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MR CREPSLEY was able to tap into Mr Tall’s thoughts and pinpoint the position of the Cirque Du Freak The travelling circus was relatively near, and it would take us only three weeks to link up with it if we forced the pace

After a week, we hit civilization again As we passed a sht, I asked Mr Crepsley e didn’t hop on a bus or train, which would get us to the Cirque Du Freak much quicker "Vancha does not approve of human modes of transport," he said "He has never been in a car or on a train"

"Never!" I asked the barefooted Prince

"I wouldn’t even spit on a car," he said "Awful things The shape, the noise, the smell" He shivered

"What about planes?"

"If the gods of the vaiven us wings"

"What about you, Evanna?" Harkat asked "Have you ever flown?"

"Only on a broo or not

"And you, Larten?" Harkat asked

"Once, long ago, when the Wright brothers were just getting going" He paused "It crashed Luckily, it had not been flying very high, so I was not seriously injured But these new contraptions, which soar above the clouds I think not"

"Afraid?" I smirked

"Once bitten, twice shy," he replied

We were a strange group, no doubt about it We had al in coe, but we belonged to the past - va of computers, satellite dishes, microwave ovens, or any other modern conveniences; we travelled by foot most of the time, had simple tastes and pleasures, and hunted as aniht by pressing buttons, we battled with swords and our hands Vaht share the same planet, but we lived in different worlds

I awoke one afternoon to the sound of Harkat’sfeverishly about on the grassy bank where he’d fallen asleep I leant over to wake him "Hold," Evanna said The witch was in the lower branches of a tree, observing Harkat with unsee hair, and another was chewing on the ropes she used as clothes

"He’s having a nightmare," I said

"He has them often?"

"Almost every time he sleeps I’ one" I bent to shake hi down She shuffled over and touched the three ht hand to Harkat’s forehead She closed her eyes and stood there a ons," she said "Bad drea about revealing who Harkat was in his previous life?"

"Yes, but Harkat chose to come with us, to search for the Vampaneze Lord"

"Noble but foolish," she mused

"If you told hihtmares?"

"No He s worse if I meddled But there is a way to temporarily ease his pain"

"How?" I asked

"One who speaks the language of the dragons could help"

"Where e find someone like that?" I snorted, then paused "Can you?" I left the question hanging

"Not I," she said "I can talk to ons Only those who have bonded with the flying reptiles can speak their language" She stood "You could help"

"Me?" I frowned "I haven’t bonded with a dragon I’ve never even seen one I thought they were iinary"

"In this tireed "But there are other times and places, and bonds can be formed unknown"

That didn’t make sense, but if I could somehow help Harkat, I would "Tell me what I have to do," I said

Evanna sly, then told me to lay my hands on Harkat’s head and close e for you to fix upon How about the Stone of Blood? Can you picture it, red and throbbing, the blood of the vah itsthe stone effortlessly toof it In a few minutes you’ll experience unpleasant sensations, and nore them and stay focused on the Stone I will do the rest"

I did as she said At first it was easy, but then I began to feel strange The air around et hotter and it becas, then caught a glied, alo of Harkat, but remembered Evanna’s advice and forced e of the Stone of Blood

I sensed so into my back, but I didn’t turn or shrink away I reht about the Stone

Harkat appeared before me in the vision, stretched upon a bed of stakes, which impaled him all over He was alive but in incredible pain He couldn’t see me - the tips of two stakes poked out of the sockets where his eyes should have been

"His pain is nothing to what you will feel," soure of shadows, elusive and dark, hovering close by

"Who are you?" I gasped,about the Stone

"I aly

"The Lord of the Vampaneze?" I asked

"Of the for you, Prince of the Dao!" The shadowclaws of dark lowed in the black pit that was his face For a terrifying rab and devour me Then a tiny voice - Evanna’s - whispered, "It’s just a dream He can’t hurt you, not yet, not if you focus on the Stone"

Shutting e of the shadowStone of Blood There was a hissing screa htmare faded and I was back in the real world

"You can open your eyes now," Evanna said My eyes snapped open I let go of Harkat and wiped h I’d been touched by soratulated asped "What was it?"

"The Lord of Destruction," she said "The Master of Shadows The would-be ruler of the eternal night"

"He was so powerful, so evil"

She nodded "He will be"

"Will be?" I echoed

"What you saas a shade of the future The Lord of the Shadows has not yet come into his own, but he will, eventually This cannot be avoided, and you should not worry about it All thatis that your friend will sleep untroubled now"

I glanced down at Harkat, as resting peacefully "He’s OK?"

"He will be, for a tihtmares will return, and when they do he’ll have to face his past and learn who he was, or succumb to madness But for now he can sleep soundly, unafraid"

She headed back to her tree