He laughed. “Are you attempting to intimidate me, Hecate?” The incense disappeared behind the rock. “I must say I’m disappointed. I thought with your reputation, you wouldn’t bring so many helpers.”
“You wanted me here?” Lyssa asked. “Why? This is way too elaborate if it’s just about assassinating me. Even I’m not that paranoid.”
“No, I never wanted you here, but I anticipated you might come, given the location.” The man’s pale hand extended past the rock. He clutched a rune-inscribed flattened stone. “You now have a choice. We both know you came here to stop the monsters more than anything. The Society won’t care about a non-Illuminated servant. You could let me go.”
“We care about whoever you’re working for,” Lyssa shouted. “And where you got your shards. I’m assuming that is one, and the incense is another. Someone else obviously made the monsters, and you’re just keeping watch, right?”
“Here’s your final choice,” the man replied. “You can turn around and leave with the understanding that in the years to come, you’ll welcome and praise what I’ve done, or you can try to capture me, and I’ll use this shard to collapse the entire mine. It doesn’t have much power left, but there’s enough to damage the key structural points in this place. Once this hits the ground, you’ll have no chance to escape, and this place will become your tomb. Four Illuminated will die, and for what? To avenge a couple of idiots?”
Antoine tilted his head, the quizzical look humorous in the plague-doctor get-up. “Not to point out the obvious, but you’ll die, too.”
“You don’t have the guts to do it,” Ryan said. “Flame Deva’s right. You’re a coward.”
Lyssa thought taunting a man with a suicidal plan was the worst possible idea. She’d prefer to dare him into surrender.
“I have my orders,” the man replied. “If I can’t carry them out, death is the only acceptable alternative. The only reason I’d flee is that my master has told me I should.”
“And who is that?” Lyssa asked.
“You’ll never know, Hecate. My master will be furious. You’ve destroyed so many hand-crafted creations, including his latest masterpiece that could produce new creatures for him. The level of effort you wasted!”
That explained why they hadn’t run into more queens, but it didn’t explain who was behind the whole thing. There was an even more dangerous Sorcerer still out there somewhere in need of a good three rounds to the face. She still also didn’t understand why he’d drawn the victims there.
Lyssa kept her guns holstered while she murmured a Phrygian incantation under her breath. A single thin shadow tentacle extended behind her, born of her shadow. The man had given her a clue about how to survive this and capture him, and she hoped it’d be enough.
She did have one major advantage. He’d already admitted he wasn’t a Sorcerer, which meant, most importantly, he couldn’t sense sorcery.
“If you come for me, you’ll never be able to get me in time,” the man shouted. “The incense will ensure my horde stops you before you can get close to me. You will allow me to leave, and then we shall all survive.”
“I’ve got a new plan,” Lyssa murmured.
“Use your ultimate sanction,” Jofi said. “The showstopper will annihilate the shards and end their threat.”
She ignored him. “Just keep the monsters off me.”
“I thought we were keeping them off Flame Deva,” Ryan said, sounding annoyed.
Antoine stepped forward. “I’ll keep them off her, and you keep them off Hecate.” He looked at Lyssa. “I hope this is a good plan.”
“It’s a plan.” Lyssa shrugged.
Aisha stepped forward. “It’s fine. I can push myself if I know it’ll be over soon. You two concentrate on Hecate. I’ll stay in the air while I deliver the fireballs. But are you sure we shouldn’t just kill him from here?”
“If you blast him, that might set off the shard,” Lyssa said.
“What are you talking about over there?” the man yelled. “You’re outnumbered, and you have no chance of stopping me with the army attacking you. You can leave or die. It’s simple, really. There’s nothing to debate.”
“Last chance,” Lyssa shouted. “You don’t have to die in a hole in the ground surrounded by monsters, especially for some asshole rogue who is willing to make you take all the blame.”
“No, I don’t have to die here,” he called back. “But it seems you do. Fine. Face the last of the army.”
The trail of incense smoke ended, the last whisps floating into the air. The monsters all stopped crawling over each other and turned toward the group.
“I won’t need long!” Lyssa shouted.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The monsters surged toward the team. Lyssa concentrated on the rock, not paying much attention to anything else. She couldn’t make out anything different among the monsters. They seemed to be what they’d fought before.
Aisha roared into the air, rapidly chanting in Sanskrit as she made intricate motions with her hands. Antoine stepped in front of Lyssa and brought his staff back, ready to strike. Ryan moved to her other side, lifting his sonic sword.
They might have been tired. They might have fought a huge horde of monsters already, but none of them was ready to quit. The final enemy wasn’t a skilled life Sorcerer but nothing more than a Shadow with some toys and a pack of borrowed monsters.
Lyssa concentrated on growing her shadow tentacle without lowering her arms. She murmured the incantation while visualizing the thin tenebrous strands stretching it. She couldn’t see the incense anymore, but the runic shard remained visible.
This could work. It wouldn’t have been possible without the team. She could get used to that.
Antoine yanked out several potions and threw them into the advancing monsters. The vials shattered and splattered dark liquids over lizards and snake-roaches. Their skins and hides sizzled as the liquid ate through them. One lizard vaporized in a puff of yellow smoke.
Lyssa was almost startled out of her concentration. She’d not known Antoine could pull that off, but they’d wanted him to stay back
