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"If you’d stayed behind, you’d have been killed, or Ty’Lis would have you in his dungeon, too," Coyote rean to read again--or at leasthere?"
The fox wonored him
Coyote stood up and brushed off the seat of his pants
"Wayland S today"
Kitsune flinched, then looked at hi?"
"So it seems But if you wanted to end-Born, there’s no one better to talk to than that old woman All of the faithful will listen to her"
Jade eyes narrowed "What are you talking about, cousin?"
Coyote grinned "Isn’t it obvious? Uncle has a plan to free the Bascoend-Born or not I wonder if you’ll be happy to see him, should you come face-to-face Even better, I wonder if he’ll be happy to see you"
Kitsune set the book down and slowly rose to her feet "You never knohen to be quiet, do you?"
"Gets reed "So, what now, cousin?"
Her anguish lay revealed for agri to be free, then it’s ti to burn away naws at me, but I don’t ever want to have to see my reflection in his eyes"
Coyote nodded appreciatively "The truth It’s usually so unbeco in a trickster, but it works for you"
Kitsune strode toward him "It’s our nature to be selfish But this is too much I’ve used your weakness to shield me, but the Atlanteans have slain too many of us, and they mean to murder the rest They won’t stop until all the Borderkind are dead It’s tiht or die, Coyote"
He raised his eyebrows "Are you sure? I was hoping to put it off for a while"
"I’o to war"
"And what’s that?"
"There are others like you, hiding, or si theht The time has cohed
It had been a perfectly lovely, lazy day Now Kitsune wanted hined for a trickster
"Shit," Coyote said "Couldn’t you have si for a few more days?"
Kitsune smiled and slid a hand behind his head She pulled him toward her and their foreheads touched
"Good dog," she said
He cursed at her, and she laughed as she preceded him from the cave Despite his pique, he was elated to hear that sound Kitsune had been her own prisoner for too long Now she would run free, and wild
Wayland Smith walked betorlds He had always done so and hoped that he alould This was his power and his legend The Borderkind thought hiued the point, but he was not like them They could walk in torlds, while he could travel in es, it had become more and more difficult for him to cross those borders What the sorcerers had done in creating the Veil was unnatural, and it had begun to erode his ability to pass froht not have alar
There were myriad other realities and worlds layered one upon the other--a great ic used to create the Veil could wear away at his ht one day find himself trapped in one of them, unable to journey beyond Perhaps those unaware of the existence of the worlds beyond could be content with such restriction, but he was the Wayfarer, and it would be his death
The Veil had becoo, S it down
Now the Atlanteans and their dah Council were behind the actions of Ty’Lis, they wanted to seal off the legendary world from the ordinary forever, to exterminate the Borderkind and destroy the Doors Wayland Smith simply could not allow that
Whatever it required, he had to see that King Hunyadi was victorious and that the Bascombes survived to fulfill their destiny One of the Basco himself Not that he wished har as one lived, his plans could still bear fruit He had spent long years laying the foundations He would not be thwarted now
S a mist-shrouded path, one of the Gray Corridors that wound in and out of the worlds, allowing him to move not only between parallel realities but between locations in a single world
The Wayfarer paused Mist clouded his vision He raised his cane and, like a dowsing rod, it tugged him forward and to the left, and he could feel that he was close to his destination
After a dozen steps, thein a copse of trees whose branches kept off the worst of the southern heat The battalion led by Captain Beck was on theas they o past
Then S his only shade, and set off toward the troops Soon, a sroup of soldiers broke away from the battalion and started toward him Several archers nocked arrows and drew back their bows, prepared to fire
The Wayfarer kept
One of the archers loosed an arrow--by dint of nerves rather than purpose, he surmised--and Smith knocked it frost the troops, and then he saw the tall, lithe fore She waved the defenders back into the ranks, then stood waiting as Smith approached
A moment later, Blue Jay extricated himself from the marchers One by one he was joined by others of his kin--first Li, the Guardian of Fire, and then the odd pairing of Cheval Bayard and Leicester Grindylow Cheval wore her hu deliciously to her figure as the breeze caressed her
Smith did not pick up his pace The four Borderkind and Captain Beck waited patiently for hiht feet away and let several moments pass as the rear flank of the battalion marched past
"You’re ready, then?" Smith asked Blue Jay