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"I sit in awe"

Here they were, back at the crater where they’d spent their cold night They’d just arrived and soon they would be on their way again, toward the Bay of Beasts and the portal At least, a few of them would, and Akiva was not part of that few Karou had been trying to be cool about it, but it was hard When her plan had come clear to her--when she was back in Akiva’s chah the scenario--it had been Akiva she iined by her side, not Liraz

But once she’d presented the idea to the council, she’d begun to realize that her plan was really only one slice in the ic pie, and that if they went forith it, Akiva, as Beast’s Bane, would be needed here

Damn it

And so it was: Liraz would accompany her instead of Akiva, and it was just as well The chih the portal with Akiva, and there was still the deception to e, blast it

At least once she got through the portal, Karou told herself, she wouldn’t have the entire chi her every move

Of course, in the absence of Akiva, there would be no

"We all have our parts to play," she told Zuzana and Mik, by way of re Quick and clean and apocalypse-free Hopefully Once he’s back in Eretz, he still has to be defeated And, you know, the odds aren’t exactly in our favor"

That was putting it mildly

"Do you think they can do it?" asked Mik He was looking at the soldiers coether They’d sin the saht

"We," Karou corrected "And yes, I think we can" We have to "We will"

We will defeat Jael And even that was just a beginning, really How h before they made it to the dream?

A different sort of life Harhter of my heart," Issa had told her, back at the caves With the exception of a few, such as Thiago, those of the chi, Issa had recited Brihter, my joy Your dream is my dream, and your name is true You are all of our hope"

Your dreained that Brimstone’s vision of "har than hers did

StopThere are worlds at stake Cake for later; emphasis: later

It should have happened when she’d followed Akiva into the alcove--dear gods and stardust, the sight of his bare chest had brought back very… waritated, insisting there was so there with them, unseen, and had proceeded to search for it with a sword in his hand

Karou didn’t doubt hi there herself, and couldn’t ihosts of Kirin dead? The goddess Ellai in a bad ether had coood-bye properly She thought iteasier, if they had But then she recalled their predawn good-byes in the requiele tiood-bye kiss doesn’t s any easier

And so she focused her mind on her task and tried not to look for Akiva, as so in to land

This was the plan:

Instead of going through the portal to attack Jael in unfao and Elyon would take the main force of their coreet Jael when Karou and Liraz sent hi They didn’t know yet where Jael had his troops staged, and couldn’t predict what they would find at the second portal, up in the Veskal Range north of Astrae They would take it as it came, but they anticipated, of course, a vast force Ten-to-one ratio if they were lucky, worse if they were not

So Karou had given the quietly by themselves, apart from and above thedown As Karou watched, Tangris lifted one graceful panther paw and licked it, and the gesture was purely cat in spite of the fact that the face--and tongue--were huiven the rebellion the Shadows That Live She had deeply s about it It had provided a pretext for resurrecting the sphinxes, Tangris and Bashees--and A with them, since his soul was in the saue with her about it--and that was good But she’d always had a horror of their particular specialty, which was to move unseen, in silence, and slay the eneic, it transcended silence and slyness It was as though the sphinxes exuded a soporific to ensure their quarry didn’t awaken, no matter as done to them They didn’t even wake up to die

Maybe it was naive to hope that a bloodbath could be avoided at this stage, but Karou was naive, and she didn’t want to be responsible for any more bloodbaths

"The Do thereater , she’d thought Ever "The saotten by anyone in the E better than that We can’t kill everyone"

"So we spare them," Liraz had said, and Karou was primed for more of her icy sarcasers," she’d said, and she was staring at her own hand, turning it over and back again "Take the three ers of a swordsht At least, until they can train in the use of their other hand, but that’s a probleht into Karou’s eyes and lifted her brows as if to say, Well? Will that do?

It… would They’d all agreed to it, and Karou had had tieness offro response to Ten’s attack "I deserved her vengeance," she had said, angerless Karou didn’t want to knohat she deserved it for; it was enough to marvel at the end of a cycle of reprisals How seldo war of hatred, that one side said, "Enough I deserved that Let it end here" But in effect, that hat Liraz had said "What you do with her soul is your affair," she had also said, leaving Karou free to glean Haxaya’s soul froin with

She didn’t knohat she would do with it, but she had it, and now Liraz had not only proposed sparing the Dominion soldiers their lives, but even a usable portion of their hands They ain in a hurry, but they’d be much better off than if their whole hand was severed at the wrist It was more than mercy It was kindness How odd

So that was settled The Shadows That Live would, if they could, disable the soldiers guarding Jael’s portal, or as many of them as they could

As for Akiva, he would fly due west to Cape Ararrison in the fors His role--and it could ion, and atteainst Jael While the Doht to protect the privilege they were born to, the soldiers of the Second Legion were largely conscripts, and there was reason to believe that their hearts weren’t in another war--especially a war against the Stelians, eren’t beasts but kin, however distant Elyon thought that Akiva’s reputation as Beast’s Bane would count for so in the ranks, on top of which, he’d proven himself persuasive with his brothers and sisters

Karou had need of persuasion, too, to urge Jael to leave, but it was a particular breed of "persuasion" that Liraz couldto go find out what the scouts have to say," she told Mik and Zuzana, dropping her gear with a thud and rolling her shoulders and neck She was passingly bothered by the fact that there had been only three scouts waiting for theet, and Vazra Ziri had dispatched four pairs of scouts, and each pair was to have sent one soldier to rendezvous here and make report on any seraph troop activity around the bay