"Nina put her arm round Anya. "I know, love. And I mean it, we'll stop...encouraging you. You can have all the time you need to make up your mind, and...we won't try to influence you either way."Anya nodded, just about mollified. She sat down on the lawn, a bit unsteady from the wine, and Nina sat beside her. The sun was setting, and the waves in the bay below were tinted a glorious bloody red. The distant hills glowed softly in the dying light. Electric lights twinkled to life in the harbour as. A man appeared from a back room and stood behind a counter. He was a great bear of a man, buff and dirty from a life spent standing over an anvil. Seeing Noah’s modern clothes, unease crossed his face. “Can I help you?”“Do you buy weapons as well as sell them?”“Only as long as they incorporate metal. I don’t buy bows or staffs.”“Perfect.” Noah returned to the wagon outside and retrieved an armful of weapons looted from dead goblins. He stepped back inside and laid them out on the store counter.. They had talked as if Rachel did not even exist as a person, as if she was just an object to be used. Although Violet looked to be 10 years old she was really over 100, and in that time she had learned a great deal about psychology; why people act the way they do and how to manipulate them. Her main tactic was usually the sweet and innocent approach with a hint of naughtiness to draw her victims in. But that was hardly the only trick she had to use. Listening to the men talk it had become clear. He turned to Amanda and asked, "So what did he say?" I shut the door behind me," Amanda answered with a giggle.Lucy was silent. She would never have thought to send Amanda to talk to William, but recognized that if anyone was able to break through the shell that he had constructed to keep everyone away that she was the perfect person. She sighed and asked, "So why isn't he here?"When no one answered, Eddie asked, "Did anyone tell him that dinner was ready?"A stunned silence settled over the.