Rankosi casually stepped over Lacy as she recovered from Enu’s spell. He snatched the bag from under the bed, dumping the contents out on top of her.
“Pick it up.”
“No.”
“Pick it up and open it.”
“No.”
“I’ll kill your friend,” Rankosi said, pointing at Wren, who backed away, holding her knife up like a ward.
Lacy picked up the little box and staggered to her feet, then sat heavily on the edge of the bed.
“If I open this, you’ll kill everyone.”
“Yes, but I’ll save you for last.”
Lacy shook her head, helplessly looking up at Wren. “I’m sorry.”
Wren’s eyes widened when Rankosi slowly raised his hand toward her.
“This is quickly getting out of control,” Phane said, stepping inside a magic circle carved into the floor of his Wizard’s Den.
He spoke a word and erected a shield around the circle. Another few words and he was standing stone-still within the circle, while a perfect likeness of him appeared in the room with Lacy, Wren, and Rankosi.
Isabel looked around at the contents of his Wizard’s Den, calculating how she could hurt him the most.
“Hello, Rankosi,” Phane’s projection said.
“Don’t have the spine to come in person, I see,” Rankosi said.
“I have a proposal for you,” Phane replied, ignoring the jibe.
Rankosi lowered his hands. “I’m listening.”
“I want you to shapeshift into Wizard Enu and take the box to the Sin’Rath witch in the sewers.”
“Why would I do that?” Rankosi asked.
“Because her sister has Torin Fellenden under her control. He’ll open the box for the Sin’Rath and then we can all fight over the keystone. At least that way, we can actually lay our hands on it, since it’s pretty clear that our dear princess here isn’t going to open the blasted thing for us.”
“You’d let me leave with the keystone?”
“Don’t sound so surprised,” Phane said with a boyish smile. “Once it’s out of the box, I’ll come to collect it.”
“You’ll try,” Rankosi said. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Phane held up his hands in a gesture of helplessness. “Only that the princess and her friend are not to be harmed.”
Rankosi glared at Phane as if he knew he was walking into a trap, yet he couldn’t resist.
“Give me the box,” he said to Lacy, holding out his hand. She shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks as she clenched it to her chest.
Rankosi put one hand on her face, pushing her back on the bed while pulling the box free of her grasp with the other hand.
“No!” Lacy shouted, bouncing back off the bed and charging him. He backhanded her, sending her sprawling on the floor, then left without a word.
“Well now, that worked out well,” Phane said. “You ladies wait right here while I send someone to fetch you.”
Isabel watched the entire encounter. The moment Phane’s image began to waver, she picked up the magic mirror and raised it over her head, then smashed it to the floor with all her strength, sending glass shattering in every direction, leaving only a mangled frame as evidence that it had once been a mirror. Faint light flickered from the edges of the shards of glass a moment after they settled to the floor … and then they went dark and transformed into fine sand.
When Phane returned to his body, his eyes went wide in disbelief, his mouth working to create a sound. He locked eyes with Isabel. She thought she might have actually pushed him too far this time.
“You wretched harlot! That was irreplaceable!”
Isabel just held his glare. He reached out with his magic and lifted her off her feet, propelling her backward, out of his Wizard’s Den and toward the wall with crushing acceleration. She expected to die-any moment now. She expected to smash into the wall with such force that it would crush the life out of her in an instant, but then she slowed so quickly that she nearly lost consciousness and reversed direction until she came to a jarring stop floating in front of him. He held her there, her toes six inches off the ground, her arms bound to her sides, her chest constricted so tightly that she could barely breathe.
“I have tried to be patient. I have tried to tolerate your constant insolence. I have been a gracious host, but this … this goes too far.”
He slapped her across the face. White light exploded in her head as it snapped to one side. He hit her again, open-handed but hard, much harder than a man should be able to hit. Blood sprayed across the floor. He hit her again. Another flash of light, another concussive detonation in her head. Again. Blackness started to envelop her. She welcomed it. One last flash of light … and then nothing.
Chapter 21
“We have to run … now,” Wren said, when the door closed behind Rankosi.
All trace of hesitation evaporated. Lacy started stuffing things into her pack.
“I can see soldiers coming,” Wren said from the window. “Hurry.”
“I’m ready,” Lacy said.
They left the room quietly, slipping into the corridor and racing to the nearest corner on tiptoes. Wren peered around cautiously before she started to move.
“Wait, the way out is this way,” Lacy said.
“No. We’ll go through the kitchen and out the back.”
Lacy frowned, falling in behind Wren. They’d spent the afternoon talking, Wren answering every question Lacy posed as best she could. Her head was swimming in new information, most of which she had no way of confirming. What she did know for sure was that Wren had risked her life to save her and that Phane was working against her. His appearance and bargain with Rankosi had confirmed it.
Things were happening quickly. She’d lost the box. The Sin’Rath had Torin, a fact made all the more horrible by Wren’s limited description of the true nature of the demon-spawn witches.
Following Wren into the service corridors of the house, Lacy came back to her chosen purpose and made up her mind to go after the box. Escape wasn’t enough. If the Nether Gate was opened, there’d be nowhere to hide.
That left the how. She was no match for either the witch or the shade. She needed help, and the more the better.
They reached the kitchen and slipped through it mostly unnoticed. Some of the staff looked up long enough to recognize Lacy, but they looked down just as quickly. Wren led her out into the grounds where they climbed a small tree to get over the low wall. Once on the street, Wren led her by way of alleys rather than streets to avoid scrutiny as much as possible.
Lacy wished she’d listened when Wren had first taken the note from the hawk’s leg. It all seemed so surreal, the idea that this waif of a girl, her wispy hair floating around her head like a halo, was receiving directions from Lady Reishi. The note said they should run. Wren wanted to leave right away, but Lacy had resisted, still clinging to the hope that Phane might be a powerful ally. Now she knew better, now that she’d lost the box, now that she’d failed her father’s trust.
With an effort, she pushed that out of her mind and tried to stay alert. Wren seemed to know where she was going, but Phane would send people to look for them the moment he realized they were missing. They had to get outside the fortress walls as quickly as possible.
Lacy struggled to come to terms with her radical new understanding of the conflict she was reluctantly at the center of. She had believed so many things that weren’t true. She’d been duped by Phane so thoroughly that he might have succeeded, if he’d just had the patience to wear her down.
Wren stopped at the corner of a building and peeked around it, pulling back quickly and motioning for silence, then retracing her steps back into the alley.
“What is it?” Lacy asked.
“Wraithkin,” Wren whispered, ducking into a doorway and pulling Lacy along with her. “We’ll wait for him to go away.”
“What’s a wraithkin?”
“Dangerous.” Wren put a finger to her lips, her eyes going wide when she heard footsteps entering the alley. The sound stopped briefly, then resumed, coming closer. Again, the sound of footsteps stopped, and a man appeared not ten feet from where they were hiding. Lacy started trembling when she saw him appear out of nothing, but she didn’t make a sound. The wraithkin took a few steps and vanished. Wren motioned for silence. Lacy nodded tightly, her eyes still wide and filled with new fear.