Eighteen: Treason and Heresy
“No!!” The deserter shook his head, more as if to clear a bug from his ear than to negate a thought. “Not for me. ‘No aid for deserters,’ I know so well. Do it for the nation, then.” He pulled a tattered old piece of paper from an inner pocket. No, she realized, vellum. “Do this and I will lie down, never at peace, but troubling the others no more.”
She took the vellum carefully with just the tips of her fingers. Next to her, the Diamond Raven was looking at the paper too.
“If this is real-” He sounded sick.
“Real! Real and then some! It is exactly what it looks like and nothing more, I swear it on my honor!”
read on…
“No!!” The deserter shook his head, more as if to clear a bug from his ear than to negate a thought. “Not for me. ‘No aid for deserters,’ I know so well. Do it for the nation, then.” He pulled a tattered old piece of paper from an inner pocket. No, she realized, vellum. “Do this and I will lie down, never at peace, but troubling the others no more.”
She took the vellum carefully with just the tips of her fingers. Next to her, the Diamond Raven was looking at the paper too.
“If this is real-” He sounded sick.
“Real! Real and then some! It is exactly what it looks like and nothing more, I swear it on my honor!”
read on…