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The wo stepped onto the path

And disappeared

Luce gasped, but then Daniel pointed behind her, to the other side of the Foundation’s lawn She spun around

Forty feet ahere the pebble path ended, and thereappeared The dog yapped hysterically, but the wo routine

It was strange, Luce realized, that the angels’ wholehappened to erase this woer she’d been in

But while the people on the street els, they certainly did notice the sky The wo up at it worriedly, andtheir houses wore slickers and carried u to rain?" Luce had flown through pockets of rain with Daniel, warm showers that left them refreshed and exhilaratedbut this sky was ooing to rain That’s the Scale"

"What?" Luce’s head shot up She squinted at the sky, horrified when it shifted and pitched Storm clouds didn’t s" Arriane shuddered "And their cloaks"

No

Luce stared at the sky until it began to o, she s They were s out the rising sun The beats of the short brutish wings buzzed like a swarm of hornets Her heart clenched as she tried to count them It was impossible How many hundreds hovered in the e," Daniel said

"They’re so close," Luce said, flinching as the sky roiled "Can they see us?"

"Not exactly, but they knoe’re here," Dee said nonchalantly as a sh for them to see their shriveled, bloodthirsty faces Cold eyes trolled the space where Luce and the others gathered, but when it came to the Patina, Scale seemed to be about as blind as the Outcasts

"My Patina surrounds us, the way a tea cozy surrounds a pot, for a protective barrier The Scale can’t see or travel through it" Sheof a certain kind of soul, one innocent of its own potential" Daniel’s wings pulsed beside her "They’re gathering et out of here, and we need to hurry"

"I do not intend to be bound in one of their broke-neck burkas," Dee said "No one takes me in my own house!"

"I like the way she talks," Annabelle said sideways to Luce

"Follow ated alley They jogged behind her through an unexpected puazebo into an expansive and lushly green backyard

Roland’s chin tilted toward the sky It was darker now, denser ings

"What’s the plan?"

"Well, for starters"--Dee wandered over to stand under a arden--"the library asped "Why?"

"Simple mechanics This Patina has always encompassed the library, so with the library it must stay In order to move past the Scale, we’ll have to open the Patina, thereby exposing the Foundation, and I do not intend to leave it for their indiscrih" Her hand patted Luce’s stricken face "Don’t worry, dear, I’ve already donated the valuable voluh so town in Ar-kansas No one will miss this place I’m the last librarian here, and frankly, I don’t plan to return after this et past the blue-black sky

"I will have to produce a second Patina, surrounding only our bodies, guaranteeing us safe passage Then I will open this one and let the Scale flow in"

"I think I’ up a branch like a monkey to sit nestled in the oak tree

"The Foundation will be sacrificed"--Dee frowned--

"but at least the Scale will "

"Hold on, how does the library get sacrificed?" Roland crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at Dee

"I was hoping you could help with that, Roland," Dee said, eyes twinkling "You’re rather good at starting fires, aren’t you?"

Roland raised his eyebrows, but Dee had already turned around Facing the tree trunk, she reached for a knot in its bark, pulled it like a secret doorknob, and opened the trunk to a hollowed chamber Inside, the as polished, the chamber about the size of a solden key

"That’s how you open the Patina?" Luce asked, surprised that it required so physical a key

"Well, this is how I unlock it so that it can be manipulated for our needs"