“Why did you do that?” Gaspar whispered.
“She needs to use her power to slow it,” Gavin said.
“You don’t think she can?”
“This golem is incredibly potent,” Gavin said. “It’s going to take her time to slow it down, and I don’t really know how much time she’ll have to continue to work at this.”
Gavin followed the sculpture. Mekal stayed with him as they moved forward, and the lumbering sound of the stone dragging across the ground echoed. The creature moved slower with each step. The Mistress of Vines used power on it, but even with everything she was doing, she couldn’t stop it completely.
“What happens when she gets through with that?” Gaspar whispered.
“Then we have to be ready,” he said with a smile. “Don’t worry. This is what I’m trained for.” Mekal tried to pull away as they continued into the room, but Gavin held onto him tightly. “I don’t think so,” Gavin said. “Not if you want to get out of here alive.”
“If you drag me in there, there’s no way I’m going to get out of here alive.”
“Not with an attitude like that. You just have to trust I know what I’m doing.”
“You’re an assassin. People die because of you.”
“That’s right,” Gavin said.
The figure slowed. Vines wrapped all around it, constricting from head to toe. Gavin waited to see if there was anything more he could learn from what the Mistress of Vines was doing, but he couldn’t tell anything more about the nature of her magic. He could feel the energy she was using, but nothing more than that.
He stopped.
The vines continued to squeeze, and the light along the sword surged, growing brighter for a moment but then fading again.
Something clicked for him then.
The power play.
He’d seen a manipulation of power like this before.
And had barely survived it.
“Do you remember Kevlin?” he whispered to Wrenlow through the enchantment.
“I do. You removed the Tanran from power.”
“I was hired to assassinate the Tanran, but I failed,” Gavin said.
“Why is that related?”
“Because I think I’m facing the Tanran now.” The type of magic fit. Both were powerful. Both used strange fingers of power. He’d only seen her once, but could imagine her changing her appearance through magic.
It fit with what was going on.
Another maneuver for power.
What better place than somewhere magic had been exiled?
She wouldn’t have anyone to oppose her. His presence here must have been a surprise.
Unless she’d wanted him here.
“Now,” Gavin said, looking over at Gaspar.
They darted forward, and he carved through the vines.
Beyond the massive statue stood the Mistress of Vines. She had her attention turned to the statue, power streaking away from her.
“Tanran,” he said.
She sneered at him. “You were easy to draw into this, Gavin Lorren. When I learned you were here, then offered this opportunity…”
She had come because of him.
Which made all of this partly his fault.
She laughed at him, waving her vines. “And you would use an enchantment against me?”
“It’s not so much that I used it as it was that I had one of your people use it.” He flashed a smile. “The threat of death makes a powerful motivator.”
“They will suffer.”
“Will they? Because I’ve been trying to understand just what it was you wanted to do by getting in here. If you wanted to overthrow the Captain, it would’ve been a straightforward thing to do, but that wasn’t what you wanted anyway.” It had taken him a bit to find understanding, but the more he considered everything the Mistress of Vines had been after, the more it started to come together for him. “You wanted his place. You wanted his position. You didn’t want to simply overthrow him. You wanted to be him. Like in Kevlin.”
He looked over and found the Captain lying on the ground, wrapped in vines. His eyes bulged, and he didn’t move. The last time Gavin had seen the Captain, the man had looked vibrant, powerful, fully enchanted. Now he was thin and weak, the enchantments having been destroyed, whatever power he possessed sapped from him. Now the Mistress of Vines practically taunted him, and soon she would destroy him completely.
Gavin darted over and carved through the vines that were swirling around the Captain. He coughed, sucking in a ragged breath, but he didn’t get up.
Gavin turned back toward the Mistress of Vines. “Now, your other helpers might not know what you do, but I’ve seen it.”
“You’ve seen nothing.”
Gavin flashed a dark smile. “The Mistress of Vines. An interesting title. At the time, I didn’t know what it was, or whether or not there was any connection between you, but now I see it.”
“What is this?” Gaspar asked.
Gavin looked over. “I’ve been trying to figure out why I was involved. We have a little bit of history, you see. I’m the reason she lost power in the last place she ruled. If she were to gain power, I know exactly the kinds of things she would do this time.”
“What?”
“Destruction. Violence.” He glanced over at Mekal. “And she would kill them.”
“If they helped her take power, what reason would she have in killing them?” Gaspar asked.
“Because they have substandard magic. At least, according to her.”
“They do have substandard magic!” she roared. She turned toward Gavin, and the vines began to swirl away from her again, twisting outward and racing toward him.
Gavin swept at the vines with the sword and sliced through them. “Really? I think that you should be thrilled with anybody having any sort of magic, not calling anything substandard.”
“You don’t understand. You are—”
Gavin darted forward, driving with the sword.
He met resistance. He swung the blade as quickly as he could and tried to carve through the vines. He still wasn’t quick enough.
She was fast. It wasn’t even so much that she was fast as it was that her magic was fast. The Mistress of Vines brought the
