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"In all my years, I have never met a more unpleasant h fu out of the foyer and into his audience rooht have to take a second choice of seat this time, for the Baron plopped into his stuffed chair But then the huge er slipped in behind hi his custoh fumed "Me! The Baron of Palmaris, friend of Danube Brock Ursal hih," Bildeborough explained, slapping his hands together "All polite, with this De&039;Unnero creature hopeful that the transition would be smooth as he took his place in St Precious He said that we er sucked in his breath, recognizing that so " - despite the apparent shortcos and cri his feet and punching at the air The exertion overwheler was quick to his side, helping hih went on "He does not know of Connor&039;s death, I ah he will certainly learn of it soon He offered to pardon Connor, on my word that Connor would be er worked hard to keep the e His face was puffy and bloodred, his eyes wide

"The best thing that we can do is to go to the King," Roger calmly said "We have allies that the new abbot cannot overcome We can clear Connor&039;s name - indeed, we can put all the blas"

The reo," he said "To the south, with all speed Tell my attendants to prepare my coach"

De&039;Unnero had not underestih in the least His forceful dearner both infor of the Baron&039;s political leaning, and in De&039;Unnero&039;s sharp eyes, their conversation had been extree showed that he, too, ht prove an open enemy of the Church, more troublesome than either his nephew or Abbot Dobrinion

And De&039;Unnero was sh to understand the true culprit behind the removal of those troubles

For, despite his words at the , De&039;Unnero did indeed know of the death of Connor Bildeborough, and he knew, too, that a youngwith the body of a ry abbot la him on the one in search of Avelyn, this issue would have been settled long ago, with the gemstones returned and Avelyn and all of his friends dead How h would be to him, and to the Church!

For now Markwart and the Church had a proble to those monks of St Precious whom De&039;Unnero had already interviewed, and those of St-Mere-Abelle who had witnessed the near battle in St Precious&039; court-yard, Baron Bildeborough had thought of Connor as a son The ac-cusation of murder had no doubt been laid at the Church&039;s door, and Bildeborough, whose influence went out far from Palmaris, would not be silent on this matter

The new abbot was not surprised, then, when one of his flock, a fellow monk who had made the journey with De&039;Unnero fro post to report that a carriage had left Chasewind Manor, riding south, right out of Pal the river road

The new abbot&039;s other spies soon returned, confirh himself was in that coach

De&039;Unnero did not betray his e evening rituals as though nothing was a that he eary from the ride, a perfectly plausible excuse

"This is where I hold advantage even over you, Father Abbot," the abbot of St Precious reht "I need no lackeys for my dark business"

He pulled off his telltale robes and dressed in a loose-fitting suit of black rate on theand cli into the shadows Moemstone in hand

De&039;Unnero fell into the stone, felt the exquisite pain as the bones in his hands and aran to reshape and twist And then, spurred by the sheer excite hunt, the sheer ec-stasy that he could finally act, he fell deeper, and quickly kicked off his shoes as his legs and feet, too, transforer He felt as if he was losing hi one with the stone All his body jerked and spas wide his clothing

Then he was on all fours, and when he tried to protest, a great growl caone this far!

But it onderful!

The power, oh, the power! He was the hunting tiger now, in body, and all of that sheer poas under his absolute control Soon he was running swiftly and silently on padded feet, bounding over the high Pal off down the southern road

On the very first pages, the general description of the tome, the Father Abbot understood Only a few months before, Father Abbot Dalebert Markould have been horrified at the thought

But that was before he had found the "inner guidance" of Bestesbulzibar

He reverently placed the book away in the lowest drawer of his desk, locking it tight

"First business at hand," he said aloud, drawing clean parch-ment and a vial of black ink from another drawer He unrolled the parchhts, then stared at it for a long ti With a nod, he titled the paper:

Promotion of Brother Francis Dellacourt to Immaculate Brother

The Order of St-Mere-Abelle

Markwart spent a long tih the final draft was no more than three hundred words By the tiathering for dinner Markwart swept out of his office, to the wing of St-Mere-Abelle serving as residence for the newest students He found the three he wanted and called them off to a private room

"You will each provide me with five copies of this docu brothers shifted nervously

"Speak your mind," Markwart demanded of him

"I am not well-versed, nor very skilled, in illumination, Father Abbot," the man stuttered, head bowed In truth, all three were overwhelmed by the demand St-Mere-Abelle boasted of many of the finest scribes in all the world Most of the immaculates ould never attain the rank of master had chosen the vocation of scribener

"I did not ask if you were skilled," Markwart replied to the man, to them all "You can read and write?"

"Of course, Father Abbot," all three confirmed

"Then do as I asked," the old man said "Without question"

"Yes, Father Abbot"

Markwart let his dangerous stare linger on each of them indi-vidually, then, after what seemed like minutes of silence, threatened, "If any of you speak a word of this, if any of you give anyone else even a hint of the contents of this paper, you will, all three, be burned at the stake"

Again ca monks intently He had decided to use first-year students, and these three in particular, because he was certain that such a threat would carry great influence He left them, then, confident that they would not dare fail the commandment of their Father Abbot

Markwart&039;s next stop was the rooone to dinner, but the oldBradwarden under the door

Soon after, back in his private quarters, in a little-used room to the side of his bedroom, the Father Abbot set about his next prepa-ration First he removed all items, even furniture, from the room Then, with the ancient book, a knife, and colored candles in hand, he went back in and began tracing a very specific pattern, described in great detail in the tome, in the wooden floor

The forest see about the very air was different here than in the northland, soh all the woodland animals, all the trees and flowers, knew that no er had coon to relieve himself, but had stayed out as the hts and with the starry canopy He tried not to think of his co Danube; he had rehearsed his speech many tih he suspected they would likely be approaching St-Mere-Abelle by now, perhaps had already battled with the Church over the prisoners For now, Roger wanted only rest, the calht

How many times had he reclined on a branch in the forest near Caer Tinella, alone in the quiet night? Most, if the weather was agreeable Mrs Kelso would see hih thewoman believed him to be comfortably curled up in her barn, he was er couldn&039;t find that level of calm now, couldn&039;t find that deep, introspective serenity Too many worries crept into the corners of his consciousness; he had seen and experi-enced tooup at the stars, la his time with Elbryan, Pony, and Juraviel, they had applauded hily as his decisions beca those responsibilities had taken a toll, Roger under-stood now, for the stars did not twinkle so brightly, for his heart was surely heavier

He sighed again and told hi Danube would put the world aright, that the monsters would be driven far away and he could return to his home and his previous life in Caer Tinella

But he didn&039;t believe it With a shrug, he started back for the wagon, back for discussions of ih, before he got near the ca

The forest had gone strangely, eerily, quiet

Then caer had never before heard The youngto discern the direction, though the low roar see froer didn&039;t move, didn&039;t breathe

He heard the draw of sword, another roar, this one more em-phatic, and then the screa blindly, stu ht fro back and forth before it

And the screaer ca about the fire, torn and broken He hardly took note of thee, struggling ht close the door

But even if he could have done so, Roger knew that the door would prove a e-and-black- striped cat that had a claw hooked about his boot

The Baron spun over and kicked out, and the tiger let go long enough for thethe carriage door, for the cat had only let go that it h had even cleared the line of the door, the tiger sprang into the carriage, atop hie rocked violently, the Baron screaer stared helplessly He did have a weapon, a ser, but he knew that he couldn&039;t possibly get to Bildeborough in time to save the man, and in any case couldn&039;t possibly defeat, or even seriously injure, the great cat

He turned and ran, tears streaasps It had happened again! Just like the incident with Connor! Again he was no more than a helpless bystander, a witness to the death of a friend He ran on blindly, stu him as the minutes became an hour He ran until he dropped frohtened to even look back to see if there was any pursuit