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Chong found his voice, but it was thin and fragile "When we fought Preacher Jack and his people at Gaht I understood as really like But"

"This is war," said Nix "This is what it really looks like Godthere has to be so nodded and turned away

But then a new sound intruded into the er Much, er

They leaned out

The sound wasout over the tops of the trees

They turned and looked upward

"Oh , smiled

The thing was enor on either side It flew directly over the clearing, and its shadow caressed their faces as they watched It fle and descended toward the red desertthe dead, Joe stopped and shielded his eyes as he looked up Stained with soot and blood, he smiled

The jet

92

IN THE LAST GLOW OF THE DYING SUN, MOTHER ROSE STOOD AT THE EDGE of the forest She watched the jet descend toward Sanctuary Once, long ago, she had seen it flying high in the sky, and she’d thought it was a passenger liner How foolish a thought that had been She knehat it was now; her daughter had told her A C-5 Galaxy A cargo jet that brought staff and supplies to Sanctuary

Even if Mako hadn’t revealed the location of the place, the landing jet would have been a beacon

Not that it mattered anymore Mother Rose had less than one hundred reapers left A fraction of her force All the rest?

Alexi had co that children and a ranger were trying to take the weapons from the fallen plane Mother Rose had sent so many of her reapers back with his by the weapons she had hidden and protected froht Church

Her weapons The tools that would have made her the queen of this world

Gone The weapons, her reapers, her dreaone

Only Alexi returned Bloodier still Defeated A general without an arh to take Sanctuary away froh

"We’re done," said Alexi

Mother Rose almost stabbed hi and she simply could not do it It was over

"We were so close," she said

Alexi leaned on his ha his head "One day," he said "If we’d jumped on this yesterday One damn day" He let the handle of his hammer fall away to thump into the sand "Nohat? How the hell do we come back from this?"

Mother Rose shook her head "I don’t know II’ll think of so"

"No," said a voice, soft as a shadow

Mother Rose whipped her head around

"Saint John," she said in a whisper

"Get back!" barked Brother Alexi, lunging for his haiant stretched out for his weapon, and then Alexi siround Mother Rose stared in incolistened wetly Alexi tried to speak, but there was no possibility of that Not as left of his throat He blinked once, twice, and then stared at the darkening sky

The shadow ht

Brother Peter wore no expression at all on his face The fading sunlight gleamed on the bloody knife in his hand

Saint John walked slowly toward Mother Rose He had no weapon in his hand, but she wasn’t fooled Saint John himself was a weapon, and every fold and pocket of his clothes hid blades He was, after all, Saint John of the Knife How many times had she seen this ly eesture and filled with steel at the end, and between start and finish the air blooreatest killer the world had ever known; she believed that with her whole heart, even if she had never believed in the saint’s God or the Night Church

To her, it was all a scam A means to an end

And this was an end

Not the one she dreamed of Not the one she wanted

Saint John stopped inches away His face, though not handsome, was beautiful, the way the carved faces of saints in churches are beautiful Cold and remote and inhuman

Tears dropped froe the shape of this day Nor would anything she could say

If her reapers were closer, if Alexi was alive, if they had the weapons froe this moment To shape it, to try and work a con on the saint

But those possibilities had set with the burning sun

She said, "I’ly, she meant it

Saint John bent close and kissed her on the lips Without passion, but with love With the kind of love only he understood

"I know," he said

"Please don’t let it hurt," she whispered

"No," he said

And it did not

Mother Rose fell into his arround Then he stepped back, turned, and with Brother Peter at his side, walked away

She lay there as the sun set Ti away froht, and she ed to turn her head, just a little Brother Alexi was stirring, crawling across the grass toward her

Alive, she thought, her heart filling with joy My love is alive

Except that he wasn’t

The giant was as pale as the distant stars, and as he bent toward her she could see the darkness It was in his eyes and in his open ht The darkness is real

93

WHEN BENNY OPENED HIS EYES ONCE MORE, THE WORLD HAD CHANGED

It wasn’t the inside of the plane It was daytih he could not turn his head, he could cut his eyes left and right There were quads Riot and Chong on one Nix and Eve on another A big dog galloping along with the was all in arht that was cool

He heard the ht so

"We have to hurry," said another voice Joe "He’s slipping fast"

Benny wondered if they were talking about hi?

The quadschain-link fence

We’re hoht We made it all the way back to Mountainside

But there was a sign beside the gate he’d never seen on the fence back home It read:

SANCTUARY

GIVE ME YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR

YOUR HUDDLED MASSES YEARNING TO BREATHE FREE

But below that the original words were still visible, though sand-blasted to pale ghosts of letters by the unrelenting desert winds As Benny passed the sign he read it:

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