Chapter Twenty-Three
Hector roused himself. He had to help. Something had happened inside him, that much he knew, but how and why was more of a puzzle. That the Pale was involved he had no doubt, and he wished he could ask Tad what he thought, or even discuss it with Mashtuk. But Tad was a whisper on the wind and Mashtuk was shut inside the battered planes of his own skull. Hector himself was the one who knew most, and he was rather horrified to discover that he knew more than he wanted to. Multiple data sets clamoured for his attention, pinging hundreds of notices inside his mind. There would be time to sift them, to think about them, later. At the moment, there was a sorry battlefield to tend to.
He lifted his head to find Freya crouched beside him, a worried look on her face. He felt
