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He reared back in feigned surprise, though his hand didn’t leave her arm "Not a bird? I a for, she is all alone so for you" She was alora wasn’t far off now She didn’t want hio’s disfavor, not after he’d rescued her froth of the Serpentine alone "Go on," she urged "Go and find her"

"I’ve found who I’ for," he said "I may not know your name, but I know you And I have a secret, too"

"Don’t tellup at him; his voice had struck her as faue, like soh his ht, all she could h the eye apertures was shadow

"It’s true," he confessed "I am not really a horse"

"And what are you?" She was really wondering noas he? Soame was played on the Warlord’s birthday, but she didn’t think anyone would be playing gae of piping as they drew near the lastlute, the throat-deep ululation of singers, and beneath it all, like a heartbeat under skin, the cadence of druency to dance Bodies were close on all sides, the stranger’s closest of all A swell in the crowd pressed hial and she felt the h his cloak

And heat

She was conscious of her bareness and sugar glitter, and, plainly, her own rushing heartbeat, her own rising heat

She flushed and stepped away, or tried to, but was shoved back into hient leather of hisrich and deep that she couldn’t identify but that made her want to lean into him, close her eyes, and breathe He kept an arainst the crush and kept her froo but onith the crowd as it funneled into the agora They were in the funnel, and there was no turning back

The stranger was behind her, his voice low "I came here to find you," he said "I came to thank you"

"Thank me? For what?" She couldn’t turn A centaur flank heht she caught a gliora now--straight ahead, frae The lanterns overhead were like constellations, their flicker blotting out the real stars, and the al’sNitid--could see in

So to happen

"I caer, close to her ear, "for saving al had saved lives She had crept in darkness over fields of the fallen, slipped through seraphilean souls that would otherwise be lost to evanescence She had led a strike on an angel position that had her coht theel’s arrow out of the sky as it lide toward a comrade She had saved lives But all those h her consciousness in the space of a finger snap, leaving only one

Bullfinch Mist Enemy

"I took your recommendation," he said "I lived"

Instantly, it was as if her veins were conducting fire She whipped around His face was only inches from her own, his head tilted down so that now she could see into his mask

His eyes blazed like fla tide sucked thes, horns and hide, fur and flesh, and she was carried along, stricken du the cobbles

A seraph, inside Loramendi

Not a seraph This seraph Whoe, his hands on her arel as alive because of her

He was here

It was such hts,all around her She couldn’t think What could she say? What should she do?

Later it would strike her that not for an instant had she considered doing what anyone else in the entire city would have done without a thought: un, uneven breath and said, "You’re mad to be here Why did you come?"

"I told you, I caht "Assassination? You’ll never get close to the Warlord"

Earnestly, he said, "No I wouldn’t tarnish the gift you gave ora was a h for an arht there were no troops at its center, only dancersin the intricate patterns of a lowland reel Those spilling froes of the square where the density of bodies was greatest Casks of grasswine stood aathered in clusters, children on their shoulders, everyone laughing and singing

Madrigal and the angel were still caught in the churning delta of the Serpentine He was anchoring her, as steady as a breakwall In the blank, gasping afteral didn’t try to ift lightly, co to die," he said "Not tonight A thousand things ht now, but instead, a thousand things broughtlined up It has been easy, as if it were meant--"

"Meant!" she said, aht her against his chest as if they were still dancing She fought backward for space "As if ere meant?"

"You," he said "And s Him and her? Seraph and chiain, "You’re mad"