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Luis groaned in pain, rolling to his side, his body curling up defensively.
Corny threw himself at the man. They fell backward, cracking through the thin
ice of the lake as they splashed into the shallow water.
Kaye rushed forward, trying to pull Corny onto the shore. A hand closed on
her arm.
She turned to see a creature, as tall and thin as a scarecrow, shrouded in
tattered black fabric that whipped through the air. His eyes were a dead,
pupil-less white, and his teeth were clear as glass.
Kaye's scream died in her throat. Her nails scrabbled at the creature's arm
and he let her go, pushing past. He moved so nimbly that by the time she'd
turned herhead, his skeletal hand was on the frozen man's throat.
Corny splashed up onto the bank and collapsed in the snow.
The creature pressed a thumb against the man's forehead and hissed some words
that Kaye didn't know. The frozen man moved slowly to resume standing like an
indifferent sentry, clothing soaked through and dripping.
"What do you want?" Kaye demanded, taking off her coat and wrapping it around
a shivering Corny. "Who are you?
"Sorrowsap," said the creature, bowing his head. His hair was thin and coiled
like the tangle of roots beneath a weed."At your service.
"Great! That's just fucking great." Luis held his stomach.
Corny shuddered reflexively and pulled the coat tighter.
"Myservice?"Kaye asked. Looking across the forest, she saw the other human
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figures walk back to their original positions. They had been coming, had been
perhaps only moments away from entering the fight.
"The King of theUnseelie Court commands that I guard your steps. I have
followed you since you left his court.
"Why would he do that?" Kaye blurted. She thought of Roiben covered in
collapsed dirt, his face as pale as a marble tombstone, and she closed her
eyes against the image. He should have been protecting himself and been less
worried about her.
Sorrowsap tilted his head. "I serve his whims. I need not understand them.
"But how could you stop the frozen people like that?" Luis asked. "This
barrier has to have been created to keep you out more than us.
At the question, Sorrowsap smiled, his clear wet teeth making his mouth look
poisonous. He reached into a sack beneath his robes and threw down what at
first seemed like green leather lined in red silk. Then Kaye saw the fine
hairs dotting the surface and the sticky wetness underneath.Skin.The skin of a
faery.
"She told me," said Sorrowsap.
Luis made a noise in the back of his throat and turned away like he was going
to retch.
"You can't I don't want " Kaye said, furious and terrified. "You killed her
because of me.
Sorrowsap said nothing.
"Never do that!Never!" She walked up to him, hands fisted. Before she thought
better of it, she slapped him. Her hand stung.
He didn't even flinch. "Just because I am to protect you does not give you
governance over me.
"Kaye," Luis said stiffly. "It's done.
Kaye looked toward Luis, but he avoided meeting her eyes.
"I'm freezing," Corny said."As in 'to death.' Let's get where we're going.
"All these people are going to die from the cold," Kaye said, although it
seemed that, lately, her trying to make things better had only succeeded in
making them worse. "We can't just leave them.
Corny took out his phone. "Let's call the 
Luis shook his head. "I don't think we should lead more victims out here.
That's what you'd be doing if the police came.
"I'm not getting reception anyway," Corny said. "You break curses. Can't you
do anything for them?
Luis shook his head. "This is way beyond what I know how to handle.
"We have to dry this guy off," Kaye said. "Maybe cover his fingers before
they get worse. Sorrowsap, can you keep him . . . deactivated?
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"You have no governance over me." Yellow eyes watched her with as little
expression as an owl's.
"I didn't think I did," Kaye said. "I'm asking for your help.
"Let them die," said Sorrowsap.
She sighed. "Can't you snap them out of it? Remove whatever enchantment is
keeping them like this remove it permanently? Then they could just go home.
"No," he said, "I cannot.
"I am going to help this guy. If he attacks me, you are going to have to stop
him. And if you don't keep him turned off, he's going to attack.
Sorrowsap's face seemed expressionless, but one of his hands curled into a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]