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We were snaking our way through the market towards the little café called Mon I’d earlier dubbed it "colon blow" Morrigan, meanwhile, was still in the lead But pu far faster than I nor her lead

Before I could bask in our triumph, however, two shiny black sedans roared up onto the street in front of us and the doors were thrown open Getaway cars

"Oh, hell no!" I shouted, putting soan was getting away from me: not now, not after all she’d done

And not with that da away from Anyan, I shot forward and I swear I was barely a few yards froan when she turned to raise her arms, and I hit a wall Not a metaphorical runner’s wall, mind you It felt like the evil Alfar queen had raised an invisible brick wall in front of me I bounced off it, hard, but used bothbackward

I don’t know, at that point, whether it wasforward like Xena, brandishing the labrys, which was al in its radiance

"Get… back… here," I snarled through gritted teeth, applying the ax to the edge of Morrigan’s shield The Alfar’s little sh her shield She scra into one of the cars I strained forward as the car revved its engines tauntingly and sped off into the

The shields dissolved with an audible pop, and I found nified heap on the pave up to my feet on a wave of pure adrenaline I shookinsanely Just as I was considering throwing the ax at Morrigan’s retreating sedan, I saw the trunk pop just a tiny bit Hiral’s long nose poked through the gap, and his little eyes leered at ure out just whose spy Hiral was, exactly, I heard a scuffle behind me As I turned around, I felt the now fa thrown over , when so a siry looking Anyan Unlike hest, ere both blinded by ridiculously bright floodlights I winced away fro like I’d been hit by a truck and wondering ifus again?" I raged, despite not being able to open an split Even ht have had a chance to catch up with her if Jack hadn’t insisted on playing his little gah? And where the hell is my ax? And my cheese?"

I waited for Jack’s smarmy politician’s voice, but the voice that floated to my ears was not Jack’s Instead it was smooth, cool, and calm… Alfar calm

"I am afraid, Miss True, that we have neither cheese nor an ax" At those words,out with the labrys and I’d lost it? Aweso so I forced uys didn’t have the ax, and there was a good chance one of my friends had found it

"Further my own identity, and the nature of the situation in which you now find yourself" Hearing those flowing, forhts, and I knehoever it was had to be Alfar

"Huh?" I said, stupidly I’d been so sure it was Jack and his cronies, again, that hearing a strange voice--a strange Alfar voice--threw ally, as your language implies Rather, you have been lawfully detained by the leaders of this real dry andfro he was trying to say

"For what?" I forcedto sound jaunty rather than scared shitless

"You tell us," the voice replied "You ht you here, and why you are on our soil"

"Your soil, huh?" I said, still trying to sound confident I was trying to suss out who I was dealing with For while "our soil" left little doubt that our kidnappers were connected to the Alfar rulers of the Great Island, I didn’t kno high up the food chain they really were

"Tell us why you are here, Jane True," the voice said, ignoringto play "Or ill be forced to come to our own conclusions Conclusions that you will not like"

I shut

"You see," I said, "I’ve always really loved Britain I’ve watched all the h Wallace and Groratulate a culture that puts baked beans on toast and calls it dinner…"

"That is enough," the Alfar voice said, grown slightly sharper "Are you claiht cheese Are you sure you didn’t see ," another voice pronounced Lower than the first, it was still Alfar-cool, if not as calm as the other voice