All Spell Breaks Loose

“She’d give the demon queen a run for her money?”

Tam nodded once. “Sandrina Ghalfari poisoned and murdered my wife. She did the same to her husband to secure his title and fortune. Now she has taken my father. Her life is mine.”

The tunnel began a gradual upward slope and the ground beneath our feet went from packed dirt to solid rock. I was relieved to see the walls and ceiling do the same thing.

When Jash Masloc stopped, we all did.

My hand crept toward my sword hilt as I peered into the dark beyond the torches’ light. Nothing but a lot of dark, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything inside.

“We’re coming up on the base of the city walls,” Jash said. “Sarad Nukpana has sensors anchored to the top every fifty feet.”

“To sense what?” Talon asked.

“Magic,” Jash said. “And yes, they can sense all the way down here, so push your magic down as far as it will go.”

I hoped Talon knew how to tamp. Surely, Tam had taught him how, but had the kid been listening when he did? We were about to find out the hard way.

Back when the tunnel walls were still dirt, Jash had told us the plan. If we passed under the walls and into the city without incident of the ambush kind, we’d be splitting up. It was the best plan I’d heard all day.

In my opinion, sneaking was an activity best done solo. If others had to tag along, there shouldn’t be more than a handful sharing the shadows with you. Any more than that and you’d be tempting fate, luck, and any anything else you’d care to name. That we’d made it this far undetected was a towering testament to goblin stealth and elven desperation. Once we were inside the city, we’d be moving even faster than we had been. That was something else I was all for. Movement kept sitting ducks from becoming dead ducks.

Jash signaled us to stay put and walked forward on nearly silent footfalls. The flame of his torch illuminated a ragged opening only the height and width of an average man.

The city wall of Regor. Home of Sarad Nukpana, the Khrynsani, and the Saghred—all of whom wanted me dead and gone, and the more painful they could make my death, the better. To make the experience even more enjoyable, it appeared that we’d have to go through the opening in that wall single file. Alone.

Great.

Hopefully no one’s magic would hiccup when they passed through. I felt more than a few nervous glances on me. I had news for them; my magic wasn’t what they needed to worry about. Sarad Nukpana had been close enough to me on numerous occasions to have set those sensors to me, not just to my magic. If that was the case, we were all screwed. It wasn’t like I could tamp down myself.

“I’ll go through first,” Jash told us. “Nath, you follow. That’ll test the sensors against mage and mundane.”

Imala spoke. “If you weren’t detected when you went through the first time—”

“The first time, Sarad knew Raine Benares wasn’t with us,” Jash reminded her. “Thanks to the spy orb that Khrynsani captain was wearing, Sarad may now know differently. If he knows she’s here, he’s had ample time to have the sensors recalibrated.”

To me. Or to anyone who had the bad luck to be with me.

“Sorry about that,” I said.

“We’re not,” Nath chimed in. “We live for flipping off Death.”

“If those sensors could be set for me, then I should be the last one through.” I kept my voice down for the obvious reasons, but spoke loud enough that the goblins heard me. They’d probably volunteered for this duty, but it never hurt to make nice with the locals. Nothing said nice like giving your new allies a head start on running for their lives if I set off those sensors.

A few of the Resistance fighters graciously inclined their heads in my general direction; a couple more gave me what might have passed for smiles under better circumstances.

All of us had our magic locked down tight. Well, all of us except for me. My magic was probably on vacation on a sunny beach somewhere, toying with the idea of never coming home.

“I’ll wait as well,” Mychael said.

Piaras stepped forward. “Me, too.”

I shot him a look that summed up what I thought of that idea.

Piaras wasn’t backing down. “I’m a Guardian cadet and our sworn duty is to guard and protect the Saghred and prevent it from being wielded by those who would use that power to destroy.”

It sounded like he was quoting out of the Guardian handbook or something. Heck, if there was one, he’d probably already memorized the thing.

A mischievous grin flitted across his mouth. “Just doing my sworn duty.”

“You’ve been talking to Vegard too much.”

“My conversations with Sir Vegard have been highly educational.”

“I’ll bet.”

Talon slid up beside Mychael, speaking in a whisper out of only one side of his mouth. Impressive. “Is guarding Raine a required Guardian cadet activity?”

Mychael fought a smile. “No, Cadet Nathrach. It’s not.”

Talon’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Oh, good.” He glanced at me. “Don’t take it the wrong way, but you’re dangerous to be around.”

“I’ve noticed that. I don’t want to be around me, either.”

Tam clapped a hand on his son’s shoulder. “You’re going through with me.”

“With?”

“To make sure that magic of yours doesn’t spring an ill-timed leak.”

Jash and Nath squeezed through the crack in the city wall without incident. The other goblins followed, including Prince Chigaru and Imala.

Chigaru didn’t have any magic. Odd how the family who had ruled the goblins for the past two thousand years didn’t have a spark of magic to their names. A few could sling a respectable spell in a pinch, but for the most part, they were all nulls. Which said a hell of a lot about their other skills—like terrifying their subjects. There had been coup attempts down through the centuries, but if one Mal’Salin went down, there was always another waiting in the wings.

If our lives suddenly decided to turn ideal, Sathrik and Sarad Nukpana both would choke on a chicken bone, preferably at the same time, emptying the big chair and the space behind it for Chigaru and Tam.

Carnades was next to go through the opening.

The elf mage had slithered his way to one step away from being archmagus. Carnades was patient, waiting for the chance to make his move, be it in politics or getting his chains around my neck. He went through without a peep. Those magic-sapping manacles were downright handy.

Tam and Talon went through together, with both of Tam’s hands on Talon’s shoulders. If the kid didn’t like it, he kept his opinion to himself. He knew what was waiting inside those walls. Staying on Mid and reporting to Vegard during a goblin invasion probably looked like sweet duty right about now. Mychael kept a hand on Piaras’s shoulder. He knew Piaras’s abilities, and that the kid could squelch his own magic, but now wasn’t the time to take chances. We’d be taking plenty of those later.

It was my turn.

I could swear I felt the air pressure drop as everyone took a deep breath and held it. Mychael and Tam remained on the other side of the opening, the torchlight showing me their expressionless faces. They knew as well as I did that Sarad Nukpana could have had something other than magic being picked up by those sensors. Magic was the only thing they could help me cover up, so taking the next couple of steps without setting off alarms throughout the city was all up to me.

I tried to empty my mind, which shouldn’t have been that much of a challenge, and went with the breath- holding thing, too. As I stepped through, my heart decided to skip a couple of beats. That part wasn’t my idea, but I wasn’t opposed to the sensors picking up a dead person if they noticed anything at all.

Nothing.

At least nothing I could hear. Everyone else was looking up and around like they expected Khrynsani to drop