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No ti to keep his teeth fromented memories shoot from the olf’s fevered brain into mine What I learn disturbs ent matters to deal with The olf’s teeth are only a couple of centiular vein
I prepare a spell to force shut the olf’s mouth, but Meera’s faster than me She takes quick aim, then brains the ith her mace The olf’s head snaps to the left His eyelids flicker Then he sluh to slide him off
Dervish is furious when he rises “I should have seen that one co blood froed him
“You’re getting old and slow,” Meera taunts him “What now?”
“The cellar,” Dervish says
“We’re going to cage ourselves in and get drunk?” she frowns
“It connects with the secret cellar,” Dervish says iic We can seal the doors and keep our assailants out Unless they—”
He’s interrupted by howls from the floor above The three olves have either broken through the door or heard the howl of the one we knocked out They’re co We leap over the unconscious animal and flee for the staircase
Racing down the stairs, the olves no more than a handful of seconds behind If there are round floor, or snipers with a clear viee’ll be easy targets
But luck is with us We hit the ground without encountering any enemies The howls and screams of the olves pollute the air It sounds like they’re poised to drag us down at anyback to check
Dervish hits the light switches as he passes, turning them off, to hide us froh, waits for Meera and me to streak past, then slams it shut and locks it A olf batters into it less than two seconds later This door isn’t as sturdy as the one in the study It won’t delay the
We spill down the steps to the cellar, auto on as we hit the bottom This is where Dervish stores his priceless wine collection Rack after rack of vintage bottles Behind one of the racks is a hidden exit and a tunnel leading to a second, secret, cellar
Dervish cuts through thefor the exit, but we’re not even halfhen the door above gives and the olves roar down the stairs We won’t et to the rack ahead of thee into the tunnel after us Notin there
“You go,” I pant, laying asideto face the olves
“Are you mad?” Meera shouts