52 "Yes," agreed Sweet Blossom, "but that leaves nothing else to say!"
53 "We'll find something," said Dreaming Crow, taking Silent Dog by the hand, and leading him away.
54 She looked at The Voice and he heard her thought. "This isn't fair!"
55 The Voice only shrugged. It wasn't
long before Silent Dog moved back into the house of Great Bear.
Every morning he walked Dreaming Crow to work. Every afternoon he
brought her home.
56 One day Strong Dog came to The Voice. "My
little brother's grown up," he announced. "He will soon make a home of
his own. One cannot hear, the other cannot speak, but together they
make a whole."
57 The Voice smiled. "Is that not the
way it is supposed to be," he asked, "between a man and a woman;
neither is complete without the other?"
58 Strong Dog nodded in agreement. I
have always been his voice," he answered, "now he has found another to
speak for him. It is good.
59 Did you know the Council of Warlocks
accepted his application? They're going to let him take The Tests
next week. I will be permitted to interpret for him, if any
member of the board does not know sign. But they accepted your
suggestion, and sent a petition to The First Speaker asking that all
Warlocks and High Damons be required to learn sign.
60 It was a marvelous idea you had. Sign
can be seen for a great distance, and also cannot be heard! Our
people can communicate at night, without the enemy hearing!"
61 "I am surprised," commented The Voice, "no one thought of it before."
62 Silent Dog passed his Tests, became a
Warlock, and was assigned to his brother's command. The City Warlock
may have gotten rid of Strong Dog in the city, but The District Warlock
put him on patrol duty to the outlying villages.
63 He was more of a nuisance to The City
Warlock here, than ever! He could legally search wagons, with
warrants raid farms, and even keep The City Warlock's men out of the
district.
64 The City Warlock didn't like this at all,
but according to The Law, there was nothing he could do. And he
wasn't having an easy time in the city, either.
65 Stolen goods kept disappearing from his
warehouse, to be returned to their rightful owners. Hoods sent to
attack merchants who would not pay the extra protection fee
disappeared; so did men sent to grab young women off the streets.
66 The City Speaker was becoming more and more
irate. His little kingdom was crumbling. Men who were terrified of him
but a month before, now openly defied him in public. Even some of
his own people were not paying him his due, and he had no idea the
worst was coming.
67 Sweet Blossom and her people had by now,
uncovered his entire foul operation, and they were planning to bring it
to a swift conclusion. In one violent night they struck
throughout the city.
68 Hundreds of drug dealers were dragged from
their homes and beheaded in the streets, after their poison had been
burned in their own fireplaces. Eight houses of pleasure were
raided and over one-hundred captives, mostly women and a few young boys
were freed.
69 The following morning was a Worship Day,
and as The Voice marched to The Temple, cheering crowds followed
him. As they entered The Temple, The City Speaker and City
Warlock were waiting.
70 "You cheer a criminal," cried The
City Warlock, "one who takes The Law into his own hands. I am The
Law in this city! If they suspected evil, it should have been
brought to me! No one has the right to go beyond The Law!"
71 "When The Law," cried The Voice, "is in the
hands of the lawless, then the people must defend The Law. When
criminals hide their evil behind the call for justice, then the people
must act. The one who has done evil in this city has escaped The Law,
but he will not escape justice.
72 He shall run into the night like a
terrified animal, and in the darkness will debowel himself, and lie in
his own blood, pleading for help. But the only ones that will
come will be the things of The Darkness, to feed on the last sparks of
his flesh."
73 "You heard!" screamed The City Speaker.
"You heard! He means me! He threatens me! Arrest him!"
74 The City Warlock and his men tried to go
forward, but the crowd rose up against them, and drove them back.
The Voice left The Temple. The City Speaker was furious.
75 "Unless we act now," he screamed, "we are
finished. Gather what men you have left. Tonight you will attack the
house of Great Bear. When you leave, I do not want one person left
alive. Kill them all, every man, woman, and child! When we are
through, everyone else in the city will be so terrified, no one will
dare rise against us again!"
Page 253