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"Go tell Jack So down" Fitch pointed off the ith his chin

Will crept forward on his hands and knees and peered over the battle Fitch a thu and disappeared into the darkness He could be aly quiet for a jock

Fitch resu like a member of the INS border patrol He fished the remote out of his pocket and clutched it in one hand He’d laid explosive devices all along the outer wall, in a modern-day version of the method medieval sappers used to undermine a fortification

The first party was roup poured through the bad-guy gate, following the first wave of White Rose wizards Froroup seemed to be Red Rose wizards

The White Rose advance party didn’t notice them at first When they did, they didn’t seem happy about the reinforceroup continued on, increasing their pace, while half hung back, turning to confront the oncoether, wizard fla each other!

Fitch fingered the remote nervously If this was the assault they’d been anticipating, it was show tiround

Seph had found a quiet place from which to monitor the boundary of the sanctuary in one of the many druood to be enclosed in stone, since he tended to set things on fire otherwise

There he hung silently like a bat in a cave, histhe concentric walls of the inner fortress and the outer wizard wall, scouring the disputed space in between He’d been on the wall for three straight days--putting out fires and creating conflagrations of his own

Con-fla-gra-tion A perfect word for a perfect storm of death His eneh power line

What tiing the base of his spine He rubbed his grainy eyes and tried to spit out the awful taste in histhat, he pulled the flask fro s of flame

He had no idea whether he was really addicted to the stuff or if pain and exhaustion had made it temporarily necessary At one time that distinction would have seemed important If Mercedes wouldn’t make it for him, there were plenty of sorcerers ould They’d seen what he did on the wall They knew he stood between them and hundreds of wizards, and they kneould happen if he failed

The flaain Totally In fact, he felt aliddy Impervious There was another perfect word

The world crowded in and he welcorass and leaf of tree and power-crazed wizard Once again, he felt eonheart throbbed like a toothache His own heart seey that connected and destroyed

He sensed the intruders before he saw theh the wizard wall and streahosted forward until he could look over the curtain wall The sun had not yet crested the horizon, and no glimmer of dawn had penetrated between the walls

I know you’re down there, Seph thought, pushing back his sleeves Did you think I wouldn’t notice? He was pri with power They’d be history before they ever made the wall

They ca the other

Flaed line spewing a fu the cold sea Wizards were fighting each other down below But a handful of invaders caate Too close

Seph lifted his hands,for the gate And stopped, sensing a faic A ht into the sky It illuminated an apocalyptic scene

Hundreds of wizards battled each other between the walls Most bore eroup of White Rose wizards had stalled, stymied by the barricade And, amid them, Seph saw someone that stopped his heart

Madison

She was at the center, carried along by the flow of bodies like a chip of wood on a flood, buffeted and jostled by the wizards around her Her hair glittered in the wizard light, twisting in the hot winds generated by the flae?

Seph vaulted over the battle halfway down an interior staircase that led to the courtyard at the botto every third or fourth one

"Co who the coo back to sleep--until he re his head on the bunk above It was the first time he’d actually lain down in a bed in a week, and now…

"Will’s here" It was Mick The tall Irish warrior had been assigned to be his bodyguard