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"Ysabeau said it was Philippe who sent her away"

"Only once or twice," Gallowglass said "Mostly it was Ysabeau’s choice Whenever I see Matthew struggle to give you the freedo without hi and waiting for hi to do now?" She didn’t ot to London, but he pretended she did

"Noait for Matthew," Gallowglass said flatly "You wanted hi it"

"I couldn’t let hiic pulsed again in iridescent agitation It re the aurora borealis from the sandy stretch of coastline beneath the cliffs where his father and grandfather had once lived

"Mattheon’t be able to stay away for long It’s one thing to wander in the darkness because you know no different, but it’s quite another to enjoy the light only to have it taken frolass said

"You sound so sure," she whispered

"I am Marcus’s children are a handful, but he’ll lass lowered his voice

"I assulance flickered

"I thought so You’re not just looking for the lastafter Ashlass said, raising his hand when Diana opened herpeople around you, then People you can trust unto death, like Granny and Sarah and Fernando" He drew out his phone

"Sarah already knows I’m on my way to Europe I told her I’d let her knohere I was once I was settled" Diana frowned at the phone "And Ysabeau is still Gerbert’s prisoner She’s not in touch with the outside world"

"Oh, Granny has her ways," Gallowglass said serenely, his fingers racing across the keys "I’ll just send her a e and tell her where we’re headed Then I’ll tell Fernando You can’t do this alone, Auntie Not what you’ve got planned"

"You’re taking this very well, Gallowglass," Diana said gratefully "Mattheould be trying to talkin love with the wrongthe phone back into his pocket

Ysabeau de Clermont picked up her sleek red phone and looked at the illuminated display She noted the tian with three repetitions of a single word:

[BEGIN TEXT MESSAGE]

Mayday

Mayday

Mayday

[END TEXT MESSAGE]

She’d been expecting Gallowglass to get in touch ever since Phoebe had notified her that Marcus had departed in the o off and join Matthew

Ysabeau and Gallowglass had decided early on that they needed a way to notify each other when things went "pear-shaped," to use her grandson’s expression Their systees written in onion juice to codes and ciphers, then to objects sent through the mail without explanation Now they used the phone

At first Ysabeau had been dubious about owning one of these cellular contraptions, but given recent events she was glad to have it restored to her Gerbert had confiscated it shortly after her arrival in Aurillac, in the vain hope that being without it would make her more malleable

Gerbert had returned the phone to Ysabeau several weeks ago She had been taken hostage to satisfy the witches and to ation’s power and influence Gerbert was under no illusion that his prisoner would part with a scrap of inforrateful that Ysabeau illing to play along with the charade Since arriving at Gerbert’s ho her phone back was a reward for good behavior, but she kneas largely due to the fact that Gerbert could not figure out how to silence the hout the day

Ysabeau liked these reminders of events that had altered her world: just before midday, when Philippe and his limmers of hope; two hours before sunrise, when Philippe had first admitted that he loved her; three in the afternoon, the hour she had found Matthew’s broken body in the half-built church in Saint-Lucien; 1:23 PM, when Matthe the last drops of blood froed body Other alarh’s death and Godfrey’s, the hour when Louisa had first exhibited signs of blood rage, the hour when Marcus had demonstrated definitively that the same disease had not touched hinificant historical events, such as the births of kings and queens whoht in and won, and battles that she had unaccountably lost in spite of her careful plans

The alarht, each one a different, carefully chosen song Gerbert had particularly objected to the alarm that blasted "Chant de Guerre pour l’Armée du Rhin" at 5:30 PM--the precise ates of the Bastille in 1789 But these tunes served as aide-ht otherwise have faded away over tie To anyone else it would have appeared nothingforecast, aeronautical distress signal, and horoscope, with its references to shadows, the itude and latitude coordinates

Ysabeau reread the e twice: once toand a second tilass’s instructions Then she typed her reply

[BEGIN TEXT MESSAGE]

Je Viens

[END TEXT MESSAGE]

"I ao, Gerbert," Ysabeau said without a trace of regret She looked across the faux-Gothic horror of a room to where her jailer sat before a computer at the foot of an ornate carved table At the opposite end, a heavy Bible rested on a raised stand flanked by thick white candles, as though Gerbert’s work space were an altar Ysabeau’s lip curled at the pretension, which was matched by the room’s heavy nineteenth-century ork, pews converted to settees, and garish green-and-blue silk wallpaper ornamented with chivalric shields The only authentic items in the room were the enormous stone fireplace and the monumental chess set before it

Gerbert peered at his coroaned

"Jean-Luc will co trouble with your co man to set up a home computer network after Ysabeau had shared two leaned from conversations around the dinner table: Nathaniel Wilson’s belief that future ould be fought on the Internet and Marcus’s plan to handle a h online channels Baldwin and Harandson’s extraordinary idea, but Gerbert didn’t need to know that