All Spell Breaks Loose

The cellar was dark, but Tam, Kesyn, and Imala ran straight through the darkness to where the door to the tunnels was. Mychael, Piaras, and I stumbled along behind in the pale glow of the one miniscule lightglobe Mychael had summoned to try to keep us from falling flat on our faces.

Kesyn had his hand on the latch as Tam and Mychael took up positions on either side of the door. Tam nodded to his teacher, and the old man’s hands glowed redder than I’d ever seen Tam’s. If anyone was on the other side, this was going to be both their worst day and their last.

Kesyn flung open the door and ran through, closely followed by Tam and Mychael.

The old goblin didn’t cut loose, meaning there was no lethal welcoming committee.

When Mychael gave the all clear, the rest of us joined them in the tunnel. Kesyn closed and sealed the door with a spell.

We knew we weren’t coming back.

Chapter 13

We surfaced a few blocks away. No one said a word, but every last one of us looked back in the direction of Tam’s house. Other houses and buildings kept us from having a direct line of sight, but we didn’t need it. It was the middle of the night, and the glow from Tam’s burning house lit the sky.

Tam’s expression was unreadable. “Let’s go.”

The six of us moved fast. Tam’s front doors wouldn’t have held up for long against a battering ram. Though hopefully, setting fire to the house would keep whoever had been sent to flush us out from knowing that we’d escaped through the basement. We opted not to take any chances on the speed of any pursuit, and ran like Death himself was on our collective tail.

To get where we needed to be, we had to get past a place we didn’t want to go—at least not again.

Execution Square.

We’d only be skirting the edge of it, but anywhere near it was too close for me. From the looks of things, I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. What goblins were out and about near the square were wearing cloaks and hoods. The unofficial uniform of oppressed societies everywhere.

“Looks like our citizens don’t want to be recognized by anyone,” Imala said to my unspoken question.

Kesyn took a quick swig from his flask. “When you don’t know who you can trust, you save yourself the bother of weeding through the chaff and don’t trust anyone.”

Our destination was to get past Execution Square to a small, rocky beach outside of Regor’s harbor. Tam had assured us it wasn’t far, but since we were the most wanted people in the city, any distance was too far in my opinion. We weren’t going into the square, but now getting past the square might take even more than we’d thought.

A big hand grabbed my bandoleer and hauled me back into a dead-end side street.

Mychael.

“Khrynsani guards,” Imala whispered. “They appear to be questioning everyone going into the square.” Her dark eyes narrowed dangerously. “I stand corrected. Only one of those men is Khrynsani. The other is one of my agents—or was.” The glare Imala was giving him promised that not only was his career over, but his life was about to follow in its fading footsteps.

“He was one of Carnades’s guards,” Tam told her.

Imala nodded once. “And one of my most trusted,” she said quietly.

Tam never took his eyes off of the rogue agent. “Would you like to speak with him?”

Imala’s smile was chilling. “Yes, thank you. There is nothing I would like more.”

“We can’t stop for this,” Mychael told them.

“Balic’s known for putting his nose into everything,” Imala said. “He probably knows something we need to.”

“Like where Carnades is,” I said.

That swayed him. “Okay, but no more than a few minutes.”

Imala never took her eyes from her prize. “That’s all I’ll need.”

“Mychael, cover me,” Tam said as he stepped forward and vanished behind a veil.

“Wait,” Mychael called quietly.

I couldn’t tell if Tam waited, but apparently Mychael could. His eyes grew intent on the two men, and I knew his spellsinger magic was soon to follow.

The area around the temple, including the square, was seething with magic. We weren’t going to do the magical equivalent of setting off a bomb, but veils and such were quiet and necessary. We needed to move fast, and sneaking wasn’t what you’d call speedy; neither was snatching a secret service agent off of a street corner.

Mychael began humming an innocuous tune. The Khrynsani guard’s head snapped up as if he’d been slapped. Heck, for all I knew, that was what Mychael had done. The guard told Imala’s traitor to stay put and ran across the street and around the corner to investigate whatever Mychael had told him to.

Mychael’s hum changed pitch and the agent tilted his head like a dog hearing a whistle. Then he obediently turned and walked right to where Tam and Imala waited in the shadows.

“How very nice of you, Mychael,” Imala murmured. “The perfect present.”

Mychael flashed a quick smile. “I thought you’d like it.”

Tam was still veiled when he grabbed the agent and slammed him against the brick wall. Mychael quickly muttered what I recognized as a spell to ward the entrance to the narrow street. No one could see in, and anyone who passed by would feel an overwhelming urge to keep right on walking.

By the time the goblin agent could see straight again, the first two people his eyes focused on were probably two of the last people he wanted to see. I’d never seen a goblin go so pale, so fast.

“Balic,” Imala all but purred. “What an unexpected surprise.”

I didn’t think he could have gotten any paler, but I was wrong.

He’d just spotted the rest of us.

As one of Imala’s agents, he had enough on the ball to know that he wasn’t going to be allowed to see us and then leave that alley alive.

“Nukpana forced me to do it,” he told his former boss. “He’s holding my family prisoner, and—”

Imala silenced him with a hard fist to the gut. Balic gagged and would have doubled over if Tam’s armored forearm hadn’t had him anchored to the wall.

“Nice try,” Imala said. “Your records say your family’s in Greypoint and they disowned you years ago. I wish I had done the same.”

“I think he meant to say that Nukpana has my family prisoner,” Tam hissed softly, his face mere inches from the agent’s. “And you helped put them there. Where are they?”

“They took everyone to the temple. I don’t know anything else; I swear it on my grandmother’s grave.”

Imala punched him again. “Your grandmother’s still alive, too.”

“Where’s Carnades Silvanus?” I asked. “Spit shining Nukpana’s boots?”

Balic’s lips slid into a smile.

Oh yeah, he was an oily one, all right.

“That I do know,” he said. “The elf wanted us to take him to Sarad Nukpana. He was all eager to share the news that you didn’t have your magic anymore. He wanted to go to the temple, so that’s where we took him.”

“And?” I asked.

“And nothing. We handed him over to the temple guards and left. I imagine he’s warming a dungeon cell by now.” Balic shot a smug look at Tam. “I’ve got information about that son of yours.”

Tam leaned in closer, his fangs sharp and visible. “Speak.”

“Not so fast. I want your word that neither you, nor anyone else here, will kill me.” He tried to swallow past Tam’s arm against his throat. “If I tell, I walk.”

“What if my word is no better than Sarad Nukpana’s?” Tam’s voice was devoid of any feeling whatsoever.