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"How dare you!" cried the man

"How did you isout the red-haired man at the table "Cracked in half, is it? What kind of steel is that?"

The joint nibbler laughed very loud and threw back his head He tore more meat from the bone

My Master reached out and plucked from time and space the wielder of the broken sword, and now to bare the vein, broke the man's neck with a loud snap

It seemed the other three had heard it-the one who ate the joint, the wary dancer and the man with the red hair

It was the last of the dancers whoht the asping the man's throat so that I saw the blood just for an instant, a veritable deluge of it, which my Master then covered with his mouth and his bent head

I could see the blood pump into my Master's hand I couldn't wait for him to raise his head, and this he did very soon, sooner even than he had left his last victim, and he looked at me dreamily and his countenance was all afire He looked as human as any man in the room, even crazed with his special drink, as they ith their common wine

His vagrant blond curls were plastered to his forehead by the sweat that rose i

n him, and I saas a fine sheen of blood

The music abruptly stopped

It was not the ht of my Master which had stopped it, as he let this last victim slip, a loose sack of bones, to the floor

"Requiehosts will thank you, kind Gentlemen "

"Either that, " said Marius to the musicians as he drew close, "or fly the room "

"I say fly the room," whispered the lute player At once they all turned and made for the doors They pulled and pulled upon the latch in their haste, cursing and shouting

My Master backed up and gathered the jeweled rings from around the chair where I'd been seated before