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"Are you beginning to understand what this means?" Dr Amhali asked, very intense "Do you see how the world will interpret it? The angels flew to Roels in Ro of beasts and wars, while here, in a Muslim country, we unearth… demons What do you think the response will be?"

Eliza saw his point, and felt his fear The world needed far less provocation than actual flesh-and-blood "denited a wonder in her, and she couldn’t bring herself to wish theovernments and diplomats, police and military, not scientists Their as the bodies in front of them--the physical matter, and that alone There waswith exhaustiveas reference for each body But first, they opted for an overview of the work ahead of them

"Do all the bodies have the marks?" Dr Chaudhary asked Dr Amhali

"All but one," Dr Amhali replied, and Eliza wondered about that, but the next creature they saw--the large bulk under the white tarp--did have them, and so did the bodies in the next tent, and the next, so Eliza forgot about it It was enough to try to process what she was seeing--and s--one body at a time She was nauseated and overwhels known and buried--and she was prey, too, to a peculiar sadness Going tent to tent like this, seeing this array of unearthly creatures, it felt like a carnival erie where all the exhibits were dead

All ild anizable animal parts, and they were in successively advanced states of decay The deeper they had been in the pit, the longer they’d been dead, suggesting that they’d been killed one by one over a period of tione on here, it hadn’t been a massacre

And then they came to the final hazmat tent, off by itself on the far side of the pit "This one was buried alone," said Dr Arave"

Eliza entered, and at the sight of this final "exhibit" in the dead hter than ever This was the one without estion of care--not flung into the stinking pit, but laid out and covered with dirt and gravel A grayish residue of dust clung to his flesh,him seem like a sculpture

Maybe that hy she was able to think, right away, that he was beautiful Because he didn’t look real He looked like art She could almost have wept for him, which made no sense If the others were variously "monstrous," he was the most "demonic" or "devilish":black horns and cloven hooves, and bat wings stretched out on the ground on either side of hiainst the sides of the tent

But he didn’t strike her as deelic"

What happened here? she wondered in silence It wasn’t her job to figure that out, but she couldn’t help herself Questions rose in a stir, like startled birds Who killed these creatures, and why? And ere they doing in the Moroccan wilderness? And… ere their na response to seeing dead monsters--to wonder at their names--but this last body especially, with its fine features, made her want to know The tip of one horn was snapped off, a simple detail, and she wondered how it had happened, and fro else What had his life been like, and as he dead?

TheDr Chaudhary that the creatures see in the kasbah for some time, and had vacated it only the day before yesterday

"Some nomads witnessed their departure," said Dr Amhali

"Wait," Eliza said "There were some seen alive? How many?"

"We don’t know The witnesses were hysterical Dozens, they said"

Dozens Eliza wanted to see the "Well, where did they go? Have you found them?"

Dr A… up "And no, we have not"

According to the witnesses, the "deh no evidence had been found to back this up If it weren’t for the proof of the story in the for monster corpses, it would have been dismissed as ludicrous As it was, helicopters continued to scour the one by jeep and caht have seen anything

Eliza stepped out of the tent with the doctors They won’t find the at the ruous in the heat There is another universe, and that’s where they’ve gone

35

THRICE-FALLEN

"Get Off"

As soon as the door closed behind hie lurch and twist of his shoulders to dislodge the invisible creature riding on his back

If Razgut had wanted to stay put, such a rip was strong, and so was his will, and--after a long life of uniinable torht have snapped, and laughed his h while the emperor did his worst

Usually he found it worth the pain to cause others misery, but, as it happened, Jael’s foulness superseded even the pleasure of torturing hio of hiasp, becoht, his atrophied legs splayed to one side "You’re welconity

"You think I should thank you?" Jael reuard Only in privacy could the ruin of his face be revealed: the hideous scar that slashed fro a lisping, slurping wreckage of a riut’s own hideous face--a bloated sack of purple, his skin stretched blister-tight He replied peevishly and in Latin, which the e your neck while I had the chance It would have been so very easy"

"Enough of your huues," said Jael, i?"

They were in an opulent suite of rooms in the Papal Palace adjacent to St Peter’s Basilica, and had just co of world leaders at which Jael had presented his de every syllable Razgut whispered in his ear

"For words," said Razgut, in Seraphic this time, and sweetly "Without my words, my lord, what are you but a pretty face?" He snickered, and Jael kicked him

It wasn’t a dramatic kick There was no showmanship in it, only brutal efficiency A quick, hard jerk, and the steel-enforced toe of his slipper spiked into Razgut’s side, deep into the ut cried out The pain was sharp and bright, precise He curled around it