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SHE took the stairs in two juus&039;s shout She ran past the parked cars and out into the street, turning doard the water Of course Dana would be headed toward the water
"Where are you going?" To beside her
"Carnwennen the er
He stuht up to her "Fae shit," he said
"The Gray Lords," Anna agreed "Carnwennen the eas the cost"
"Zapped," he said, pulling out his cell phone "Yeah, Angus The fae got to her Best I can figure it, they&039;re sending Anna out after Dana-can&039;t think they&039;d be concerned with the vampire who escaped, and he&039;s the only other player in this She&039;s speaking goobledygook, but it sounds to me like maybe they&039;ve promised her it&039;ll save Charles"
"Stay with her Help her if you can" Angus sounded frustrated "He&039;s going to killhappens to her"
"Charles?" Anna asked through the haze that kept her running away fro about Bran"
She us said "Moira says if Dana did this, that probably it&039;ll stop with her death But fae are hard to kill"
"Oh, I think that the dagger they gave Anna will kill a fae all right," Toic And it has a nas that have a nager called-Carnwellen?"
Angus repeated the question for the only one at Arthur&039;s house who couldn&039;t just listen in to the whole conversation "Moira, do you know of a dagger called Carnwellen?"
"Carnwennen?" Moira squeaked
"Probably Toer Little White Hilt, it means Arthur used it to hunt the Very Black Witch"
"It has a white hilt," observed Tom "Doesn&039;t look all that little to h to be a short sword instead of a dagger"
"It couldn&039;t have been too little," said Moira, when Tom&039;s reply had been repeated for her "He supposedly cut the witch in half with it"
Anna saw Toht be good for sous told hiently "Never trust the fae"
Anna frowned, "The troll told us that"
"Told you what?" To Dana than in repeating herself A paved trail broke off fro her to a stop "Anna, are we going to Dana&039;s boat?"
"I don&039;t know," she told hier "That way"
"We could have taken a car, you know?" he said, folding his cell phone closed with one hand and stuffing it into a pocket
He rong "No, no car"
His eyebroered "Of course not Fairy ood look at her wrist ht those would keep you safe"
"I have to go," she told him intensely "Now"
"This is the Burke-Gilman Trail," he told her "If you are headed to Dana&039;s boat, this trail goes right by her dock It&039;s adown the road-and we&039;reNotpath in the "
Then he let her go Let her decide
She ran down the trail, stretching her legs and letting the hunt take her Wild Hunt It was early , but the darkness still kept watch over them, darkness and the faintest sliver of the moon It was alht, but there was still light to hunt by tonight
THEY were nearly to the docks when the geas faded She could see Dana&039;s houseboat-but was able to force her legs to walk Once she had slowed, it wasn&039;t such a hard thing to stop altogether The ht, because it seemed like her hands and feet returned to her control before any other part of her body
"Toin Mother," he said "You&039;re back with ht What happened to you?"
She told hiain
"Dead bodies talking, eh?" he said "Nasty" Then he called Moira and Anna told the story to the witch-and presuathered around the phone
"She who takes the dead" Moira sounded exhausted "That would probably be one of the Morrigan Babd or maybe Nemain, probably not Macha Sorry, you don&039;t need that My concentration&039;s shot They want you to kill Dana Why?"
"She broke her word," Angus said "Now she&039;s got to be an exa Anna to do it"
"Wild Hunt," Anna said "They called the Wild Hunt, I think that&039;s what they said Some of it was a little difficult to interpret It sounded like the hunt was just to be er-however enchanted-after a wous said heavily, to whoever else was listening-or maybe just to himself "I don&039;t think she was meant to succeed"
She is Nimue, the Lady of the Lake Brother Wolf spoke to her in clear words for the first time His voice sounded like Charles, but not quite and it thundered through their bond
After the words, he added a flood of information that had no words Pain that he tried to keep veiled froer was part of a treasure stolen by Arthur-including Excalibur, which Dana now had Worry and command-she was to return to Arthur&039;s apartment and wait for the Marrok She was to stay away froer to Dana, for safekeeping
He thought she was only a warning, e
And then Brother Wolf was gone again-and the bond felt weaker
"Never trust the fae," Anna said She believed Brother Wolf But she was the only one who had heard hioodness, or they would not let her do what she needed to
"Moira How is Charles?"
"Not good"
She knew that, felt it while Brother Wolf co does he have?"
"I can help for maybe fifteen minutes more-and then it&039;s just a matter of time He&039;s in a lot of pain, I think, and that doesn&039;t help"
"If he-" She had to suck in her breath and try again "If he had died before you got there, would you have been able to tell what had killed him? That it was a death curse? That a fae had laid it upon him?"
"No," Moira told her "I can&039;t tell who laid it upon him now If he were dead, probably no one could even tell for certain that it was hting it-"
"And Dana had no way to know that Angus and I both know that she&039;s broken her word to Bran She would have thought Charles was the only one" She was talking to herself "How far out is the Marrok?"
She wasn&039;t even sure Bran could help She&039;d learned he wasn&039;t infallible, just scary
"He&039;ll be landing at Sea-Tac in ten h," Anna said She ended the call
"What are you planning?" Tom asked
"I think that&039;s too cerebral a na it by ear But I think this is Charles&039;s only chance" It was
Too ahead"
"And if he doesn&039;t?"
Toether, or do you want ht about it "She likes o better if you coain "But let me borrow your jacket" People underestimated her all the time Maybe the Gray Lords had, too
THE water was black under the floating dock, and Anna had no desire whatsoever to play She knocked at the door, glad for Tom at her back
"Who is it?" Dana&039;s voice sounded as if she were standing beside the to raise her voice-Dana could hear her "I have so-it depends upon you"
"I&039;h the boat and up the stairs to the studio
The lights were on, and otherwise the scene was very much like the one the fae had set the first ti that Anna could not see The painting the Marrok had sent was hung on the left-hand wall, all by itself A sword leaned casually against the same wall, but closer to the far side of the room than to the middle It looked very much like the one Arthur had shown her, had claimed to be Excalibur From what Brother Wolf told her, this one was likely to be the real thing Its duplicate was shattered all over Arthur&039;s treasure roo her mate
"The Gray Lords sent me here to attempt to kill you," Anna told the fae wo
"Brother Wolf thinks I&039;er," Anna continued, "sent here to warn you that if you do this again, the Wild Hunt itself will be sent to you He believes I&039;ve been sent to bring you their gift And for you to kill" She took a deep breath "And I think he is right"
The fae looked up fro She was beautiful Not a cold, flawless beauty, but striking This was a woer and fierce in battle Anna felt the same fascination for Dana that had hit her the very first time she&039;d seen her
Anna took a deep breath and closed her right hand over the steel ain, Dana was still beautiful-but Anna didn&039;t feel as though she was being sucked into her beauty anyles amused her "Who is Brother Wolf?"