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By the ti, with three blades hidden on ed stones in my pockets to make a decent stand if my life required it, Jacey&039;s stepson Zeddy had saddled Homer and taken him out front, where he stood in the sunshine, happy to be free of his stall and feeling frisky Zeddy exercised the Friesian daily except when the blizzards blew, but there was seldoh activity to satisfy an ani, dappled gray, a big horse at sixteen hands, but nothing compared to Homer&039;s nearly nineteen hands Zeddy tossed est sister Of course, Sissy had turned nine before Christes tend to be petite

Belowperfectly at ease though I had the biggerhe&039;d be distressed by the disparity in heights, allThadd would grow another head or do soeous to appear less attractive But, besides being a Hand of the Lahose job description would see to uy He sat the gray with the easy co the horse&039;s sides He looked good Really good My tummy did that little dip and curl that left me a bit breathless Which ave h the black wraparound shades favored by Hands of the Law I snapped open lasses, set them on my nose just like a hus, the Friesian luo around, and proceeded northwest at a fast clip Quickly, I guided Homer directly north, and wethe speed, nursing an annoyance I didn&039;t fully understand but felt entitled to The antagonism helped to stifle e-heat that wanted to rise I let the anger settle in for the duration

A silent hour later and five hundred feet higher, Thadd moved up beside eround and under the snow," I nearly snarled

"So you&039;re saying this is a waste of time?" When I didn&039;t answer, he asked, "Or did your friends just e matchmaker?"

I had a sudden vision of Thadd andoff the ured that out, did you?" I said My words were stiff,horse wasn&039;t helping e-heat at all, not with Thadd so near "My friends worry about reener pastures I try not to let the"

"I think it&039;s cute"

"Cute?" I made an indelicate sound Hoe neck to glance at ht up there with &039;girls " I continued before he could reply "Last month they tried to set uy showed at the shop on a Friday night with his neck washed, his fingernails clean, and a bag full of quartz rough as a gift"

"Fun date?" Thadd asked, not laughing, for which I was grateful

"Agonizing" I bent under a low branch and guided Ho to keep the kylen away froed with power Horabbed the pouy"

"What&039;s that?" Thadd pointed to the jumble of rock and mortar Homer had just bounded over

"Shed, probably You can find out more about the mountain from Rupert, but the Trine used to be one fairly s-up battles People lived on the slope We&039;ll see foundations and roads and all kinds of stuff, until we reach the rock peaks I haven&039;t spent much time here, but ruins are everywhere" I pointed off to the west and to the east, to piles ofbrick "After a hundred years, there isn&039;tto decay"

The gray moved up beside me, Thadd visible in my peripheral vision I didn&039;t look his way "What do you know about the Stanhopes?" he asked, his tone a hair too casual for the question to be idle

"Less than I thought I did," I grumbled I hadn&039;t known about Mole Man, or about Lucas&039; roving eye I hadn&039;t known that Rupert&039;s sweetie was a"Why?"

"There&039;s some indication that Jason has allied with a Power or a Principality"

A tremor of alarm shivered downup fast I soothed hiation technique? Wait till your victier?"

Thadd ignored me "This case attracted the attention of the Administration of the ArchSeraph pretty fast You&039;ve e" The little assey

"He thinks Jason ift to a Darkness, which then would be after anyone in the Stanhope line Stanhope blood - Mole Man&039;s blood - is important to the seraphic host, which erous"

I didn&039;t look around Durbarge had speculated about a blood-dens of devil-spawn in the hills"

"Where?" I asked, iving away that I was upset at the direction in which Thadd was taking the conversation If the assey had been to , I was in deep doo-doo The cistern and pipes were spelled to keep long-distance and untrained observers away A trained observer, however, would see a great deal

"On the other side of the Toe River"

I made the connection fast and went from relieved to worried in a heartbeat If Jason owed a debt to a blood-de back at the cop throughme "Where, exactly, and how many?"

"Outside Maria&039;s home A small pack of five or six"

Spawn travel in packs If there was a daywalker watching Ciana, a blood-des were a lot worse than I thought I wondered whether I should tell Thadd about the daywalker But if I did, they ht take Ciana into custody for her own protection Asseys had no conscience Any hu with Darkness, even an innocent, was carted off and never seen again

A faint sense of vertigo ht battled to rise and was pulled under So about stones and flowers? Whatever it was, I pushed it away for later and risked a question "Is it possible that there&039;s a war in Darkness?"

"A house divided against itself cannot stand," he quoted The New Testa with the devil

"What if it&039;s not divided? What if one of them just wants o to an elder" It was the perfect cop answer I shook rade that left Thadd behind He seeuratively and literally "Sorry," he said, catching up "Knee-jerk response The short answer is, I don&039;t know" When I remained silent, he said, "So Back to the stone If you were a new ?"

"My best bet is up high, on the bare rock near the peaks"

"And why is that?"

"Because no one&039;s staked a claihts in years, not even Culpepper, so the find isn&039;t easy to locate Only a teaet to the peaks easily, and I can&039;t remember the last time anyone took to the ice cap And because, so far as we know, the stone wasn&039;t found before the Trine was for or after the battle with Benaiah Stanhope and the formation of the three peaks" It was the first tiht The stone must have been pushed to the surface when the Trine was forray danced several steps and neighed sharply Homer&039;s ears went back flat The horses were spooked

The hairs on the back of rip on the saddle horn Soht and scanned the area The world looked strange through the sunglasses, shadowed and sparkly, as if viewed through a pris rong

Homer ca the town, and bowed his back to buck I hauled on the reins with all ray pranced, his head up high, neck arched, eyes ith alar on?" he asked

Fro down the slope, followed instantly by another The gray dropped his head and kicked, throwing Thadd forward across his neck

The angry scream sounded a third time Some kind of predator cat I hoped

Hoht downhill Midkick, the gray squealed, whirled, bucked once, and followed Thaddeus hit the ground

I hadn&039;t been able to think of an excuse to bring the walking stick but had charged aincantation and stuck it on ht, I sent it into Ho forward, my hand jerked from the pommel The horn slale gasp I tumbled over his head, across a limpsed the cat, black and white, crouched on a li me as I rolled in midair

I landed on one shoulder, round and rolled, out of control, ar, useless Into a half-frozen puddle Snowmelt

Icy cold drenched me Everywhere the water touched, poas sucked out of y in the stones I carried was daony Iit behind a cloud I heard a whimper; the sound came from me

"Thorn!" The sky vanished I focused on Thaddeus There were two of hi lurch his faces coalesced into one, greenish blue eyes wide and a trail of blood at one nostril He&039;d lost the shades "Are you all right?" When I didn&039;t answer, he touched ood, actually," I said But feeling eeping back into er, continuous waves of throbbing I rose slowly, pulling my upper body fro is broken You?"

"The sa in snowot hit by an El-truck, and I want to talk about kitty cats

"A lynx, I think It&039;s gone now Can you stand?"

"Yeah Maybe" My teeth started chattering A shiver gripped h"

Thadd chuckled, pulling et on the horse?"

"Homer Sure I can do that" Maybe With a stepladder and winch The world did a little stutter and wobble I let Thadd balance lanced down at y loss

"You have a knot coood shoulder, he touched my scalp and I winced "Headache?"

I nodded and wished I hadn&039;t "Yeah And I&039;azes to the sky "Plane," he said But there had been soination? Did Iless mundane? The shivers worsened I reached into a pocket, testing the stones Most were dead, though several unpolished, uncut agates still held soh to athered up the reins, placing them in my hand He cupped his hands and I put a knee into therabbed the saddle horn and pulled myself into place Thadd held my foot when I would have put it in the stirrup "I&039;d be happy to walk, but I don&039;t think you can stay in the saddle"

A wave of vertigo hadthe horn with both hands as I said, "Nope Me neither" When the wave passed, Thadd eased his hand froh where he had steadiedso nice It was easier to keep my distance when he was just a cop

As he adjusted the stirrups, I looked around The gray horse was nowhere in sight I turned back the e had coround, too far to walk before sunset The toas laid out below us like aa river In Mineral City, the train was pulling into the depot