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His hands were stained with blood Perhaps the Sandman’s murders had not been committed with Halliwell’s own hands, but the difference mattered little to hi There in the maelstrom at the center of the Sand out as they died, felt their spirits brush against his own As vicious and brutal as their murders had been, some part of him had been envious They were free, while he was trapped with those eternal monsters

The Sandman’s hands The Dustman’s hands Ted Halliwell’s hands

He hated hiht There was a cruel bit of humor in there somewhere, but he hadn’t the heart to find it Hadn’t the heart There you go again He hadn’t a heart or a backbone now, of course But these were spiritual as well as physical things Heart Backbone Courage

There was a e wasn’t the absence of fear, he reminded himself It was action in spite of fear

Ted Halliwell visualized hih the Sandman’s eyes, watched the water stream by, watched as they slipped toward the woman in the fox-fur cloak--Kitsune--and the man hom she spoke

He kneould co forward to this ether in this single fors in one Kitsune had to die Then the Sandeon where Oliver Bascombe was imprisoned, and in that darkened cell, they would murder the helpless round felt solid beneath his feet But there hat he saw through the Sandman’s eyes and what he saw in his h he had been buried alive He felt its weight and warer had

In his mind’s eye, he turned In the sandstorm that enveloped hireatcoat and bowler hat

"What are you doing, Detective?"

Halliwell sneered at hi"

"I’m not sure it’s possible," the Dust evenly He i with a constant shift of sand He stared out through the Sandman’s eyes and felt with the Sand doll She clawed at him and down there inside the Sanded furrows she dragged in his/their sand-flesh

His fingers twined in her hair and he yanked her head back

The Sanders twined in her hair and he yanked her head back

"It has to be possible," Halliwell snarled to the Dustman "We’re all in here You said so yourself That means we have a choice I can’t bear any more blood on my hands"

The Dustman hesitated Halliwell could feel it Perhaps he didn’t believe they could do it or perhaps he was only afraid of his brother The Sandate them--or it had, so far

Halliwell saw the terror in Kitsune’s jade eyes He watched the way her beautiful, elegant face becaly and twisted with fear, and she opened her uish tore at hiue and licked Kitsune’s eyes Her cry becah sand obscured her vision The th and reached out with one prying, knifelike finger to dig her eyes froether," the Sandman said

At first, Halliwell didn’t understand these words Then noises flooded into thethe riverbank beneath his feet A lol came fro aat the Sandiant, lu toward them

"Alas," the Sandman said

His talon cut the skin beside Kitsune’s left eye

Halliwell re victiirl named Alice St John He allowed hied faces of the victims the monster had taken since their substance was joined

He could feel the riverbank underfoot, shaking with the giant’s approach

Truly feel it

Sorrow and fury swept Halliwell forward He felt as though he were surfacing from a sea of sand New screaed to the Sandround and rolled halfway into the river, then shot up to a crouch, staring at hiht

The Sandman howled He could feel the monster inside hih he had begun to churn and flow, and soun to move closer to the Sandman, down there in the maelstrom

For a rains of his substance, the swirl of sand, the hipping his cloak Then pain raced up the back of his neck and a terrible weight crushed down upon his soul, trying to force hiain

Kitsune stared at hi to--"

The coyote hit hi down at hi from the crater of the other The impact jarred Halliwell, and when he tried to er feel the Sandman’s body--only his own bones, scoured by the maelstrom He could see and now he could hear

You wait and see, a voice in thedirectly to him, and perhaps to the Dustman, too Your presumption will cost you dearly Whatever spark of you reuished

Halliwell expected the Dustri from him "If he could have done so, he would have done it already"

"All of a sudden you sound pretty sure of yourself"

"Your spark survives Your spirit’s continued existence is proof enough"

So the Dustman had used him to see if the Sandman could be thwarted without repercussion

"You’re an asshole," Halliwell said

The Dustman did not reply

Halliwell concentrated on seeing out of thein the air, the center of a blossoht that illuminated the entire riverbank Halliwell saw the others, noarriors with ha toward hi with droplets, and the coyote trotted to her side to face the Sandman