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The encounter with the Ghost had given her more than she had hoped. They had the monetary reward,
completely unexpected and they had the safe-route across these hills for their people and theirs alone.
Provided, of course, that none of their people managed to have themselves sent here from Carthell
Abbey.
Therein lay the puzzle that kept her lying abed.Carthell Abbey? Now what in the name of all that is
holy could Carthell Abbey have to do with a murderous Ghost? The Church had never dealt with
ghosts at all, except to exorcise them; at least not that she had ever heard.
Well, the obvious answer was a simple one. The Church officials knew that the Ghost had been bound
up on the Hill, and they used him, rather callously, as their convenient executioner. The Church was
supposed to remand criminals to the civil authorities for trial and punishment, but everyone knew that a
criminal Priest was dealt with within the Church itself. And in using the Ghost as their executioner, the
Church kept its hands officially clean of blood. Cynical, yes, but the Church was full of cynics.
An obvious answer, except for a few problems. The first was that the minions of the Churchshould have
been under spiritual obligation to exorcise the Ghost once they learned he was here not use him!
Especially since he had managed to kill one perfectly innocent Priest already, at least according to Annie
Cook.
Well, maybe theydidtry to exorcise him and thatwas how the Priest was killed. Maybe they
figured since they couldn't be rid of him, they might as well use him. The Church employs other
executioners, after all this would just be one rather strange executioner .
Maybe. But if the Church was using this spirit, they weredefinitely under moral obligation to warn
travelers about his existence! Yet there were no warning signs, and nothing telling a traveler that this was
a dangerous road. There was no guard on the way up Skull Hill. What few warnings there were, at least
on the Westhaven side, were haphazard at best. If the people of Westhaven had been charged with
warning travelers, they were doing a damn poor job of it.
That brought everything back to the same question. Why would the Church haveanything to do with a
spirit like the Ghost? They should do any number of things that they had not; and should not be doing any
number of things that they were.
She rolled over and poked her nose through the curtains on the wagon-side of the bed. Jonny was fitting
a small pile of silver coins the last, from the look of things into the hem of the curtain above the
sink. That was one of the caches she already knew about, and as he caught the sound of the bed
creaking, he turned and grinned at her.
"All hidden?" she asked. He nodded.
"Its ab-bout noon," he told her. "If w-we move out n-now, w-we should b-be at the Abbey b-by
sunset."
She nodded, and swung her legs down over the side of the bed, pushing the bed-curtains back to either
side. "And you think we should go there. You think that we might find something out about this vendetta
the Church seems to have with us?" she asked, as her bare feet hit the wooden floor with a dull thump.
He handed her a wooden comb, and cut bread andcheese while she washed her face and dealt with the
tangle of her hair. "Th-the Gh-ghost made a p-point of m-mentioning it," he said, thoughtfully. "L-like he
c-couldn't t-talk about s-something, b-but w-was trying t-to g-give us a c-clue."
"Hmm." She accepted bread-and-cheese with a nod of thanks. "There is something very strange going
on here," she observed. "Do you remember, when I was describing how Nightingale went off towards
Kingsford and I said we were looking towards Gradford, he said that we were likelier to find the source
of our troubles than she was?"
'"M-more l-likely to b-bear fruit,' he said," Kestrel agreed. "I d-don't know whether he m-meant the
Abbey or G-Gradford, b-but I th-think we n-need to s-stop at the Abbey."
"It's a start," Gwyna replied, popping the last of her breakfast into her mouth, and licking a crumb of
cheese from her thumb. "You know the proverb. 'Soonest begun, is soonest done.' Right?"
Kestrel kissed her nose, and gave her a playful shove in the direction of the drivers seat. As she crawled
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