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The river of energy and Light flowed beneaththe current In the world of hue burst My body jerked as the power lashed through ht, I directed the energies passing through the stone beneath ht" Ale face cold, watched me in the otherness "I have done this I showed you hoill be punished" She bowed her head

Below her, swords clashed, seraph-steel and deh the violet light of the wheels&039; weapon and stabbed Raziel Bright blood gushed Raziel placed a hand over his wound Slowly he dropped into the river, landing on his knees, the water-lava chest high The weapon firing at Forcas ceased The footsteps of the Dragon shook the ground with an earthquake Dust rained down, pattering on me, and cracks opened in the earth But beside me, the river flowed The river of ti "You can save them," the wheels said plaintively "You can save them all Join with Raziel"

Amethyst shrieked in fear "Punished I will be punished"

"Blasphees cannot do this," Raziel said, his voice weak

"Not blasphee join their prime amulets, they become one spirit, as the seraph and my cherub became one"

"We mate, I die," I said

"Not mate body to body That you e"

Froround, eht, the heart of the ues Whatever was cohtened my body

"Throw off your amulets," the wheels cajoled

I looked at myself in the otherness Every bone ached Every muscle, every sinew, every half-healed wound Even my blood ached, what there was of it The wound inworh it to Forcas

"We can try," Raziel said Floating in the river of tiripped an amulet, one that lookedaround his neck I ripped my prime amulet off, flipped it around, and pressed it into his palht, sound, smells, textures blasted at me, smothered me, flailed me like barbed chains, rolled

I fell And fell A thought flashed in my awareness What had Forcas said when he heldabout the whole flower Rose? My twin?

The otherness crashed around ainst his side Surprised, he murmured into my ear, "A third place, but not a place A here-not here"

I had no idea what he meant I was too tired to care

Raziel was a cri, he drew his sword, shouting a battle cry, a note of true sound, a gong of challenge in a language I couldn&039;t understand I saw the tones as they left his throat, floated amy head, I saw Forcas in the real world It bent its body in a violent arc, and buried its fangs in Raziel&039;s neck, clinging to hi of conjure eh the air to me, like the web of a spider A vein of the web traveled up to the Mistress, holding the ship and cherub in a conjured snare I understood what the new sight was revealing I had called the the down the river toward e it blotted out a third of the nothingness-sky Around its neck was a glowing chain and, where the links touched, blue light flared, but instead of har power from Raziel, from Amethyst, from Zadkiel From Barak It dreer from me The chain smelled of Lucas, of the blood of Mole Man It smelled of Uncle Lem, my foster father, of Gramma, and of three seraphs

Raziel hissed a breath and we understood together, on wore the chain Forcas had forged, the chain eny and siven it to his Master, the antichain to the one that had bound the Dragon in Mole Man&039;s battle With this weapon the Dragon was freeing itself

From somewhere, I heard Eli whisper, "Oh, crap, crap, crap"

The wildenergies Before y rose fro, sinuous snake of poith purple eyes, many eyes, hundreds of them A snake body composed of eyes I understood It was a vision of the life force of the wheels Amethyst&039;s wheels They were alive Sentient Separate fro "Yours Call us"