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It had been e, but even here the beauty of the land was staggering Perhaps here ht and the sciht upon the snow-capped peaks There was such peace here, and perhaps that struck hi else

Peace

So he’d traveled in--and woke a rage in him as well

There could be no peace for hie, a point at which the two mountains met, Captain Beck reined in her mount and peered down into the valley on the other side She raised a hand, a gesture that Halliwell had quickly learned meant she wanted them all to foralloped up the ridge Julianna raced up beside him, so fir above it instead of bouncing painfully in the saddle like Halliwell

The detective didn’t athered at the top of the ridge, in the crux of two ht ahead And below, in the cradle foroda palace made only of sand

Halliwell gripped the reins so tightly his knuckles hurt Ansaited there One way or another, he would have so, Da her horse up next to Beck’s

She was the only one who got aith calling the woiven name Everyone else simply called her Captain--even Halliwell He doubted she would care if he followed Julianna’s lead, but he was accustomed to uniforn of movement," Captain Beck replied She studied Julianna’s face, her own skin shining in the starlight, then looked at Halliwell "No horses No indication anyone’s there at all"

"The door is open," observed a powerfully built soldier called Tsui

Halliwell looked down at the Sandcastle, but his eyes were not what they once were and he could not make out from there if the door was, indeed, open

"We have no way of knowing if Oliver’s here or not," Julianna said

Captain Beck nodded, but her eyes were still on Halliwell "True But if he hasn’t arrived yet, and what Bascombe has been told is true, his sister is still a prisoner down there"

Halliwell drew his gun "Why don’t we head down, then?"

The captain smiled "It’s e came for"

She spurred her horse and started down into the cradle of the mountains and her soldiers followed Halliwell and Julianna kept pace with theoda palace The double doors in front were indeed hanging slightly open

Captain Beck’s horse crossed fro up position outside the pagoda Captain Beck raised a hand and Halliwell thought she was about to give the command to dismount, but then the doors were bloide open from within The wind howled as a cloud of dust blew out those open doors, originating somehow fro, hurrying as though they feared the place ard appearance and the dark tan she’d acquired, he recognized Collette Bascombe immediately The Asian wouely He’d seen her on Canna Island with Oliver just before they both had disappeared

And then, of course, there was Oliver hiht to the horse’s reins, frozen in the knowledge that theat Oliver Bascombe, he discovered that he felt both hatred and pity for the younger ation proved true, Oliver was as much a victim as Halliwell himself had become But if Halliwell had never become involved in Oliver’s disappearance and later Max Bascombe’s murder case, he would never have had to see the eyeless, mutilated corpse of Alice St John, or learn about all of the other children who’d been killed the saas well

He wouldn’t have been lured here Trapped here, in this world

Oliver was not to blaht be a victim, but the difference, froo ho else, Halliwell hated hie and hatred and despair Just looking at Oliver stoked all of that eht erupt from within He felt his face twist into a sneer

"Dahim to this, Oliver Bascombe had destroyed him

The detective in him wanted answers, wanted to knohat had set the Sandhter those children and the why of it all But the man, Ted Halliwell, the father…he wanted Oliver to tell hiet home And he wanted so, but Halliasn’t listening

Julianna slipped off of her horse, leaving it to wander, and started running toward the castle

"Oliver!" she cried, giddy with fear and relief

Half of the soldiers began to dismount, led by Damia Beck The other six rehtly to be prepared for anything

Halliwell cli from days in the saddle He clicked the safety on his pistol off and turned toward the front of the castle

Julianna ran toward her fiancé Oliver stared at her, then he started to stu The Asian wo anxiously over her shoulder at the wind and sand that continued to blast out of the castle doors

Lie, Halliwell started across the sand The gun felt heavy in his grasp

Julianna and Oliver were still separated by thirty or forty feet when the wall of the Sandcastle exploded Massive frag sand across the ground Two figures crashed out through the shattered wall, grappling with one another One of them, cloaked and hooded, with monstrous, hooked talons, had deep yellow eyes that see sand The other see, heavy coat--a statue of Dr Watson carved froround

The two figures burst into twin clouds of sand that spun and slaether and tore at one another In a heartbeat they had reforround twenty yards in front of Halliwell He stared at these sand creatures as they attacked one another

He thought of Alice St John and all of the other children who had shared her fate

The Sandman