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right under the seat where he could grab it.
The other door opened and closed as Shar slipped into the passenger's side and shut the door as
soon as she was seated. He noted that she locked it, too, and did the same on his side. She
fumbled for a moment with the controls on her seat before getting the hang of it and sliding it
back as far as it would go.
Shar. Now, there was a mystery wrapped in an enigma: half-kitsune, half-dragon, all perplexing
And one I'd better figure out before she turns around and stabs me in the back.
Chinthliss himself hadn't known where she stood but had assumed she was not on the side of truth,
justice, and apple pie. Tannim had been so happy to see her, though, back in that Rubik's Prison,
that he hadn't given a thought to what Chinthliss had said about her. Or, frankly, a fat damn
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about her motives in cracking him out of there. Her motives didn't matter, as long as she was
getting him free. If she was leading him into another and different trap, well, maybe it would be
easier to escape or talk his way out of than the last. The important thing was that he was buying
a little more time, and in an uncertain universe, every moment counted. It gave him a little more
opportunity to think things through. Something unexpected might happen.
So far, so good.
"All right, we made it. Now what? Aren't Madoc and his Merry Men going to come straight here as
soon as they get over fighting with each other?" he asked, opening his eyes and blinking them
wearily. How long had he gone without rest? Long enough; his eyes felt puffy and swollen, very
heavy.
He looked over at Shar's lovely profile; she smiled a little and shook her head. "No," she said
with a ghost of a chuckle. "No, I put a lot of masking spells on your car to deaden the effect of
so much Cold Iron here then I told them that I'd moved it to a safer place. Madoc won't go
anywhere in person if he has the choice. The spells work like that silk sheet we put in the trunk;
your Mach I is insulated from the energies Underhill now which means that they are not going to be
able to detect it by its effect on the world around it. They have absolutely no reason to think I
left it here. I don't believe any of the Unseleighe Madoc's got know these masking spells are even
possible, so they're going to take me at my word if they don't see Death-Metal effects here. And
scrying is so costly in terms of time and energy that I don't think they'll make the attempt.
They'd have to have something of yours, mine, or the vehicle's for scrying to find it anyway. We
can actually afford to get a little rest, then be on our way."
"How?" he asked skeptically. "Drive out of here?"
To his surprise, she nodded. "This place was meant for creatures larger than this vehicle; the
doors and hallways will all accommodate it, and this room is on the ground floor. We can drive it
out into the garden; there is a Gate there as well as the one in here. We will have to take our
chances on where it goes, though; the only setting that I know of would land us in a fairly
unpleasant and unfriendly place. I can see how many other settings there are, and you can pick
one, and we'll hope it takes us somewhere familiar."
He nodded. She turned to him then, pulling her hair away from her face and looking at him rather
wistfully. "I don't suppose you have anything in the way of food in here, do you? I'm awfully
hungry. I could get something from the garden, but I'd rather not leave the car, frankly. This is
about the first time I've felt safe outside of my my own place."
He lifted an eyebrow at her, quite well aware of gnawing hunger in his own innards. "You mean our
gracious host didn't offer you dinner?"
She made a little face. "You saw the kitchen; you saw what was in it. Would you eat anything
prepared there?"
He had to grin, just a little, and reached behind the seat. "Here " he said, handing her one of
the high-energy sports-bars he kept back there. "I fool my body into thinking this is food all the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]