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ONE

I’m a liar and a cheat and a coward, but I will never, ever, let a friend down Unless of course not letting them down requires honesty, fair play, or bravery

I’ve always found hitting a s This can sometimes be accomplished by dint of a simple ruse Classics such as, “What’s that over there?” work surprisingly often, but for truly optimal results it’s best if the person doesn’t ever know you were there

“Ow! Jesu! What the hell did you do that for?” Alain DeVeer turned, cla it away bloody

When the person you hit doesn’t have the grace to fall over, it’s generally best to have a backup plan I dropped what remained of the vase, turned, and ran In“oofff” and leftover his prone and senseless forfor blood

I crashed back through Lisa’s door and sla myself for the impact

“What the hell?” Lisa sat in the bed, silken sheets flowing off her nakedness like water

“Uh” Alain has and scraping my heels over the tiles The trick is to never rush for the bolt You’ll be fu door Brace for the impact; when that’s done, sla hi back on his feet and I nearly got the door handle for breakfast despite my precautions

“Jal!” Lisa was out of bed noearing nothing but the light and shade through the shutters Stripes suited her Sweeter than her elder sister, sharper than her younger sister Even then I wanted her, even with her murderous brother held back by just an inch of oak and withby the moment

I ran to the largestand tore the shutters open “Say sorry to your brother forover the case” The door started to shudder as Alain pounded the far side

“Alain?” Lisa ed to look both furious with me and terrified at the same time

I didn’t stop to reply but vaulted down into the bushes, which were thankfully the fragrant rather than thorny variety Dropping into a thorn bush can lead to no end of grief

Landing is always i and it’s not how you start that matters so much as how you finish In this instance, I finished concertinaed, heels to arse, chin to knees, half an azalea bush up s, but with no bones broken I foughtfor breath and hoping the staff were too busy with predawn chores to be poised and ready to hunt me down

I took off, across the forht path through all the little diales of thyme and whatnot Somewhere back at the house a hound bayed, and that put the fear in ood runner any day of the week Scared shitless I’o, in the “border incident” with Scorron, I ran fro old destriers Theany orders I find the i away is not how fast you run but simply that you run faster than the nextthe Scorrons down, and that left poor Jal running for his life with hardly twenty years under his belt and a great long list of things still to do—with the DeVeer sisters near the top and dying on a Scorron lance not even e In any event, the borderlands aren’t the place to stretch a warhorse’s legs, and I kept a gap between us by running through a boulder field at breakneck speed Without warning I foundinto the back of a pitched battle between a ulars and the band of Red March skir on behalf of in the first place I rocketed into the midst of it all, flailed around withto escape, and when the dust settled and the blood stopped squirting, I discovered eous attack that showed coard for my own safety

So here’s the thing: Bravery may be observed when a person trareater terror And those whose greatest terror is being thought a coward are always brave I, on the other hand, a smile, and the ability to lie fro a hero and of fooling most of the people most of the time