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"Get the hells out of here," I snapped at her, stifling my fury at Glee Why in heavens had she sent ic? "Why are you just standing here? Go back to Sky, da arced up fro back down to strike the secondIdiot scriveners Like the first masker, this one stumbled Stopped Afor purchase on the steps until he could h time to recoup, however Wrath Arameri, a naked sword in his hand, swept past us at the head of twin lines of soldiers One line split and converged around us to protect Remath and the rest of us The other line Wrath directed to assist the guards at the foot of the steps Wrath fell in at Reed her back toward the daystone steps Both ht into a thicket of pikes and swords From the men’s reactions, however -- or lack thereof -- it was already clear the bloould only slow them down, not stop them or kill them They were already dead

"What in deaze, and my mouth went dry: a third masker had appeared, this one on the steps of the nearby Itempan White Hall He wore the uniform of an Order-Keeper, but unlike the first two, his mask was the deep splashy crins and an open eful fury This an to run toward us -- and with the crowd thinning and the guards occupied, nothing stood in his way

Nothing but ods, no," I whispered What could I do? En pulsed hot against the skin of rabbed for it; then I re, so was it But I was only th …

No I would not kill my oldest friend, not for this And I would not let my new friends, even if one of theod, daic I was still the wind and caprice, even bound into dying flesh I would fear no mere mortal, no matter hoerful

So I bareda challenge, I ran down the steps to meet the criue, a com Dath="27">

This esting fouled rivers, the strange-angled eyes like crookedof lips and teeth with a dark pit of an opening beyond which I could not see its wearer’s face -- isted, a wail of uts whispered tothe Gods’ War I thought of the evils I’d done since -- soe or cruelty Forgetting uilt, I stumbled to a halt

I felt a jolt Sudden restriction and pain Blinking, I looked down and found that the man had made a blade of his hand and had thrust it into my body at thedown at this when Dekarta reachedhis head in a wide, vicious arc Sound and force flooded froy of his skin and blood and bone Better than ods could have done Where the power struck the crie The mask split down the center with a faint crack, and an instant later he flew backward a good fifty feet, vanishing a crowd I could not see precisely where he landed because then Deka’s power struck the steps of the Salon, which erupted, shattering into rubble and bursting upward in an arcing spray

There could be no precision to such a strike Guards and soldiers went flying, screah all this I saw another white-masked man, one I hadn’t noticed, run into the barrier of broken, flying stone and tumble back But as the dust and rubble returned to earth, he sat up

Ne ht of et to his feet and coth over the channel of rubble that Deka had created I willed a warning, since I could not muster the breath, and to my astonishment Nemmer seemed to hear me She turned andcarried like a child, buer than me He ran up the steps to the rest of the Araun to hurry up the curving steps toward the nearer gate Froo faster, but I couldn’t lift e It was like my first day as a mortal, when Shahar had summoned me to this realm as the cat, or the day two thousand years before that, when Iteiven hters, who looked equal parts horrified and elated at the power she held