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You’re welcos, now use theu of nerought blades heaved in nerought hands as her s and all She paused under an arch to watch and caught sight of Ziri at once He ith Ixander, her greatest monstrosity to date, and was positively dwarfed by hi--he was Akko, one of the larger tribes and a ht, o’s specifications His wings were al as a stormhunter’s, and the muscle required to anchor theant, and Karou was sorry about it Her brief contact with his soul had surprised her with its… meadowiness

The impression of souls was synesthetic: sound or color, flashes of iht and newbloom and quiet--the opposite of the colossal beast body that he see

Ziri cast hiraceful and silent, and beckoned Ixander to follohich he did with neither grace nor silence His wingbeats gave the air a sonic thrashing and kicked up flurries of dust that reached Karou even across the court In the air, the pair began to drill fighting stances, and Karou found her focus not on Ixander but on Ziri, as she forgot her outrage and her errand and was sucked back across years by the sight of a Kirin in flight

Every tial She never felt ht of Ziri--and never ht up to her what she was now It wasn’t disappointing She ho she was It was just the slightest bit disorienting, a brief vibration between two selves that would always be separate, like two yolks in one shell

"You could be Kirin again, you know," Ten had told her at the river

"What?" Karou, rinsing her hair, had thought she ht be easier for the others to accept you" Again she’d given Karou that up-and-down look and chuffed at her unfortunate humanness "I could help you"

"Help"What, you"Oh, no Thiago would do that, of course But I would resurrect you You’d just need to show me how"

Oh, is that all? "Tell you what," Karou had said with a big mock-cheerful smile "Let’s do you instead I have all kinds of ideas for your next body" Ten hadn’t particularly liked that, but Karou did not careTen and Thiago had discussed? Maybe it would be easier to blend in if she looked like a chimaera, but it didn’t make sense to even think about it now Karou needed to be huet the rebels’ food for thee, not to mention teeth But would they expect it of her, eventually?

Well, they could expect all they wanted She looked at the hanature Brihter called her back to the , and Ixander had lost his balance and begun to spiral groundward Trying to right hibeats to crash into the crued the court, where he set off a cascade of dirt and ended up hanging by one hand fro, and others, and the sound was so alien, so light It hed when she was around and would surely stop if they saw her She drew back, not wanting that to happen

Ziri darted forward in the air and s hiround with a roar He landed with concussive force and tried to swat at Ziri, as taunting hih to whack Ixander on the helathered around taunting--in unood humor--and when Ixander leapt airborne in pursuit, they cheered

All five patrols had returned froo had been in a fine h what glory, or what their mission had been, Karou still didn’t know One of the faronfalon to replace the one that had burned with Loramendi; it was more modest, made of canvas, not silk, but it bore a white wolf and the words Victory and vengeance that were his motto And now, apparently, all of theirs

Privately, Karou preferred the Warlord’s heraldry: antlers sprouting leaves to signify neth, but she was far froly in her: a prio’scry for a rebellion

The banner hung fro to declare the Wolf’s ee of hilarity Why not? We’re in this together, Thiago had told her So ould he do if sheup beside his? And ould be on it? A string of teeth? A pair of pliers? No A vise, and her motto could be Ouch

She sht, but her smile turned wistful because she had nobody to tell In the court, the soldiers were still laughing, and she was in the shadows and no part of it

Ixander waswith much more ease now, and it took her aso hard He was ht She experienced a surge of pride, seeing the bear heft of hi had provoked hiuessed was Ziri’s plan--and Ziri paid the price for it now as Ixander caught hi hi run and skidded to a halt on his cloven hooves practically nose-to-nose with Balieros, the big bull centaur as his patrol leader

Balieros shook his head, his shoulders shaking with laughter, and, putting an arm around Ziri’s shoulder, walked back with hiot a lump in her throat How easy they all ith each other, and quick to laugh Once she had been part of their soldiers’ closeness, sharing barracks and battle caleaned souls; she had been one of them

But she’d made her choices, and now she had to live with theave a start, thinking the soldiers had seen her spying, but they weren’t looking in her direction A beat later, Thiago strode into view Karou recalled that she had been going to dee left her It wasn’t just hie It hom he ith

The Shadows That Live

They were beautiful in their way, and sinuous in their stride Tangris and Bashees were identical: sphinxlike panther creatures of dusky black, fine-boned and softly furred, with the heads of wos of dark owl feathers that were perfectly silent in flight They weren’t large, or terrible, but Thiago treated them with a deference he showed no other soldiers, and it was no wonder No one else could do what they did Karou’s hands turned cla them on a mission?

He was

This time she couldn’t wonder dumbly what nature of mission, or pretend not to understand The Shadows That Live were legend, and they were… special… and so their missionsilence behind theood-bye or wished theels needed it badly, but they wouldn’t get it Whoever they were, they were as good as dead already

31

TALLY

Akiva could have done without fire that night at cah fire for one day: the sky was still curdled with sitive chimaera out of the safety of the forest When he looked up, he couldn’t see a single star But fire was a caathered around it to clean their blades and eat and drink, and though he had no appetite, he did have a thirst He was on his third flagon of water, sunk in thoughts as ht his attention

"What are you doing?"

It was a sharp demand, and it came from Liraz Akiva looked up His sister was on the far side of the fire, lit lurid by its glow

"What does it look like?" This fro with two others, and when Akiva sahat it was they held--what they were about to do--his fists clenched