Bears and great cats from the green western woods,

They all came to fight—”

Her words were cut short, when the small window slid shut with a clap.

Every face turned again towards the gate. The minister took a few steps back, and at a gesture from him the guards unlocked the gate and heaved back on the heavy brass rings.

The crowd hushed as the tall doors swung inwards, revealing behind them not an open space but a second pair of doors, dull and grey, standing in exactly the same position that the first doors had been as though the opening doors had left ghosts of themselves behind them.

Two rows of soldiers exploded through these grey second doors as though walking through a waterfall. They diverted at once, m...

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