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It sizzled and hissed as it slid into the soda Phil grimaced as the bottle smoked and steamed in his hands A sickly sweet scent wafted from it and Luce’s eyes widened as the fizzy brown liquid, your basic diet soda, began to swirl and change to a bright iridescent silver color
Phil withdrew the starshot froed the starshot carefully across his lips, as if to clean it, then tucked it back inside his coat His lips glowed silver for an instant, until he licked them clean
He nodded at one of the other Outcasts, a girl whose slick blond ponytail reached halfway down her back Automatically, she reached behind Daedalus’s head to lift it a few inches off the rock Carefully, using one hand to part the boy’s bleeding lips, Phil poured the silver liquid down his throat
His face contorted as he sputtered and coughed, but then everything about Daedalus sulp the liquid down, slurping when he reached the bottom of the bottle
"What is that?" Luce asked
"There is a chemical compound in the drink," Daniel explained, "a dull poison mortals call aspartame and believe that their scientists invented But it is an old, Heavenly substance--a venom, which, when mixed with an antidote contained in the alloys of the starshot, reacts to produce a healing potion for angels For light ailments such as these"
"He will need to rest now," the blond girl said "But he ake refreshed"
"You will forgive us if we have to leave," Daniel said, rising to his feet His white wings dragged along the rocky surface until he straightened his shoulders and held them aloft He reached for Luce’s hand
"Go to your friends," Phil said "Vincent, Olianna, Sanders, and Emmet will accompany you I will join you with the others when Daedalus is back on his wings" The four Outcasts stepped forward, bowing their heads before Luce and Daniel as if awaiting a command
"We will fly the eastern route," Daniel instructed
"North over the Black Sea, then e pass Mol-dova The wind stream is calmer there"
"What about Gabbe and Molly and Cam?" Luce asked
Daniel looked at Phil, who looked up fro Outcast boy "One of us will stand watch here If your friends arrive, the Outcasts will send word"
"You have the pennon?" Daniel asked
Phil pivoted to show the abundant white feather tucked into the buttonhole of his lapel It glowed and pulsed in the wind, its radiance sharply contrasting the Outcast’s deathly pale skin"I hope you have cause to use it" Daniel’s words frightened Luce, because they er as the ones in Vienna
"They need us, Daniel," she said "Let’s go" Daniel gave her a warrateful look Then, without hesitation, he swept her up into his arers, Daniel bent his knees and sprang into the sky
SIX
FOUND WANTING
It was drizzling in Vienna
Curtains ofit possible for Daniel and the Outcasts to alight unseen on the eaves of a vast building before night had completely fallen
Luce saw the splendid copper do Daniel set her down before it on a slanted section of the copper roof, puddled with rain-water, enclosed by a short marble balustrade
"Where are we?" she asked, eyeing the doold brocaded tassels, its oval s etched with floral designs too high for el
"Hofburg Palace" Daniel stepped over a stone rain gutter and stood at the edge of the roof His wings brushed the whiteit look drab
"Hos, now presi-dents"
"Is this where Arriane and the others are?"
"I doubt it," Daniel said "But it’s a pleasant place to get our bearings before we look for them" A mazelike network of annexes extended beyond the dome to form the rest of the palace Some of them squared off around shady courtyards ten stories below; others stretched long and for would allow Luce’s eyes to see Different portions of the copper roofs shone different shades of green--this one acid, that one al had been added over a long period of ti different eras’ rain
The Outcasts spread out around the doainst the squat chimneys darkened with soot that punctuated the palace roof, standing before the flagpole that rose fro Luce stood at Daniel’s side, finding herself between hiht’s helolden spear They followed the statue’s gaze out at the city Everything smelled like wood slittered with the twinkle of a e cars and fast-walking pedestrians as accustomed to city life as Luce was not Mountains stood in the distance and the Danube slung its strong ar doith Daniel, Luce felt as if she’d been here before She couldn’t be sure when, but the ever-rave; vu swelled inside her
She focused on the faint bustle co from a tented row of Christmas stalls in the circle below the palace, the way the candles flickered in their red and green globed glass lanterns, the way the children chased one another, pulling wooden dogs on wheels Then it happened: She reht her criht down there The memory was simple, joyful, and hers
Lucifer couldn’t have it He could not take it--or any other me, i out below her
Her body bristled with deter that because of what he was doing, because she had rejected his wishes, all this ht disappear