Shan rejoined Etienne, and the boy pointed up to an attic window three stories above them.  Shan jumped and pulled herself onto the roof of the tool shed.  The other handholds were just as easy to find: an awning, a ledge, a drainpipe, a roof.  Finally, she wrapped her fingers around the pane of the attic window and pulled herself up, up.
       The room’s only light came through the window she had just entered.  Boxes filled the space, stacked high along most of three walls.  Dust filled her nose.  Shan snorted slightly to expel it.  Sneezing later could prove fatal.  The section of the room where she had entered appeared to be the boy's sleeping area.  A small bed crowded against the sloping wall to her left, with a clear view of the sky through the window.  Books and clothes littered the floor, the small bedside table, and the low, fat dresser to her right.  It was a younger, slightly neater version of Ian's bedroom.  Shan pulled the messenger bag over her head and placed it on the floor by a pile of comics.  It would be safe enough here until this was over.
       Shan looked out the window.  Etienne was following her path up the side of the house, although at a much slower pace.  It was clear from his calm demeanor that the boy had performed this routine on a number of occasions.  In fact, he probably had a fort and a little stash of blankets and candles somewhere out in the woods.  She smiled.  Was that what Ian had been like as a child?  Adventurous and brave, with books scattered everywhere?  Shan felt a slight pang in her chest, the sadness of knowing that she'd never get to see Ian that young. 
       Shan flipped the latch on the trap door and lowered it carefully.  Its little stairs unfolded into a bright, light-filled hallway on the second floor of the lodge.  Shan closed her eyes, listening.  
       Outside, she heard the gentle scrapes of Etienne scaling the side of the house.  Up the hallway, she felt a slight rhythmic vibration--someone pacing in heavy shoes.  Probably the guard holding the family.  Charles Fortier and whoever was watching him would be downstairs waiting to greet their guests.  Three guards outside meant that there were still three enemies inside the house--One-eye, Ponytail, and another man.  But two of the men from outside would be able to run inside if the warning was given.  Shan opened her eyes.  She could take out these bastards if she needed to, but with so many defenseless people to protect, the odds dropped significantly.
       And she still needed to find the dragon.
       Shan lowered herself to the floor and closed the trap door behind her.  She didn't want Etienne seeing it as an invitation to follow her.  If he was smart, he'd stay quietly in the attic until this was all over.  Shan gritted her teeth.  But is that what she would have done if her father hadn't taken her away from the Jade Circle that deadly night when she was twelve?  Not a chance.  She had wanted to fight with the Circle against the intruders.  To fight and die with them, if necessary.  To be by her mother's side until the end, and then to join her in the afterlife.  Shan had belonged with the Jade Circle, in life and in death.  
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		Reese / Jade Tiger - 2