Page 27 (1/2)

Again, Jael kicked hihed blood onto the exquisite ertip into it, he scribbled an obscenity

Jael shook his head in disgust and stalked over to a table where refreshan to pace "It’s taking too long," he said, his voice a snap of spite "I didn’t cout affected a sigh and began to drag hio and speak to them myself It will be faster, anyway Your Latin pronunciation is appalling"

Jael signaled to the pair of Do as they seized hi hiine their faces!" he cried, wiping a tear froine if the Pope walked in here right now and saw the pair of us in all our els?’ he would cry and clutch his heart ‘Oh, and then what in the nahter

Jael did not share his amusement "We are not a pair," he said, his voice cold and very soft "And know this, thing If you ever cross ut cut him off "What? What will you do to aze Very steady, very still "Look and see Look into els There is nothing you can take fro you can do that has not already been done"

"You have not yet been killed," said Jael, unyielding

At that, Razgut smiled His teeth were perfect in his awful face, and the crack in hisinsincerity, he clasped his hands and begged, "Not that, my lord Oh hurt ive me peace!"

And spasms of fury ht that his scar pulled white while the rest of him flushed criut thought, still laughing, as Jael laid into hi birth to pain after pain, a whole family of them, a dynasty of hurt That was the rasped, finally, that he was not in control He couldn’t kill Razgut; he needed hies, yes, but more than that: to interpret huy and devise a strategy and rhetoric to appeal to them

He could kick hi and co he would count his bruises, and nuo on knowing all the things that no one reotten, and the reason--oh godstars, the most excellent and terrible reason--that Jael should leave the Stelians alone

"I a in a patchwork of huain, breaking it up with grunts as the kicks came to him "And I knohat fear is! Oh yes, and I knohat beasts are, too You think you do but you don’t, but you will, oh you will, oh you will I’ll get you your weapons and I’ll get theh when you kickand know that I could have stopped you I could have told you"

Don’t do this, oh no, not this, he could have said Or everyone will die

"And I ht have," he added in Seraphic, "if you had been kinder to this poor, broken thing"

36

THE ONLY NON-IDIOT ON THE PLANET

"Hello, King Morgan," said Gabriel, popping his head into the lab "And how is the planet’s only non-idiot on this fine day?"

"Screw you," replied Morgan, without turning fro a lovely , too" He came into the lab a few steps and looked around "Have you seen Eliza? She hasn’t been hoan snerched At least, that was the nearest phonetic case to be made for the sound he ejected froht of Eliza Jones asleep with her ood cheer "No, that probably wasn’t it It was probably already ruined, when you woke up fro adan finally turned around to favor hiht I said I’an, swinging back around He was on the very verge of saying, with all the considerable snideness in his arsenal, that she probably wasn’t even in the country, followed up with the char assessment that her absence likely accounted for the unusual clarity of the air, when Gabriel spoke again

"I have her phone," he said "She hasn’t been hoes I honestly didn’t think it was possible to survive this long without one’s phone Are you sure she’s all right?"

And Morgan Toth’s expression changed He was still faced away, and Gabriel ht the reflection of his look in his co attention, but he never paid very close attention to Morgan Toth

"She went soan said, and his tone was unchanged, as sour as ever, but there was a slyness in his expression now, and a cool, ht back, if you want to leave it"

Gabriel hesitated He weighed the phone in his pal over a chair by one of the sequencers "All right," he said finally, walking a few steps to set the phone down next to it "Would you tell her to text an, and for a second Gabriel hesitated in the doorway, suspicious that the little prig was suddenly being so accoan added, "Tell you what Hold your breath until that happens," and Gabriel just rolled his eyes and left

And Morgan Toth was remarkably restrained He waited five minutes, five entirehand--before he locked the door and picked up the phone

37

PREOCCUPIED BY BLISS

"Are you sure you can do this?" Akiva asked his sister, his brow creased with concern They were in the entrance cavern where, just the day before, the armies had very nearly ended each other The scene before them noas… quite different