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CHAPTER 26

Another tremor It shook Umber awake He opened His eyes

“My heart,” He whispered

But when Janet looked away froone

Lots to do World ending Can’t hang around He bounced back pretty fast froive Hi—one down easy, taken a dive It would have been like Him

Either way she was kind of relieved Uone She didn’t especially want to spend the end of the world with Him

Meanwhile the action on the edge of the world was deeply, subli there like a rotten purazed the ri out there, grinding itself flat, spending its re itself and throwing stupendous curling gouts and ferns of fire in the air and erecting a vast pillar of stea up to the sky

She’d never even seen the edge of the world The others had, but now she never would Or even if she did it wouldn’t be the saarette burn on it Janet looked over her shoulder at the other horizon and saw that the , as per usual Good old ht, to get in its eclipse at noon and then get back around again to rise in the evening Or no, it would have to go even faster than that Variable speed? Multiple ure it out and then stopped What did it even matter now

“We shouldn’t be here,” Poppy said “We should be back at the castle”

“What does it even matter,” she said, out loud this time

She wished Eliot were here Or Quentin Josh and Poppy were all right, but come on, they were short-timers, rookies She would have liked the company of another old-schooler like herself Even Julia

“This s and queens of Fillory, ever I suppose that’s a claim to fame”

“It’s not over yet We should go back to Whitespire The people need us”

That’s the spirit

“Go,” Janet said “You’re right, take care of the to stay here for a bit”

She couldn’t have said why, but being here felt right The weird, evenly spaced hills, lit up by the flickering, flaring light fro shadows back and away—she felt calm here They would be fine back at Whitespire What on earth would her presence add? She would sit her final vigil here, in the hills of the Chankly Bore

Josh started to say soot it: they were out of their depth In a quiet, businesslike way Josh began the portal ritual

“I’ll leave it open after,” he said

“Yeah”

“When it gets too bad,” he said, “we’ll come back for you With the button”

“Yeah I’ll be here”

Then they were gone Overhead the sky was a deepening blue, and with the green of the hills and the gray of the e of the horizon it was a pretty striking scene Too bad she didn’t have a camera, or an easel, or a powerfully developed aesthetic sensibility Janet wasn’t rass with her back to the hard, lu sunglasses, like those people ent out to the desert to watch the early atomic tests

Janet shivered It see that of them all she was the one to bear witness to this Her—the cynical one No shits or fucks given Well, maybe it’s better this way, better than sos Quentin would be a Trevi fucking Fountain of tears by this point Soreat deep horn, a massive sustained brass pedal note There were a few seconds of silence, then it was answered fro silver truher Then six or seven notes followed in unison, fro betweentritones

Who the fuck is playing that shit? Janet thought How do they even knohat notes to play? Probably it was Written so alpenhorn sonarok break glass and play an E flat

Where’s my horn? It would have been nice to at least have a horn, she thought, allowing herself some bitterness, soiven her soan to toll She didn’t know they could

She got to her feet This would never do She was et involved, find out as happening She stood up, and on cue the grass in front of her practically exploded as a hippogriff sla halfway down the slope on its talons and hooves and ripping up half the hillside with it

It gathered itself and trotted back up the slope to her It had come to find her

“Your highness, Queen Janet, ruler of Fillory This hippogriff awaits your pleasure”