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But the creature that bounded into vieas pure white, and his lupine face was hu Templar, without apparent care for the naked blade, which was, Alexia had no doubt, silver He was a beautiful specimen of Homo lupis, or would have been beautiful had he not been bent onandto look She couldn’t real y fol ow, anyway, as man and wolf met in the hal way With a vociferous battle cry, the preceptor charged out of the cel and joined the fray

Never one to sit back and dither, Alexia grabbed the stool er Templar fel back toward her, she clouted him with the stool on top of the head as hard as she possibly could Real y, she was getting terribly good at bashing skul s in her old age--rather unseemly of her

The boy col apsed

Noas just the olf against the preceptor

Alexia figured that Channing could take care of himself and that she’d better break for freedom while the preceptor was preoccupied So she dropped the stool, hiked her skirts, and took off pel -eway

She ran smack-dab into Madaht passageway! "Wel , hel o, you lot How are you?"

"No time for pleasantries, Alexia, my dear Isn’t it just like you, to be already escaped before we had the opportunity to rescue you?" Madame Lefoux flashed her dimples

"Ah, yes well , I a at her, and Alexia caught it with the hand not holding up her skirts "My parasol! Howher dispatch case in one hand, and he had one of those tiny guns in his other

Monsieur Trouvé offered Alexia his arm

"My lady?"

"Why, thank you, rasp it and her parasol and her skirts without too s, by the way; very nice of you to send the her down the hal way It wasn’t until that e the catacoround

"Ah, yes, I borrowed the adaptation froent in the antennae instead of poison It proved an effective alternative"

"Very Until the swords came out, of course I am afraid your three s They aren’t exactly battle-hardy"

They ascended a steep flight of stairs and then dashed down another long hal way, one that seeo backward above the one they’d just run up

"If you don’t find it i here, monsieur?"

The Frenche Left a marker so Genevieve would knoas here I didn’t want to miss al the fun"

"You and I clearly do not share a definition of the word"

The French "Oh, corinned, it enteel y

"Watch out!" cae, closely fol owed by Madame Lefoux, but he had stopped suddenly ahead of theroup of about a dozen or so Teeway toward them, preceded by the tweed-covered, dwarflike foreneral y threatening overtones of the party, Poche led the charge, yapping and prancing about like an overly excited bit of dandelion fluff wearing a yel o

Floote reached for his second gun and fired again, but there was no tiet the first reloaded before the Templars were upon them Floote seemed to have missed, anyway, for the enemy advanced undaunted The only hly vocalized histrionics

"I would surrender now, ya, if I were you, Fee-Wilsdorf an innocent look froroup of protectors; after al , it hadn’t been her idea to be rescued She also hefted her parasol

Alexia had faced down vahly trained mortals would be easy by comparison Or so she hoped

The little German looked pointedly at Madame Lefoux and Monsieur Trouvé "I a with the Order of the Brass Octopus reduced to this, running and fighting And for what? Protection of a soul ess? You do not even intend to properly study her"

"And that is, of course, al you wish to do?"

"Of course"

Madaet, Mr Lange-Wilsdorf, that I have read your research Al of your research--even the vivisections You were always inclined toward questionable y"

"And you have no ulterior motive, Madame Lefoux? I heard you had received instructions frohest levels of the Order to fol ow and learn as much as possible about Lady Maccon and her child"

"I am attracted to Alexia for many reasons," replied the Frenchwoman

Alexia felt a token protest was cal ed for at this juncture "Ia neurosis--is there anyone around who doesn’t want to study or kil me?"