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Liathano

To her right, the towering blackness that alla’s e washed over her, blinding her She fuht hand--the left was ash--and found the cutting feathers of the griffin-fletched arrow Pain cut her fingers She felt her balance going, her body toppling sidelong as the toxin roared into hersour-leek taste froe

She tried to speak but had no voice

Cat Mask leaned over her "What creature have you called down on us?"

Shifting the arrow a finger’s length got hiriffin--feather"

A fox face loomed over her "This is the one we seek! You’ve killed her!"

"Stand back! Let ht bitterly as her vision clouded, hazed over by a veil of darkness The galla will devourThe flames devoured her, and she fell

I couldn’t even warn Hanna

A spark flew In a shower of light, the galla snapped out of existence And so did she

4

HAVING once tasted the air roiling around a swaralla, Hanna now felt her flesh attuned to their presence Although Liath had vanished into the forest, Hanna knew, at once, when the creature vanished, as she would know the instant a great weight pressing down on her body was lifted

"Coon and clattered down the steps She grabbed her staff, which she had left outside, leaning against high wheels She stared around the clearing, hoping to see Liath reappear

"What think you?" Breschius blocked the door The Kerayit sha her forehead

"My face hurts," she said "So it hurts, before a storone"