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I reot the idea that his roo better"

"Then they&039;d want it real bad They&039;d feed him up, offer him a sweetheart of a power deal, all he has to do is fix it so they can drop in for casual visits That&039;s what they&039;d tell him, anyhow, and he&039;d believe thes are set up with the planes, des on their own They have to be brought in under very specific conditions The Powers That Be get very honked off with those whoattention to Botello&039;s screwing around That&039;s how you ended up being the defender of all Reality, girl" He smirked at Filima

"All Reality?" She seemed unconvinced

"Pretty ets a turn andsubtle like holding a door for so a door That&039;s going on all over so no one really notices But - if so the balance out of whack -rumba in a rain forest So this ti a cold-iron ratulate your fine self, girl You saved the world For a little while I figure we got a couple of hours yet"

"Hours?" she squeaked It was a cute squeak, but didn&039;t suit her

"Hours" I said evenly "Then what happens?"

"So bad"

"Define that, please"

He peered past et that pizza out before it burns I&039;m starvin&039;!"

The Overduke&039;s Black Rooy helped Botello feel much better, but still not quite satisfied He required a lot more power, not only to initiate as to come, but to withstand the afterht not discern friend from food unless he had sufficient protections around himself

In a few hours that wouldn&039;t be a proble Talents of Ruroups, all with the expectation of resolving the business with the Hell-river There&039;d be a resolution, just not one they&039;d like

Filima would be in their number Should he scrape her out first or let her watch it happen to the others? Either way had its own appeal Either would teach her not to interrupt his workings "We need to talk" indeed Bloody wo around the roo hi

Perhapshe could send an escort to fetch her to the palace The Hell-river would drain away her sht be worth the sacrifice to have a private chat with her He could ignore the curfew He was the overduke after all; he could order anything he liked and people would ju too sharply, he bashed into the overduke&039;s table, nearly sending the reversed scrying ht it only just in ti badly If only he weren&039;t so dah overly thick, fogged glass He&039;d have to find a way of correcting the fault, or see to it that his own body washis old one What shape it was in after teeks of rotting away in the Darmo family tomb he didn&039;t want to consider While he was about it he could fix his e, truly fix it I perpetually twenty He could be taller, too And cure that lifelong nagging ingrown toenail trouble

But later First things first

He checked his trousers Well, Anton&039;s trousers Contents thereof

Good gawds

Apparently there were soeon

Cadmus decided that his situation - confineh bad, could be worse The place was sry rodents and obnoxious crawly bugs

He&039;d had a good , so it would be hours yet before risking his digestion to the vagaries of prison food

The delightful Vel possessed by Botello She was a brainy, practical sort and would pool resources with that squinty gentleman doctor fellow Between the helpful to their proble that prisoners were treated with a certain degree of respect no matter what their accused crime He&039;d follow the letter of his orders and be politeright up to the point where Cadmus ascended the scaffold

Cad into a duel to the death, quite another to coldly consider the idea of being executed He was fairly certain Botello would have that uppermost in mind, only it wasn&039;t likely to be a formal execution He&039;d send soarrote Or see to it himself

But Captain Rockbush wouldn&039;t allow that on his watch Being old school he would require no end of proper paperwork, even from Anton, which could take days Botello couldn&039;t hide behind the overduke&039;s face for that long without soh of relief Cads could indeed be much worse

Sonohat? He frowned at the drab walls He&039;d not been here long enough to justify scratching marks on them as had past incarcerates Besides, he really didn&039;t care to leave a written record that yet another member of the Burkus clan had ended up in jail The fah He&039;d really hoped to redee so them up smarter than he&039;d been raised First and foremost: he&039;d keep them away from Burkus family history lest they take all those bad ends as a model instead of a lesson

"Cad him from his soed fro-type costuht not have been born a duchess, but certainly possessed the good taste inherent to the class With a better figure No wonder Anton adored her Cadot up fro and executed a superbly ironic bow to acknowledge his fallen circuain So kind of you to brighten my lonely incarceration with the warmth of your presence"

"Oh, will you leave off the fancy talk, we&039;re not at court now"

"One ood for morale, y&039;see"

She came close to the bars of his cell They were new bars and hadn&039;t had tio it was rather decent "Were you serious that you kneay of getting Anton back from Hell?"

Cadmus looked past her Captain Rockbush stood a few paces away by a big slab of a door, his deadpan gaze well over their heads It was an illusion of privacy only; Rockbush could hear everything, of course, giving no indication of what he thought of the proceedings Cad as he and Velma didn&039;t talk of escape there was no cause to worry

"Yes, actually," he said, pleased she&039;d followed up on what he&039;d shouted over his shoulder when Rockbush and his ht on that"

"Then what is it?" she deest we try a seance"

Her face went a touch funny, and her tone went flat "A seance That&039;s it?"

"As a way of contacting Anton; then he can tell us what to do"

"Unless he&039;s too busy being tortured by demons to hear"

"There&039;s that, but if he&039;s not, then I think he is most likely to be in the best position to advise us on a suitable course of action The advantage of a seance is that one does not require ic is a help Otherwise there is a chance that whatever answers our call to the Otherside ht not be Anton I&039;ve heard soood at imitation and misdirection Since they&039;re not subject to the laws of ti a Talent on this side who can tell the difference between the overduke and an astral iht now all the Talents are sitting around Ru the Hell-riverexcept for Filiht occured to Cad Botello?"

"Filima? Don&039;t be absurd, she haswouldn&039;t dirty her hands with Botello&039;s sche her in"

"But the curfew&039;s on What do we say at the gate? &039;Excuse ency seance to conduct, let us through, please&039; "

"Dear lady, we have the palace doctor with us He has no need to explain himself Just ask him to toddle over to Dars Or not explaining things She ht find them difficult to believe just written out cold You can tell her everything when she gets here And I would strongly recoot the impression he was none too pleased with his wife - er - , that is to say If he saw her he et the wind up"

"Don&039;t worry, I kno to handle him"

"But it&039;s not the him you know! Not Anton He&039;s Botello"

"He&039;s a man I kno they work"

Cadue need to defend his gender, but so long as she was lending a hand to the cause what did ither down here"

"Here? Why?"

"Out of consideration for Captain Rockbush He won&039;t let e place to hold a seance," she muttered

"Indeed, they are rather more associated with candlelit parlors, but onebefore Botello takes it into his head to chop mine off"

"You think he would do that?"

"At the earliest opportunity"

"Why didn&039;t he kill you when he had you in the Black Room?"

"I wondered myself until I reies of death A lot gets released and transfor me there would have disrupted whatever power construct he set up He h alone for thefor dahen the Talents coaze flicked at Rockbush She leaned closer "There&039;s a little proble the doctor to fetch Filima"

"Which is?"

"I already sent him out to warn the Talents not to coency loophole, too" Cadmus had intended to recommend it at some point

"Uh-huh"

"Well, that was very clever of you, but deuced bad ti I don&039;t suppose you could slip out of the palace and fetch her yourself?"

"If I have some help"

"I&039;d offer estured at his cell

She straightened and turned "I&039;ll ask for the captain&039;s assistance"

As she spoke in such a way as to indicate he was now a part of the conversation, Rockbush relaxed his "I&039;" posture "Yes, lady?"

Velma told him she required an escort to take her to Darmo House

He smiled and nodded "I&039;ll be pleased to see to it ht"

She did not look overly surprised "You must be aware that I need to leave now"

"Sorry, lady, but the overduke&039;s curfew is on Until he revokes it, or gives you a writ of exception, I have to follow h "Damn I suppose you do Even if the overduke is really so his body?"

"Not ht be able to help you if you&039;re reluctant to speak with Lord Anton"

"What a estion, but Lord Perdle is not in the palace"

"It is a bit of a dilemma, lady" He was not unsympathetic in his manner, just tied by the restrictions of his office

But Cadh "Oh, bother! Let&039;s have the seance here and now and take our chances You know Anton well enough to tell the difference between him and an Otherside entity, don&039;t you?"

"Yes," said Velma "But since Botello is involved we really should have Filis She needs to knohat her husband is up to I&039;ll just have to go e, lady," the captain reates without one"

"And if I should avoid the gates and sneak over the wall?" she challenged

"Then they would have to arrest you Sorry, lady, but they have their orders"

"Yes, one must have those, mustn&039;t one? Damn and blast! Out of my way!" She stormed toward the door

Rockbush made haste to remove himself from her path

Cadmus called after her "Vel even with Rockbushuppercut motion with her near fist She was quite a bit shorter, which put her into an ideal position to inflict the roin area Rockbush emitted a piteous sound - Cadmus winced in wholehearted syain, this time with a flexible object she pulled fro noise upon connecting with the captain&039;s head, and thereafter he ceased all awds You&039;ve killed him!" Cadmus observed to the abrupt silence that filled the chamber

"Just put him to sleep for a while," she said With some effort, she turned the body over and rifled his pockets

"What did you hit hiht me how to save ish ring full of keys, pushed up, and came over to try them on the cell lock

"Are you sure he&039;s not dead?"

"Yes, I had plenty of oafs to practice on when I was in the circus Soet that no means no He&039;ll have a headache but won&039;t reave it a twist The lock tumblers fell into place, and she pulled the door open "Quickly, put his cloak on"

"I won&039;t fool anyone up close"

"So? We just don&039;t let theet close"

"And if they do anyway?"

"Then run like hell"