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"Who?" dee

"I’mI’m Deputy Leader Geanner," sobbed the man He proffered an envelope "Mister Corolini’s assistant I’ve brought you the treaty letterthe pere took the envelope, which burst into flarey flakes of ash falling from his blackened hand

"I do not need pere "From anyone"

"I’ve also coreed," continued Geanner, staring up at Hedge "We have done all you asked"

"All?" asked Hedge "The King and the Abhorsen?"

"Dddead," gasped Geanner "Bo left"

"The caates at dawn, as instructed The handbills have been printed, with translations in Azhdik and Chellanian They will believe the pro in Corvere and elsewhere, butbut I’ I need has been done," said Hedge "All save one thing"

"What’s that?" asked Geanner He looked up at Hedge but barely had begun to screa blade came down and took his head from his shoulders

"A waste," croaked Chlorr, as returning with a string of Hands sha behind her "The body is useless now"

"Go!" roared Hedge, suddenly angry He sheathed his sword all bloody and drew Mosrael again "Lest I send you into Death and summon a more useful servant!"

Chlorr chuckled, a sound like dry stones rattling in an iron bucket, and disappeared off into the night, a line of perhaps a hundred Dead Hands sha after her As the last one crossed into the forward trenches, Hedge rang Mosrael A single note issued fro in both volume and pitch As the sound spread, the bodies of the Southerlings began to twitch and wriggle, and the mounds of corpses becae Still Mosrael sounded, though its wielder was already stalking through the cold river of Death

Chapter Eighteen

Chlorr of the Mask

LIRAEL AWOKE WITH a start, her heart pounding and her hands scrabbling for bells and sword It was dark, and she was trapped in so fully awake She was sleeping in the back of one of the noisy conveyances--a truck, Sam called it Only it wasn’t noisy now

"We’ve stopped," said the Dog She thrust her head out the canvas flap to look around, and her voice became rather muffled "I think rather unexpectedly"

Lirael sat up and tried to banish the sensation of being recently clubbed on the head and ar She still had her cold At least it was no worse, though the Ancelstierran spring had yet to fully flower and winter had not given up its grip on nighttiing fro from the driver up front Then Sam drew back the flap co full-face lick fro He looked tired, and Lirael wondered if he’d been able to sleep after hearing the terrible news about his parents She’d fallen asleep alh she had no idea how long she’d been asleep It didn’t feel long, and it was still very dark, the only light co’s collar

"The trucks have stalled," reported Saetting too close to the hemispheres We’ll have to walk from here"

"Where are we?" Lirael asked She stood up too quickly, and her head hit the canvas canopy, justone of the steel struts There was a lot of noise outside now--shouting and the crash of hobnailed boots on the road--but behind all that there was also a constant dull boo In her half-asleep state, it took a moment for her to understand it wasn’t thunder, which she half-expected, but soate, and Lirael followed, somewhat more sedately They were still on the Peri The moon was up, a slidom It was subtly different in shape and color, too, Lirael noted Less silver, andfro with it Lirael could see bright flashes on the horizon there, but it was not lightning There was thunder as well, to the west, and the flashes fro As she looked, Lirael thought she caught the faintest whiff of Free Magic, though the as indeed a southerly And she could sense Dead somewhere up ahead Not hts?" she asked Sa south He turned to look but had to step back before he could answer, as soldiers started to trot past the trucks

"Artillery," he said after a h back, so they aren’t affected by the Old Kingdom or the hemispheres and can still fire U device several round or blows up in the air and kills people"

"A total waste of ti up "You can’t hear any shells exploding, can you? So all they’re doing is lobbing whatrocks over, and even a direct hit with an unexploded shell won’t do anything to the Dead It’ll just be a big mess for the ordnance people to clear up Thousands of UXBs, and most of them white phosphorus Nasty stuff! Co, and Sa They left their packs in the trucks, and for a et was still asleep in Sam’s Then she saw the little white cat up ahead behind the first double-ti a nized that was exactly what he was doing Hunting so to eat

"Where are we?" asked Lirael as she easily caught up to Major Greene He looked at her, took a coughing breath, and nodded his head at Lieutenant Tindall, as up ahead Lirael got the hint She ran forward to the younger officer and repeated her question

"About three point," replied Tindall "Forwin Mill is about sixteen miles south of there, but hopefully we’ll be able to stop this Hedge at the Wall--First Platoon, halt!"

The sudden order surprised Lirael, and she ran on a few steps before she saw the soldiers in front had stopped Lieutenant Tindall barked out soeant at the front, and the soldiers ran off to either side of the road, readying their rifles

"Cavalry,her to the side of the road "We don’t knohose"

Lirael rejoined Sa to the beat of hooves on the et played with theit go, only to snap it up after it had run a few feet, holding it frantic and terrified in his partly open ic," said the Disreputable Dog with a loud sniff "But very afraid"

They saw the horse and rider a moment later He was an Ancelstierran soldier, a h he had lost his carbine and saber He shouted as he saw the soldiers

"Get out of the way! Get out of here!"