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Touchstone broke into a gait that could only be described as a gallop, parting the weeds like a ship ploughing a sargasso sea He ran right up to the two standing figures, gently placed Sabriel on the ground before the back to whiteness, li
Sabriel tried to crawl over to him, but the pain in her side suddenly bit sharp and deadly, so it was all she could do to sit up and look at the two people, and beyond thes
"Hello," they said, in unison "We are, for the "
Sabriel stared, dry- it hard for her to see theht, piercing blue eyes They hite linen dresses, with long, open sleeves Freshly pressed dresses that made Sabriel feel extremely dirty and uncivilized, in her reservoir-soaked breeches and sweaty armor Like their voices, their faces were identical Very pretty Twins
They smiled, and knelt down, one by Sabriel’s side, the other by Touchstone’s Sabriel felt Charter Magic sloelling up in the--then it flowed into her, taking away the hurt and pain of the arrow Next to her, Touchstone’s breath became less labored, and he sank into the easy quiet of sleep
"Thank you," croaked Sabriel She tried to smile, but seemed to have lost the knack of it "There are slavershuman allies of the Deadbehind us"
"We know," said the duo "But they are ten --ran very, very fast We saw him run yesterday Or to herself up onto her feet, thinking of her father and what he had said about the Clayr confusing their whens Best to find out what she needed to know before things got really confusing
"Thank you," she said again, for the arrow fell on the ground as she fully straightened up It was a hunting arrow, narrow-headed, not an ar bodkin They had only meant to slow her down She shivered, and felt the hole between the armor plates The wound didn’t feel healed exactly--just older, as if it had struck a week ago, instead of minutes
"Father said you would be herethat you have been watching for us, and watching for where Kerrigor has his body"
"Yes," replied the Clayr "Well, not us exactly We’ve only been allowed to be the Clayr today, because we’re the best Paperwing pilots"
"Or actually, Ryelle is" one of the twins said, pointing at the other "But since she would need a Paperwing to fly hos were needed, so"
"Sanar ca back at her sister
"Both of us," they chorused "Now, there isn’twe painted it in the royal colors e knew last week But first, there’s Kerrigor’s body"
"Yes," said Sabriel Her father’s--her fadom’s enemy For her to deal with Her burden, no matter how heavy, and how feeble her shoulders currently felt, she had to bear it
"His body is in Ancelstierre," said the twins "But our vision is weak across the Wall, so we don’t have a map, or know the place names We’ll have to show you--and you’ll have to re like a dull student pro to deal with a question quite beyond her "Yes"
The Clayr nodded, and sain Their teeth were very white and even One, possibly Ryelle--Sabriel had already got thelass out fro sleeve of her robe, the telltale flash of Charter Magic showing it hadn’t been there before The other wo ivory wand out of her sleeve
"Ready?" they asked each other simultaneously, and, "Yes," before their question had even penetrated Sabriel’s tired brain
Ryelle unstoppered the bottle with a resonant "pop," and in one quicka horizontal line Sanar, equally quickly, drew the wand across the falling water--and it froze in mid-air, to form a pane of transparent ice A frozen , suspended in front of Sabriel
"Watch," commanded the women, and Sanar tapped the ice-ith her wand It clouded over at that touch, briefly showed a scene of whirling snow, a gli vision--e had frowned on films, but Sabriel had been to see quite a few in Bain This was much the same, but in color, and she could hear natural sounds as clearly as if she were there
The ed typical Ancelstierran far field of wheat, ripe for the harvest, with a tractor stopped in the distance, its driver chatting with anotherstolidly, peering out through their blinkers
The view raced closer towards these two ht conversation, and continued--following a road, up and over a hill, through a sravel intersected with a n there, and the "eye," or whatever it was, zoonpost filled the whole of the ice- "Wyverley 2 ½thedoards Wyverley village
A few seconds later, the e slowed, to show the fae; the blacksmith-cum-mechanic’s shop; the Wyvern public house; the constable’s trim house with the blue lantern All landmarks known to Sabriel She concentrated evenshown her a fixed point of reference, would now race off to parts of Ancelstierre which were unknown to her
But the picture still e, and turned off the road, following a bridle-path up the forested hill known as Docky Point A nice enough hill, to be sure, covered by a cork tree plantation, with soular cairn upon the hilltopthe cairnThe ireen stones, square-cut and tightly packed together A relatively recent folly, Sabriel remembered from their local history lessons A little less than two hundred years old She’d aled her h the stone, down between the lines ofaround the blocks, to the dark chamber at its heart For an instant the ice-ent cous lay under the cairn, ic perversions of Charterbody, wreathed in Free Magic
The scene shifted, ed difficulty to the face of the body A handsome face, that swaor once had been The hu that he had shared a mother with Touchstone
Sabriel stared, sickened and fascinated by the similarities between the half-brothers--then the vision suddenly blurred, spinning into greyness, greyness accoe andof darkness, formless and featureless, save for two eyes that burned with unnatural flame It seemed to see her beyond the ice-, and lurched forward, two ar forward