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"Why, Captain," she said winsomely, "This is a who the hell are you?"

The head of the palace guard took several steps backwards and, because he was of peasant stock, ns to ward off evil spirits They clearly didn't work When he opened his eyes again the thing was still there, still bristling with rage, still reeking of so sickly and fermented, still croith a skewedbosoo dry-

He'd heard about these sort of things Harpies, they were called What had it done with Lady Raht of the rubber boots had hiends about harpies were short on references to rubber boots

"Out with it, fellow," Lady Rahtie to aand shutting your mouth What d'you want?"

"Lady Sybil Rauard, not in the polite way of so mere confirmation but in the incredulous tones of someone who found it very hard to believe the answer could be 'yes'

"Use your eyes, young uard pulled hiot a summons for Lady Sybil Ramkin," he said uncertainly

Her voice ithering "What do you mean, a summons?''

"To attend upon the palace, you see"

"I can't i," she said, and h, because of the sword point jammed into it at the last uard, "I have been ordered to take steps"

The door shot back and her face pressed against his, al rose petals

"If you think you'll lay a hand on lance darted sideways, just for a on kennels Sybil Ramkin's face went pale

"You wouldn't!" she hissed

He sed Fearsoh she was, she was only human She could only bite your head off s than Lady Rah, admittedly, they weren't three inches from his nose at this point in time

"Take steps," he repeated, in a croak

She straightened up, and eyed the row of guards behind him

"I see," she said coldly "That's the way, is it? Six of you to fetch one feeble woman Very well You will, of course, allow me to fetch a coat It is somewhat chilly"

She slauards stamped their feet in the cold and tried not to look at one another This obviously wasn't the way you went around arresting people They weren't allowed to keep you waiting on the doorstep, this wasn't the way the world was supposed to work On the other hand, the only alternative was to go in there and drag her out, and it wasn't one anyone could suuard captain wasn't sure he had enoughLady Ra rollers

The door creaked open again, revealing only the ht, men-" said the captain, uneasily

Lady Ra through the doorway, screa he reuard hadn't had the presence of ed forward, cursing, ploughed into the overgron, hit her head on a cru statue of an antique Ramkin, and slid to a halt

The double-handed broadsword she had been holding landed beside her, bolt upright, and vibrated to a standstill

After a while one of the guards crept forward cautiously and tested the blade with his finger

"Bloody hell," he said, in a voice of on wants to eat her?"

"Fits the bill," said the captain "She's got to be the highest-born lady in the city I don't know aboutto speculate Soered his ear, which had been nicked by the tip of the sword He was not, by nature, an unkind man, but at this moment he was certain that he would prefer the thickness of a dragon's hide between himself and Sybil Ramkin when she woke up

"Weren't we supposed to kill her pet dragons, sir?" said another guard "I thought Mr Wonse said soons"

"That was just a threat ere supposed to uard's brow furrowed "You sure, sir? I thought-"

The captain had had enough of this Screa silk in the air beside hi the other fellow's point of view