“That...” Aiden shuddered. “That was unpleasant.”
“Yeah.” Emily forced herself to stand, despite the pain. Her ribs felt sore... she ran her hand over them, trying to determine if any were broken. They didn’t feel broken - and she might be dead if one of them had punctured a lung - but it was hard to be sure. “Believe me, I know.”
She leaned against Aiden, trying to recover herself. Her chat parchments were gone. There was no way to contact Lady Barb or anyone and... Void was at Whitehall. She clenched her teeth, all too aware that Nanette might already be with him. The amulets were supposed to teleport them to Dragon’s Den, but who knew where they really went? Not, she supposed, that it mattered. Nanette could teleport. She could have jumped to Dragon’s Den, then teleported straight to Whitehall. Void already knew what had happened in Freedom City. He knew she knew about...
Aiden caught her arm. “We have to move!”
Emily looked up. The flames were spreading, the guns were booming - she could see more flames rising in the distance, towards the edge of the city - and a row of troops were running towards them, shouting orders to remain where they were. Emily fumbled for her amulet, hands suddenly unsteady. She was in no condition to run, she didn’t have the energy to teleport and, somehow, she doubted the rebels wanted her alive any longer. Jair might even blame her for Althorn’s death. If she hadn’t brought Prince Hedrick into the city...
“Yeah.” Emily wrapped her arms around Aiden, ignoring her gasp of surprise, then touched the amulet. The troopers were growing closer. “Close your eyes. Quickly.”
She triggered the amulet. The world went away in a blinding flash of light.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“I...” AIDEN GASPED IN PAIN. “EMILY!”
Emily hit the ground, landing on her backside. The jarring shock ran up and down her ribs, the pain so intense she almost fainted. The world was dark... the pain was so staggering that it took her several seconds to realize she hadn’t opened her eyes. She forced herself to look around, unsure where they were. Void had programmed the amulet. He could have sent them anywhere, from the White City to the Dark Ziggurat itself. She breathed a sigh of relief as she realized they’d materialized in the residential section of Dragon’s Den. They weren’t that far from her house.
“Help me to stand,” she muttered. Dragon’s Den had a curfew and a well-funded City Guard. Lady Barb had told her the guardsmen had been even more alert than usual, given the torrent of refugees flooding into the town. She had every right to be in the city, but... the last thing she needed was the guardsmen trying to check her credentials. “We have to move.”
She gritted her teeth as she tried to think. There were supplies in her house, but she didn’t dare go there. She wasn’t sure she could open the gates, let alone get into the house itself, in her battered state. And Void had helped her set up the wards. She thought he hadn’t left any surprises behind, but... she couldn’t be sure. Nanette had been under her nose for eighteen months and Emily hadn’t suspected a thing. Void could have been preparing for the day she finally figured out what he was doing...
But what is he doing? The thought hurt, more than she could say. What is the point?
“Emily?” Aiden held her, gently. “Where do we go?”
“This way,” Emily said. Lady Barb had said she’d been staying in Dragon’s Den. There was only one place she could have been staying. “Hurry.”
She sensed a flicker of magic glittering through the air as they made their way through darkened streets. Dragon’s Den never slept completely, curfew or no curfew, but the town was eerily quiet. She supposed the normal crop of rowdy students and apprentices had been told to behave themselves or else, although it was rare for them to listen. Gordian had probably placed the entire school into lockdown, ensuring the students couldn’t interfere with the conference. Emily gritted her teeth at the thought. Frieda was up there, Frieda and Jasmine and a handful of others she knew by name. And Void was up there, too.
The magic flickered again and again as they stopped in front of a simple two-story house. It was surrounded by powerful wards, warning anyone with eyes to see that it belonged to a sorcerer, but it was otherwise nicely anonymous. Emily had been surprised, the first and only time she’d visited, to discover it belonged to Sergeant Miles. She’d never really thought about it, she conceded ruefully, but she’d never expected him to own a house that looked as if it belonged to a happy middle-class family. Perhaps he’d inherited it. Or... she knew very little about his past. What little he’d told her had been far from useful.
She pressed her magic against the wards, hoping he wasn’t asleep. The wards hummed around her, waiting. She hadn’t been keyed into them... she felt a twinge of irritation, even though she knew it was stupid. Sorcerers rarely opened their houses to anyone, even their closest friends. Lady Barb would have been keyed in, she was sure, but anyone else? She waited, sensing more and more flickers of magic darting over the town. They felt as though they were coming from the distant mountains.
“Emily,” Aiden said. “What are we doing here?”
“Looking for help,” Emily said. She wasn’t sure what to do with Aiden. “I think...”
The wards opened. Emily allowed herself a moment of
