Chill

repairs done. Have you talked to Perceval?'

He nodded, tightly. In the long run, he thought the new, fey Perceval with so many ancient souls behind her eyes might even be a match for Cynric the Sorceress, in wisdom if not in craft. 'Perceval sent you something,' he said, and held out the long nano-swagged parcel.

Caitlin looked from it to him, and did not reach out for it. 'Tristen didn't claim it?'

Benedick laid the unblade down across her console. She could unwrap it later. 'You should go and talk to our daughter in person.'

Caitlin nodded, eyes bright. 'I will.'

'I'm not sure how she'll be,' he said honestly, stepping forward to stand beside her chair. 'I don't know where we go from here.'

He touched her naked hand with his own so his colony could give her the map, the one he'd been saving to deliver personally since Cynric had imparted it to him.

'It's okay,' Caitlin said. She tipped her head over her shoulder at Jsutien, who was visible through the glass. 'Wherever the hell it is, we know how to get there, now.'

acknowledgments

Thanks very much to all the people who helped get this writ: Sarah Monette, Cindy and Robert Wood, Amanda Downum, Jodi Meadows, Jaime Lee Moyer, Emma Bull, Delia Sherman, Anne Groell Keck, Jennifer Jackson, Michael Curry, Leah Bobet, and more.

Chill is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

A Spectra Mass Market Original

Copyright (c) 2010 by Elizabeth Bear

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Spectra, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

SPECTRA and the portrayal of a boxed 's' are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

eISBN: 978-0-553-90600-4

www.ballantinebooks.com

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