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Haley had an edgy kind of charisirls alent for the bad boys This was looking better and better But Jess was suspicious when things looked too good to be true
Haley shts "Look Whether you believemuch My presence or absence won’tthe truth and we do a deal, you’ll be saving all your skins Trust onheart"
"You’d betray your friends?" she asked, thinking, Why not? It was, after all, the wizardly thing to do
"Better betrayed than dead," Haley said "We can negotiate amnesties once this is over"
"Of course," Jess said sht," Haley said "I’ll coht Make sure you have e was deserted, as was usual these days It took Jason less than an hour to gather his things and stuff the, spooky walk through near-deserted streets to the park Jason kept to the shadows, hoping to avoid running into anyone he knew The Trinity safety forces had entered thethe fiction that they were evacuating because of "radiation contahost warriors patrolled the streets to prevent looting It seemed a waste of effort to Jason The toould be toast before long, given the Roses’ proclaimed scorched-earth policy
The hands on the clock tower scissored together as he cut across the vacant commons The bells pealed out twelve tiate Jason nodded briskly as he walked past, hoping to discourage conversation, but Jeremiah Brooks stepped out from their midst "Mr Haley, i’nt it?"
Jason raised his hand in a kind of salute "Brooks" He kept e that he was on an urgent mission But the warrior left his coht breeze carried the warrior’s scent to Jason: a faint miasma of sweat, leather, old blood, and tobacco He’d painted his face and stuck a few feathers into his hair, giving him a fierce, primitive look
"So where you off to, then?" Brooks asked, a lilt in his voice betraying his eighteenth century Brit origins
"Thought I’d have a look around outside," Jason said vaguely "See if there’s any ht," Brooks said "Well, then" He rubbed a finger alongside his nose "You take care out there The Roses-- they’re right tricky"
"Right," Jason said "See you" He passed through the gate and into no-man’s-land The skin on the back of his neck prickled He couldn’t help wondering if Longbranch would really play, and if the plan had been coht be a very short journey He resisted the temptation to recheck the location of all the sefas hidden on his person
As he approached the outer wall, he saw a half-dozen White Rose wizards collected around the wizard-wall gate Longbranch’s house No sign of the Red Rose
The sentries barred his way "Nah
The gateway yawned before hi at any otten to disarh He looked back The White Rose wizards stood watching He turned and kept walking, through the maze of wizard pavilions, past the camps of the Roses Fifty more paces and he ell hidden in the woods He paused a ical spyware and tethers that had been attached to hi howHe’d have to find a house, appropriate a car He didn’t have much time
He looked back only once more, as he topped a small rise Trinity swam uneasily in a sea of wizard mist like a fairy castle, the turrets of Mercedes’s wall punching into the sky Dark clouds rolled in fro the night
He turned, and ran faster
Chapter Thirty-one Areddon on the Lake
Maybe we should’ve ht Just now it see of rock at the edge of the lake
The wind howled, flinging foales fro away into the darkness The trees in the garden bent double under glittering skins of ice Sleet clattered against the leaded s of Stone Cottage, the witchy wind screa clamored over the lake They had to speak loudly to be heard over the din
It orse for Seph than for anyone else The aelf-aeling made hi cloud overhead, to the legions of wizards that drew close around the walls, like darkness around a shuttered lamp It was as if his nerves had been sandpapered to exquisite tenderness The , just out of his field of vision He could see all of the possibilities, and they all looked bad
He thought of the refugees out on the Sisters, and wondered how they were faring Theyto an end
"Wonder what the weather people are saying about this one," he ine," Nick observed dryly, from his place by the fire "Given that it is their habit to eddon"
The old wizard had draool blanket around his shoulders He and Leesha sat, a chessboard between the her win He see her up, for so off the sleet and rain like dogs And after them came Will and Fitch
Seph looked from Will and Fitch to Jack and raised an eyebrow "Aren’t these two supposed to be on the Sisters?"
"They were hiding out," Jack explained "But it’s not like they haven’t been busy"