thesound of Fox’s approach. Bruises darkened his face and his left eyewas swollen nearly shut, but one corner of his mouth lifted in ashadow of his cocky grin.
“That color does not suit you.”
Fox uncorked the potion and tipped it into hisfriend’s mouth. The dwarf swallowed and nodded his thanks. His goodeye widened when Fox produced the dragon tooth flask.
“So the crazy bugger did it, then?”
“Other than the dragon’s tooth, I haven’t foundanything it won’t dissolve.”
“Don’t be adding dwarf to the list,” Delgar mutteredas Fox tipped a drop onto one chain.
The metal fell away. Delgar grinned, a disconcertingsight to anyone not familiar with a Carmot dwaves’s nature. Thedwarves were pale silvery gray-hair, skin, even teeth-unless theychose to appear otherwise. At the moment, Delgar’s smile resembleda drawer full of knives.
Fox made short work of the chains. His friend gavehis shoulders an experimental roll and bounced on the balls of hisfeet like a fighter getting ready for a match.
“The way out?”
“We walk.”
He handed the dwarf a second robe. Delgar grimacedbut made no complaint. He pulled the robe over his head and tuggedit down, revealing blue-gray eyes, a thick shock of blond hair, anda skin tone a shade darker than Fox’s.
“Don’t forget the teeth,” Fox said.
The dwarf bared a dazzling white smile. “Pass forhuman?”
Oddly enough, Delgar could. He was tall for his kind,standing near the midpoint of five feet and six. Fox had no ideahow many years the dwarf could claim, but he and Delgar looked tobe about the same age. The dwarf was clean-shaven, with a squareface and impressive slabs of muscle. Women noticed him, which wasone more reason to disguise him with an alchemist’s robe.
“Let’s go.”
Delgar turned back toward the table holding thebeaker of his stolen blood. In one fluid motion he stooped, caughtup a length of chain, and swung.
The sound of shattering glass filled the dungeon.
Fox lifted one brow. “I appreciate a defiant gestureas much as the next person, but-”
A board creaked overhead. Running footsteps beat acrescendo toward the cellar door.
“Fuggle!” the dwarf spat.
Fox sprinted toward the bulkhead door he’d pointedout to Vishni, the dwarf close on his heels.
Three men clattered down the stairs. Delgar wavedaway Fox’s dragon tooth vial, put his shoulder to the door, andheaved.
The wooden doors exploded upward, and the two friendsraced out into the bailey.
Vishni leaped to her feet, a pewter mead cup in onehand. Her form blurred. A blue-robed alchemist stood in her place,patrician disdain written on his face.
Fox glanced at Delgar. The dwarf looked slimmer,taller, and enough like the altered Vishni to be her brother.
Two of the servants in the mead tent now resembledthe fugitives. A flick of Vishni’s fingers created a phantom swarmof bees and sent them whirling toward her victims.
The men fled. The guards followed.
Delgar glanced at Fox, then down at his own longer,slimmer hands. “Something tells me I’m less handsome thanusual.”
“True.”
“On you, though, it’s an improvement.”
“Shut up and walk.”
Vishni fell into step with them. They strolled downthe hills toward the twin gates. Never had three alchemy studentsexuded more casual arrogance.
Never, Fox was certain, had the road out ofRhendish’s compound ever been longer.
Finally the black-bearded guard waved them throughthe gates. A trio of sighs escaped them.
“Good illusion,” Delgar said to Vishni.
She beamed. “It is, yes.”
“Better than the one that got me caught.”
The fairy boggled in mid stride. “Up ‘til now,” shemurmured.
Fox followed the line of her gaze and groaned. Threetall, burly guards stalked toward them, moving with the stiffprecision of clockwork.
And clockwork creatures were not affected byillusions.
“Run!”
Vishni took off like a jackrabbit, weaving her waythrough the crowd so effortlessly they might as well have beenstrands of meadow grass.
The dwarf ripped off the blue robe and hurled itaside. It cost him a moment, but Fox soon saw the sense of it.Holding up his skirts as he ran made him feel like a milkmaidfleeing a satyr.
Delgar shot past him and veered into a narrow alley.He came to a stop so abruptly that Fox plowed into him. Theexperience was not unlike running full speed into a tree.
The dwarf seized Fox’s shoulders, spun him around,and shoved him in the direction of a side alley. Metallic footstepsbehind them told him the reason why.
“How many of those things did Rhendish make?” Foxcomplained.
“Seven so far,” Delgar grunted, pointing to two moreguards emerging from a gap between workshops just up ahead.
They veered off again, hopping a low stone wall andtrampling a vegetable garden. Fox wrestled off his robe and wig ashe ran. An errant wind caught the robe, whisked it skyward, anddraped a scarecrow in alchemist blue.
Delgar grinned in appreciation. His smile droppedaway, though, at what he saw in the alley ahead.
Chapter Four: The Fox’s Den
Fox’s gut twisted at the sight in the alley ahead. Asmall woman in a dark cloak whirled and twisted, trying withoutsuccess to break free of the two men who spun her back and forthbetween them, like tomcats toying with a lone mouse.
She needed help. He couldn’t just leave her. But ifthey stopped, Rhendish’s clockworks guards would catch them.
Evasion or rescue: In Fox’s opinion, no one shouldhave to make that choice.
Inspiration struck, and with it the realization thatperhaps he wouldn’t have to choose.
There was, after all, more than one way to create anillusion.
“Head straight for them,” he told the dwarf. “Can youget the girl?”
Delgar sent him a cocky grin. “Don’t I always?”
They ran toward the embattled woman. Fox skidded to astop a few paces away, but the dwarf dipped one shoulder, scoopedup the woman, and kept going without missing a step.
The thugs howled curses and gave pursuit. Beforethey’d taken two steps, Fox crossed his arms, reached into hisopposite sleeves, and came up with a throwing knife in eachhand.
Two quick flicks sent the knives spinning toward thethugs. Steel found flesh, the first knife slicing across the tallman’s calf, the second burying itself hilt-deep in the shorterman’s left buttock.
Fox flashed past them at an easy loping pace. Thesounds of battle in the alley behind him brought a grim smile tohis face.
Rhendish’s clockwork marvels could do many things,but apparently they couldn’t distinguish between the two sets ofcriminals.
