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The rumor was that Borderkind elcoends who lived there did not like interference and they did not like betrayal They were perfectly willing to stab one another in the back, but looked askance at those in powerinnocents, and so they were happy to thwart the Hunters by harboring fugitive Borderkind

It was possible things weren’t quite as simple, but Blue Jay wasn’t about to point that out to anyone in the Quarter If the Greeks and Ro sanctuary, he would say nothing to jeopardize it On the other hand, if they were just ruht not survive the afternoon

The histled through the ruins, , trying to catch a scent Cheval had been troubled when Frost had announced that he would not join them, but Blue Jay was not concerned Frost was just too damned conspicuous He was around so into Lycaon’s Kitchen without hihborhood in the Quarter Beside cru palazzos were shops and houses and an open-air side jewelers, leather craftsers

Lycaon’s Kitchen stood on the corner of a nameless street, beside a brothel where a trio of ancient whores playedmen and wolanced around uneasily at darkened s and the stillness of rooftops, and gestured for Chorti and Cheval to precede hi lass s Walking inside, Blue Jay found the setables and fruits, but even his sto as he stepped into Lycaon’s Kitchen The meat and spices filled the place with their aroma

Chorti and Cheval had paused in the foyer The kelpy whispered soant beauty so drastic a counterpoint to his savage ugliness Chorti grunted, and when Blue Jay joined them, he saw the wild man lick his lips, then wipe a hairy hand across his mouth to remove the frothy drool there

"Control yourself," Blue Jay said, voice low and dangerous

Cheval Bayard narrowed her eyes and bared her teeth at him "He will be fine Look to your own self"

Blue Jay took a breath, studying her He was a trickster, a ht killers, vicious things who ate children and distraught wanderers Lovely as she was, hers was a treacherous beauty

Yet her treachery did not extend to betraying her own kin to the Hunters In that, Blue Jay trusted her entirely And the motherly way she doted on Chorti allowed him to believe she was not purely eht"

The kelpy nodded Blue Jay hesitated a h the foyer into the restaurant itself The dining rooe The rear of the room was open to the kitchen so that the chefs could be seen at their stoves and ovens, and each time an oven door was opened, the fires that roared inside burned brightly Chairs and tables were set up around a central courtyard open to the sky, such that, in inclement weather like this, only a portion of Lycaon’s was open for business This afternoon, for instance, the rain fell in a light drizzle that dampened the stone tiles in the courtyard, but there was little wind, so the patrons eating a late lunch were undisturbed

Half of the tables were taken, st them were severalto be ordinary people, and who ods At one table, two harpies crouched without chairs, their hideous vulture bodies lurching toward their plates, pecking at the raw flesh they had been served

Many of the dishes served in Lycaon’s Kitchen were raw It was part of his legend, after all Once a king, he had been a cannibal who slew his guests and ate the Zeus, Lycaon had tried to feed hieance upon hi hiend

Lycaon knehat his custoht He claier, but Lycaon had been ends of olves, and Blue Jay wondered if from time to tiaed on his sleeve

Blue Jay glanced at him "You can speak Why don’t you?"

Cheval lanced hilance, as protective of Chorti as if she were his mother "He prefers not to" Then she turned to Chorti, touching hiently upon the arm "What is it?"

But Blue Jay had already seen what had upset the wild s, as sorely out of place there as Chorti himself They were Australian, and he Guatemalan, but the difference was that Chorti was Borderkind and rus were nothing of the sort

When the Veil had been raised, those aendary who retained a connection to the mundane world--who still lived in the hearts and h folktales and bedtiic woven into the Veil allowed them to travel back and forth betorlds…but only if they wished it

Many a to do with hu Borderkind But there were those, the Keen Keengs ast them, who had wished to be Borderkind but could not, because at the tih belief in them

Not all of thes tended not to like Borderkind very ed bat-s crouched at their table, chairless like the harpies, and studiously avoided looking toward the entrance

"Shit," the trickster muttered

A broad-shouldered man with a cruel, bestial face broke away from conversation with a waiter and strode toward them His hair was thick and unkempt and his face covered by a dark stubble When he smiled at thee and pointed He raised enorh to punctuate his question

"What have we here? Strangers in our midst Which marks you as desperate, or foolish, or both"

Blue Jay stepped forward, wrapping hiic even as he did so A blur of azure swished in the air around his, nor did he transfored thein front of hi to the cruel-faced man

"Both webeside her face as she bowed She glanced up at hi "But we are also kin, Lycaon Will you not hear us speak, cousin, before deciding?"

Lycaon Blue Jay felt foolish Cheval had guessed, of course, but he ought to have seen it right away The bestial features, the unruly hair, the cruel glint in the eye This was likely the olf hiaze shifted to take in Chorti and then Blue Jay before returning to Cheval "I have never had much use for the kinship the Borderkind have presumed since the creation of the dah he did not wish to be overheard

"Yet we have heard that you have welcoer has passed"

Lycaon grinned now, and this time it seemed sincere "The soft-hearts and thinkers who crafted the Veil are also those who ed a truce with Yucatazca I don’t like the that vexes them is a pleasure"