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Head-clearing, shoulder-lifting, this-changes-everything hope At least, it could change everything

Or Thiago could crush it and carry on his can of terror until chimaera truly were beyond all reach of hope It was up to Karou to persuade the at the teeth in her hand and staving off the wild laugh that wanted to burst fro

In the doorway, Ten cleared her throat

Karou gave her a flat, sideward glance "What do you want?"

"Hostile," said Ten, entering uninvited "I just cae" She was so casual Karou assuo, but she should have known so was amiss from the aood-bye to you hi?" The days of Thiago leadingover He was as much a fixture of the kasbah as Karou was More, because theoretically she could fly away any time she wanted to

"To the Tane," said the she-wolf

The Tane was a river in the east of Azenov, the landmass that made up the heart of the Empire’s lands Karou looked up sharply, but it was Issa who asked, with undisguised contee is this, she-wolf?"

"It’s from your friend," said Ten; she said it like it was an illicit word, a piquant naughtiness to speak behind one’s hand "Why, whom did you think I meant?"

Karou went to the , and there he was in the court with his new teaathered the air beneath theht This time, Ziri did look to her , and across the distance she saw his face was rigid with anger, and his eyes, as he lifted his hand in farewell, were full of regret

Her heart was pounding It was because he’d helped her yesterday, orWhatever the particulars, she hadn’t been careful enough

"Where’s Ziri going?" asked Zuzana, leaning past her to watch the team’s departure

"On a mission," Karou heard herself say

"With Razor?" Zuzanacomical, missed the ross sack of his, anyway?"

I guess Ziri is going to find out, Karou thought, feeling sick Razor was her fault She had put that slick, wrong-feeling soul into that powerful body and awakened hi of all the seraphim who had fallen and would fall victim to him

She had heard… that he ate them

She didn’t want to believe it, but you had only to stand doind of hi flesh in shreds caught between razor teeth As for his sack of stains, she didn’t want to know Ever She just wanted it to end, but there he went, to make mayhem on the Tane

"Seven’s one too many for a team, isn’t it," remarked Ten "Six is a nicer number"

A nicer number? Karou understood, and whirled on her "What? Say what youcould happen," replied Ten with a shrug "We always know that e go into battle"

Karou’s chest was rising and falling with her quickened breath "You always know that, do you?" she spat back "When was the last time you went into battle? You or your master?" Her hand flashed out; she snatched a knife off the table It was the little one, barely bigger than a nail file; she used it for a hundred things, like slicing the incense cakes and prying teeth loose froertips for the small bursts of pain she so "Co it "How about a little resurrection? No need to march all the way to the pit I’ll just throw your body out the "

Ten laughed At the little knife, and at her It sounded like barking "Really, Karou Is that how you want to play?" She flung a hand in the direction of Zuzana and Mik "And which of them dies first? The Wolf will probably let you choose"

"Well, you’ll already be dead, so I guess you’ll rabbed Karou’s ar with fury, Karou snarled, "Get out!" Still laughing, Ten did

Karou turned to Mik and Zuzana, ere flat against the wall, holding hands, and wearing identical Um, what? expressions She brushed past them, back to the , and looked into the deep, eone, and down in the court, earthbound and easy to pick out fro ar up at her

Karou sla to flutter and hop "What hat?"

Karou exhaled a long, shaky breath Ziri was a soldier, and a Kirin, she told herself He could take care of hihts Underneath, in the sucking currents of her wild, fist-beating powerlessness, she knew… she knew that she would probably never see hi you out of here"

Zuzana started to argue

Karou cut her off "This is not a good place for you," she said in a rasping whisper, as emphatic as she could make it "Have you wondered how I died?"

"How you--? Uh Battle? I assuo had asped "So now you know," said Karou "Will you please let et you to safety?"

"But what about you?"

"I have to take care of this It has to be me Zuze Please"

In as small a voice as Karou had ever heard her use, Zuzana said, "Okay"

Mik asked, "Uood question Karou atched, that much was clear, and not just by Ten She didn’t have Ziri to rely on now, and she couldn’t risk resurrecting Balieros’s patrol--it would be too transparent There was no one else she could be sure of, but she did have one idea that didn’t involve any other chimaera

She took another deep, uneven breath and considered Zuzana and Mik They were emphatically not soldiers, and it wasn’t merely that they were human, but that they were supremely… first world, utterly unaccustomed to hardship of any kind The hike here had al when she said that losing at cakeas the worst day of her life Could they handle the tithe? They would just have to