und wa

ready been decided and was just finishing the paperwork. Something heavy hitt

before Kael g

ection, through the door that connected the main hall to the kitchen pas

oo

. Imm

e corner int

as on t

right response and the wrong one. His chest was moving. His eyes were open. But there was blood coming from somewhere above his lef

e'd fough

was stil

yes found my face and something in them t

t wrong. Thin. Like it was being produced

said. "Sto

the water sup

side of his head. The blood was

sto

e which was good. I

hing happen in the quality of his breathing - brief, controlled, th

n four steps and crouche

- stripped of the authority layer, something underneath it that was just

rts," Co

kno

mbarrassed. Nineteen years old and bleeding and e

Kael said. "Tha

got

y. Something passed between them - wordless, imm

stopped questioning about her, and knelt on Coren's other sid

said to me.

mo

story nobody

around it. Me at the corner. Lyra standing opposite with her arms crossed and t

t degraded slowly. In a water supply the size of the compound's

slower. Weaker. Less able t

t sending an as

the whole pack

ed it land on each face differently - Dax going still and hard, Sable

ooked

" she said. "About

one person, you send one operative. You want to take down a compound, you go for t

aid. The word came

who knows this building knows where the water supply is, how it connects, when the kitche

that followe

Lyra said

said. "Enough time to know

surface. His eyes were on the contents of the bag with an expression that had mov

as d

ance between what he'd built and what

that specific

ibs and nothing else. The moment where something that had been

cla

on Coren a

bandage above his ear and a cup of tea going cold on the table beside him and the particular

to the bedside and

me. "How ba

ought someo

. Very

conscious long enough to make sure someone knew about

t for a mom

dlin

nificant. "When he came in and saw me on the floor. I've never

alked through that kitchen door. The

"That's what

Looked at his tea. "H

N

er's comin

I said.

he window the compound was running double patrols - I could hear the rhyth

" Core

ea

ked up his tea. Put it down again without drinking. "Wh

or

ust sa

t jus

the bandage. "You're going to break his walls or he's going to

too

e sleep,

do you thin

the cha

ht Coren

lked

door shut

for three seconds do

nt to f

Coren had sa

e mate pull or any of the thi

with that look on his face and I knew what that

n ally standing i

was

the onl

t the whole way d

it somewhere aro