“The baby dove into the room, transforming grotesquely as it landed on the floorin a deft sumersault”

“...Why are all these masks winking?" Jason pointed around the room with his fork. The loremaster dabbed at his mouth with a frilled purple napkin. "One eye is open to all truth, the other closed to all deception.”

“Then I'm going?" Kendra asked.The adults in the room exchanged tacit glances before nodding.Then we only have one more problem left to discuss," Seth said. Everyone turned to him.How do I get invited”

“ You should have Hugo throw you in the pool." The golem turned his head toward Seth, who shrugged."Sure, that would be fun." Hugo nodded, grabbed Seth, and, with a motion like a hook shot, flung him skyward. Kendra gasped. They were still thirty or forty feet away from the edge of the pool. She had pictured the golem carrying Seth much closer before tossing him. Her brother sailed nearly as high as the roof of the house before plummeting down and landing in the center of the deep end with an impressive splash. Kendra ran to the side of the pool. By the time she arrived, Seth was boosting himself out of the waster, hair and clothes dripping. "That was the freakiest, awesomest moment in my life!" Seth declared. "But next time, let me take off my shoes.”

“Yes, we have different viewpoints represented among us," she continued. "Yes, we have a displacer in our number, and a half giant, and a seedman who publicly disgraced us.""She's talking about you," Drake muttered to Nollin, loud enough to draw a laugh."No, Drake, I'm talking about you," Farfalee corrected.”

“Ew, sicko. I was practicing Edomic.""Sure you were," Jason said. "You're just too embarrassed to admit you were playing hide-and-seek all alone. Rachel hiding, nobody seeking.”

“How do you kill something that's already dead?Nobody knows enough about them. Ask Jason. He'll have an opinion.Wait a moment. Rachel could see Corinne talking to Jason, but they were too far ahead to hear. He says you chop them up into little pieces.But what if that infects you with the disease?Jason leaned closer to answer Corinne quietly. She laughed. You let Nollin do it.”