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The bludh bunches of cattails, so h, it’s not so bad once you’re inside The rain and sewage collect and pool out here over the graves, but underground it’s channeled through rock The threat of horror keeps h Not to mention the blud creatures Just remember not to touch any of the bones They’re cursed"

"You actually believe that?"

He chuckled "Let us consider Touch moldy bones and see if I’m cursed forever, or keep my hands to myself? Not a difficult decision"

We reached the pipe, where a trickle of grayish water splattered to the boggy ground Thebloody foa, and without being told, I leaped off her back and landed heavily on what felt like perwobbled He slapped the mare’s ru with the near-constant thunder overhead

"Won’t she run away?"

He s tail "We plant a carcass nearby to draw the bludry predators aren’t so s on the"Funny, I’s"

"One point to the inary hat; I pictured a fedora and couldn’t stop

Surefooted as a fussy cat, he leaped onto the lip of the pipe and straddled the slushy water I followed hiht of a cloudy day for the sucking shadows of the cylinder Just before the pipe’s curve shifted to aged stone, the light gave out Vale pulled a heavy pendant froreen glow filled the space, showing a long tunnel of orderly bricks and stones Perfectly set in patterned niches were artful groupings of sish, lumpy water flowed down a channel set in the h space for a slender person to ithout turning sideways Vale’s shoulders were almost too broad and occasionally bumped the wall as he led me down a ladder and deeper into the catacon of Cherie

"My father’s band is ahead of us somewhere The slavers never return by the same route, and there are endless tunnels and ladders and stairs and secret niches set into the ood news is that I haven’t seen blood or signs of combat yet, but the bad news is that if they reach their destination in the city and get topside before the brigands find them, ill have no idea where your friend was taken"

"Then what?" My boots rasped on the stone, and the shtly ed with iron

"Then whatever the lady wishes I can return you to Callais, take you back to our camp, or deliver you to your new life in Paris"

"Dropped on the front step of a cabaret like a baby in a basket," I ive me a horrified look "I do believe they call that murder in the city The bludrats of Paris are monsters And so are some of the er inof which, anything nasty live in the catacoht of his pendant A flash to the side caughtblade "That depends on your definition of nasty"

"Dude, don’t try to scare and impress me I seriously want to know"

We passed an open tunnel, and I heard faraway shouting and felt a darabbed"Paris looks ordinary topside, all orderly rows and squares But down here, in the old city, things are twisted and strange There is no coo Men have gotten lost and never coed Some say that even deeper than the tunnels, there are caverns filled with glowing crystals and albino bats Soo blind and bald Sos find a cavern and live like wild, half-mad creatures" He trailed off, his footsteps the only sound But I shis head sadly "So corpses Mostly women"

"And you don’t knohat happened to theot lost and went ht After a feeeks of wandering around down here with nothing but the sewage and pitch-black darkness, it reen light lit hies and shadows "I see that you wish to ask, so I will tell you We kill the theht one back to camp once, and she killed a child"

"I’m sorry"

"Life is dark, and then you die, bébé Just let it be a reet lost down here And if you do, go very quiet and follow the sound of water"

Up ahead, a burble of voices Vale stilled, and I nearly ran into his back before he relaxed

"It’s ht no sound of Cherie, no soft rasp of skirts against stone What little hope I had tumbled away in the darkness "Bad news, then"

"Today does not appear to be your lucky day, no"

I fingered the rabbit’s foot still hidden in ave the call of a hunting ohich iftly answered froainst the wall, he regarded me, smirk back in place "Could be worse No silvers, but I alreadyyou behind that bush Such a big, tame bludbunny would win prizes at any festival"

"I bet you say that to all the girls"