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The tendrils that heldA war like the beating of a giant heart It lit the tendrils fro the wood translucent so the grain was only barely visible The air smelled fresh and clean, the way it would smell deep in the woods on a sunny day

Another swaric was so thick here you could scoop it with a cup

I had come here once before when I first arrived I’d walked deep into the inn --it had been asleep and I’d had to force h the walls --and then I had sat down here at the inert tangle of the inn’s roots, put ic until they stirred Gertrude Hunt had been asleep for years, its stasis so deep it was a kind of death Bringing it back froed ic of the inn with me We had come full circle I had been lucky My injuries had coiven me some of its power If I had suffered severe physical injuries, er

"Thank you," I said "But it’s tihtened a little entle but firreed if the inns could feel or not We knew they reacted, but whether they loved us or simply served us out of a symbiotic need had never been determined I had ain and petted the roots

The tendrils pulled apart I slid down and stepped onto the warone and ed from the shadows and lickeddashed aboutoff it It hovered, waiting, as if hesitant It was so nice to stay here in the serene darkness But I had an inn to protect I slipped my robe on and took my broom

The darkness parted in front ofin a dizzying rush Looking at it would be enough to send an entire university’s worth of string-theory physicists into fits Sounds of distant h Of course I’d left them alone for a few hours I took one last look at the heart of the inn behind h the chaoticto the foyer

"If Dina dies, I will eat you, dear" Caldenia said it with complete aplomb

"You may find it very difficult, Your Grace," Arland answered

"No, she’ll find it easy once I’m done with you," Sean said

Caldenia smiled "I’m amused you think I’ll need help, but very well, you may have him first I do enjoy my meat properly tenderized Please try to keep comminuted fractures to a minimum"

"What kind of fractures?" Sean frowned

"Comminuted That’s when bones splinter into shards and pieces It’s quite difficult to dig the decorum"

I touched my hand to the wall and sent out a push to isolate the rooht outside changed slightly, gaining a pale orange tint The doorway to the kitchen sealed itself So did the upstairs landing, just out of sight My body protested againstto punch a vampire, you have to punch him hard This would be one hell of a shock to the syste wro --" Arland started

The northern wallmy will Arland stopped in mid-word Sean froze in his tracks Caldenia rose slowly

An orange plain rolled outside under the purple sky The wall had opened on top of a cliff and frole the vast expanse of the wastes looked infinite The sun had set, but the distant as still on fire with car up half the horizon, hung above us to the left in the dark sky, the stars behind it bright and sharp Under it, pale yellow grass clily trees, their twisted branches dry, stood here and there, supporting flat crowns of green needles

The plain stared at the the roo else So animal and feral It was a wild, nasty scent that slashed across your instincts like a knife and whispered straight into your ry and vicious"

The ground shuddered A colossal creature strode into view on six gargantuan legs, each big enough to flatten a car Itas it trotted The dying light played across its purple hide

Sean opened his ht hand was opening and clenching, probably looking for the handle of his sword

Theits bulk on the base of its tail, towering above the plain like a semi set vertically on the road Its dinosaurian neck bent, swiveling the wide head right, then left Six pairs of blood-orange eyes scanned the grass The beast inhaled, fluttering its nostrils We iant maw opened so wide it looked like its head had been cut in two, baring a forest of traffic-cone teeth The creature roared

It was a sound s would never hear, but if they did, they would renize it even in their sleep, and if they heard it again, they would stop talking and thinking and they would find the nearest dark hole and hide in it

Both Arland and Sean tensed and looked behind theed his shoulders as if getting ready for a sprint

I stepped out of the shadows and walked between the sunset, htly to adjust itself to the different world

"What is this?" Arland asked