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By the hour of three, e reached the livery stables, we kneere being stalked by the presence

For half an hour, forty-five minutes at a tiain It was h we tried hard to hear sohts from it, all we could discern was malice, and an occasional turated in the roar of the blaze

She was glad that ere riding ho annoyed her It was only what she had said earlier -- she wanted the emptiness of the country, the quiet

When the open land broke before us, ere going so fast that the as the only sound, and I think I heard her laughing but I wasn’t sure She loved the feel of the wind as I did, she loved the new brilliance of the stars over the darkened hills

But I wondered if there had been ht when she had wept inwardly and I had not known There had been times when she was obscure and silent, and her eyes quivered as if they were crying, but there were absolutely no tears

I was deep into thoughts of that, I think, e neared a dense wood that grew along the banks of a shallow stream, and quite suddenly the mare reared and lurched to the side

I was alht to ht I rode into this little glade, crashing over the narroooden bridge above the water I loved the sound of the horse’s hooves on the wood and the cli bank And my mare knew the path But now, she would have none of it

Shying, threatening to rear again, she turned of her own accord and galloped back towards Paris until, with all the power ofher in

Gabrielle was staring back at the thick copse, the greatbranches that concealed the strea of the wind and that soft volu leaves, the definite pulse of the presence in the trees

We heard it at the sahteneder!" she said to me quickly "And it is not one alone"

"Yes," I said, enraged, "and it stands betweenGabrielle ininto it," she cried out

"The hell I’ to steady the horse "We don’t have two hours before sunrise Draw your sword!"

She tried to turn to speak tothe horse forward And she drew her sword as I’d told her to do, her little hand knotted around it as fir would flee as soon as we reached the copse, I was sure of that Ibut turn tail and run And I was furious that it had frightenedGabrielle

With a sharp kick, and the full force of ht ahead to the bridge

I locked my hand to the weapon I bent loith Gabrielle beneath on, and when the mare’s hooves hit the holloood over the water, I saw them, the demons, for the first tilimpsed for no more than a second, and out of theiras they shook the branches sending down on us a shower of leaves

"Damn you, you pack of harpies!" I shouted as we reached the sloping bank on the other side, but Gabrielle had let out a screa had landed on the horse behindin the da had hold ofthe sword

Whipping the sword over Gabrielle’s head and down past my left arm, I chopped at the creature furiously, and saw it fly off, a white blur in the darkness, while another one sprang at us with hands like claws Gabrielle’s blade sliced right through its outstretched ar as if fro wail I wanted to slash every one of them to pieces I turned the horse back too sharply so that it reared and almost fell

But Gabrielle had hold of the horse’s ain towards the open road

As we raced for the toe could hear theave out, we abandoned her and ran, hand in hand, towards the gates

I knee had to get through the secret passage to the inner chamber before they climbed the outside wall They must not see us take the stone out of place

And locking the gates and doors behind me as fast as I could, I carried Gabrielle up the stairs

By the time we reached the secret roo and shrieking below and their first scraping against the walls

I snatched up an armful of firewood and threw it beneath the

"Hurry, the kindling," I said