Lyssa frowned. That assumption was based on a faulty premise. She hadn’t felt any sorcery walking around the mine, so she’d believed he couldn’t be observing them from afar, but it wasn’t like she would have been able to carefully distinguish the sensation of remote viewing spells in the heat of the battle with three other people performing sorcery right next to her.
Did he know four people were coming for him? Was that why the monsters were being held back?
The group continued their advance until their tunnel emptied into the large room, its oval shape, curved, smooth walls, and huge size reminding her of a stadium. Dull light illuminated the area, leaving patches of shadows, but nothing like the smothering darkness of the rest of the mine.
Masses of lizards and snake-roaches crawled over half the room, their scratching and hissing producing white noise that was easy to tune out. The motion of the carpet of life distracted Lyssa, and it took her a moment to realize there were mounds and other outcroppings spread throughout the room.
Lyssa frowned. The monsters acted like they didn’t even see the new arrivals, and they were rather conspicuously avoiding the team’s side of the room. She could feel strong sorcery from the center of the room, but nothing closer. Before, she’d had to sneak up on the enemy using wraith form, but now they were standing twenty yards away in light without so much as a snake-roach trying to bite them.
“I don’t get it,” she said. “How the hell are these things even being controlled? They split them up and kept them from spilling out at random.” She frowned. “I might not know the methods, but I think I understand the plan. They probably figured whoever investigated would retreat, and the game would be up. They needed to buy time until Halloween, but we ended up checking back and messing up their plans.”
Aisha suggested, “The creatures might have existing behavior patterns they’re acting out.”
“No.” Lyssa shook her head. “Someone lured two people here and managed to get a couple of monsters to attack them, but they kept them from swarming me before and us just now. There’s control here, not fine control, but some.”
“Does that prove what you think?” Ryan asked. “They didn’t demonstrate much in the way of tactics before. I think they’ve been programmed to kill anything that moves that they can see or hear. Don’t attribute human intelligence to a pattern that can be produced without it.”
“I get that, but why aren’t they attacking one another now? Or us?” Lyssa gestured with her pistol toward a hissing acid-spitter lizard. “Why aren’t they attacking the different species, at least?” She turned toward Ryan. “Can you check to see if they’re using some sort of sound frequency outside the normal range of hearing? If they are, you could jam it.”
He cocked his head to the side, humming a complicated sequence of high notes. After a moment, he shook his head. “No ultrasound. No infrasound.”
“Then what?” Lyssa looked around. They’d all sensed sorcery, but there was no sign of the Sorcerer. A shapeshifting spell, perhaps? That was a dangerous gamble.
“How do ants talk to each other?” offered a man’s muffled voice from the center of the room. There was a smug quality to it that annoyed Lyssa.
The team spun toward the sound, but there was nothing there but a swarm of snake-roaches. They scurried away, revealing a pocket with a large boulder. A small stream of smoke spiraled up from behind it.
“Smell,” Lyssa called out. “They leave smell trails.” She gagged. “Is that why it smells so awful in here? Everything’s controlled by scent?”
“It’s effective,” the man replied. His shadow marked him as a normal-sized human on the other side of the rock, and a brief flash of his hand revealed the source of smoke: a burning incense stick. Given the sorcery they were feeling from that direction, it was almost certainly a shard.
Lyssa wondered if she could have convinced the monsters she was one of them if she’d rolled around more in the sludge of the hatchery and queen’s chamber. But without Antoine protecting her nose, she wasn’t sure she could have continued to fight with that level of filth all over her.
“Who the hell are you?” Lyssa asked. “I guess now I know how you were able to control the creatures, but that doesn’t explain everything.”
“The rogue finally shows himself.” Aisha scoffed. “Yet still you cower. You understand our power, so you should surrender.”
“I’m honored,” the man said. “The great Hecate, Flame Deva, and Ultrasound all gathered. I don’t know your other companion. I assume he’s another Torch. Four Torches to deal with one problem. This proves how dangerous my pets are.”
“Give it up,” Aisha shouted. “Your wickedness ends here, friend. You’ve shamed the Society and misused your power by creating these disgusting creatures. We will give you one chance to surrender, but we have been authorized to kill whoever is responsible for this army.”
“My power?” He laughed. “You don’t understand anything. I have no power other than what I’ve been given. I serve a grand family of Sorcerers, even if I don’t have the gift. But you shouldn’t threaten me. What I do today, I do for the Society in the future. You should be helping me as loyal Illuminated.”
Lyssa scoffed. “This is a sanctioned Society contract. Flame Deva’s right. Surrender now if you know what’s good for you.” She kept her guns pointed toward the rock, but the man wasn’t exposing much more than the tip of the incense and a couple of fingers. “I don’t know what BS you’re spouting there or how you did all this, but if you don’t want to die, you’re going to use your shards to draw down your army. We’ll destroy the rest of it, and you’ll be turned over to be taken to Last
