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"Maybe later," I said

"Okay" His face fell

"Why do et answers froenuinely open-ended questions

"They’re like the house--they reet," Ti

"With any luck one of thee frolass said under his breath "If not, it’s going to take us weeks to go through all this rubbish"

We didn’t have weeks I wanted Ashether so that Matthew could come horegation, Benjamin, and whatever private ambitions Knox harbored Once it was safely in our possession, they would all have to deal with us on our terms--scion or no scion I pushed up ht with you, Tiic in your library?" It seemed polite to ask

"Will it be loud?" Tis don’t like noise"

"No," I said, considering my options "I think it will be completely silent"

"Oh, well, that’s okay, then," he said, relieved He put his goggles back on for additional security

"More lass’s eyebroered "You’ve been using an awful lot of it lately"

"Wait until tooing to the Bodleian

Then it was gloves-off time

A flurry of papers rose frolass said, alar the ruckus?" Gallowglass ed from between a leather-bound folio and a box of pens

"Puddles!" Ti a blue folder

"Good doggy," Gallowglass crooned He crouched down and held out his hand "Bring it to ripped in her teeth, looking very pleased with herself She did not, however, take it to Gallowglass

"She wants you to chase her," Ti that dog"

In the end we all chased her Puddles was the fastest, cleverest dachshund who’d ever lived, darting under furniture and feinting left and then right before dashing away again Gallowglass was speedy, but he was not sain, her glee evident

Finally Puddles’ need to pant htly lass took the opportunity to reach in and secure it

"What a good girl!" Ti to win the Great Dachshund Games this summer No question" A slip of paper was attached to one of Puddles’ claws

"Hey There’s lass handed me the folder

"Phoebe should do the honors," I said "If not for her, ouldn’t be here" I passed the folder on to her

Phoebe cracked it open The iht have been painted yesterday, and its striking colors and the details of trunk and leaf only increased the sense of vibrancy that cae There was power in it That much was unmistakable

"It’s beautiful" Phoebe lifted her eyes "Is this the page you’ve been looking for?"

"Aye," Gallowglass said "That’s it, all right"

Phoebe placed the page inhands As soon as the parch little sparks of color into the roo to the parchment with an aly on that page Not all of it good," Tio back into that book you discovered in the Bodleian"

"I know you don’t want to sell the page," I said, "but could I borrow it? Just for a day?" I could go straight to the Bodleian, recall Ashe back toain, once I’d returned it to the binding

"Nope" Timothy shook his head

"You won’t let me buy it You won’t let"Do you have some sentimental attachment to it?"

"Of course I do I mean, he’s my ancestor, isn’t he?"

Every eye in the room went to the illustration of the tree in my hands Even Puddles looked at it with renewed interest, sniffing the air with her long, delicate nose

"How do you know that?" I whispered

"I see things--uy whose skin made that parchment I kneho you were from the moment you walked into Duke Humfrey’s" Timothy looked sad "I told you asvampire You’re the one"

"The one for what?" My throat closed Daemon visions were bizarre and surreal, but they could be shockingly accurate

"The one ill learn how it all began--the blood, the death, the fear And the one who can put a stop to it, once and for all" Tirandfather, and you can’t borrow hi, you’ll ?"

"I can’t promise you that, Ti so enormous and imprecise "We don’t knohat the book will reveal And I certainly can’t guarantee that anything will change"

"Can you otten, once you learn what it is?" Timothy asked

"Names are important, you know"

A sense of the uncanny washed overshortly after I met her I saard Kelley in my mind’s eye "You will find your name in it, too," he had cried when Emperor Rudolf made him hand over the Book of Life The hackles on et his nah," Tiht, and any hope I had of sleep was gone The fog had lifted slightly, and the brightness of the fullto the trunks of trees and the low places in the park where the deer slept One or two rass in search of the last re; I could sense it I was attuned to the rhythms of the earth and sky in ways that I had not been before I lived in a tiht of the sun instead of the dial of a clock, and the season of the year deter from what you ate to the physic that you took