Someone had noticed the guards were not at their post.
Sardelle grimaced, but was not surprised. At least twenty minutes had passed since she and Cas had stuffed them into that room. If Kaika wanted to barge into the queen’s meeting, they should have gone straight there from the dungeon, but Kaika had insisted on stopping in the kitchen to make explosives. Technically, it was a storage pantry in the back of the kitchen. Enough of the staff had been working in the main room, its ovens fired up and a giant mechanical mixing machine clanking and churning, that hiding had been necessary.
“We should go,” Cas grumbled, pacing. In the pantry, she could only go three steps before turning around. Every time she spun, Sardelle worried the hilt of her sword would catch on one of the flour bags stacked against one wall, tear it open, and make a mess. “There have been too many delays already. Trying to get into that meeting is going to get us killed.”
“I agree,” Sardelle said.
Cas stopped and stared at her. “You do?”
They were alone in the pantry, waiting for Kaika to return. Kaika had made up her explosives with impressive speed, but then she had insisted on leaving Sardelle and Cas behind while she sneaked back to the dungeon and planted a bomb. “It’ll be a distraction when we need it,” she’d said, “and it should finish the job the other one didn’t quite manage: collapsing the rubble in my cell so people think I’m dead under the pile, and they don’t come looking for me.”
Sardelle questioned how viable of a distraction it would make. Would the noise even be heard? It seemed nobody had heard the first explosion. Either the dungeon was not directly under a part of the castle where anyone was working, or when the architects had designed it a thousand years earlier, they had ensured it was insulated enough that the residents did not have to listen to the cries of torture victims.
Sardelle nodded to Cas’s question. “We were able to get her. I think we’re spitting in Fate’s face by lingering.”
“Yes. Exactly.” Cas went back to pacing. “It would be one thing if we could fight these people, but we can’t. I understand the captain’s drive to find the king, but...”
Sardelle held up a hand. “Someone’s coming.” She stood next to the door, listening with her ears and her mind.
“That woman really wants her flour.” Cas pressed herself into a corner between two shelving units, the sword scabbard clunking against the wall. Kasandral might be invisible to most people, but the blade was definitely there.
The last time the cook had headed for the pantry, Sardelle had distracted her with the subtle suggestion that a taste of the boar turning on the spit would be far preferable to retrieving flour for cookies that were destined to go upstairs to the meeting instead of being consumed by the kitchen staff. Sardelle reached out, intending to make another suggestion, but a second figure jogged into the range of her senses. Kaika.
Afraid she wouldn’t see the cook and would crash right into her, Sardelle almost spoke to her telepathically, but she worried she would startle Kaika when the captain needed her concentration. In the half second she was debating this, Kaika came across the cook. Even though Sardelle had her ear pressed to the door, she did not hear anything. Only her senses informed her when the cook had been subdued and dragged off.
“Kaika’s back,” Sardelle whispered, and eased the door open.
Few lamps burned in this back half of the kitchen, but she could tell the cook was nowhere to be seen. Kaika strode out from behind some cooling racks with a ball of twine and a grin. “We’re all set.”
Sardelle checked on the cook, found her tied and gagged in the corner, and shook her head. With or without explosives, their plan, such as it was, had to be close to tumbling down around them.
“Where’s the meeting?” Kaika whispered. Other staff were still working at the front of the kitchen.
“This way.” Sardelle headed for the door they had come in earlier.
Kaika gripped her shoulder before she could push it open. “Thanks for helping me,” she whispered. “Again. When we find the king, I’ll make sure he knows what you did and that you were loyal to him too.”
Sardelle nodded, though she wasn’t sure she wanted the king knowing what she had done here, which had included snooping through his wife’s possessions and breaking into his castle twice. She also wasn’t sure Kaika had any sway with him. Would he even know who some captain in the army was? Sardelle kept the thoughts to herself.
With Jaxi helping to guide her again, she led the others through hallways that eventually took them back to the stairs. Every time soldiers were in their way, Sardelle’s group had to divert—or find a way to distract those soldiers. She teased one into leaving his post with the scent of cookies baking in the kitchen, and Jaxi convinced a couple of others to run to the lavatory.
“We would be smacking right into them if it wasn’t for you, wouldn’t we?” Kaika whispered after they hid in an alcove while a group of four marched past. Sardelle had cut out a gas lamp and deepened the shadows so they hadn’t been noticed. “I had balls of a time getting back to the dungeon without being seen.”
Two men’s voices drifted down from the top of the stairs, and Sardelle did not answer.
Jaxi, did they find those guards yet?
Not yet. I’ve been muffling their sounds. One has been banging on the door with his knee. The man who escorted you up almost has his hands free. Two officers are arguing in the hallway. They’re about to knock and go in to ask the queen if she dismissed the guards.
“We have to go,” Sardelle whispered. She wanted to explain herself, but there was no time.
Trusting the others would follow, she charged up the stairs. Before she reached the top, she battered the officers with wind and knocked them away from the door. As with before, she made a prison of compressed air to hold them, but only one was held utterly immobile. The other growled and batted at the air with his hands. Even though it should not have been effective, he created eddies, pushing against the current.
Dragon blood, Jaxi warned.
Is it the same man from the tower? Sardelle would have preferred to teach him rather than beat him down, but she doubted a recruiting speech would be well received.
I think so. He—
Kaika surged past Sardelle and hefted a rifle over her shoulder. Sardelle hadn’t seen her grab it, but she clubbed the man in the head while he was still struggling to defeat the magic. Afraid she would get in Kaika’s way, Sardelle focused on the second one. She forced him to his knees and waved to Cas to tie him.
Kaika had stomped her officer into the ground and was kneeling on his back, employing her twine. It was silly to think about now, but Sardelle lamented that the man would likely always consider her an enemy, and she would never get a chance to talk to him about magic. She would probably never get a chance to talk to anyone here about anything except execution orders for herself.
Sardelle helped Kaika and Cas drag the men into the room next door to where they had already stored other guards.
“You two go first.” Kaika waved at their cloaks. “Since I’m not dressed as a whatever, I’ll lurk and come in behind you if I can. Holler if you need help.” She waved a lumpy package, one of her handmade explosives.
“When does the one in the dungeon go off?” Sardelle asked.
“Soon. Might not want to loiter.”
Right. Sardelle adjusted her hood, pulling it low over her eyes, and tried the door. It wasn’t locked. Of course not—people had been guarding it, and cookies were on the way.
Sardelle walked into a room full of tables and rolls of... was that wrapping paper? Maybe it was craft paper. Voices drifted out from an open door that led to a second room in the back, with a crackling hearth and several occupied chairs visible through it.
“Looks like we’re late to the meeting,” Cas murmured. She was right behind Sardelle.
Sardelle eased closer, hoping to catch a few words before revealing herself. She would have preferred not to reveal herself at all, so she walked around one of the tables and hugged the shadows near the wall instead of approaching straight-on.
“He’s disappeared from the city,” someone was saying. “We don’t know where he went.”
“What does our spy say?”
Spy? Both of the speakers had been women. Sardelle was about to examine the room with her senses to get a further feel for the occupants, but a woman in a chair close to the door peered out. The queen. Shadows or not, she looked directly at Sardelle and Cas.
Don’t forget she has dragon blood too, Jaxi said.
I haven’t forgotten. Does she sense my power? Or yours?
Actually, I think she noticed that Kasandral strolled in.
Great. Sardelle lifted a hand in greeting, as if she had just arrived, and walked into the room. Shouldn’t that sword have a problem with her blood, the way it does with mine?
He should, yes.
None of the sixteen women seated inside had their hoods pulled up. Most of them had taken their cloaks off altogether and draped them over chairs. Sardelle felt conspicuous with her hood up, especially when every single woman turned to look at her. Every woman and one man. Apex was perched in a chair in the corner. Sardelle was so surprised to find him here that she couldn’t think of anything to say. Our spy. Was he truly? He looked miserable, plucking at the seam of his chair cushion, but he had clearly been invited to the meeting.
Behind her, Cas sucked in a sharp breath.
He’s here trying to get what Ridge asked for, Jaxi said, the king’s location.
You’re sure he’s not here telling them about Ridge?
No, he’s pretending to be their spy, but he’s not giving them anything important. He regrets the choice he made. He still hates Tolemek, but it stung him to lose Ridge’s respect, and he wishes he hadn’t been impetuous. He wants to make it up to Ridge.
All right. We’ll see if we can all get out of here.
“Good evening, sisters,” Sardelle said. Since nobody had stopped staring at her, she doubted she would get by with simply slipping into an empty chair. The queen was seated close to the doorway, so Kaika might be able to rush in and grab her if she had room. Sardelle took a couple of steps farther inside to make way. “Are we late?”
“Who are you?” the queen asked.
“Sai Forgolen,” Sardelle said.
The queen stood. “No, you’re not. Lower your hood.”
A boom came from the depths of the castle. The floor shuddered, and several women leaped to their feet. Apex stood, also, reaching for his waist, but he did not have any weapons belted there.
Without looking, Sardelle was aware of Kaika lunging into the room and grabbing the queen. Sardelle waved a hand toward the fire, throwing oxygen into the coals. The flames doubled in size with an audible fwoop. She cut off all of the lamps in the room.
Behind her, someone grunted. Flesh smacked flesh. Sardelle winced, imagining the queen receiving the same barrage of blows that the officer had. At least Kaika hadn’t blown up anything in the room yet.
“What did you do with King Angulus?” Kaika growled.
If the queen replied, Sardelle did not hear it.
“Witch!” someone cried.
“I prefer sorceress,” Sardelle muttered, raising her hands to keep the women back. Several were grabbing for short swords or daggers, and two lunged toward her. Sardelle formed a barrier through the center of the room, one that would keep everyone on the far side behind it. Only a couple of the women could reach her, and she glared at them, trying to dissuade them from doing so. She could feel Jaxi’s power pouring into her, making it easier than usual to maintain the barrier while concentrating on other tasks at the same time.
In the corner, Apex took a step toward her. She turned her glare on him. He lowered his hands, his body slumping.
Kaika cursed, and the queen stumbled back into Sardelle’s vision. She had produced a stiletto, the slender blade dripping blood. Sardelle channeled a pinpoint gust of wind at her. It struck the queen’s hand and knocked the weapon out of her grip. It flew away, landing in the side of one woman’s chair and sinking in to the hilt.
“Antyonla masahrati!” the queen cried.
Sardelle had no idea what she had said, but her skin crawled, and she knew right away that the words contained some power. Power over what, she could not guess, not until Apex yelled, “Look out!”
She didn’t know if the warning was for her or for the queen or someone else, but Jaxi yelled a similar warning inside her head. Sardelle leaped to the side. She was careful not to lower the barrier, lest the other women all be able to attack, but utter shock went through her at what she saw.
Cas had drawn Kasandral and held the giant glowing blade aloft over her shoulder. She wasn’t facing the queen. No, she had Sardelle in her sights. Alarm and confusion twisted Cas’s face, but there was no confusion in her body. Without hesitating, she swept the blade toward Sardelle’s neck.
Sardelle threw herself into a backward roll, no longer worrying about the barrier. How could she? The blade swept through the air she had just left, nearly carving her head from her shoulders. She just avoided slamming against one of the chairs as she jumped to her feet, yanking out Jaxi.
Shouts came from all around her, but Sardelle had to concentrate on defending herself. Cas had already advanced, and she swept that giant blade around as if it were as light as a rapier. Jaxi flared to life, glowing red in contrast with Kasandral’s green, their mingled light driving all shadows from the room. Metal screeched as the blades met, motes of energy flying like sparks from a raging fire. Jaxi guided Sardelle’s hand, blocking with speed and agility Sardelle never could have claimed on her own. Cas’s skill and speed were uncanny, too, enhanced by her blade. Kasandral’s glow increased, as if it was hungry, as if it had craved this moment for all eternity.
Don’t get melodramatic on me, Jaxi said. Let me handle this. Make sure none of those women are trying to get to your back.
They’re too busy fleeing this— Sardelle winced as the blades came together in another clash, their energy burning her face like heat from a fire—chaos.
Jaxi did not reply. Most of the women were running out of the room, but Sardelle glimpsed the queen pulling something out of her pocket. Some vial? Something that would knock out Sardelle? Or kill her?
Sardelle thought about trying to fling another surge of wind at her, but with her entire body involved in the fight, in leaping chairs and maneuvering around tables, she struggled to concentrate on anything else. A couple of times, she spotted a tiny opening, a place where she might have darted in and stabbed Kasandral’s wielder, but that wielder was one of Ridge’s ace pilots and someone who Sardelle had been starting to think of as a friend before this sword appeared in their lives.
The queen lifted her arm to throw something. Sardelle did not know where Kaika had been—fresh blood streaking down her cheek promised someone had been troubling her—but she appeared in time to bowl into the queen. The two women toppled over a chair, upending it as they went down behind it.
The action distracted Sardelle—and maybe Jaxi, too—for Kasandral slipped past her defenses. Sardelle jumped away, but not before the glowing blade bit into the back of her hand. The fiery pain of a sun burned through her flesh, and she almost dropped her own blade.
Sorry, Jaxi said tersely.
She seemed to take the slip as a personal affront. She flared with crimson rage, and Sardelle found herself surging back into the fray. Her blade slashed toward Kasandral—and Cas—with such speed that Jaxi blurred, too fast to see. Sardelle had no idea how Cas blocked the assault, but she managed, each blow met with steel, the squeals of clashing metal so harsh that Sardelle’s ears hurt. Though not nearly as badly as her hand, which burned as if venom had been poured into her blood.
Apex had left his corner and had his hands out, as if he wanted to jump into Sardelle’s and Cas’s battle, to stop it somehow. Sardelle couldn’t object to the intent—if someone could disarm Cas, this would probably all be over, at least for the moment—but she worried he would simply get in the way.
A chair toppled behind Cas. Kaika and the queen? No, there was a man over there too. A guard. Someone must have heard all of this noise. More guards poured into the room. Kaika was pulled from the floor by her armpits. Something fell out of her shirt.
“Let me go,” Kaika snarled, fighting the men who held her. “You knocked my—that’s a bomb, you idiots. Get back, get back!”
They didn’t let her go; they didn’t even seem to hear her. Their only focus was to pull her away from the queen. Sardelle imagined the ceiling crashing down and crushing all of them. She wanted to flee the room, get the queen and everyone else out, but she couldn’t extricate herself from the sword fight. As Cas pressed her back, Kasandral’s assault relentless, Sardelle couldn’t even spare the thoughts to examine the bomb.
“Cas,” Sardelle yelled, hoping she could somehow get through to her. “We need to get out of here. Go out the door.”
Jaxi, can you do something about that package?
It’s just lying there, the powder inside half spilled out. I think a fuse would have had to be lit.
Kasandral kept slashing toward Sardelle, its fury somehow unleashed by those words the queen had chanted. Cas’s face remained contorted, the struggle written plainly on it. Sweat streamed from her temples and dripped from her chin. She didn’t want to kill Sardelle, but the sword would not relinquish its hold on her. And Sardelle had no idea how to break it, short of killing her.
A clank came from the other side of the room. Kaika had clobbered one of the guards, and he fell back, stumbling against a table that held a lantern. Time seemed to slow as the glass holder wobbled, tipped, and fell. It shattered, oil and flame spilling onto the powder on the floor.
If Sardelle had been given another half a second, she could have dropped a shield around the bomb and contained the explosion. But time did not wait for her. Flame burst from the powder and ignited the rest of the package.
Since Kasandral was still slashing toward her face, Sardelle could neither stop and stare, nor run and hide. With Jaxi in control, she kept blocking, parrying, and advancing and retreating, even though furniture was being hurled through the air. Men flew back, too, those who had been too close to the explosion. Light and heat seared the room; the flames from the hearth were nothing in comparison. Dust filled the air as stone tumbled down from the ceiling. Then a massive block crashed down behind Sardelle as she was defending a fresh onslaught from Kasandral.
She could not compensate in time, and her heel caught on the jagged stone. A booming snap came from the floor. The wooden boards sagged beneath her, further assaulting her balance. She flailed, and could feel Jaxi’s power trying to keep her upright, but more boards snapped before she could recover. The giant stone dropped through the floor to the level below, and Sardelle’s legs fell through the hole it left in its wake. She caught the crumbling rim under her armpits, but realized she would have to let go. Cas stood above her like an axe man. With one arm, Sardelle lifted Jaxi to block, even as her legs dangled in air underneath her, and all of her weight hung from her other arm.
Let go, Jaxi ordered as Cas’s blade plunged down toward her.
Sardelle couldn’t have resisted if she had tried. As she fell, she glimpsed movement behind Cas. Apex lunged in and grabbed her around the waist. Cas whirled toward him, that blade blazing more brightly than ever.
Sardelle fell below the level of the floor and did not see the rest. But she heard the scream of utter agony as she landed on a table ten feet below, pain slamming her back. Before she had gathered her wits, the table broke. She dropped through it, falling another three feet as broken wood scraped at her arms. Finally, she landed hard on a stone floor, the dark room strangely quiet after the chaos she had left. Or maybe it had grown quiet upstairs too. Dust and pebbles dribbled through the hole in the floor, but the sounds of fighting had stopped. So had the scream of pain.
Apex? she asked in her mind, not sure if the question was for Jaxi, not sure if she wanted an answer.
You don’t.
Shit.
I know.
Sardelle pushed herself to her feet. With Jaxi’s help, she could have jumped up, caught the rim of the floor above, and pulled herself back into that room, but she had visions of having her head cleaved off as she did so.
She dropped the sword, Jaxi said.
Good. Sardelle headed for the door, anyway. That blade had more magic in it than she had guessed. Maybe it had once slain enemy dragons and sorcerers, but she could not imagine how the Iskandians had used it centuries earlier without putting their own people at risk.
He didn’t attack the queen. It’s possible there is a way to teach him not to strike against allies.
Teach him? You told me the sword isn’t sentient.
No, he’s not. The magic wrapped up in the blade may allow commands to be imprinted, allies to be identified. Or it may simply be that you have less-diluted blood in your veins than the queen, so Kasandral chose you as his first target when he was roused.
Sardelle found a set of stairs and took them three at a time. Distant shouts came from other parts of the castle, but she did not hear boots thundering in the hallway above her yet. Occasionally, stone shifted and clattered to the floor. Maybe the soldiers were being warned to stay out until the rubble settled.
They’re blocked. That room isn’t the only one where there was a collapse. You may have a few minutes to escape without being noticed.
When Sardelle reached the top of the stairs, she saw what Jaxi meant. She had to crawl over waist-high rubble to travel down the hallway to the meeting room—what was left of the meeting room. The doors on the left side of the hall appeared undamaged, lucky for the guards they had stuffed in those rooms, but the right side was a mess. A broken beam lay across the hall, the jagged tip thrusting through the doorway of the meeting room. Sardelle debated asking Jaxi to incinerate it but decided to squeeze above it instead. With dust still sifting down from the ceiling, the area did not appear stable.
The ceiling in the outer room had dropped, crushing most of those tables. She hoped the guards who had been trying to pull Kaika out had escaped. She couldn’t bring herself to check beneath the rubble for bodies. People weren’t supposed to die, damn it. Why had she gone along with this? She should have foreseen that nothing good could come from directly confronting the queen.
You couldn’t have foreseen that your ally would try to kill you, Jaxi said.
No? Sardelle asked as she crawled across the rubble toward the inner door. Weak coughs came from inside that room. That sword has been giving me indications that it wanted me dead all along. I ignored them because there hadn’t been time to find a library and research it yet.
You have the heart of a scientist; you like proof before condemning people—and swords. It’s not a bad thing.
A compliment. A sure sign that Jaxi felt remorse over all of this—or knew there was worse news to come.
The rubble rose to chest-height in the doorway to the inner room. All of the lanterns had been extinguished, and the fire in the hearth must have been smothered, too, because Sardelle could not see anything. She conjured a globe of light and floated it in through the gap.
She glimpsed Apex’s eviscerated body, his face upward, his eyes unseeing. He was already dead with no chance of healing him. Tears welled in her eyes and regret formed a lump in her throat.
Groans drifted out from under a rubble pile in the back, and Sardelle forced herself to look away. She sent her senses outward, bracing herself for the further death she might discover. Intense feelings of pain washed over her from different sources. She realized with a start that she was on top of Kaika, who had been in the doorway when the ceiling had collapsed. The queen was... Sardelle swallowed. The queen was dead.
By the gods, Jaxi. Sardelle almost added that there was no way either of them would be able to show themselves in the city—or on the continent—again, but with dead or dying people all around her, that was too selfish a thought to share. Help me burn the rubble away, please. Be careful of those underneath it.
Got it. Cas is over by the hole in the floor, sitting down with her head in her hands.
While Sardelle was debating if she wanted to approach Cas, Jaxi started incinerating stone. Sardelle decided to work on that instead. She could sense that Kaika was alive, but that she was in pain and struggling to breathe. Sardelle backed up and started lifting rocks away with her mind. Oddly, her head did not throb as much as it had earlier.
Maybe because Kasandral is buried, Jaxi said. That ought to shut up his brutish glowing.
Focused on extracting Kaika, Sardelle did not respond. She almost jumped when she lifted away a rock, and an unexpected hand stretched up toward her. She hadn’t reached Kaika yet. It was one of the guards.
Aware of some of the distant shouts growing closer, and of bangs and thumps as people tried to clear away enough stone and debris to get to this level, Sardelle rushed to pull him out. He groaned, but his eyes did not open. That might be for the best. Surely, he would not be an ally here when he woke up.
Next, she reached Kaika. Her eyes were open, pain mingling with determination on her face. And grime. Sardelle had never seen someone so dirty outside of a boiler room.
As soon as her arms were free, Kaika pulled herself out. Fresh blood seeped from the bullet wound from the night before, and countless scratches and bumps marred the rest of her. Sardelle pulled carefully, not wanting to do more damage.
“What in all of the cursed realms happened?” Kaika whispered.
“Your bomb, I believe.”
“That only went off after everything fell apart. After Ahn started attacking you.” Kaika’s brow furrowed with confusion.
“It was the sword,” came a soft, emotion-choked voice from the doorway. Cas slumped against the frame. “It—I... Apex.” Tears welled in her eyes, as she glanced toward the hallway. She looked like a rabbit poised to flee—or a woman about to face the executioner’s axe.
Maybe that wasn’t entirely inaccurate. Ridge would not react well to this. Hells, Sardelle’s own emotions were such a tangle that she didn’t know how to react, either.
Get out of here, Jaxi advised. Figure it out later. People are coming. People who aren’t going to be happy about the queen’s death. I’ve moved or incinerated enough rubble that those who survived should be easy for them to retrieve.
“The queen,” Kaika said, pointedly not looking at Cas. “Did she make it out?”
“No,” Sardelle murmured.
Kaika smashed a fist against her thigh. “All of that, all of that—” she thrust her hand toward the rubble-filled room, thoughts of Apex at the top of her thoughts, “—and I didn’t even get the information I came for? We still don’t know where the king is?”
I actually did get that information while Kaika was pummeling the queen and asking, a more precise location than Therrik knew about. Jaxi shared the thought with Sardelle.
“He’s being held in a lighthouse on an island a hundred miles north of the city,” Sardelle said. “We’ll need a flier to get there.”
Kaika stared at her. “What? How long have you known?”
“Two seconds,” Sardelle hurried to say before Kaika could accuse her of not sharing earlier and keeping all of this from happening. “Jaxi took the information from the queen’s thoughts as you were questioning her.”
Kaika’s stare shifted downward, to the soulblade belted at Sardelle’s waist.
“All right then.” Kaika did not appear relieved or happy, just more determined than ever.
“One more pull, men,” came an order from the base of the nearby stairwell.
“Come on.” Kaika climbed to her feet and shambled toward the door. “There’s nothing left for us here.”
Despite her words, she paused in the doorway, casting a long look back toward the room before walking out.