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Two more came at hi one’s hand froh the other’s heart, likely killing hi it The berserker was beginning to surface The berserker always ca off in his bird to goddess-knehere Deeper into the Sahara? He had to reach Faith before that happened!

Faith continued to fight, her strength superior to her opponents’, one-on-one, but there were three of the controlled by Magea blade through his soulless heart The hipped harder, sending the sand flaying his face, his aran to run, her tread surprisingly light on the shifting sands He lopped off the head of her second attacker, spilling blood into the sand, and took off after her, struggling to run He’d never catch her!

The Earth began to quake under his feet, Mother Nature thoroughly angry, now The sand began to swirl dangerously fast

The red haze pulsed into his vision, turning the sand to blood Fury consu away the last of his control He was losing it!

Through the roar of the blasting sand and the yelling, he heard Kougar shout, "Get us out of here!"

Once ness, then found hiray of the backyard of Feral House, retching his guts out

"Faith?" Hawke called when he was able

"She’s here" Kougar’s voice

Lightning bolted through his head, a fiery pain that radiated to all corners of his skull followed, as always, by the hawk’s cry Talons tore into his brain with a ferocity that, if real, would have left his brain leaking out his ears as a bloody pulp The agony

He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think as his mind went , bleeding, ot to count, couldn’t think, could only survive

"Easy, buddy" Kougar gripped his shoulder "What’s happening?"

Finally, finally, the talons eased off, the searing pain slowly receding until he could think again Until he could breathe "Nothing"

"Right" Kougar didn’t believe hi for Faith Between the motion sickness and his bird’s attack, he felt beaten and bruised, but he hadn’t shifted A hell of a way to stop an unintended shift, but he wasn’t co

Around the yard, others rose unsteadily, Faith in the middle of them But even as he found her, she leaped to her feet and took off running, faster than any humanor immortal, for that et her," a soft Ilina voice murmured, and,beside him

Lyon joined him "We have no choice but to lock her up"

"No"

"Give ood one "Handcuff her to o anywhere"

"And if you shift?"

They’d both be gone No cuffs would hold hie wristbands they now had on Faith They’d tried that when they first realized his probleone berserk, crazed with a fury that wasn’t his It had taken three of his brothers to take him down

If he shifted, Faith would run He knew that, now And his control was too precarious at theher His ani her as she fought the themselves frorabbed her by the upper ar a stor claws He turned her away froainst her sides so she couldn’t continue the attack

This wasn’t going to work "All right," he told Lyon "She stays in the prison until we cure her" He turned to Kougar "What in the hell happened out there?"

"The Mage erected some kind of barrier around the cave, or maybe that entire portion of the Sahara The moment the Ilinas hit the barrier, they turned corporeal We all fell out of the sky, right into a Mage ambush Fortunately, the Ilinas recovered quickly and were able to get us back out of there before we suffered any casualties" He lifted an eyebrow "The sae"

Hawke didn’t feel an ounce of re to capture Faith"

"How did the Mage know about the cave?" Lyon dear stroked his beard "I’ as so system for the new Ferals"

Lyon looked at Faith "Then the sooner we get her cured, the better"

Kougar nodded "Ariana and the Shae barrier Meanwhile" He turned to Hawke "I’ll help you get her downstairs"

It took both of the stairs and through the base," Kougarswipes that nearly knocked hier with the aniht She really could be a secret weapon No eneth like this from a 125-pound female Of any race"

They reached the prisons and shoved her into one of the cells, sla the door closed before she could whirl on the, her claws clicking against the steel bars, she growled, shaking the bars "Lether like this, locked up Crazed And yetthere was soabout the unadulterated wildness in her

"Where, Faith?" Hawke asked quietly "Where do you want to go?"

"To Maxio!"