The remaining Blue Masks suddenly leapt back to their feet, drawing their swords again. Red Mask lifted his dagger and turned his attention to the doorway. Dex spun round to see what everyone was reacting to.
Five people were walking into the chamber, three women and two men. They weren’t masked or in black. Rather, they wore slacks and sweaters. They were all dusting their shoulders.
“The Colors!” Daphna cried. She didn’t know what else to call them. They were all there, all but Mr. Brown. The group was unarmed, but looked supremely unafraid.
“We have no conflict with you,” Ms. White announced. “We are here for the twins.”
Daphna almost cried out for them to take The Book of the Living, but she resisted. They probably just wanted to get them to safety first.
The Blue Masks were moving slowly forward, but Red Mask put up a hand to stay them.
“There is no need for further violence,” Ms. Gold declared, looking round. Then to Red Mask she added, “You have your prize.”
“But—!” Daphna said. But nothing more. She understood they were only there for her and Dex. Mr. Brown had sent them.
“Indeed I do,” said Red Mask in his metal voice. “And who might you be?”
“We are none of your concern,” said Ms. Green.
“Is that a fact?” Red Mask looked down into The Book of the Living, placing the edge of his dagger back down on the page.
Daphna cringed, expecting the group to start vanishing one by one, but Red Mask did not scrape off a name. Rather, he only stared at the page. After what seemed like forever, he looked up and scanned all five of the Colors’ faces, then looked back down again.
The Colors simply stood and waited.
Red Mask continued staring. He stared so long that the twins had time to look at each other.
Finally, he looked up again and said, in a voice that sounded mostly amused, “Your names do not appear. How remarkable. But you’ll find we’re not entirely surprised.”
Again, the twins looked at each other.
“Who are they?” Dex whispered. It seemed absurd that this mild-mannered bunch of professor-types, weirdly tall as they were, could threaten a room full of men with swords—not to mention The Book of the Living—but he was long past judging books by their covers.
“Mr. G’s bosses,” Daphna whispered, “the ones looking for the Golden book—it’s called The Book of Creation.”
“But who are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“Kill them,” Red Mask said.
The five Colors, standing in the center of the chamber, turned to face the Blue Masks, who approached them now from three sides with swords drawn. The Colors did not draw back in the least, nor show the slightest trace of fear.
The twins drew back. Dexter pulled Nora with him. She was once again completely absent to the proceedings.
“I’m afraid you don’t know what you’re dealing with here,” said Ms. White, turning back toward the throne. “It would be best for you to let us take the twins. Otherwise,” she added, “very soon there may be no one for you to rule.”
“We have no interest in harming you,” added Mr. Black.
Red Mask nodded, after which all the Blue Masks set their swords on the floor.
Dex and Daphna exchanged hopeful glances now. Were they surrendering? But then the Blue Masks reached under their robes and pulled out daggers like the one their leader held, but theirs all dripped with some kind of liquid.
“Darkness,” Ms. White told Red Mask, “is descending, as you surely—”
One of the Blue Masks leapt at her. She made no effort to evade him or the dripping dagger he plunged into her heart.
Ms. White fell to her knees, clutching at the dagger’s handle, her face contorted with shock. She screamed something like, “Keres!”
There was a burst of light, and then she was gone.
Daphna’s eyes went wide. The air smelled like—tarragon.
This was clearly not what the Colors expected. Appalled, the twins watched the others leap away, though leap scarcely described their movement. They leapt completely over the Blue Masks, as if thrown by trampolines. Ms. Green landed on the wall, then ran across it toward the doorway, hissing. She bared a mouthful of frightening teeth and attacked the guard who was blocking the exit by simply driving him into the floor. There was a sickening crunch as the man’s bones were crushed, but she’d fallen on his dagger. There was another scream and another burst of light.
Ms. Green was gone now, too.
What followed was awful to behold. Ms. Gold, Mr. Grey, and Mr. Black attacked the Blue Masks with a feral rage, snarling and spitting like wild animals, leaping to avoid daggers and crushing any body part they could get hold of. They got hold off many, snapping necks and spines like twigs. But in the scrum, Ms. Gold and Mr. Grey were both stabbed. With two bursts of light, they were gone.
The twins looked around for Mr. Black. He was on the floor, face down next to the podium, writhing in pain. There was only one Blue Mask left alive, and he stood over the body.
“Let him go!” Daphna cried. “We’ll stay with you! Let him go!”
“I scraped him,” the last Blue Mask panted, holding his dripping dagger up.
“Show us his back,” Red Mask said, still ensconced on his throne. He seemed not to have moved at all.
The Blue Mask leaned down, but Mr. Black suddenly jumped to his feet and crushed his throat. But the scrape had been enough.
There was one last burst of light.