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He should have eht

A red-uniformed Inspector also stood nearby, his hands on his hips She alot the horse when she spotted the bizarre mechanical crouched beside the Inspector, a e barrel, with brass fittings and six spiderlike legs, an oily ichor oozing around its joints and staining the thened and retracted as though to focus on the scene before it Karigan staggered back into the professor

"What is that thing?" she asked hian’s knees weakened, and she was glad to have the bonewood cane to support her

"They are some of the most advanced machines in the empire," the professor explained with a shudder "Avoid thean did not have to be told Her shudder echoed the professor’s as the Enforcer lifted one of its long, jointed legs and stretched it forward as if to sense so in the air Steam puffed from a short pipe that protruded froht, such as only Mornhavon the Black could devise

The horse reared, and the assistant with the twitch retreated again, eliciting laughter from the audience

"If you cannot control that horse," the Inspector shouted, "I will shoot it You are disrupting traffic" He settled his hand on what Karigan took to be a tool sheathed on his belt

"What does it an asked the professor desperately

"He will fire his gun at the horse to kill it"

Fire? Gun? But Karigan did not ask for an explanation Knowing it h The poor beast was sied by, and fearful of, the whip, and the co

The bay scraped his hoof on the cobbled street The Inspector grasped the handle of his tool--gun--whatever to pull it froripped her arm hard as if to silence her, but it was too late The Inspector darted his gaze at her, and so didthe horse whose ears went to point The dark aze to the exclusion of all else She beca of the handler and the Inspector drawing his weapon, theeye on her

The bay lifted his nose to the sky to scent the air, still watching her So

Suddenly the horse half-reared and surged toward her, dragging his handler behind him In her peripheral vision, she saw the Inspector raise his odd weapon and aim it at the horse

"Nooo!" she screamed

The professor tried to pull her away, but she’d the strength to resist

"Don’t shoot!" cried an authoritative voice "The horse is mine, and I’ll deal with it"

The Inspector paused, then lowered his weapon After that, Karigan heard no more, for the bay had reached her, halted, and placed his velvety nose in her hands He blew gentle breaths into her palms, and she saw herself mirrored in his eye The handler jerked on the lead rope

"Give that to led his whip "If you raise that whip again," she told him, "I shall take it fro to debate the level of threat she posed The professor stepped between the the bay’s sweat-slicked neck

"Good boy," she said in soothing tones "Good, good boy" The horse’s eyelids drooped, and his ears flickered as he listened to her Then everything stilled for her and the ih her mind, the echo of distant hoofbeats "Raven," she murmured "Your name is Raven" She did not kno she knew this, but she did with a firm certainty

"Actually," said the owner of the authoritative voice who’d stopped the Inspector fros to roaned beside her and whispered to her, "Now you’ve done it Let un to disperse, the Inspector shooing people along, his Enforcer prodding theain she couldn’t help a shudder of revulsion Traffic began to move around them, and Samson’s owner stood before them, his array suit and the tall style of hat that see silk, and diaold brooch shaped in the eon with tail wrapped around its neck Tucked beneath his elbow he carried a sliolden knob Even as she took in these details, one above all others caught her attention: his specs The lenses were a smoky dark that hid his eyes

The three of them and the bay becaes, wagons, carts, and pedestrians to flow around them They were not asked to relocate, all else was required to move around them It spoke to the an despite the activity on all sides However, if any of his handlers attempted to approach, he laid his ears back and sto lady," the man with the dark specs said, "and I did not think hile" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">