Lex let out a strangled choke and lurched against the restraints. Corian didn’t react, having stopped less than an inch from the farthest their prisoner could lean away from the wall. The choking continued, and the scaled magical’s eyes widened even as they rolled in lazy, unfocused circles. “You’re fucked!”
“What did you use?”
The prisoner slumped back against the wall, his mouth hanging wide open as the strangled chokes became raw, grating laughter. “I didn’t.” His eyes rolled back in his head as he screeched, leaning sideways against the chains. He took sharp, gasping breaths before shrieking again.
Cheyenne leaned toward Lumil but couldn’t look away from the taratas bucking on the floor. “I think you broke him.”
“Nah. That’s just a taratas laughing. You wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world, this is it.”
The halfling frowned. “Looks like he’s having a seizure.”
“Yep.”
Corian’s ears twitched, but the rest of him remained perfectly still in his squat. “I can do this all night, Lex. So can Lumil. I promise you won’t think this is very funny for long once she takes a few more scales off your face.”
With a final raw, wheezing inhale, Lex dropped his head back against the wall and aimed his constantly shifting eyes in the nightstalker’s general direction. “I didn’t have shit to track your precious mór úcare.” He fell into another round of choking, wheezing giggles. “That digger set out on a hunch. And even my hunches get more done than that goblin’s fucking fists! I don’t need to track the drow, you furball piece of shit. No one else will have to either after this. She’s too close!” Lex shrieked again and leaned forward to slam back against the wall in his lunatic mirth. “She’s too close!”
Corian stood smoothly from his crouch and stalked past the gathered magicals into the center of the room. Cheyenne turned to watch him and noticed the opposite wall didn’t have a door. The nightstalker’s fingers moved quickly, and another portal opened in front of him.
“What are you doing?” Lumil asked, scowling at Corian’s back.
“We’re done here.”
“Are you kidding me? He’s spouting a load of bullshit just to get to you. Give me five more minutes. I’ll knock the crazy right out of him.”
“Not now!” The growling shout echoed through the tiny cement room, and Corian stepped through the portal as soon as it fully opened.
Lex’s shrieking cackle had died down into guttural bursts of amusement, and he leaned his head back against the wall again, his eyes closed. “You go on and try to figure that one out, nilsch úcat. They’re all coming for her now that they know. You think you can stop the O’gúl Crown? I’ll be slamming my tankard down on your dried skulls before year’s end!”
“You crazy shit.” Lumil kicked the taratas’ splayed legs. He jerked away and cackled again, leaning sideways until his chained wrist grew taut and stopped him from hitting the floor. “Come on.”
Both goblins headed toward the portal, and Cheyenne spared a final glance at the prisoner. He was too far gone to notice.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Corian’s portal shrank and disappeared with a soft pop as soon as Cheyenne stepped back into the warehouse. “What the hell was that?”
“Yes.” Lumil pointed at the nightstalker. “That’s what I was gonna ask. We went in there to get information.”
“And we got it.” Corian paced across the center of the warehouse, his silver eyes glowing fiercely. One tufted ear twitched, and he shook his head.
“That wasn’t information, man.” Byrd gestured toward the nonexistent portal. “That was him pissing all over us.”
“Shut up.” The nightstalker didn’t look at any of them as he kept pacing, pivoting neatly on his heel each time he reached a wall.
“Don’t tell me to shut up,” Lumil muttered, scowling at him.
Cheyenne stared at the floor. “He’s right, though.”
“Oh, you too? We just met a few days ago, kid. You’ve got real balls, thinkin’ you can tell me to shut up.”
“We did get information.” The halfling glanced briefly at Lumil. “That machine wasn’t tracking me.”
“No.” Corian spun again and headed toward her without looking up from the floor. “He said he didn’t have to.”
“Because the digger was tracking on a hunch.” Cheyenne tapped her fist against her mouth and closed her eyes.
“You both are crazy as that taratas.” Lumil snorted and walked toward the couch at the other end of the warehouse.
“What hunch?” Corian muttered.
Byrd pointed at the empty space in the air where the portal had been. “You know we can just go back and ask him, right? Maybe not give him as much time to laugh about it and just beat him ‘til it comes out. That worked last time.”
Both nightstalker and halfling ignored him.
Byrd shot them both a suspicious glance, then hurried after Lumil. “You’re right. It’s all systems down with those two.”
“Who was with you?”
Cheyenne opened her eyes and found Corian spinning away from the opposite wall again. “What?”
“Who was with you in Peridosh? If that thing was tracking a hunch, Cheyenne, it was tracking someone its programmer suspected would be with you. To get to you through them.”
“That’s impossible.” The halfling shook her head and closed her eyes again.
“Just go through it again. All of it.”
“I was with three FRoE agents, and I know for a fact that none of them has had contact with an O’gúl war machine. They don’t even know those exist.”
“I’m happy to agree with you on that one, but we can’t overlook anything. Go deeper. Did the digger attack any of them?”
“No. It just dropped out of the wall and headed straight for—shit!”
“Straight for whom?”
Cheyenne’s eyes flew open. “Ember.”
“You brought your fae friend with you?”
“Yeah. We share an apartment, and I’m helping her adjust to a new lifestyle that’s totally my fault. I’ve been bringing her
