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We pushed through a curtain of hanging beads and entered a roohter and considerably more crowded than the first A burlypeople to one of two doors "Fighters to the left, spectators to the right!" he shouted "Place your bets in the parlor!"

I could hear voices yelling a few rooms away, and a moment later the crowd parted to allow threethe third, as unconscious and bleeding Whistles and catcalls followed them

"That’s what losers look like!" theinto a side room, "is what cowards look like!"

I peeked into the roouard stood miserably for all to see They were covered in tar and feathers

"Let thehters e, hter or a spectator?"

I felt ine as about to happen: I wasn’t just going to tame this hollow, but do it in front of a rowdy and potentially hostile audience--and then try and get out I foundthat it wasn’t too injured, because I had a feeling I’d need its strength to clear us an exit These peculiars weren’t going to give up their new toy without a fight

"A fighter," I said "To really control it, I’et close"

Emma met my eyes and smiled You can do this, her smile said, and I knew, in that hters, buoyed with new confidence, Sharon and E behind me

That confidence lasted approxith of time it took me to walk into the room and notice the blood that was puddled and smeared all over the floors and walls A river of it led down a light-filled hall and out an open door, through which I could see another crowd and, just beyond thee

A shrill call ca suht He was stripped to the waist and wore a plain white athering his courage Then he tipped back his head and raised his hand above it In his hand he held a sainst a wall But I couldn’t help myself

Slowly the man poured black liquid from the vial into each of his mask’s eye holes Then he dropped the eroan For a few seconds he seemed paralyzed, but then his body shuddered and two cones of white light shot froht rooht he was alone, turned toward us in surprise His eye-beams arced over our heads and the wall above us sizzled

"Just passing through!" Sharon said, the tone of which ed to say, Howdy, friend! and Please don’t kill us with those things! at the sah, then," theto fade, and just as he turned away they flickered and winked out He walked down the hall and went out the door, leaving tisps of sone I ventured a look at the wallpaper above our heads A pair of carae marks traced the path his eyes had made across the wall Thank God he hadn’t looked o a step farther," I said to Sharon, "I think you’d better explain"

"Aive the, and when it wears off you’re left weaker than before If you --until you take ht, but to function as a peculiar You beco it" He nodded to the roo voices created an odd counterpoint to the full-throated shouts outside "It was the greatest trick the wights ever pulled,as they’re addicted to ambrosia"

I peeked into the side rooht a glimpse of souns

"What happened with that ht is a side effect," Sharon said "Another is that, over a period of years, the ambro melts your face That’s how you know the hard-core users--they wear e"

As Eust, a voice inside the room summoned us "Hello out there," the dealer called "Coo--"

Sharon poked my shoulder and hissed, "You’re a slave, remember?"

"Uh, yes sir," I said, and went as far as the door

Thein a little chair in a roo stillness, one ars crossed delicately at the knee His gunmen occupied two corners of the room, and in another stood a wooden chest on wheels

"Don’t be afraid," the dealer said, beckoning me in "Your friends can come, too"