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Darmo House, just outside Fili by now?" I asked After all, I was ready
Shankey shrugged "That&039;s ladies&039; stuff; I don&039;t kno long it takes thee"
"Forever" Usually when there was a movie I was anxious to see so we&039;dcredits I knocked on Filiain Perhaps the first tiave it several brisk wake-it-up, shake-it-up raps
I really did have to use all the towels to dry off from the bath, but it had been worth it My fur was all fluffed and shining, I had on fresh clothes, and some invisible servant had even polished et started onon whatever caet Terrin and Fili looked in on him I kneas in a different shirt and able to at least walk
In fact, he was a slowly down the hall toward us Not his nor flat on his back He still didn&039;t look right
"Wassup?" he said
"Trying to see if Filiain
He moved past and tried the door knob Yeah, it worked
"I&039;d have done that next," I said
"No you wouldn&039;t," said Shankey "That&039;s ly went first "Lady Fili were muted this late in the day Shadows filled the corners of the huge roo heavy in the air, a really nasty, head-nu brand that er cheerful, but gloomy and cold
And she&039;d not taken down that black pavilion thing
"Oh, shit" Suddenly flushed with foreboding, Ithe curtain aside Filima was slumped on the candlelit table within, her head on another scrying mirror I picked her up and took her to the couch
"See," Terrin gru like a sack of potatoes"
Shankey sheered off to haul on the bell rope a few tiutter language, all of it terrifically appropriate for the situation I felt like repeating so her around
"Terrin, can you do anything?" I called over ht," he said, his attention on the black curtains Hethehtly slapped her cheeks and wrists, the extent ofFeet up, that was another trick to try I grabbed her ankles and did that elevation thing like you see in the e it
"Hey," said Shankey, co over quick "What the hell are you - "
"I&039; a peek up her skirt Here, you take &039;em" I put her feet into his startled hands and went to a table that held a carafe of water and other drinkables, returning with the water and so that sot her to take a sip of the other She didn&039;t like it, but tough love and all that "Come on, wake up, ya dizzy dame"
The h! Agh! Foo!" went Fili
The matron lady left With a satisfied expression She herded out the other servants who had charged in You&039;d think they&039;d be used to this kind of riot by now
Filima&039;s eyelids fluttered and peeled back She stared at Shankey "Captain? What are - ?"
Shankey hastily dropped her feet and pointed at me "He toldtheir coency It&039;s the rake-over-the-coals hour Fili? After what happened the last time - "
She waved some more to shut me up "I know, but I had to have a look Oh, my head"
"You&039;re lucky another one of those creepy-crawlies didn&039;t coain"
"If that&039;s as really there"
"It was there, all right"
"Regardless, whatever happened earlier began on its own I&039;ve never had any trouble before Anyway, nothing hurt ain"
"That was rowled, one of my more effective vocalizations with all the cat insidebehind her to work on a few nerve clusters
"Ohhh, that&039;s so ht I could purr But I couldn&039;t let her moans of pleasure distractaround with theon in the city"
"Again, why?"
"It&039;s what I do this time of day If I study the initial ht provide a clue to getting rid of it"
"Excuse ht here You can&039;t talk shop with him?"
"I had to see to this first," she insisted
Terrin&039;s muffled voice came from behind the black folds "Neverthan the river Ask her why she freaked when she sawin there?" She shifted froht her and ht have objected to his boss being manhandled - or rather cathandled - but he&039;d pulled the velvet out of the way for a look inside his out," I answered "You got o over it What about his shirt?"
"Shirt?"
"The one with the orange demon babes that you saw hiht it was just a sign of your good taste, but"
Filima squinched her face up, then shook her head, her shoulders slu under my hands "I&039;m so damn tired"
"Uh-uh, no continued-next-week crap Talk, lady"
She reave out with a deep sigh and a shudder "All right What he as a vision"
"Hah?"
"A vision of Hell"
A short bark of laughter ca in the pavilion had Shankey riveted
"A vision of Hell? Little more info, please"
"I saw it once in uely at Terrin and presumably his previous shirt
"There&039;s a lot of weird shit going on around here," Terrin put in
Like I hadn&039;t noticed I turned to Filima "And that&039;s what set you off?"
"I had to find out if he was a Darkside creature, so I tried scrying to find out about hiaping, hungry et used to, but he&039;s hardly - "
He poked his head out, peering past Shankey "It&039;s like a football ga all safe in the home bleachers, then she sees my shirt and thinks I&039;m a spy for the other team"
"The other teauys are pretty tough"
"The Hell-river?"
"I dunno yet But Filima does"
"No I don&039;t!"
He threw a sour, cranky look "Oh, hush," he told her
Surprisingly, she did
He retreated inside and I heard a low hu, not the kind of sound that comes from a human throat Filima noticed it, too, and froze My ears twitched and flattened, ditto for ic stuff, fairly heavy-duty It went on for about a
Shankey backed his way out of the pavilion, his mouth open "You should have seen what he did," he said "He went all glowy and there were these black specks whirling around like snow and they went right into hiic, wasn&039;t it?"
"Terrin?" I called "What&039;s going on?"
He e ht get h this ht"
Shankey reached into the pavilion and caht others in the rooic? Soot it," I said agreeably Filie thing going in earnest A cat can dreah - she wasn&039;tlike before - instead she stared out the s, her shoulders bunching up under ain"
We all looked The streets and ways of the city below hadout of nothing all over, all at the same time In a very short while the city was choked with it to a depth of about head height
"What&039;s that?" I asked, pointing higher
On the roof of one of the taller buildings were several sot used to the darkness I saw they were lanterns in the hands of people shifting nervously about
"They&039;re the overduke&039;s volunteers," Fili Talents are in shielded sanctuaries keeping watch on the river They&039;ve not askedperiod for Botello&039;s death or else I&039;d be with them, too"
"You need to be here," said Terrin "It&039;s time for show-and-tell, and you&039;re up first"