The impacts hammered louder against my makeshift barricade. The spear blade scraped back half an inch beneath a particularly heavy blow and jammed up against the edge of a flagstone. Ice started to form around the cracks in the door, and I guessed the Augmenters on the other side were attempting to perform magic to break it down.
“You’d better start believing,” I said. “Because he’s outside that door right now with a bunch of his mates, trying to get in and kick the crap out of us.” I doubted Labu had been able to recover so swiftly from my attack, but then this was a world where a woman could hum a tune and heal mortal wounds.
The last of the bonds gave way beneath my knife. Kumi rose to her feet, wobbled, and placed a hand on my shoulder to straighten herself.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’ve been tied here so long, my legs have started falling asleep.”
She bent and rubbed at her ankles to revive the weary flesh. The thudding continued, louder, and the wood pressing against the spearhead started to splinter. When Kumi straightened up, she wore a look of grim determination.
“Let’s do this,” she said.
“Can you give me a boost to my power?” I asked.
“Help me out.” She pointed to the ice coating on the door.
Flames rippled free of my hands and turned the ice into a stream of water.
Kumi chanted and swayed from side to side. Water slid away from the doorway and into the air between her hands. It flowed across me and granted a renewed burst of energy. It didn’t quite restore my Vigor, but it helped alleviate my weariness.
I took hold of her hand. “Hold on tight. I don’t want to lose you after coming this far.”
Raw Vigor brimmed over inside me, so powerfully that I could barely contain it. I let it flow out through the water channels to become a great cloud of mist that filled the room. The fog poured over the door and seeped through the gaps into the corridor beyond.
I kicked the spear out from under the door a split second before someone slammed into it. The door burst open, and the attacker stumbled into the mist, slipped on the flagstones, and fell to the ground.
I ran into the corridor, dragging Kumi behind me. The guild warriors were just gray shapes in the mist. Everyone in front of me was an enemy. That gave me an advantage. They couldn’t be sure who was friend and who was foe.
I jumped over the charred carcass of an enemy who’d suffered death by my Burning Wheel. As I landed, I punched a guard in the face and heard their head crack against the wall. Another guard pushed into me, and I knocked them over with a roundhouse kick before I slammed into a third so that they fell to the ground. I trampled over them as I dashed past, along the corridor and away from the secure cells. My blanket of mist lingered as I sped away with Kumi in tow.
We ran out of the prison area, up a stairwell, and back along the dungeon-like corridor that Labu had led me across. There were shouts of struggle and alarm behind us as our assailants tried to work out what was happening in the mist. But there were also sounds of combat from up ahead. I let go of Kumi’s hand and drew the Sundered Heart.
“Will you bathe me in the blood of these traitors?” Nydarth purred to me.
“Count on it,” I thought back as I turned to Kumi.
“Here,” I said, handing her my knife. “It’s not as good as the ones you normally carry, but it’s something.”
“Oh, it’s plenty,” she said, a fierce gleam in her eyes.
I wouldn’t have wanted to be her enemy.
We emerged into a wide corridor where guild members fought Kegohr and Vesma in a flurried mass of initiate robes. My two friends had their backs to each other as they battled, a mismatched pair given Kegohr’s looming bulk and Vesma’s short, lean athleticism. While Kegohr sent their attackers flying with powerful sweeps of his mace, Vesma’s spear struck like a viper and drew blood from her enemies.
Both my friends had raised Flame Shields, and the Ice Spears of the initiates melted in hissing explosions of steam. Vesma used her shield to attack while she sent out blasts of fire that melted Frozen Armor and forced her opponents back, giving her more space to wield her spear.
I summoned my own icy coating of protection. Frozen plates spread across my body in curved, gleaming surfaces like the shell of a giant, white beetle. I launched a spray of thorns from my hand and caught the nearest initiate in the neck. Scarlet blood sprayed from the wound, and I charged as flames flickered from the Sundered Heart Sword.
I caught the first of my opponents by surprise. He carried a slender sword and a small shield but didn’t bring either around in time to block me. My sword hit him in the side, and there was a burst of steam as his armor evaporated, dissipated by the fire and strength of the blow. He turned to face me, but my second attack caught his armor at a different angle and sliced through a melted plate of ice. The Sundered Heart tore into his body, and he fell bleeding to the ground.
“We have to find the Depthless Dream,” Kumi said as she leaped onto an opponent and drove her blade into his side. “Cadrin has it somewhere in the guild.”
“First, we get you to safety,” I said. “This is a rescue mission—everything else can wait.”
“But the trident—”
“Isn’t as important as the king’s daughter. As long as you’re here, the guild has leverage over your father. We can always get the trident later.”
More warriors flanked us from the corridor that led to the dungeons. Several had bruises on their faces where I’d hit them or
