Everyone raced forward and grabbed a cot, dragging them away from the door like trapped pynvium miners digging themselves out of a cave-in. Wood thunked and scraped across the floor, clattering into a growing pile where the pain-filled apprentices had once whimpered. Danello found a rapier lying just inside the door and beyond the reach of a still hand.
I looked away from the hand and searched for Tali. “Take the lead with Danello,” I said. “Show him the way out. I’ll follow behind.”
She nodded. “OK, but stay close.”
The apprentices filed out behind them. Some knelt down and grabbed the fallen swords littering the hall outside the spire room. I stepped around the guard I’d shifted into, lying in the doorway between the spire room and the hall. Though some of the other guards groaned and twitched, he didn’t move. Part of me wanted to check and see if he was alive, but I was too scared to learn the answer.
What if I’d killed him?
A dozen more guards were in the hall, so the Luminary had probably sent most of the inside guards after us. I didn’t want to look at them either, but I had to know if Elder Vinnot was among the unconscious and the—
No, I wouldn’t say it. They were all just unconscious. I found Vinnot groaning at the top of the stairs. I smiled. Let him put that in his notebook. I resisted the urge to kick him as I passed.
I followed the apprentices as they trailed after Danello and Tali. I scanned every hall, every intersection, every room we passed. No guards so far, but that couldn’t last long.
As we turned on to the second floor, nervous whispers raced back through the apprentices.
“Guards!”
“What are we gonna do?”
“Shhh, they’ll hear you.”
“Hold it,” one guard called, though I couldn’t see him or how many were with him over the herd of apprentices. “What are you doing here?”
“Leaving,” said Danello. I could picture the dangerously determined set to his chin, raised high like his rapier probably was.
“Who are you?” Another voice, younger than the first guard.
“Dead apprentices,” said Tali. “Only we’re not dead and we’re getting out of here.”
No answer from the guards. I stood on tiptoe, but wasn’t tall enough to see over the heads.
“You can’t be apprentices…” Hesitant voices echoed his words. Several guards were up there at least. I looked around the intersection for anything I could stand on for a better view and found—
“Lanelle,” I gasped, face to face with her as she rounded the corner.
Eyes wide, Lanelle backed away, not limping at all. So she had been healed!
“Mestov, it’s me, Dima,” an apprentice called. “You have to let us go. Please.”
“Dima? Saints, they said you were dead!”
Now the guards were yelling questions, not just muttering them. It was clear they’d had no idea what had been going on upstairs.
“Stay away from me!” Lanelle said, not loud enough to rise above the guards, but loud enough to get Kione’s attention. He turned.
“You’re alive!” he said, looking just as shocked as I’d been.
Lanelle turned and ran down the hall, right towards—
Saints and sinners! This hall led to the Luminary’s wing! She was probably headed right for an Elder to save her job and betray us again.
I chased after her. Kione called her name and started following us.
“Lanelle!” he whisper-yelled. “Where are you going? We have to get out of here.”
He still didn’t realise what she must have done. I pictured her lying in her cot, the Luminary hovering over, shaking her, demanding answers. I doubted she even hesitated to give them. Saints, I bet she’d even offered information about Tali and me to get herself healed.
“Why isn’t she stopping?” Kione asked.
I kept running, passing the windows overlooking the city. Smoke rose off the burning market square. I couldn’t make out any uniforms in the mob below, but Baseeri blue was likely hacking their way through the crowd, just as they had at every riot before.
Kione pulled ahead of me and I followed him and Lanelle into a rectangular room that was almost Sanctuary-quiet, with thick green carpets. Double doors were set in the middle of the far wall. On either side of the doors, padded benches sat between statues. Kione was halfway down the hall, but Lanelle was nearing the doors at the end of it.
My steps halted. I knew this hall, though it had been years since I was last here. We were outside the Luminary’s office.
Suddenly a guard stepped out from a side nook and grabbed Lanelle. She screamed and jerked back.
“Let go of her!” Kione hollered, charging at the guard. Before he reached him, another guard appeared and shoved him down.
“Let me go! I work here,” Kione said, trying unsuccessfully to yank himself free.
“Not in this wing you don’t.”
I turned to run before the guards saw me, but a wall of green slammed into me. Or maybe I slammed into it. Either way, I fell back and landed on my behind.
“Busy day today,” said the guard looming over me.
“It’ll calm down,” said the other. “Always does.”
The guard hauled me to my feet as easily as picking up a sleeping chicken. I kicked him in the shins, then stumbled forward in pain.
“Ow!” I cried, my toes stinging.
He chuckled.
Eyes watering, I lifted my foot and rubbed my bruised toes. Only then did I notice the silver greaves strapped around his shins. Shifting bruised toes into him probably wouldn’t even get his attention much less distract him long enough for me to escape.
At least they’d caught Lanelle too. She was slapping ineffectually at the guard holding fast to her arm. “I have to see the Luminary,” she said.
One side of the double doors opened and a man dressed in a mountain of silk stepped out. All the strength left my knees and only the guard’s grip on my arm kept me standing.
“What’s all the noise out here?” Zertanik said with a frown. That changed to a smile when he looked up and saw me. “Well, Merlaina, how nice to see you again.”
“Sir, sir!” Lanelle waved a hand at Zertanik. “This is the girl I told Elder Vinnot about. Tell the guards to let me go.”
Kione stopped struggling. “Lanelle, what are you doing?”
“I saw the apprentices in the main corridor. They’re getting away!”
A muffled voice came from inside the room.
“What’s that?” Zertanik said, leaning back into the office. He popped out a moment later and gestured at the guards. “Bring the girls in,” he said, stepping aside.
“What about him?” the guard holding Kione asked. Kione kept staring at Lanelle, a tortured look on his face.
“Holding room for now.” Zertanik grinned. “He might be useful later.”
“What’s going on?” I said, knowing it sounded stupid.
“One does have to admire your tenacity, dear. Please, come inside.”
They dragged me in behind Lanelle. I couldn’t take my eyes off Zertanik.
“This is the shifter?” asked the Luminary. You only needed to hear a croc speak once to know its voice forever.
I turned to that voice and blinked in the bright light from the room’s tall windows. Everything glittered as if painted with jewels—furniture, paintings, trinkets on the desk and tables—even the curtains sparkled. The Luminary had added a lot of art, like he’d robbed a museum.
“Yes,” Lanelle said. “And a lot more I think.”
The Luminary stared at me. “You’re the girl from the spire room. The one with the seizures. You’re looking much better than the last time I saw you.”
“I heal fast.”
“So I hear.” He waved a hand at Lanelle. At the guard’s insistence she sat on an overstuffed chair near a green-draped padded bench. “She told Vinnot a lot of interesting things.”
“Traitor,” I said before I could stop it. Lanelle glared at me and folded her arms across her chest.
Zertanik laughed. “Didn’t I say she was spirited? Now, Merlaina dear, please sit. We have business to discuss.” He settled himself on to a wide sofa, then extended a hand towards a carved chair with green tassels. The guard shoved me into it. A few seconds later, the door opened and shut, leaving me with the last three people I wanted to be alone with.
The Luminary turned to Lanelle and she straightened in her chair. “She does more than just shift, you say?” he asked. I glanced at him. Something in his tone sounded off, like he was nervous. “Vinnot didn’t mention that.”
“Um, well,” Lanelle stammered, sneaking looks at me as if reluctant to be the rat I knew she was. “Maybe he—”
“What did you tell him?” the Luminary snapped.
Lanelle jumped and grabbed the arms of her chair. “She threw pynvium chunks at us and they flashed pain.”
“Twenty-one pieces if I remember right,” said Zertanik. He actually seemed to be enjoying himself.
Lanelle glanced at him, confused, then back to the Luminary. “I guess so. I think that’s when she emptied them.”
“Emptied them?” This time the Luminary sat up straight in his chair. I wished I could melt into mine and disappear. “What did she do—exactly? Don’t skip any details.”
Lanelle reached into her pocket and pulled out an all-too-familiar pynvium chunk. “She flashed this at me, and after she ran away with that boy, I sensed it right next to me. I was able to put enough pain into it again to call for help. I know it was full before she did that.”
Zertanik laughed and applauded me. “You are a delight, my dear. I had no idea you had such talents. What luck! She’s could be of tremendous value to us,” he said to the Luminary.
He didn’t seem so sure, but looked even more agitated. “If she can really do it.”
“She did! I saw her,” insisted Lanelle.
The Luminary snorted. Lanelle snapped her mouth shut. She obviously wanted to say something, but was too scared.
So was I.
“Your man’s hazy recollections confirm it as well,” Zertanik said. “Think of what this means. We’ll never find another like her.”
The Luminary pursed his lips and stared at me, tapping a long finger slowly against the arm of his chair. Finally he turned to Lanelle.
“Thank you, that will be all,” he said.
“Sir?” She didn’t move. “What about my promotion?”
“Talk to Vinnot,” he sneered. I had a feeling Vinnot wouldn’t be sailing away with them when the Luminary and Zertanik made their escape. “You’re his problem, not mine.”
Lanelle jumped to her feet, her cheeks flushed. “But I worked in that awful room for days! She almost killed me! Vinnot promised me my fourth cord for information about her!”
I seethed, but I couldn’t do anything but glare at her. How could she? Any last bits of guilt I had over hurting her vanished.
“Anything you think you deserve is between you and Vinnot.” The Luminary pointed to the door. “Now go. Or do I need to call the guard and have you removed from the League?”
Even Lanelle understood a threat when she heard one. She shot me one last hateful look, then stormed out of the room.
“Now then, Merlaina,” the Luminary said, turning his sharp blue eyes on me. “Let’s talk about emptying pynvium.”