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Kitsune froze The words hardly seemed real Knots foruilt and shame returned

"What do you eon in Palenque"

Corn husks twined together on Konigen’s face "The roots bring the truth Oliver escaped He travels with his lover and a coterie of Borderkind They cah the sandcastle that had stood for centuries just south of here, but once they left the place, the castle fell"

Kitsune stared at hien replied "It is nothing but sand, now And the roots bring whispers that the sa has happened to all of the doms They wait for us in the ruin of the Sandman’s castle, and from there we shall all ?" Kitsune asked, , as well, if after all of the intervening en nodded "He waits"

Kitsune felt nureet her, what bitterness eon But how could she hesitate?

"Coyote," she said, "hurry back to Bellona and the others Tell the gods they have found allies ast the Harvest"

But even as he ran up the hill, five words echoed in her mind

He travels with his lover

CHAPTER 15

Oliver sat on a huge stone on the side of the Truce Road and gazed southward at the trees that lined that road When they broke camp and set off, they would pass the trees where he, Frost, and Kitsune had found a little Red Capfor display It had been the first time he had seen a victim of the Sandman Only four months had passed since then, and yet he found it difficult to recall the horror he knew he had felt in those s had piled upon one another until he could barely suust and fury, certainly But horror had become almost a constant now, part of the fabric of his life, and he hardly recognized it within him

The breeze carried a chill and he shuddered He preferred this weather to the heat of Yucatazca, but a sweatshirt would have been welco?"

Oliver turned to find Julianna walking toward hiive her room beside him on the rock

"Forward and backward," he said "Wondering what the future holds, and reot to this point Still hard to take it all in, even though we’ve lived it"

Julianna slid her ar perfectly to his as it always did He loved the s in your brain"

"Escaping?"

Julianna gave a soft laugh "What else would you call it? I wish I could go into my head the way you do yours Maybe I wouldn’t be so impatient"

Oliver kissed her on the forehead and Julianna looked up at hi lost in his own mind, he became lost in the space between the down to brush his lips against hers He kissed her again, ether

"I’m not quite so impatient," he said "I’m not in any rush to ht now"

She started to smile, but then a frown creased her brow "Wait, tohed "Just a figure of speech, Iods arrive, we’ll be heading south"

She hung her head, her hair a curtain across her face "So weird how you can just say that ‘Harvest gods’ Like it’s totally ordinary, everyday stuff Even after what I’ve seen, it’s still hard for me to picture"

Oliver did not reply The comment did not require a response No matter howto the amazements the world presented Julianna was no different

They sat for several h the trees, watching the Truce Road to the south He had told her the story of what had happened here and was glad she did not want to discuss it any further Nightotten Sometimes--too often--the task proved impossible

With Julianna beside hieon of Palenque, Oliver felt hiht when Frost first intruded upon his life He felt content and lucky His sister, Collette, was off with the winter man in the ordinary world somewhere, and no matter how much he resented Frost, Oliver knew she would be safe with him The two people in any world that he loved were out of haro hodoms behind But the war concerned them all If this moment was all he could hope for--at least in the near future--it felt all the more precious to him

He stiffened at the sound of a voice on the wind

"What’s wrong?" Julianna asked

But when it came a second ti around on the rock, and saw the powerful, apelike figure of Leicester Grindylow barreling toward the used to the water boggart’s nickna on?"

But even as he asked the question, he saw the dust rising from the Truce Road to the north, and he had his answer Oliver slipped fro for his hand Their fingers twined and they started toward Grin

"Right, you’ve seen ’eured you’d want to know that the Harvest gods have arrived"

"Thanks We’re on our way"

Grin nodded and turned around, hurrying back the way he’d coht fall into step beside them, but found himself relieved that Grin was in such a hurry to rejoin the others

Blue Jay, Li, and Cheval stood at the edge of the road several hundred yards to the north, where the wind blew grains up from the ruins of the sandcastle, but all he could focus on was the bizarre parade of legends coods of the Harvest, but others were unfamiliar to him In addition to the men and women and beasts made of wood and leaves and wheat and cornstalks, several thick roots burst froain, ed and then burrowed down again

Beyond the Harvest gods were legends he did not recognize In his time on this side of the Veil, Oliver had seen er than ordinary hurander They were forh they were so for the funeral of one of their own Last of all caiant who seee Oliver thought he could probably crush a man’s bones to poith one squeeze

Yet even with that extraordinary sight, he only glanced at the approaching legends His focus had begun with--and now returned to--the two figures at the front of that strange parade, a skulking trickster in a deniarette clenched between his teeth and the faht h tiny pinpoints of fire burned on her cloak and hood