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Page 304
Kelto shook his head.
"What the hell were you doing out there?" Jake fumed. "I gave orders that everyone was supposed to be housed in the village last night. Any one of my men could have mistaken you for one of those damn things and filled you full of holes. Or worse than that, you could have run into one of 'em and you wouldn't be any better off than that old lady over there."
"I have nothing to fear from your so-called creature, Constable Madden. They believe that I am one of them."
"How do I know you're not one of them?" Jake growled.
"I think he's telling the truth, Jake. Everything he's told me so far has checked out."
"What about the old lady?" Jake insisted. "Isn't she supposed to be one of the chosen?"
"She thought she was." I tried to slip in a sly grin, but it didn't work.
Jake was glowering at me again. "If these so-called true believers are supposed to be safe from this damn thing, how come the old lady is sitting over there very, very dead?"
"The thing you keep referring to as the creature didn't do that," Kelto said calmly.
"Then who did?" Madden was right up in the young man's face.
"The Emissary!"
Madden stared back at the young man, his

 
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