She drew back, intuition clanging like a bell. The rogues hadlikely copied what they’d sensed from the capstone, but they couldn’t know whatit did, and they were curious, and perhaps they expected that canceling itwould do something besides the obvious.
She cursed, not used to being in the dark as far as pyramidknowledge was concerned. “I don’t want to touch it at all,” she said to theexpectant faces around her. “I’m not sure what will happen. Even using acancelation pyramid might set it off.”
Gunnar glanced at Sylph as if to get a second opinion, and Thanaglared. “I might not have the power of some,” she said. “But I possess moreknowledge than most.” Just not enough at the moment. But more than a novice.
He smiled crookedly and dipped his head. “Then we stop them theold-fashioned way. Lady Sylph, another staircase, if you please.”
Sylph couldn’t pinpoint the exact location of the pyradistés, andThana didn’t want her to try. She was barely speaking now, and sweat rolleddown her face. When she made a new staircase, she sighed, and power rolled outfrom her with such force, the hair stood up on Thana’s neck.
No slow rumble accompanied her power now. The cavern groaned, andthe rock flowed like water, like it had when Sylph had encased herself.
Thana gripped her hand, terrified of losing her, and was relievedto see her smile weakly. “Can we send her up now?” Thana asked. “Surely we canhandle the rest of this.”
“I’d rather she stays,” Gunnar said as Sylph muttered, “I’m notgoing anywhere.” Good to know she could still talk and that she and Gunnar weregetting along.
Thana sighed and gestured forward. The fighters of the Order ledthe way, and Sylph and Thana followed.
* * *
These tunnels had been reinforced like the others the Order hadencountered, and they stretched in two directions, but Sylph knew which way togo, lured by the siren call of the Fiend pyramid.
Light shone from that same direction, leading the others, but shecould have found her way blind. The desire to reach for the siren tingledthrough her as if her skin was on fire. She had the remedy to put it out, butshe couldn’t touch this pyramid, not if even Thana didn’t know what it coulddo.
Nor could she twist the stone around, not with the Fiend’s prisonsomewhere in this direction and with the palace sitting above. She couldn’tafford to fracture either of those structures.
Movement came from ahead. A figure rose from a sitting positionwhere the tunnel widened slightly. A light pyramid bloomed in its hand,revealing a dusty face with wide eyes. The mouth opened as if to shout.
A knife appeared in the pyradisté’s chest as if by magic, butwhen Ivar lowered his arm, Sylph realized he’d thrown it. The pyradistéstaggered a few steps, staring down in astonishment before pulling the knifeout and sliding to the ground. The light winked out.
“Al, you all right?” someone called softly. In the shadows of thetunnel, another figure stirred.
Illis fired an arrow into this one, dropping them. Both deathstook only seconds. Only the pull of the siren pyramid kept Sylph from feelingsick.
Thana made a noise of protest, but Gunnar whispered harshly,“They know about Fiend magic.”
She closed her mouth, but defiance still shone in her eyes.
Sounds of digging came from a large, well-lit room ahead, but itquieted all at once, and someone called, “Who is it? We know you’re there. Wewill defend ourselves.”
“Your treasonous brethren have been arrested,” Gunnar called asthe Order halted. “Surrender, and the queen may be lenient.”
A hurried conversation echoed from ahead, angry, muffled wordsending with, “Enough. What does the pyramid above us do? We’ve never felt itslike, nor the like of the one we made. What powerful secrets is the crownkeeping for themselves?”
“Give up, and I’ll explain,” Gunnar said.
Thana made an angry little growl. Sylph squeezed her hand,something else to hold on to as the siren call beat against her brain.
“This magic could change the face of Farraday, of the world,” thevoice said, a dreamy quality to the words that Sylph well understood. “And youwant to hoard it. But our time has come.”
Thana gasped and clutched her cancelation pyramid. Sylph reachedfor it, and Thana yelled, “No,” but Sylph’s mind was already there. She had todo something. Canceling the enemy pyramids wouldn’t smother her pain, but itwas better than nothing.
And as she raced through the enemy pyramids, snuffing them, shecame ever closer to the siren pyramid and the delights it promised if shetouched it in any way, even to cancel.
A sharp sting rolled up her arm, shocking her. Thana was yelling,shaking her, kissing her, and as Sylph opened her eyes, another sting came fromher elbow.
Thana was pinching her?
Affront awakened her. “How dare you?”
Thana’s eyes were wide, relieved, and she sputtered a humorlesslaugh. “Come on.” She led the way into a scene from a slaughter. Bodies coveredthe ground, though the Order was still on their feet. Illis was trying to pullsomeone out of a hole in the ceiling beside a green-flecked wall that stood outagainst the gray of this newly made chamber.
The green stone had to be the Fiend’s prison. The legs squirmed,and Sylph tried to call a warning that this person held the siren pyramideveryone dreaded, but a pulse went out, and she stiffened.
The Fiend pyramid was active.
The tunnel began to shake, and a low groan echoed from somewhere.No, not just anywhere. It came from the prison, from the thing that slumberedthere.
That slumbered no longer.
“No,” Thana said. She drew a box from her satchel and took outanother pyramid, more Fiend magic, Sylph sensed.
“Gunnar?” Dina asked, as a wave of Fiend magic came from theprince. He stood as still as a statue, and the blue of his irises bled acrosshis eyes as horns sprouted from his head.
Sylph barely had time to be shocked as Thana leaped, grabbed him,and fell into her own Fiend pyramid. She wrapped its power around the prince,seeking to hold something in.
There were too many powers
