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The day ell advanced when I reached the site where Amethyst&039;s wheels had lain buried for a century or more It was the first time I had coround, reattached itself to the navcone - the ship&039;s navigation nose cone - killed a whole ar down the Trine, then vaporized the deluge The ship had taken off into the heavens

In the way of the battle-lory But no one saw it but the few humans who had been there and A froht the cherub had been a figlory And theideas about what had happened, but they didn&039;t really know As reat But pretty secret

Signs of the battle were buried beneath several snowfalls, leaving the site looking pristine and white, not blood-splattered, heaped with the bodies of the dead, burned, charred, and gory The clearing had once held a manmade cairn of boulders and stones, now crushed and scattered, covered by snow, and the huge ovalthe wheels was now a deep depression The snow made the hole look smooth, neatly scraped and shaped, as if God the Victorious had taken an ice-cream scoop to thethis How stupid can I get? Fear whispered through h the bare branches of trees Where once the mound had offered protection from the wind, now there was a barren desolation, and the sound was like the plaintive pipes I pulled the battle cloak over my knees and readjusted my feet in the stirrups Battle boots weren&039;t le

I rode Ho horse snorting his dislike of the sharp precipice It was a long way down A very long way The sight made me lonely in ways I didn&039;t completely understand, but maybe it was just that no one wanted to die alone, and I had a good chance of doing that today I had co the last time I went into the pit, and then I had some help from the wheels buried here I had prouess I lied

A whistle sounded, echoing and reechoing up and down the ,for its origin, and finally spotted a row of horses below me, six of them, too far downhill to identify the riders, except for the bay in the lead It was Thadd&039;s h me, followed by some emotion I couldn&039;t naht throat Okay, so I wouldn&039;t die alone But if I died, I&039;d likely take theht lunch and feed," I said to the cold wind, "because I can&039;t take care of you all" Which was ht seem

I slid from the horse&039;s back, led him away froe rock, and loosed his girth A bit of grass peeked through the snow, and Horound to uncover more I dumped two handfuls of feed at his feet for lunch and opened a jar of peanut butter and a package of crackers for me I would need the protein If I atejuicy steak, soar burst I ate quickly and was standing on a boulder, , when the cavalcade came into view

A heavily armed Thadd was in the lead, an auto from his saddle Joseph Barefoot rode behind hied leather jacket, buckskin chaps, and cowboy hat, looked like a riding armament with knives in his hatband and belt, bandoliers crossed over his chest, and his fla over his back He rode a flashy Appaloosa, its coat apricot-colored with e, the assey, his black eye patch and twisted features , droopy-lidded eye hard Thadd and Durbarge earing long leather dusters, fashioned to ride and to fight, the pockets bulging Flaht, and he rode without pain

Between the assey and Eli, riding sturdy palomino mules, were two men I didn&039;t know Like Barefoot, each had a branded cheek; clearly EIH operatives The Earth Invasion Heretics were poorly dressed in jeans and ratty leather jackets that stopped at their thighs, but they ell armed, and one had what looked like a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher strapped to his e to see the EIH and an investigator with the Ade&039;s cheek, below his eye patch, itching, though whether because his eye pained him or because of the co, Eli took off his hat and waved it over his head, calling, "Hey, beautiful! Can you take on all six of us?" Thadd looked back at him, irritated at the innuendo

I hid a s the six ether we made seven, an auspicious number, holy Revelation 1:16 said of a seraph, "And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his ed sword"

I wasn&039;t a star - nowhere near being a seraph - but I had a two-edged sword And now there were seven of us That thought cheered an to open supplies Eli, holding what looked like a ha He talked between ss, aathered around him "You know everyone but Tomas and Rickie here" He indicated the two EIH ht in the street battle the other day Thought you looked interesting" I wasn&039;t certain what interesting h players to ood-sized Pre-Ap boy band," he said I rolled ers "If this can wait, we can ," Eli said

"I don&039;t think it can wait"

"We got youroff a beef jerky stick "Brought enough weapons to wage a small war Not e&039;d have with some notice, but a bit What&039;s this your champard said about a succubus queen?"

I told the iven birth to the succubi, the voluptuous killers fro and drinking water from plastic bottles When I told them the new succubi were possibly fertile, capable of birth, and that thousands of succubus eggs ht be ready to hatch, they e asked, his droopy eye deceptively sleepy-looking in his scarred face

This was the tricky part Durbarge was contractually bound to assistDarkness, but he could also arrest e I could operate a conversations with hts "The queen, uh, tried to attack ht And I, well, I kinda, accidentally, bound it to me" The men&039;s expressions were coe said tonelessly

"See behind ht it was hu for exorcisrified Darkness It&039;s bound towhen it gets free"

"Free? You left it alive?" Durbarge asked Maybe I should have taken the fifth then, but I didn&039;t, though it was a cri

"Yes," I said, and watched as he processed the inforun to shoot ood

"So You called a succubus - a succubus queen, as you call it - captured it, and bound it, all without the help of the AAS Where is this succubus queen?"

I suppressed a flare of anger at his tone He was right It had been stupid, even if I hadn&039;t planned it that way "Incircle I was afraid that if I killed it, its ets loose, I can do a lot of dahtfall, we can surprise its hed, rubbed his hand across his head, and slid the tip of a finger under the band that held his patch in place Before he could decide what he was going to do about me, I added, "I learned the na that tried to take you in the street battle?" Thadd asked

I re held in its claws "Yes It&039;s Forcas Not its seraphic naives us at least soet reinforce thaw"

"I can get troops in on military transports," he said "Take two days, three at most"

"I don&039;t knowith thethe cold breeze "She said the larvae would hatch at dawn I&039;s than larvae, and I know for a factShe&039;ll be free sooner rather than later" Their faces were indecisive, mutinous, or irritated, and I knew I couldn&039;t wait on theuys decide what you want to do There&039;s water for the horses" I pointed to a runnel near Homer "I&039;ll be on the Trine" I juirth, and climbed a branch to re, I was astride the Friesian and heading up the ued behindI could do about it either way Men