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"When I told you earlier that the Oracle had saidthat had been taken from the Underlords, and I h you knew so about ru his tablet on the table, and exits the kitchen

I jump off the counter "You said you would tell me what you know," I call after hi froe I hear a door open and close The light frolance down at the screen and see that he has entered the words abecie caeluine The second word is Latin for sky, the first word is one I don’t recognize I scan the rest of the page and see the words: 0 results found Did youfor, he wasn’t havingback and I look away fro the kitchen "I needed to be certain that Siht he ell out of range, and yet he stillin your room this afternoon Trust rove"

"I know," I say "But he obviously has sources beyond good hearing if he knew about rab Daphne I told no one about that"

I rerove just before I left Perhaps he had so me, or he himself had doubled back to the house and had seenI should have beenSimon, as Dax had instructed

"What is he?" I ask Dax "Simon isn’t an Underlord, but he’s most certainly not human"

"I don’t knohat Simon is, but he doesn’t look a day older than when I first o He could be three hundred years old, for all we know My best guess is that he’s a satyr cloaked in the forhtened senses and slow aging Not to etables But it doesn’t account for his certain powers of persuasion, if you knohat I mean"

"I do," I say

Noa lord of the Underreal elios like that And the way I couldn’t move just because he toldine ainst his persuasiveness I look around at Sie full of cars and how easily he had procured new identities for us, and realize just how useful that kind of poould be

I can’t help wondering why he’s living in a house with three young Underlords and not off ruling a country somewhere Then I re" on my quest Does even he know more about my true purpose than I do? And why hadn’t Ren or the Court bothered to fill me, of all the people involved, in on the details?

"What is a Cypher?" I ask Dax "And why does the Court want it?"

Dax sits at the table, turns off his tablet, and sticks it inside his knapsack, which sits on one of the chairs He gestures for me to take a seat across from him Instead, I sit on Simon’s polished countertop and let Brim climb back onto my shoulders She purrs contentedly next to my ear