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She nodded "The et the for the Borderkind to do that ever since their capture There will still be loyalists who believe anything that Ty’Lis says, but already the ruend-Born If we have them in our camp, the Lost Ones on both sides of the ill at least have to listen to what they have to say" Captain Beck put a hand on the grip of her sword "All I want to know is, when do we leave?"

"Shit" Blue Jay sighed and looked at Wayland S to Palenque?"

"You are"

Blue Jay laughed and shook his head "So you’re sending us off on a suicide ht?"

"More or less Hunyadi has plans for Damia, and I have other business, but I’ll see you to Palenque safely I have an errand to take care of first, and then we’ll depart But before I go let’s sit a few moments--I’ll share s, of heroes and legends, and of the Legend-Born"

The trickster glanced at Captain Beck a moment, then turned once more, uneasily, to Wayland Smith

"So you believe that story, then, about the Bascombes? You think their mother was a Borderkind?"

S a pipe out from inside his jacket

"Of course Melisande was their mother And their father was a human She loved hiive up her essence, her ic, so that she could bear children to the man she loved"

Blue Jay crossed his arms and could not prevent the dubious look that spread across his face

"And just how the hell do you know all of that?"

The weight of grief and the past lay heavily upon the Wayfarer, leaving no trace of mischief behind

"How do I know?" he asked, looking up at Blue Jay and Captain Beck "I know because I brought thee was a river canyon, boxed on either end by sheer stone cliffs The Sorrowful River flowed into and out of the gorge through tunnels that went right through the base of a e ell-hidden Sentries stood guard where the river entered and exited the gorge, and many more lined the rim of the canyon The cliffs were steep all around, and there were only a handful of safe ways to descend into the settle above the river, or by one of two sets of stairs carved from the rock face

On either side of the river, there was a stone ay lined with shops There were taverns and bakeries, a florist and a butcher’s, and even several dress shops for the ladies Grand hoh up on the walls like arched bridges The inn spanned the river as well Dwellings had been built into the cliff face, excavated fro like spiders to the sheer walls of the gorge, propped on support beams that seemed entirely insufficient to hold thees lined the sides of the gorge like scaffolding

Over the ages, Twillig’s Gorge had becoendary and ordinary alike All varieties of creatures had settled there, including Borderkind and Lost Ones It was a sanctuary for anyone ished it The rules were simple Live and let live Courtesy and peace were the principles upon which the settlee had been founded

But the war had begun to change all of that

Many of the legendary and Borderkind had left the settle Hunyadi Others ree to i just in case their sanctuary ht be disturbed by the predations of war

Coyote sat on a ay above the eastern pro the bustle of activity down in the Gorge He drew a lungful of s the ash froarette

When the Myth Hunters had been scouring Euphrasia for Borderkind, killing asFrost and Blue Jay and a nuht back, and a lot of theht of him as a coward, but he didn’t worry much about perception It could be difficult to tell the difference between courage and stupidity Siht of as h, the situation had grown more complex Many of his friends and kin had been brutally murdered No doubt Ty’Lis had the support of the rulers of Atlantis, and that meant the real war hadn’t even started yet It could still all end with King Hunyadi dead and all of the Two Kingdoms crushed beneath the boot heel of Atlantis But at least it was going to be a fight, now Heas he could, but even a coward could be driven to bravery when people he loved were dying

Bastards, Coyote thought, taking another drag of his cigarette

Down at the river’s edge, on the cobblestoned pro rallied a group ofaround him Even from above, Coyote could hear Ovid’s pleas He wanted the people of Twillig’s Gorge to join the fight, to rise up and throith Hunyadi’s arendary had

Ovid had a grim aura--all damnable seriousness, dark eyes, and prominent jaw He was the kind of man other hu, but others hung back, obviously wishing they could skulk away unnoticed Coyote understood Skulking aas a sensible option It had alorked for hiaze and twisted around on his perch to get a look at the front of the bakery that ned and run by Ovid and his

He spotted the old woman instantly As expected, she stood just outside the bakery door, watching her son with concern The two had been sparring ever since Frost and Bascoe solass of the bakery café’s front door, a tall silhouette in a broad-briarette down fro cotton shirt whipped against his body in the breeze His dark brown trousers were torn at the knees and he was barefoot He preferred that, enjoying the feeling of padding along the rocks and cliffs

He tilted his head back and sniffed at the air, and there it was

Wayland S of the wooden ay, Coyote flipped over the side He dropped twenty feet to a suspension bridge below He’d barely alighted when he sprang again, leaping froe that was a balcony of sorts for a family of trolls, currently away at the war Like butterflies, dozens of purple and yellow pixies took flight fro out over the river and south along the gorge

A ladder had been bolted into the cliff face outside the trolls’ cave He gripped the sides of the ladder and slid all the way down to the pro noticed But by now he had spent so ht normally observe him would barely take note of his actions Even the sentries did not so lance at him

Only when he walked hurriedly past the s to recruit did anyone pay attention to hilance his way Coyote sneered at the intense young ends