'To keep them alive,' said Sela.
'To keep them alive and to one day free them,' said Hy Pezho. 'These bodies are massive storehouses of pure undifferentiated re. Growing more full with every passing Chthonic service. Someday they would have been strong enough to break their bonds, I suppose, though it would have been long after we were dead. Of course, you've moved up their timetable quite a bit.'
'So the power source for the Einswrath,' said Ironfoot. 'It comes from them.'
'Each bomb contains a single drop of Ein's blood,' said Hy Pezho. 'That's him up there, by the way. Ein, I mean.' Hy Pezho pointed up at the platform where he had minutes before been floating. 'I was drilling out a few drops when you showed up.'
Hy Pezho stepped toward Silverdun and looked him in the eye. 'And now that I've explained to you in explicit detail exactly what you've stumbled into, would you please tell your pretty friend here to stop what she's doing before these gods wake up and decide to take back Faerie, drunk on five thousand years of stored vengeance?'
Faella frowned. 'I don't know how,' she said.
'What?' said Hy Pezho.
'It wasn't so hard to turn the iron into cobalt,' she said, 'if that's indeed what I did. But I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to make it go the other way. I was just pulling the iron apart, like shattering a glass. I can't put it back together.'
'Then, my dear,' said Hy Pezho, 'the five of us are all dead, and Faerie is doomed.' He smiled at Faella in cynical resignation. 'And it's all your fault.'
Hy Pezho sighed. 'All I did was make a bomb.'
'He's telling the truth,' said Sela. 'He knows all this to be true. He's studied ancient texts, peered into the past with dark powers. Everything he's saying is right.'
'Indeed,' said Hy Pezho. 'And as much as I'd like to stay here and be the first to be devoured once these gods awaken and so spare myself from their rule, I am now Bel Zheret, and I have been ordered by Mab to create more Einswrath. I've got enough blood to build a sufficient amount to bomb the Seelie Kingdom into oblivion. Really, I'll be doing them a favor, assuming I get to them first.'
The silver armor fluttered down from the ceiling, and Hy Pezho stepped toward it. 'Within a day the Great Seelie Keep will be a smoldering ruin,' he said. 'And then the Chthonic gods will rule us all. Ironically, Titania might have been the only one powerful enough to stand a chance against them.'
'You're not going anywhere,' said Silverdun. 'You're going to stay here and help us stop this.'
'That wasn't in my orders,' said Hy Pezho. 'I belong to Mab heart and soul, and I must do as I'm bidden.'
Hy Pezho reached out his hand and waved. A blast of Motion struck Silverdun and slammed him backward. Sela, Ironfoot, and Faella were all flung in different directions.
Hy Pezho climbed into his armor. 'Good-bye, Shadows,' he called. 'Fare thee well.' The wings began to flap, and he rose off of the floor, beginning to chant an incantation of Folding.
Silverdun channeled Elements and pried open the front of the armor. Hy Pezho fell to the floor, his concentration broken. The silver armor listed to the side, its wings flapping crazily. Silverdun ran at him and tackled him, knife in hand.
'Ironfoot!' he shouted. 'Get with Faella and find a way to stop this!' He slashed with the knife, but Hy Pezho slipped from his grasp and kicked out, catching Silverdun in the face. He was as strong as the other Bel Zheret had been. The one that had killed him.
The floor shook. Silverdun cast a brief glance upward and saw Ein's hand open and close. The god's bonds rattled.
A voice boomed into the wide space, speaking in a very, very old dialect of High Fae. 'Who pricks my skin and wakes me from my slumber?'
In the rooftop garden in Elenth, Sergeant Hy-Asher supervised the reloading of the catapult with the second Einswrath. The lieutenant was looking over the edge of the rooftop toward the battle.
'Hurry!' he shouted. 'They're almost to the gate!'
'You understand,' said Hy-Asher, 'that if we lob it this close, we'll kill our own troops, and probably half the city as well.'
'Who cares?' said the lieutenant. 'If they get through the gate, we're all dead anyway!'
Hy-Asher continued winding back the beam, a feeling of dread that he
