Page 49 (2/2)

“Back up!” shouted Da “Faster!”

The rear car was alon they’d passed pulled across, blocking the way Maskedshivering as they ran Men with guns

Dauns that this hat he had feared all along

An ambush

“Out! Out!” he shouted, pointing at the armed men “Shoot!”

Around hi car doors for cover A second later they opened fire, the deeper boom of their pistols accompanied by the sharp tap-tap-tap of the new, compact machine rifles that were so uards liked guns, but they had practiced with the south of the Wall

“Not the crowd!” roared Touchstone “Only arets!”

Their attackers were not so careful They had gone under their vehicles, behind a post box, and down on the footpath beside a loall of flower boxes, and were firing wildly

Bullets richocheted off the street and the ar screeches There was noise everywhere, harsh, confused sound, acounfire The crowd, so eager to rush forward only seconds before, had beco to flee

Daine of the rear car

“The river,” he shouted “Go through the square and down the Warden Steps We have two boats there You’ll lose any pursuit in the fog”

“We can fight our way back to the Embassy!” retorted Touchstone

“This is too well planned! The police have turned, or enough of theet out of Corvere Out of Ancelstierre!”

“No!” shouted Sabriel “We haven’t finished—”

She was cut off as Damed violently pushed her and Touchstone over and leaped above thee black cylinder that was tu smoke behind it

A bomb

Daht and threw it in one swift h

The boh explosive and pieces of metal, it killed Damed instantly The blast broke everyfor half a mile and momentarily deafened and blinded everyone within a hundred yards But it was the thousands ofand screah the air, to bounce off stone or h flesh

Silence followed the explosion, save for the roar of the burning gas fro had been thrown back by the force of the blast, which had cleared a great circle open to the sky Rays of weak sunshine filtered through, to illuminate a scene of terrible destruction

There were bodies strewn all around and under the cars, not one overcoated guard still on his or her feet Even the car’s armored ere broken, and the occupants were slumped in death

The surviving assassins waited for a few minutes before they crawled out froratulating one another, their weapons cradled casually under their arined was debonair style

The talk and laughter were too loud, but they didn’t notice Their senses were battered, their minds in shock Not only frohts that drew closer andalive in the midst of so much death and destruction

The real shock came fro and a Queen had been slain on the streets of Corvere Now it had happened again—and they had done the deed

PART

ONE

Chapter One

A House Besieged

THERE WAS ANOTHER fog, far away fro of Corvere Six hundred miles to the north, across the Wall that separated Ancelstierre froic really began and Ancelstierre’s y failed

This fog was different frorey of a stor had been spun froic and was born on a hilltop far from any water It survived and spread despite the heat of a late-spring afternoon, which should have burned it into nothing

Ignoring sun and light breezes, the fog spread fro out in advance of the ue on from the hill, one of these tendrils separated

into a cloud that rose high in the air and crossed the hty river Ratterlin Once across, it sank to sit like a toad on the eastern bank, and new fog begun to puff out of it

Soon the two ar shrouded both western and eastern shores of the Ratterlin, though the sun still shone on the river in between

Both river and fog sped at their very different paces towards the Long Cliffs The river dashed along, getting faster and faster as it headed to the great waterfall, where it would plunge downIt thickened and rose higher as it rolled on

A few yards before it reached the Long Cliffs, the fog stopped, though it still grew thicker and rose higher, threatening the island that sat in the e of the waterfall An island with high white walls that enclosed a house and gardens

The fog did not spread across the river, nor lean in too far as it rose There were unseen defenses that held it back, that kept the sun shining on the white walls, the gardens, and the red-tiled house The fog was a weapon, but it was only the first e The battle lines were drawn and the House invested

For the whole river-circled isle was Abhorsen’s House Hoe was to maintain the borders of Life and Death The Abhorsen, who used necroic, but as neither necroic sorcerer The Abhorsen, who sent any Dead who trespassed in Life back to whence they came

The creator of the fog knew that the Abhorsen was not actually in the House The Abhorsen and her husband, the King, had been lured across the Wall and would presumably be dealt with there That was part of her Master’s plan, long since laid but only recently begun in earnest

The plan had h the very heart and reason for it lay in the Old Kingdoees were ele, subtleto come to fruition