then the horse would never be the same again. He said some crooked horse dealers would use it to make a horse in Looks good when sold, makes them look refreshed and bright-eyed, but the effect wears off quickly. Burrich says the carris seeds make them completely unfatigued, so they keep running, Running longer than they should have collapsed from exhaustion. Burrich told me that sometimes the horses fell as soon as the caress seed oil's effects wore off." The words came out like cold water Stone.

Chade lifted his eyes from the map and stared at me benignly. "It's interesting that Burrich knows so much about Callisseed. I'm glad you listened to him so carefully. Now may I ask you to listen to me as carefully as we plan the next stage of our journey." "But, Chade..." He fixed me firmly with his eyes. "Borrich has a knack for horses, and he's shown talent at a very young age. He's usually right... when he's talking about horses. Now you listen to me. We're You need a lantern to get from the beach to the cliff above, and it's a very difficult walk, and we'll probably only be able to lead one horse at a time. But I've heard it's doable. Once up, we cross-country ride to Forge, because The existing roads are not fast enough or close enough. There are many hills in this area, but there is no forest. And we are walking at night, so we can only use the stars as a map. I hope we can reach the town of Smelting in the middle of the afternoon, The two of us entered town as travelers. So far I have only decided on these, and the rest will have to be planned hour by hour..."

The moment passed for me to ask a question, and I would have asked him why he could not die by using the Karisseed, but the question was pushed aside by his careful planning and detail.He gave me half an hour more of the details, and then told me to leave the cabin, saying he had other things to do, and that I should go and see how the horses were doing, and try to rest as much as I could. The horses were in front, and there was a temporary roped area on the deck, with straw under it, so that the deck would not be trampled by horses' hoofs or stained with horse manure.A shabby-faced man was repairing a section of the railing that Soot had kicked loose when he got aboard.He didn't seem to want to talk much, and the horses were calm and at ease.I walk around the deck a little bit.We were in a tidy little boat, a merchant ship going from island to island, wider than it was deep.The boat's shallow draft allowed it to go upriver or close to the beach without damage, but it was uncomfortable to sail in deeper waters.It staggered forward, nodding here and saluting there, like a peasant woman with a lot of things walking in a crowded market.The boat seemed to be carrying only us.A sailor gave me two apples to share with the horses, but he didn't talk very much, so after sharing the apples with them, I rested on the pile of rice not far from them, and obeyed the rules. De's advice to take a break.

The wind helped us very much, and the captain carried us very close to the high cliffs, much nearer than I had thought possible.But getting the horses off the boat was still a nasty job, and after all Chade's talk and warnings, I still didn't expect the night to be so dark on the sea.The few lanterns on the deck were wretchedly useless, and the dim light did not help me much, and the shadows they cast confuse me even more.In the end a sailor took Chade ashore in a skiff, and I went in with the two reluctant horses, for I knew that if I pulled the soot on a line, he would resist, and maybe give the skiff to him. Kick sink.I cling to the soot, encouraging it, trusting that it will use its common sense to lead us to swim towards the glimmering lantern on the shore.I used a long rope to tie Chade's horse behind me because I didn't want him kicking too close to us in the water.The water was cold and the night was dark, and if I had any sense I would wish I were somewhere else, but for a boy even the difficult and unpleasant thing became a challenge to himself, an adventure.

I came out of the water, dripping cold, but excited.I took Soot's rein and coaxed Chade's horse ashore, and when I finally got them both, Chade was standing beside me with a lantern in one hand, smiling very happily.The dinghy had left and was rowing towards the boat, and Chade handed me my dry clothes, which were useless over my soaking wet clothes. "Where is the road?" I asked, my body trembled, and my voice trembled. Chade sneered. "Road? I looked when you brought my horse ashore. There is no road at all. It's just a way for the water to flow down the cliff. But we can only make do."

It was a little better than he said, but not much better, the trail was narrow and steep, and the gravel was loose underfoot.Chade went ahead with the lantern, and I followed him, with the two horses in file behind me.Once Chade's horse reared up and tugged backwards, and I lost my balance, and Sooty tried to go the other way and almost knocked me to my knees.It wasn't until we finally climbed the cliff that my heart returned from the mouth of my throat. Then there was the night and open slopes in front of me, the moon gliding slowly across the night sky and the scattered stars overhead, and the spirit of challenge seized me again.I thought maybe it was Chade's attitude.The carrisseeds kept his eyes wide open, bright even in the light of the lantern, and his energy, though unnatural, was contagious, and even the horses seemed to be affected, snorting and flinging head.Chade and I laughed like crazy, adjusted the reins, and mounted.Chade glanced up at the stars, then looked around at the drop in front of us, and tossed the lantern aside with a contemptuous flick.

"Let's go!" He announced to the night, and kicked the bay red horse, and the horse jumped out.Soot was not to be outdone, so I did what I had never dared to do before, which was to run at night on unfamiliar terrain.It's a miracle we didn't all break our necks.But that's the way it is, sometimes good luck belongs to kids and crazy people.I felt like we were both kids and lunatics that night. Chade led the way and I followed.That night, I got to know a little more about Burrich, who always puzzled me, because I also felt that very strange sense of peace and peace that comes from leaving your own judgment to others. They said: "You lead the way, I follow you, I trust you will not lead me to death or harm." That night, we drove the horses to gallop forward, Chade found his way by the night sky alone, I didn't think about it at all. What should we do if we get lost, or if a horse stumbles and hurts us.I didn't feel at all responsible for my actions, and it was suddenly simple and clear that I would just do whatever Chade said, and trust him to make it all work out.My spirit was riding high on that wave of confidence, and at some point that night it occurred to me: That's what Burrich got in the horse, and that's what he misses and longs for most.

We rode all night.Chade would let the horses rest for a while, but Burrich would let them rest more often.More than once he stopped to look up at the night sky and then across the horizon to make sure we were on the right track. "See that hill there against the starry sky? You can't see it right now, but I know the hill. It's shaped like a butter merchant's hat in the daytime. , we're going to keep it west of us. Let's go!" Another time he stopped on top of a hill and I reined in beside him.Chade sat still, so erect that he looked like a stone statue.Then he raised his arm and pointed somewhere, his hand trembling slightly. "See that deep valley down there? We're a bit too far to the east, and we'll have to correct it as we go."

I couldn't see it at all, it was just a dark cut in the blurred landscape under the starlight.I wondered how he knew there was a deep valley there.After about half an hour, he looked to our left, a single light flickering on a high ground. "Someone here in Wool Village stayed up tonight." He observed. "It's probably some baker who took out the dough that was going to be used early in the morning." He turned around in the saddle, and I felt rather than saw his smile. "I was born less than a kilometer from here. Come on, boy, let's go. I don't like to think that the robbers should come so close to the woolen farm." We moved on and went down a very steep hill. I felt Sooty's muscles tense up, and my weight was on my hind legs, almost sliding down the slope. There was a gray dawn in the sky, and I could smell the sea again.When we climbed to the top of a slope, we could already see Smelting Town when we looked down, and it was still early.This place is not very good in some respects: only when the tide rises to a certain level can a large ship be anchored here, other times the ship has to anchor at a farther place, and small boats are sent back and forth between the ship and the shore.The reason why Smelting Town can be found on the map is mostly because of the iron mines here.I wasn't expecting to see a bustling city, but I wasn't prepared to see plumes of smoke rising from charred, roofless buildings.Somewhere there was a cow mooing that was not being milked.There were several scuttled ships on the shore, their masts standing like dead trees. The streets are empty in the morning. "Where did the person go?" I asked the question in my heart. "Dead, taken hostage, or still hiding in the woods." Chade's voice was tense, and I turned my eyes to him, surprised to see the pain on his face.He saw me staring at him and shrugged dumbly. "Feeling that these people belong to you, that their misfortunes are your failures...you get to feel that when you grow up. It comes with blood." He left me to meditate , touched the tired horse to make it walk.We walked down the hill and into town. The only prudent step Chade seemed to take was to walk more slowly.There were only two of us, unarmed, on weary horses, into a place that had just been... "The boat's gone, boy. A looting boat would have to have a full oarsman to move it, especially in the currents along this part of the coast. That's another surprise. How they did to our The tides and currents are familiar enough to come here to rob? Why come here to rob? To move iron ore? It's much easier for them to rob iron from merchant ships. It doesn't make sense, boy, it doesn't make sense at all." There had been heavy dew the night before, and the town was beginning to stink, the smell of damp, charred houses.Here and there one is still smoldering.Various items were thrown all over the street in front of some houses, but I don't know whether it was because the residents wanted to salvage some goods, or whether the looters wanted to remove the things and then changed their minds.A salt box without a lid, yards of green wool, a shoe, a broken chair; these few things speak silently but clearly that everything that was once safe in the home has been permanently ruined and trampled into the mud inside.A ghastly terror gripped me. "We're too late," Chade said softly.He stopped his horse and Soot stopped beside him. "What?" I couldn't get back to my senses all of a sudden, and asked in a daze. "The hostage has been released." "Where is it?" Chade looked at me in disbelief, like I was crazy or stupid. "There. In the wreckage of that building." It's hard for me to explain what happened in the next instant of my life, so many things happened at the same time.I raised my eyes and saw a group of people, men and women, old and young, murmuring and rummaging around in a shop that had been burned to nothing but shells.They were filthy and tattered, but they didn't seem to care.I saw two women pick up a large jug at the same time, and slap each other's hands, each trying to drive the other away so he could claim the spoil.They looked like two crows scrambling over cheese rinds, yelling and beating and cursing, each holding on to one hand.The others ignored them and only cared about finding good things for themselves. It is very strange that the villagers will behave like this.I have always heard that after a village is looted, the villagers will unite to clean up the aftermath, make the surviving houses liveable, and then help each other save important property, share supplies, and share difficulties. Until the houses can be rebuilt and the shops can reopen.These people lost almost everything, and their relatives and friends died at the hands of the robbers, but they didn't seem to care at all, and they only fought and fought over what little supplies they had left. Knowing this alone, the sight in front of him looked terrifying enough. But I can't even feel them. I didn't see or hear them until Chade pointed them out, and I wouldn't notice them if I rode past them.Another major event that happened to me at the same time was when I suddenly realized that I was different from everyone else I knew.Imagine if a child who could see grew up in a village of blind people who couldn't even imagine the possibility of a sense like sight. The child would have no vocabulary to describe colors or different levels of light, Others had no idea of ​​the child's way of perceiving the world.It was like that when we were sitting on horseback staring at these people, and Chade said the question in his mind, with pain in his voice, "What's wrong with them? What's wrong with them?" I know. Those threads that weave back and forth between people, strands that connect mothers and children, men and women, stretches to family and neighbors, pets and livestock, even fish in the sea and birds in the sky—these threads are all, all gone. All my life I've been aware of the existence of creatures around me by those threads of feeling, but I've never been aware of my own perception.In addition to humans, dogs, horses, and even chickens also have this thread.So I'd look up at the door before Burrich came in, and I'd know that there was another newborn pup in the pen, buried almost entirely in the straw.So I wake up when Chade opens that staircase.Because I can feel people, this perception has always been the first to inform me, let me know that I have to use my eyes, ears and nose to see what I feel. But these people exude no sense at all. Imagine water without weight or moisture, that's how those people feel to me.They lost that thing, and not only were they no longer human, they were not even alive at all.I feel as though I've seen rocks rise from the ground and argue and mutter to each other.There was a little girl who found a jar of jam, reached in and dug out a handful to lick, and a grown man who had been rummaging through a pile of burnt cloth turned to her and snatched the jar Jam, pushing the little girl away, ignored her angry cries. No one stopped it. As Chade was about to dismount, I leaned forward and took his rein.I yelled my unspeakable voice to Soot, who was tired but alive with the fear in my voice, and he sprang forward, pulling the reins to make Chade's bay horse follow us.Chade nearly fell off his horse, but he clung to the saddle and I got us out of that dead town as fast as we could.I heard yelling behind us, colder than howling wolves, cold like a gale down a chimney, but we were riding and I was terrified.I didn't rein in the horse or let Chade take his rein back until we were far behind the houses.After a bend in the path, I finally reined in and stopped beside a small patch of miscellaneous woods.Now that I think about it, I'm afraid I didn't hear Chade angrily demand an explanation of what was going on until then. He did not hear a very clear and fluent explanation.I leaned forward and hugged Sooty's neck, feeling its tiredness and my own trembling, vaguely aware that it was as disturbed as I was.I thought of those hollow men in Forge, kneeling on soot again.It staggered wearily, and Chade followed, asking me what was wrong.My mouth was dry, my voice trembling, and instead of looking at him, I gasped and confusedly explained my fear and what I was feeling. I fell silent and our horses continued down the tight dirt track.Finally I got the courage to look at Chade, who was looking at me like I had horns growing out of my head.Once I discovered that I had this sentience, I couldn't ignore it anymore.I sensed Chade's suspicions, but I also sensed that he distanced himself from me, stepped back a little, shielded himself a little, and faced me, who was suddenly a stranger.This made me feel even more sad, because he didn't retreat like this when facing those people in Forge Town, and they were a hundred times stranger than me. "They're like puppets," I told Chade, "like something made of wood come to life and act out some kind of evil show. If they saw us, they wouldn't hesitate to kill us just to take Our horses or cloaks or a piece of bread. They..." I searched for words, "they're not even animals, they don't emanate anything, nothing. They're like a bunch of little Something, like a row of books, or a pile of rocks, or—" "Boy," Chade said, somewhere between mild and annoyed. "Cheer yourself up. We've had a hard night's run, and you're tired and haven't slept for too long, so you're starting to have weird hallucinations in your head, making you dream with your eyes open, and—" "No," I thought desperately Convince him. "No, it's nothing to do with lack of sleep." "Let's go back there," he said logically.The sight of his black cloak flying around him in the morning breeze was so uncommon that my heart would break.How could those people in that village exist in the same world as this simple morning breeze?And Chade with such a calm and ordinary tone? "Those people are just normal people, boy, but they've had terrible things happen to them, so they behave strangely. I used to know a girl who saw her father get killed by a bear, and she had more than a month's sleep after that. That's what she's like all the time, just staring and muttering to herself, barely moving and taking care of herself. When those people's lives get back on track, they'll be back." "There's someone ahead!" I warned him.I saw nothing, heard nothing, only felt a cobweb tug of my newfound perception.We looked down the road and saw that we were approaching a group of ragged people marching in single file.Some people lead the animals that carry the load, some people push or pull the carts loaded with dirty belongings, and they look back at us on the horses, as if we are devils emerging from the ground to chase them. "It's the 'pockmarked man'!" shouted a man at the end of the line, pointing a finger at us.Fear made his tired face pale and his voice hoarse. "Legends come true," he warned the others, who stopped in fear and stared at us. "Heartless ghosts took possession of human bodies and walked around the wreckage of our village, and then pock-faced men in black cloaks brought disease to us. Our lives were too weak for the old gods Punish us. Our rich life will kill us all." "Oh, damn it, I didn't mean to be seen like this," whispered Chade.I watched his pale hands grab the reins and turn the bay horse around. "Follow me, boy." He didn't look at the man who was still pointing at us with trembling fingers.Slowly, almost languidly, he lifted his horse off the road and up the grassy hillside.This non-aggressive manner of movement was also used by Burrich, when confronted with an alert horse or dog.His weary horse reluctantly left the level road.Chade's destination was a birch forest on the top of the hill, and I looked at him puzzled. "Follow me, boy." I hesitated to follow, and he turned his head to order me. "Do you want to be stoned on the road? That's not a pleasant experience." Cautiously, I steered Soot sideways off the road, seemingly oblivious to the panicked people ahead.There they hover, somewhere between anger and fear.It felt like a dark red stain on a clean day.I saw a woman stoop and a man turn away from his wheelbarrow. "They're coming!" I warned Chade, even though they were already running toward us.Some people held stones in their hands, and some held green branches that had just been broken from the woods. Everyone looked very embarrassed, like city people who had to eat and sleep in the open.These are the other villagers in Smelting Town, those who were not captured by the robbers.All this came to me at the moment when I put my feet on the horse and Sooty ran forward wearily.Our horses were exhausted and reluctant to run, despite the hail of stones that pelted the ground behind us.If the villagers were rested enough or not so scared, they could easily catch up to us.But I think they were relieved to see us escape.Their minds were full of the people walking through their town, not of the fleeing stranger, however ominous the stranger might be. They stood on the road, shouting and waving their sticks, until we entered the woods.Chade led the way, and I didn't ask any further questions, letting him lead us up a parallel path out of sight for those leaving Forge.The horses resumed their reluctantly plodding gait.Thankfully, these rolling hills and scattered trees allowed us to hide from our pursuers.When I saw a sparkling brook, I gestured to it without a word.We watered the horses in silence, and tried to pour them some grain out of Chade's bag.I let go of the harness, and grabbed handfuls of grass to mop their dirty, wet fur, while our food was cold brook water and coarse bread from our travels.I did my best to keep the horses in order.Chade seemed lost in his own thoughts, and I didn't interrupt for a long time, but finally I couldn't help being curious and asked the question. "Are you really a pockmarked person?" Chade startled, then stared at me with surprise and sadness in his eyes. "Pockmarked man? The omen of disease and disaster in the legend?" "Oh, come on, boy, you are not stupid. That legend has a history of hundreds of years, you will never believe that I am so old!" I shrugged.I wanted to say, "You have acne scars on your face, and you bring death." But I didn't say it.At times Chade looked really old, at other times he was alive, as if a very young man lived in an old man's body. "No, I'm not pockmarked," he continued, speaking more to himself than to me. "But starting today, rumors of the Pockmarked Man's appearance will spread throughout the Six Duchies like pollen in the wind. People will say that he brings disease, disaster, and divine punishment for what they imagine they have done wrong. I I wish I hadn't been seen by them. The people of this kingdom have enough to worry about. But we have much more urgent things to worry about than superstitions. Whatever you know, you're right. I thought very carefully about everything I saw in Forge Town, and I also recalled the words of the townspeople who threw stones at us, and the expressions of each of them. From past experience, I know the people of Forge Town, they are brave by nature, and they will not panic and run away because of superstition.But the people we saw on the road were on the run, and they planned to leave Forge forever, taking as many survivors as possible.They left the house in which their grandfather was born, and their relatives, who seemed less intelligent, to scavenge among the ruins. ""The threat of the red boat is not empty words.I shudder just thinking about those people.Something went terribly wrong, boy, and it scares me to think about what's going to happen next.If the red boats could capture our people and then demand that we pay them to kill those people because we fear that everyone who is released back will be like that - what a horrible choice!And once again, they chose to attack when we were least prepared. He turned to me as if to continue, then suddenly swayed and sat down, his face gray. He lowered his head and covered his face with his hands. "Chade!" I yelled in panic, running to his side, but he turned away. "The worst thing about carisseed," he said, his voice muffled by covering his hands. "It's that it will leave you very suddenly. Burrich was right to warn you about it, boy. But there are times when we have no choice but poor choices. Bad times like now." He raised his head, his eyes glazed over, and his mouth was almost slack. "Now I need to rest," he said, pathetically like a sick child.When he collapsed, I picked him up and let him lie on the ground slowly.I used the sack that hung from my saddle as a pillow for him, and covered him with our two cloaks.He lay still, with a slow pulse and heavy breathing, from that time until the next afternoon.I slept on his back that night, hoping to keep him warm, and the next day I took out what we had left and fed him. By nightfall he was well enough to go on the road, and we began a depressing journey.We move slowly, only at night.Chade found his way, but I led the way, and he was often nothing more than something on a horse's back.The distance we ran overnight that crazy night now took two days to cover.There was very little food, and we talked even less.Chade seemed tired of thinking, and whatever he was thinking was too bleak and hopeless to talk about. He pointed out the location and told me to light a fire as a signal for the ship to come back for us.They sent a skiff to the shore to fetch him, and he got on board without a word, for he was really worn out, so he thought I could get our weary horses aboard.So my self-esteem forced me to complete the task, and then I got on the boat and fell asleep, sleeping for so many days that I haven't been able to sleep well.After that, we disembarked again and walked wearily towards Jieyi Bay.We came back to town late at night, and Lady Thyme took up the inn again. The next afternoon I was at last able to go and tell the innkeeper that my lady was much better, and would like to eat something from her kitchen, and asked her to send a tray of food to her room.Chade did look better, but he sweated profusely sometimes, and he smelled sickly sweet of karese seeds.He has a huge appetite and drinks a lot of water.But two days later he sent me to tell the innkeeper that Lady Thyme was going away next morning. I recovered much faster than he did, and I had a few afternoons to wander around the town of Jay Bay, staring at the shops and vendors, while straining my ears to listen to the gossip that Chade took very seriously.In this way, we learned a lot of things we had intended to know.Verity's diplomatic mission has been successfully completed, and Mrs. Xianya is now loved by the whole city.Already I can see the roads and fortifications being repaired more, and the Watchtower on Watch Island is manned by Kelva's elite troops, and it's now called the Sage's Watchtower.But the gossip also told of the Red Ship slipping past Verity's own watchtower, and of strange happenings in Forge.More than once I heard sightings of pock-faced men, and the stories people told around the inn fire about the present-day inhabitants of Forge gave me nightmares. People who fled Forge tell heartbreaking stories of their loved ones becoming cold and heartless.Those people lived there now as if they were still human beings, but those who knew them best in the past were the least likely to be deceived.What those people did in broad daylight was unheard of at Buckkeep any time of day.There were whispers of evil going on there, all kinds of evil beyond my imagination.Ships no longer dock at Smelting Town, and iron ore has to be dug elsewhere.It is said that even those who escaped have no place to take them in, because who knows what they are stained with, after all, the pockmarked man once appeared in front of them!但最可怕的反而是听到平凡百姓说，很快事情就会结束了，那些留在冶炼镇的东西很快就会自相残杀死光光，谢天谢地。洁宜湾安分守己的百姓希望那些曾经是冶炼镇安分守己的百姓的人死去，仿佛这是唯一能发生在那些人身上的好事。而事实上也是如此。 在百里香夫人和我即将归队、随惟真一行人回公鹿堡的前一夜，我醒过来发现房里点着一根蜡烛，切德坐在那里瞪着墙看。我没说一个字他就转过身来。“他们必须教你精技，小子。”他的语气仿佛在说一个痛苦的决定。“邪恶的时代来临了，而且会与我们同在很长一段时间。在这种时候，好人必须尽其所能创造出各种武器。我会再去找黠谋，这次我会向他提出这个要求。现在已经到了艰险的时刻，小子。我不知道它会不会有过去的一天。” 之后的许多年里，我也常怀疑这一点。