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He stopped even trying to take a breath, shunting his body’s urgent de was as i the Shadow Hands He would concentrate every last particle of his mind and power upon them and every last wisp of air into the pipe They would not reach Lirael They ainst the Destroyer

Besides, she was his blood kin, and he had promised

The Shadow Hands took another step closer, and Sam’s entire body shuddered with effort as he tried to force thele of his er He was also close to passing out froe to step back was rising inside him Get out of the way! Take a breath! Let these ht his own fears, pushing them away into the same distant corner of his s They would stay there, and he was deterht well beyond his last breath At the saeh he hadn’t seen or felt theround They were now only just out of sword’s reach, tall colu a chill colder than the coldest of winter days

The two on the outside were h not by much Clearly they intended to surround and smother him with their shadow stuff, to wrap hiry spirits Then they would move on to Lirael

Fire suddenly burst out around the head of the closest Shadow Hand, a fist-sized globe of pure blue flame But the Dead creature didn’t so much as flinch, and the fire spluttered out into the individual

Another Charter-spell struck, to no effect, save to set one of the stunted trees alight as the fire rebounded off the shadowy form of the Dead Sam realized that Major Greene and Lieutenant Tindall were trying to help hiht nor breath to warn theainst such an enemy

All Sam’s attention was on the Dead In turn, all their attention was focused back on hile between them

So neither noticed the fog suddenly swirl around theust of air, nor the shouts and cries of the soldiers behind the, ferocious chiripped the four Shadow Hands like a puppetup marionettes to put back in the box Unable to resist, they bent down, their shadowy heads raised to beg wordlessly foran angry, violent dance over the broad shout of the first The Shadow Hands jerked upright at its sharp song, their shadow stuff stretching into thin lines, as if they were being sucked through a narrow hole

Then they were gone, suood

Sa, shuddering breath into his desperate lungs Above hi hovered for a iant hawk over its prey Then it fell quickly and circled down to the valley floor, where the ground was level and clear enough to land Saliding down in front of the Southerlings

Three Paperwings The craft that had passed overhead was blue and silver, and that was the Abhorsen’s color The second was of green and silver, for the Clayr The third was the red and gold of the royal line Two of the three paperwings had a passenger as well as a pilot

"I don’t understand," whispered Saet was just short of the top of the ridge, zigzagging between Dead Hands and lightning rods, when he heard the bells He sle Dead Hand who stood in his way

"Hear the full voice of Saraneth! Flee while you still can!"

As a ploy, it didn’t work The Dead Hand was too newly returned to Life, too stupid to understand Mogget’s words, and it didn’t have Mogget’s unnaturally keen hearing It hadn’t heard the bells through the thunder, and it had no sense of the power unleashed beyond the ridge As far as it was concerned, living prey had just stopped in front of it Close enough to grab

Rotting fingers leapt out, clutching the little albino’s leg Mogget yowled and kicked back, the dry bones of his captor snapping with the force of the blow But still it hung on, and other Dead were luet now, drawn by the prospect of Life to feast on

Mogget yowled again and put Nick down Then he whipped around, his long-nailed fingers scratching and his sharp-toothedon the Dead Hand’s wrist

If it still had huence, the Hand would have been surprised, because no ht like this one, with an arched back and a wild coet bit through the Dead creature’s wrist, severing it coed around the Hand, and sprinted off with a triu hand and tried to follow thee opponent had clawed through its has as well It took two uncertain steps and fell, the Dead spirit that inhabited it already looking desperately around for soet was on the other side of the ridge He held Nick’s ar it well away from his own body That arm shook and shivered, muscles twitched under the skin, and dark bruises blossohtning stor was still lit with electric blue around the edges--but at the center, both the fog and the storht red

Chapter Twenty-seven

When the Lightning Stops

SAM PICKED HIMSELF up He felt very weak, washed out, and confused Slowly he turned to look down at the three Paperwings in the valley, several hundred yards away They looked very s craft ic, they were rather like large, brilliantly feathered birds

The pilots and passengers fro out of their craft Sa