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Page 131
of Rhiannon quickly, and he reconsidered a possible hiding place, several miles farther into the forest.
Madog cursed Mallt viciously while his eyes searched the area immediately around him. There was no hiding place worth the nameonly a few stands of bracken where the trees thinned and where one tree had fallen. Muttering angrily, he started off in the direction of the safe hide he knew, but now he kept looking for a suitable spot, and before he had gone a quarter of a mile, he was rewarded.
Off to the right was a tiny stream. Beside it, a giant tree had fallen many years before. The combination of extra water and light had encouraged the growth of a dense thicket Madog wormed his way in with great caution, treading on moss which would spring back without recording his footsteps for longer than a few minutes and lifting brunches out of the way so that they would not break and mark his trail. Sure enough, on the stream side of the long-dead tree, the earth had been hollowed out.
Madog set Rhiannon down and began to increase the size of the hollow and deepen it. When he was satisfied with what he had done, he thrust Rhiannon into the space. Then he packed over her the earth and debris he had scraped out of the hollow. Madog took considerable care that she should not smother, for that would be killing her directly. Finally, he restored the outer area as well as he could to its original condition. When he was sure no casual search would detect his work, he eased himself backward out of the thicket, cautiously, erasing the few footprints he had made.
It was only with difficulty that Madog restrained himself from jumping and skipping with joy on his way back to Aber. As soon as he had had Rhiannon gagged and helpless, perhaps unconscious, he had felt the curse lift away from him. He was sure now that he had done the right thing, sure that as soon as Rhiannon was dead he would be permanently free of her evil

 
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