“Yeah, I feel the same way,” I said, taking the picklock. “Free the others, then go find that dagger.”
“Put your chains flat on the floor,” Mychael told Mirabai, “and close your eyes.”
Without a trace of fear, Mirabai quickly knelt on the floor, bowed her head so her face was protectively tucked against her knees, and put her chained wrists out as far from her body as she could. Mychael brought the ax down, the blade biting through the chains with a single stroke, then went to do the same for Kesyn and the Nathrachs.
I got to work on my manacle. If I got it open, my hand would still be fused to the rock, but at least I’d be able to straighten my arm. Small improvement, but I’d take it. The manacle opened with a sharp click, revealing my cut and bloody wrist.
Oh no.
Before I could stop it, a single drop of blood fell from my wrist to sizzle on the Saghred’s fiery surface. I froze and held my breath.
Nothing.
The stone simply absorbed the blood and didn’t do the same to me. Nukpana had said the rock had agreed not to eat me; it wanted me to suffer as much it had. I tried to flex my fingers and the Saghred vibrated, almost like a growl.
“Okay, okay. You’re the boss.” I clenched my teeth. “For now.”
“Give me the ax; I’ll take care of these,” came Tam’s voice from behind me. “Go find the Scythe.” I tried to turn to see, but the Saghred would let me move only so far.
Mychael emerged from the back of the dais with a curved goblin sword, and ran down what was left of the stairs to the temple floor.
“Save yourself the trouble,” Deidre was telling Tam. “See that weasel of a guard cowering over there?”
“I see more than one.”
“The one trying to push himself into the corner. He has the keys on his belt.”
I couldn’t see Tam, but I could see that Khrynsani guard just fine. He went wide-eyed with panic, presumably at having the complete and undivided attention of the chief mage for the House of Mal’Salin holding a big ax. The guard did what most people in his predicament would—he ran; at least he tried to. There was a loop of keys on his belt one moment, then the keys went flying through the air back toward Tam, and the guard was jerked forward to smack face-first into the marble floor. Magic could be both useful and fun.
Seconds later, Mirabai ran back to Sandrina’s still unconscious form and cuffed her hands behind her back with what I assumed were Deidre’s manacles.
“Tam, stop playing and go help Mychael find that dagger,” Kesyn ordered.
The temple had gone insane, scenes from a hundred nightmares playing out in horrific reality. The goblins of the Resistance were fighting with a desperation that came from struggling not only for their lives, but for the future of their entire race. The sea dragons had broken through the floor only a minute or two ago. The female had clawed her way free of the shattered marble and with tail, claws, and teeth was tearing into any goblin flesh she could reach. Her only slightly smaller mate soon joined her in the carnage.
Jash Masloc snatched a pair of Resistance mages out of range just as one of the dragon’s claws slashed through the air where they had stood. The goblin mage then punched the air before the dragon’s face and a blazing white shield blocked an incoming snap of teeth the length of his forearm.
Piaras’s voice was ringing with a battlefield sleepsong aimed at two large groups of Khrynsani guards. They were locked in combat with what appeared to be goblin army officers led by Imala Kalis. The Khrynsani struck by Piaras’s song were dropping to the ground where they stood. They were dropping and the dragons were eating, for the most part without pausing to chew, merely tossing back their huge heads to swallow entire sections of bodies whole. It was gruesome as hell, but Piaras was doing what had to be done. It was us or them, and while the dragons were busy eating Khrynsani they couldn’t do the same to the Resistance fighters. He was buying time for all of us.
A flash of bright light came from just beyond the temple doors instantly followed by two deafening explosions, one right after the other. An orange glow filled the doorway. What the hell? Execution Square had been completely empty when I’d been brought in, and there hadn’t been anything combustible or flammable already there. Even the dragons were startled enough to stop feeding for all of two seconds. Sarad Nukpana’s allies, who had been stampeding out of the temple, screamed and ran back in—until they saw the dragons again. They’d come here to see a wedding and enjoy a nice evening of sacrifices. Now they had to choose which way to die: dragon or whatever hell had broken loose outside in the square. Most of them wisely decided to take their chances outside.
“Raine, we have a situation,” Kesyn said.
Mirabai looked at the floor around the altar and jumped back, stifling a scream.
A numbing coldness lapped against my legs. A churning black mist was up past my knees and climbing fast. Admittedly, I’d been a little preoccupied, but I should have noticed that. I was fused to the Saghred and couldn’t escape, but Kesyn could.
“Kesyn, run!” I screamed.
The old goblin mage had seen it before I had, and not only did he not run; he stayed right where he was. I grabbed his arm and, with my free hand, tried with everything I had to drag him off of the altar.
“I’m not leaving you,” Kesyn told me. “I can help.”
“By getting yourself killed?”
In the next two seconds, the wall of mist was almost up to my waist. Parts of it broke off from the rest and rapidly spiraled upward even farther to form bars. I reached out with one finger and barely touched a single bar of mist. My hand instantly went numb to the wrist.
Kesyn was actually grinning. “Don’t worry. Getting killed is not going to happen.”
No. This was not happening. I didn’t nearly get the Scythe only to lose the Scythe, only to almost get the Scythe again, to be imprisoned in freaking mist bars, with a lunatic old goblin sitting behind me who wasn’t going to do a damned thing about any of it.
“It’s a Level Thirteen ward,” Kesyn continued, seemingly unconcerned. “We can’t get out and no one else can get in.”
The crazy coot. “Wards only go to twelve,” I snarled.
Kesyn shrugged. “These pricks are real go-getters. This level of work is beyond what I’ve ever seen.”
Not only was he crazy; he was hallucinating. “What pricks?”
“Remember those five black mages who were standing over there with Carnades?” Kesyn asked mildly. “Well, apparently they never left. I could kick myself for not noticing until now. Must be getting feebleminded in my old age. Though they do have the best damned veils I’ve ever seen.”
I looked into the shadows behind the altar. There had been several Khrynsani black mages standing with Carnades. They weren’t there now. I hadn’t seen them go anywhere, and with their fancy robes, I would have noticed that.
I stopped and sniffed. Spices and incense. Dammit, I could still smell them. With all the blood and smoke and dragon breath flying around here, I hadn’t noticed that the spicy smell hadn’t gone away, even though there was no incense burning. The bastards were still here, and obviously they weren’t just standing around anymore. They were veiled and working hard. If I hadn’t already been hurt enough, I would have smacked myself in the head for being so stupid. Sarad Nukpana would have been prepared for anything. He wasn’t depending on mere guards to keep the Saghred safe. The Khrynsani had been trying to get the Saghred back for nearly a thousand years. They would never leave it unguarded.
And it wasn’t unguarded now.
Why did Nukpana’s best black mages wait until now to encase the altar and Saghred in a ward? Maybe it had taken them that long to get the ward started. Carnades had said that he couldn’t activate a mirror in less than fifteen minutes; maybe this was similar. I didn’t know and it didn’t matter. That Kesyn and I were stuck in a ward with five of Nukpana’s biggest and baddest did. Even if Mychael or Tam found the Scythe, it wouldn’t do us a damned bit of good if they couldn’t get it to me.