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Show from her mother, who was at that point on the flagstone terrace, laying out the plates on the large table for her Twelfth birthday cake. Indeed, Dr'Anya actually looked up from the table that very minute and over the heads of the children milling around, picking and choosing among the heavy cups of iced greenberry tea. The woman put the remaining pile of plates down carefully and stepped across the terrace and into the Hall. A picture had come into her mind of a sudden. . .something that had happened some five TwelveMonths before. Two of Dr'Anya's Aunts looked up at their niece's disappearing back, puzzled. By the time Dr'Anya had reached Armand's room herself, Janni's face had become stiff and she was looking down at her father with unfocussed eyes. The sleeping room, save for the sick man's labored and uneven breathing, was dead still. Through the partly opened window came the low muttering of the slumbering DragonGeese. Then Dr'Anya looked at Armand closely and drew in her breath sharply. Marry! Why...he b e . . . She turned to Janni and touched her. "Child, child," she said in a panic, "thou darest not. . . !" Then two things happened at once-Armand stopped breathing altogether, and the DragonGeese started screaming frenziedly. Or was it but one DragonGoose? Dr'Anya jerked around and rushed to the window, throwing it completely open. "But nay!" she cried. "Nay! " She pulled the window all the way closed, rushed back to her rigid daughter, and shook her roughly. Janni's head flopped back and forth as though attached by hinges. Then her eyes began to focus. "Mischievous child!" her mother shouted. "Thou hast done 229 |