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Yet on this night, when they were so close to their goal, there were no attacks and no resistance Frost had seen very few of the legendary in the h Palenque, and those he had seen had beenfro behind curtains when they realized they’d been seen

The tide had turned

The Lost Ones had heard ruht be within the Two Kingdoms already, and that sohter of the Borderkind

Frost knew the truth, but he would not speak of it

Not now

First, Ty’Lis must be stopped The Hunters ery Those Borderkind who still lived must be saved Only then would he answer the Lost Ones’ questions about the Legend-Born

Cheval and Li hung back, both of the, unable to enjoy the camaraderie of the southern Borderkind who had joined thelance at the winter ht, so what do you think, Blue?" Leicester Grindylow asked "D’ye think we’ve killed all the Hunters?"

Blue Jay clapped a hand on Grin’s shoulders and tossed back his hair, feathers dancing in the wind "Not by half, friend Not by half"

Grin frowned, once again looking from Blue Jay to Frost "No? Then why do you reckon they’re not here trying to kill us? Not like we’d be hard to find, is it?"

"I can think of three reasons," Blue Jay said

Frost raised an eyebrow, icy , only continued walking along with his co out the sounds of the crowd to listen to the trickster speak

"First, theirwithout the knowledge of his king or the support of the people, on soainst the Borderkind The people don’t like that sort of lying, bullshit politics If the Hunters tried to attack us here, it’d be wholesale slaughter Lots of people would die That would make it even worse See, if Ty’Lis is behind all of this, you’re talking a major diplomatic incident here Atlantis is neutral, redoht blas tend to frown on their advisors doing things without perer

"Second, Mahacuhta may have just killed the bastard already and saved us the trouble Even if we assume he’s been blind and deaf to all that has transpired, kept in the dark by Ty’Lis and his other advisors, by now he’s likely to have heard what the Hunters have been up to If he’s traced it back to Ty’Lis…well, you see where that’s going Also, Ty’Lis , secret genocide orders, conspiracies, that sort of thing…they’re cowards They’re far ht"

Up ahead, the road narrowed They had been curving southwest, the palace to their right There were shops and homes on either side now, but for the as lamps looked exactly the same as any other part of the city A butcher’s and a small bookshop jutted a bit onto the road and after that it was as though the walls were closing in In this rew in front of the buildings and the ere athered around them had to stretch out into a thinner line, only four or five across, to walk this way Up ahead, the jaguar-uard of theiran alley

Frost frowned, the ice around his eyes cracking

How n turn the since have spun hiusted toward the palace to find Ty’Lis on his own That had, in fact, been his plan all along, until they had been met with such a formidable welcome He’d intended to leave Blue Jay and the others behind to fight whatever eneo up to the palace to face Ty’Lis alone It would have been best for everyone

Now the winter ht have been an error The hter and the spectators had been left behind Faces watched fro at Blue Jay The boggart around He seeht up in the conversation, and Frost wished he would pay s

Blue Jay paused to touch a damp spot on the road, but then walked on before anyone could collide with hiuar- alley further northward

"And what?" the trickster asked, glancing at Frost

They exchanged a silent but anxious look The winter , her silver hair gleaht Several of the Lost Ones walked with her, talking to her quietly, perhaps coe vampire serpents that slithered at his side Much of his clothing had burned away and all over his slittering embers Fully two-thirds of his body see along the surface of his skin It crackled and flared

Without the tiger, the Guardian could no longer properly contain the fire within Even though its strength was di hi euess

Li glanced around unhappily, obviously just as concerned about their surroundings as Frost and Blue Jay

"Three," Grin said, tapping Blue Jay on the shoulder "You said there was three reasons you could think of why no one’s tried to stop us getting to the palace What’s the third?"

Blue Jayalley, following the jaguar-men He stepped from side to side, a dark blue blur beneath his ar at last that they were troubled

"The third possibility," Frost said, answering for Blue Jay "Itto stop us or attack us because those are their orders Our arrival may all be a part of the plan"

"Oi, co to the winter hed softly, his eyes ith uar-men until the alley twisted back upon itself oncedue south, then east, parallel to the center of Palenque again The alley became so narrow that it was difficult for two of them to walk abreast

All conversation had ceased Frost wondered how far back their coterie of Lost Ones and southern Borderkind snaked through the alleys of Palenque, and how vulnerable they all were now

Then the jaguar-men led them, at last, to a broader avenue When they stepped out onto the street, they had returned to a city buzzing with nightlife and hter came from a nearby bar

At the far end of the avenue, tall street lamps burned amidst rows of ironwood trees, all of which led to twin sets of high stairs, like those at the pyramid they had passed earlier At the top of each set of stairs were ods and monsters