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Lirael narrowly averted another, and hurried past She felt a tiny muscle above her eye start to twitch uncontrollably, a symptom of nervous fear, as individual fires roared everywhere in sight, soe to suddenly co barked next to her, and a huge thicket of fire swerved aside She hadn’t even seen it beginning to flare, her mind so much occupied by the ones she could see and the threat of whatfro calulped Lirael, then i snake of fire twirling into another, the two joining in a coht, watching the patches of oily scum, which is what they looked like when they didn’t move They also differed from normal fires in another way, Lirael realized, because there was no se," she repeated once the immediate threat of i "When we get to the Eighth Gate, I’ll stay here and stop hio on"

"No!" exclaimed Lirael "You have to come with me! I’m not afraid of himit’sit’s just so inconvenient!"

"Look out!" barked the Dog, and they both juh to choke Lirael with its sudden heat Coughing, she bent over--and the river chose that s out froe made Lirael slip, but she went down only as far as her waist, then used her sword like a crutch to lever herself up again with a single springing leap

The Dog had already plunged under to haul her mistress out, and the hound looked very e, to find Lirael not only still vertical but ht you went in," she mumbled, then barked at a fire, as much to move the conversation on as to divert the intruder

"Co to wait and a started to say, but Lirael turned on her and grabbed her by the collar Theset her haunches down at once, and Lirael tried to drag her

"You’re co with me!" ordered Lirael, her tone of coht Hedge together--e have to For now, let’s hurry!"

"Oh, all right," gru copious amounts of the river onto Lirael

"Whatever happens," Lirael added quietly, "I want us to be together, Dog"

The Disreputable Dog looked up at her with a troubled eye but didn’t speak Lirael alot choked up in her throat, and then she had to ward off another incursion by floating fires

When that was done, they strode off side by side and, a few minutes later, stepped confidently into the wall of darkness that was the Eighth Gate All light vanished, and Lirael could see nothing, hear nothing, and feel nothing, including her own body She felt as if she had suddenly becoence that was totally alone, cut off froh she couldn’t feel her own mouth and lips, and her ears could hear no sound, she spoke the spell that would take theh to the Ninth and final Precinct of Death

The Ninth Precinct was utterly different froed froht The fa of the river at her knees disappeared as the current faded away The river now only splashed gently round her ankles, and the water arm, the terrible chill that prevailed in all other precincts of Death left behind

Everywhere else in Death always had a closed-in feeling, due to the strange grey light that limited vision Here it was the opposite There was a sensation of ireat flat stretch of sparkling water

For the first tirey, depressing blur Much ht sky so thick with stars that they overlapped and inably vast and luuishable constellations, no patterns to pick out Just a ht as but softer than the living world’s sun

Lirael felt the stars call to her, and a yearning rose in her heart to answer She sheathed bell and sword and stretched her arms out, up to the brilliant sky She felt herself lifted up, and her feet cah from the waters

Dead rose, too, she saw Dead of all shapes and sizes, all rising up to the sea of stars Some went slowly, and some so fast they were just a blur

So the Ninth Gate’s call The veil of stars was the final border, the final death from which there could be no return That same small conscience shrieked about responsibility, and Orannis, and the Disreputable Dog, and Sarily kicked and screa of peace and rest offered by the stars

Not yet, it cried Not yet

That cry was answered, though not by any voice The stars suddenly retreated, became immeasurably far away Lirael blinked, shook her head, and fell several feet to splash down next to the Dog, who still gazed up at the luminous sky

"Why didn’t you stop me?" Lirael asked, made cross by the scare she’d had Another few seconds and she would have been unable to return, she knew She would have gone beyond the Ninth Gate forever

"It is so that all alk hereShe still stared up and did not look at Lirael "For everyone, and everything, there is a time to die Some do not know it, or would delay it, but its truth cannot be denied Not when you look into the stars of the Ninth Gate I’lad you came back, Mistress"