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Those fucking dicks Nobody liked theured if they could take out the other sentient beings they could run everything according to their weird fascist philosophy Even Janet couldn’t sit back for this She sent a couple of bolts of lightning into their coluriff evasively maneuvered around, after which it cocked its head back at her, just for an instant, to say with its furious yellow eye: WTF, I did not sign on for this

“Sorry,” Janet said, and patted its neck “I just can’t stand those guys”

For ato make the difference, but then boom: a spearhead of unicorns rammed into the side of their formation Jesus Janet had to turn away You only had to see a unicorn lay open the side of a centaur once, the ribcage flashing white when the ripped skin flopped down, to swear a hty oath never to fuck with or even look at another unicorn again I’ away slowly Don’t want any trouble here You can have all the rainbows

It was—viewed fro chess with itself A band ofbeen outdistanced by the centaurs but plainly on their side But just as they did flocks of griffins and pegasi began crisscrossing the battle space froasi appeared to be worth fuck-all froht and delicate to do e to anybody, and they were too fussy to beat anybody with their wings the way a swanup And what did ithouse Jesus, those guys were like flying tanks Beak and claws Built for war

“Hey!” Janet said to the hippogriff “You want to get in on this? You want to fight?”

But the beast shook its head Ferrying Queen Janet around was enough for it Its aot This would be its war effort

“What’s your name?”

“Winterwing!” it squawked back at her She patted its neck again

“Well flown, Winterwing Well flown Fillory is grateful to you this night Take us higher now”

No part of Fillory was untouched by the conflict Here and there along the rivers and strea the weird h they only watched for now Janet didn’t iht unless their interests were directly threatened So by their trees, leaning against thehtstick

God! She’d totally forgotten about the forests They were alrove of the forwardmost el she’d never know) had already ju Woods The oak was a hter trees and aving the overrun A few of its branches were cracked off already, and the leaves were flying Trees were fucking ht, it turned out

Janet looked up to see theoverhead It was still up there but way off course, spinning slowly end over end, aimless, lost in space For some reason that hat did it Janet threw her arriff’s neck She sobbed into its soft feathers, and got snot on them too Whatever, it probably had birdMy best thing I thought I would always have it, but I rong

The hippogriff’s neck was stiff and proud against her face It didn’t turn to look at her Maybe it wasn’t very cohts in the desert Janet was all about being in touch with her emotions

Janet heard and felt a deep boom, and she looked up e had just erupted, blown their tops off like ripe pimples She hadn’t even known they were volcanic, but now they were lobbing big seobbets of lava all over their lower slopes, like a drunk proical, yo Fillory was bleeding its hot arterial blood

Sheits banks, drowning the lower reaches of the Chankly Bore in seawater; so up out of the water Farther out to sea she thought she saw a couple of sentient boats trying to ride out the tempest To the southinto the headwall of the Copper Mountains and threatening to bury the lush southern plains in sand No! Keep out! She wanted to stretch out her hands and push the desert back, stick her finger in the dike Probably the Fore down in their ice caves

Fillory was under siege, and the boundaries were failing everywhere The center cannot hold, and the edges are in pretty fucking dire shape too A crack opened, zigging across two open fields, glowing hot and red, the grass crisping up at the lip She wanted to throw her arether But she couldn’t Nobody could

Now so Woods in the rear, and Janet focused in onJane Chatwin, coray hair loose and flying, and whenever she pointed her finger at an ambulatory tree it stopped, its shoulders sort of sank, and it rooted itself back down to the ground again Looks like she was planning to ride this bomb down like Slim Pickens

All the heavy hitters were checking in now Up in the Barrier Range the giants—for lack of anybody their own size to pick on, and because they knew they were all going to die anyere fighting each other, brawling and weeping huge tears as they did so Over by Whitespire the battle lines parted toin a stately fashion between the two sides of the Battle of the Animals, and that could only be the Great Bird of Peace, one of the Unique Beasts It had the gait of a cassowary, or what Janet i its feet carefully with its inverted knees and swaying its head backith every step

When it reached the center of the field it paused, gazing around it calmly as if to say, now then, my lovelies, isn’t it time to put an end to this foolishness? Do you not feel the love incats, a panther and a leopard, swarht have had love in its heart, Janet thought, but it also had a hell of a lot of blood

Along with her regular serving of horror Janet felt an extra cold chill Whatever ave the Unique Beasts their mandate, that was the foundation of Fillory, the rebar in the ceht If that was failing then all bets were really off