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Of course, weto pull the da like thetopeople, who luckily appeared to be used to horrifically bad driving, I saw security forces converging on us frouess the guards hadn’t got thejust died hard They were so used to letting their lords and masters do whatever the hell they wanted that they just stood there with confused looks on their faces as we barreled past, despite having a dozen yelling guards right on our tail

"Howa spell that caused the portcullis on our side to co down as soon as we shot past it

"Two!"

"Shit And the outer wall makes three, and there’s three above that damned palace"

"That leaves three"

"No, two The palace is on the sixth level, not beyond it We don’t need to pass through the sixth gate"

Yeah, but we needed the fourth and fifth, and I didn’t think ere going to get theher up on the walls, and the guards were getting closer, and the warren of streetsby alleys on both sides, andout of theet one more

Of course, I could be wrong

A couple of guards stepped out in front of the next gate, aretting run down But not too far to get blown off the street with a single spell We shot through the gate, which they hadn’t bothered to bring down, because of course ere going to stop when politely asked to do so

Of course ere

Our led And wondered if I was going ely

"Yeah, maybe," I breathed, because suddenly I couldn’t even see the palace any to figure out where, exactly, I’d taken a wrong turn, because I couldn’t re at all But the streets up here were even worse than in the souk, a tangled es, like a bandit’s dreaht And the palace, when I saw it at all, didn’t seelibolts and ran over every freaking thing--

And then plunged straight into a athered in a sate, which two of the down But it looked liketime and weren’t in the best repair, because they appeared to be having trouble But they clearly didn’t intend that we get any farther A storh the air at us and then burst into a blinding halo just beyond our ca up a shield

It kept us fro fried, but there were toounder this kind of pounding, and it looked like they’d finally gotten

the gateand--

And screw it

"Are you crazy?" Caleb said when I stopped trying to hold the half-crazed caave them a little smack on the butt with the reins instead

I didn’t answer, because I didn’t have a good one, and because we’d just ju over, knocking several guards to the ground in the process and possibly running over a third Although I didn’t see how since I was pretty daround And then ere hitting back down, hard enough to have ate, the caht out in front of their bodies, anddown to where ours were barely visible over the top of the chariot

And I still felt those wicked spikes, ate outside, brush my curls as we passed

I didn’t care I sed blood, too busy trying not to fall out onelse I didn’t even try to steer anymore; it was virtually impossible at this speed anyway, and besides, the ca I just held on, the little leg brace on the side of the chariot digging into h,and ca--

And the palace suddenly reappearing in front of us, up a long stretch of hill

There was yet another gate in front of it, a fli else, and a couple of white-robed guys with fancy gold belts who looked a lot prettier than the blue-robed fiends behind us But judging by their expressions, they were also uess not tooRosier’s palace

Or if they did, these weren’t the guys to stop the look at us, out-of-control ca on us now, as the guards converged into a single long line behind us And then they juate, with shards of precious wood flying and several planters crashing and a swaying lantern overhead shattering