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"Maybe when the questions are impossible to answer, that’s because the answers themselves are impossible," she whispered

Friedle s," she said "When we first came up behind you on the sidewalk and you turned around, you said so for you But you said ‘us’ Who’s us?"

His sh despite all of the wild things he had told the he did not want anyone else to overhear

"Soo back We want to live here forever, in the ordinary world We like it here But whoever wanted the Basco my kind After what happened in Maine, I came down here to stay with friends All of us at Bullfinch’s, we’re Borderkind I thought you were Hunters, come for us"

Sara studied him "So you have this other face; your real face"

Friedle glanced away, perhaps ashamed of his true self "Of course"

"Can we see it, just for a moment? Just so we knohat’s real?"

"Here?" he asked, glancing around

Sara looked at Sheriff Norris He seeenuinely baffled, but he focused expectantly on Friedle

"Here," she confirle eye blink, but that was enough The waitress screaht upon herself Confused, she kept looking over at the without luck to confirm that she hadn’t had a hallucination

Sara looked at the sheriff, but Jackson only stared at the goblin sitting across froht," Sheriff Norris said "What now?"

"What do you mean?" Robiquet asked

"You made a promise You screwed up But as far as you know, Melisande’s children are still alive We want to find them, and Julianna and Sara’s father, too You said there were Doors"

The huoblin shook his head "Oh, no The Doors are always under guard"

Sheriff Norris smiled thinly, a little bit of strain around his eyes His understanding of the world had just been broken into pieces, so Sara didn’t blame him She knew she must look much the same, but her oorldview had been shattered slowly, over the weeks since her father had vanished and she’d had to coht never return and she ed

"Under guard?"

Robiquet nodded

The sheriff left forty dollars on the table to cover their lunch and stood up He glanced at Sara, then at the goblin

"That’s what guns are for"

CHAPTER 13

They fought their way out of Palenque Black pillars of s somewhere near the palace

Cheval Bayard had forsaken her hu the cobblestones Hours had passed since Oliver and Julianna had escaped froeon, and the word had spread

A full-scale rebellion had erupted in the heart of the city It would spread, just as the ses of Palenque, the spirit of revolution had yet to arrive A single building disgorged a band of Encerrados--horrid twisted little creatures whose h their hu Borderkind Cheval crushed one of the of rottenup from his eyes, and held out both hands The very air around the little cannibals exploded into fla their flesh instantly

Cheval Bayard sideswiped a huge serpent It coiled around her legs and brought her hard to the ground Blue Jay would have gone to her aid, but Leicester Grindylow arrived before hi a stolen battle axe with ruthless abandon Grin had once been a sweet, amiable fellow, but in these past weeks a darkness had coart hacked the serpent’s head off and helped Cheval to her feet She neighed and tossed her head, and he took that as a signal, grabbing hold of herover to sit astride her back They charged together along the widening cobblestone street

Blue Jay saw it all

He lagged back, letting others take the lead, so he could keep close to Oliver and Julianna, ere still on horseback A pair of soldiers--souard--ca in a swift circle that lifted his that blurred the air beneath his outspread ars sliced through bone andhands With a final twist, he swept his wings out and cut off their heads

Savage, but swift, and right now quickness was the only thing that h he was a trickster, Blue Jay did not have a callous heart He grieved for thesethe commands of Atlantis, but this had become a war In war, death decided the outco the wind and transforher and circled above the running h the labyrinthine streets, they had attracted both rebels and crown loyalists Lost Ones fought one another in the ripple current of their passing Blood splashed the cobblestones

Jaguar-men and the vampiric, serpentine Pihuechenyi shoved and slithered and leaped through the crowds to reach the legends who dared to try to stanch the flow of the rebellion that carried Oliver and Julianna toward the city’s edge Other Yucatazcan Borderkind had joined them Back toward the center of the city, the blue bird saw the pillars of fire rising into the air, still plu black smoke The turmoil continued, and would spread Suspicion had run ra before he and his comrades had arrived to foment rebellion All they had done was set a match to the fuse Their work here was done

He soared higher, dipped a wing and wheeled around to see that they were only one curve in the road away froe there was a long stretch of grassland and--past that--nothing but jungle and mountains

"Bastards!" Oliver shouted froan to descend and spotted Oliver immediately He had a sword of his own--no replace in the palace--but it would do A couple of huan to pull her froe around Oliver’s et him out of the city But he spurred the horse past them, and then jumped down into the croord in hand On foot, now, he went after the thugs ere dragging Julianna into the h Blue Jay They’d gone through too much for Oliver to be killed now Much as he hated to adend-Born were killed was too much too allow It didn’t matter that Collette still lived, somewhere Blue Jay counted Oliver as a friend, but more than that was at stake

He darted toward the ground, hipping his feathers as he pinned his wings back Fifteen feet above the heads of the crowd, he transfor in the air, he dropped down into the chaos

Even as he did, Blue Jay saw Julianna grab a fistful of the long hair of one of her attackers She drove her forehead into his nose, yanking hiered back, hands going to his bleeding, broken nose, and Julianna drop-kicked hiroin