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The bird passed just above his head, flying loings aflutter He would not have given it a second look save for the uniquely brilliant blue of its feathers, but even so it took a ister with Oliver that Blue Jay had arrived By the time he turned back toward the colued so more appropriate for this world, and noore black deni canvas duster of the sort worn by Australian cowboys
"Midday," Blue Jay said "As agreed"
Oliver nodded He didn’t ask where Blue Jay had gotten his clothes, mostly because he did not want to know He hi else to wear, but he had grown fond of the gray peacoat Larch had given hiardless
"Where are the others?" Oliver asked
Blue Jay raised his eyebrows "I left Kitsune with you" Then he grinned "But the dragon has been here for hours"
The trickster pointed toward Canada House Oliver narrowed his eyes and stared at the regal structure, trying to figure out what Blue Jay was talking about, when he sensed soht about the façade of the building So out of balance It took hi froles and that sort of thing built in to the architecture of such buildings A quartet of carved lions had been placed around Nelson’s Colus On Canada House, the eagle or sphinx or whatever it was that had been placed on one end of the building had no counterbalance
Oliver blinked
It was neither eagle nor sphinx, of course, but a dragon perched like a gargoyle on the edge of the roof of Canada House No architectural flourish was on of Stor and no one has noticed?"
Blue Jay tapped a finger just below his left eye "People see what they wish to see"
Gong Gong reht?" Oliver asked, wondering why he cared
"Healing," Blue Jay replied "Like the rest of us"
As he spoke his gaze shifted and Oliver turned to see Kitsune crossing the square toward the shook inside hi of a tiny bell Though she had sworn that she would recover quickly from her wounds, and he had seen her do it with his own eyes, still he wondered how badly injured she had been
"We’re all here now, Frost," Oliver said, voice low, his gaze still on the approaching Kitsune
"Excellent," said the winter man from the ice of the fountain He did not elaborate, did not er to his kin there, but he did not have to
Several people passed by, pausing to take pictures but without co very near the column By the time they moved on Kitsune had joined Oliver and Blue Jay He felt the urge to erown between them, but still Oliver saw her as the kind of woman you didn’t simply throw your arms around, any more than you would a queen And there was another reason as well Part of the urge to touch her did not spring froht Oliver had to deny that part of what he felt
He hoped to go home someday soon There was no fa
"You look much improved," Oliver said
Kitsune smiled "I ache But it will fade"
He fu to find a response to that
Blue Jay knitted his brow in consternation at the odd ht, we’re here But we can’t stay here very long before we draw attention to ourselves I hope one of you has an idea what to do next"
A weight settled on Oliver’s heart "What else can we do but move on? I have to find Collette, but I can’t do that with Hunters on ot to at least talk to Koenig, find out how to get the price taken offat him curiously
"What of Collette?" Frost asked
Grief and dread and a sense of his own foolishness roiled in his heart Of course he had not told them of his phone call with Julianna Chaos had erupted outside the phone booth and then it had been all he could do to extricate the toward the tiet out of London
"She’ssmall and distant to his ears "My dad--" No, stop that You never thought of him as Dad when he was alive There’s too much warly, he told them the rest, about the removal of Max Bascombe’s eyes and the disappearance of his sister and the investigation into his own vanishing
"They probably think you killed hihtly "Or both of theether"
Oliver stared at him
Kitsune nodded sadly "They may, Oliver How could they come to the truth, these ordinary policemen? How could it even occur to them that the Sandman is loose upon the world?"
"The Sandman?" He stared at her stupidly
Frost and Kitsune glanced at each other and the winter man blinked once, slowly, in assent, still only his face jutting froreat The Sandman is freed, and soon after, Oliver’s father is murdered in that fashion? Someone must have set the monster to the task"
Oliver scowled "But who? And why?"
Blue Jay grunted with interest, studying Oliver as though seeing him for the first time "Good questions," he said, the blue feathers tied into his hair swinging in the wind
"It is all connected," Frost said, his voice a whisper like the wind His eyes seemed unfocused "Why should the Sandman be interested in Oliver, unless he has had instruction? Whoever is behind the hunting of the Borderkind, they do not want Oliver to aid us"