“Where can we go?” Tess asked.
“You must take the passage to Humburgh,” Emery said. “Humbuggle has his own defenses there, and the wrath of Celebrant is not directed at him. Raza has contacted Rustafet to help you. And Giselle is waking the satyrs.”
“We should have stayed in Humburgh,” Knox complained.
“This was the better place to weather the Perennial Storm,” Emery said. “There was no way to know these dragons were coming.”
“Are you excited to be free?” Tess asked.
Emery gave a modest smile. “I must temper my emotions. I need to remain loyal until I am free, or this choker will strangle me. If despite our best efforts the Giant Queen falls, many of the servants in this fortress will transform and change allegiance. We must be swift.”
Newel and Doren ran up to them, with Raza and Giselle trailing behind.
“How are you kids doing?” Newel asked.
“Good,” Tess said. “Except Celebrant is attacking.”
“We knew a dragon apocalypse was coming,” Doren said. “Turns out it’s today.”
“We’ll be all right,” Newel assured them. “These servants of the Giant Queen will evacuate us.”
“Before they change into monsters who want to eat us,” Doren said.
“Escape will be a challenge,” Raza said, walking briskly and motioning for them to follow. “Terastios will fall fast. The giants are woefully unprepared for a fight. In here, please.” He opened a door into a narrow hall Tess had never seen.
An unfamiliar male servant waited behind the door. Stepping forward, he whispered something to Raza.
Raza glanced back at them. “We should run.”
Tess pumped her arms and legs as fast as she could, trying to keep up with the adults. Raza glanced back at her and slowed his pace a little. Then Newel scooped her into his arms, and the pace increased again. They passed intersections with other cramped, nondescript hallways. As other servants rushed by them from different directions, Tess decided these passages were used primarily by the staff of the fortress.
A female servant ran toward them waving both arms, and Raza paused to speak with her. She leaned close and whispered. Newel was panting from the exertion, along with the rest of the group.
“I can run again,” Tess offered.
“Better trust these goat legs,” the satyr said. “They’ve transported me out of many a jam.”
Raza turned to address the others. “The way I hoped to go is cut off. There is an alternate passage at the rear of the throne room, a secret way known only to a few. We can hope the commotion will be sufficient to distract those who would stop us.”
“Lead on,” Doren said.
Raza doubled back the way they had come, then turned down new passages. If Tess had to retrace her steps, she knew she would get lost. The plain hallways looked so similar, and there were too many intersections.
As they ran, from behind the stone walls of the passage, Tess heard an occasional rumble, along with some muted screaming and shouting. They passed a female servant whose silk kimono was singed and fuming.
At length, Raza led them through a door to the throne room and onto a human-sized walkway along the perimeter of the immense space. The walkway led to bleachers where humans and others of similar stature could observe the royal court.
The Giant Queen stood before the throne, her royal scepter clenched in one hand, a sword in the other, glaring at the main doors. Something beyond the doors was slamming against them, causing them to buckle inward, hinges rattling.
Only three other giants remained in the typically crowded room—two armed guards and a completely bald councilor wearing a sky-blue toga.
“Your majesty,” the councilor implored. “Our defenses are failing. You must flee.”
“I will not give up Terastios to a horde of worms,” the Giant Queen said.
“Your people need you,” the councilor insisted. “Fall back to where we can better defend ourselves. Ideally Humburgh. Or Stratos, at least.”
“If the dragons are going to cut me down, my back will not be facing them,” the Giant Queen said. “I will slay their entire host alone if I must. Find a weapon, Eratad. No true giant would flee to Humburgh.”
The main doors to the throne room burst open and dragons poured through. The space was plenty large enough for them to fly, and most took to the air as the two giant guards, one female, one male, charged forward to oppose them.
“Give me a turn,” Doren whispered to Newel, running by his side, and Tess was passed from one satyr to the other. Burying her face against Doren, Tess hid her eyes from the combat.
Knox leaned against the railing of the walkway, eyes intent on the battle. The guards held up massive shields as dragons rained down fire and lightning from above. When dragons swept in to physically attack, the female guard chopped the head off one with a sword, and the male guard skewered another with his spear.
Several of the attackers cleared the way for a dark gray dragon. The newcomer exhaled vast quantities of silvery mist that enveloped the two guards. The dragons retreated away from the broadening cloud, and a scarred one breathed fire into it. The instant the flames contacted the mist, the entire cloud erupted into a blazing fireball, flaring intensely bright for a few seconds and sending heat washing over the entire room before snuffing out. After the fiery display, dragons mobbed the burned guards, dispatching them viciously.
“Come,” Newel called, and Knox realized the others were running ahead of him along the walkway. For a moment he wished he was small enough to be carried like Tess; then he sprinted after the others, his eyes straying to the fight.
The councilor turned and ran toward the rear of the throne room, behind the dais. The Giant Queen reversed her grip on her sword and flung it like a spear, harpooning the fleeing councilor through the back. Then she drew another sword from a scabbard affixed to her throne and whirled to face
