CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The figures below mill around at the sound of the alarm, bodyguards reaching for their weapons, guards rushing into the central space to try to defend those there. I see Thalia staggering into the space, a guard grabbing her arm.
“We found this one outside!” the guard says.
I can’t let them hurt her. I stand, rushing across the roof, but even as I do it, one of the nobles below slams his elbow into the guard’s stomach, breaking his grip and tripping him. Alaric lets go of the illusion that’s been holding his disguise in place, grabbing Thalia and turning to run.
“It’s him! It’s Alaric!” a noble calls out, even as Alaric and Thalia head into the villa, trying to make their way back through it.
“And look there!” Someone’s pointing up at me now. By standing, I’ve silhouetted myself against the moonlight, standing there in a way that I briefly hope distracts those below.
It also makes me a good target.
Several nobles and their retainers raise their arms towards me and a flurry of magic blasts up at me in fire and acid, cold and force.
I throw myself flat again, the magic passing over my head, some of it striking the edge of the roof and sending up fragments of slate in a shower that clatters from the roof, stinging my skin as it hits me.
I roll to the far edge of the roof, almost tumbling from it, then hanging there above the outer compound of the villa. There’s a window near me and I can see a resistance fighter in the room beyond, struggling with one of the guards.
I curse and swing through the window, striking the guard two footed as I land. He goes sprawling and I shove the resistance fighter towards the door.
“Go!” I cry out. We hurry through the interior of the villa and I see other resistance fighters coming out of different rooms, clutching scraps of parchment and letters.
They obviously decided to start gathering evidence about what’s going on here, and if they can’t put it to the senate, maybe they can put it out around the city for everyone to see.
But now we need to run. I lead the way down a corridor, spotting Alaric and Thalia as they head towards a door. A guard moves into my path, swinging a sword at my head. I duck under it, shouldering him aside and continuing to run.
I burst out into the open air of the villa’s outer courtyard. A couple of guards are struggling to close the gates and I know if they manage to get them closed, we’ll be trapped. We can try to go back over the walls, but doing so will leave us vulnerable for the seconds it takes to do it.
I reach for the minds of the sleeping geese, waking them without slowing as I charge towards the gate.
I hear their honking calls as I summon them to me, sending the whole flock of them at the guards on the gates.
I thought before that they were hardly as ferocious as the dogs waiting in the kennels, but they’re more than enough to create chaos, making the guards jump back from the gates and cry out as the whole flock attacks them at once.
It means Alaric, the resistance and I can rush out of the gates, slamming them shut behind us.
“Ballas, get over here,” Alaric says. “Use your magic on the doors.”
One of the resistance steps forward, exercising what would normally be a minor magical talent with plants, making the wood of the gates grow and fuse with vines, effectively locking them behind us.
“It won’t hold long,” the resistance fighter says. “Should we scatter into the dark?”
Alaric shakes his head. “We’d be picked off one by one. We stick together and retreat through the woods. It will be harder to follow us through there.”
It’s strange, sometimes, hearing Alaric as a leader. I’m used to him fighting alone, for his own ends, relying on his personal skills to defeat his opponents. Watching him coordinate the dozen of us so expertly is impressive.
We hurry away from the doors, as crashes start to come from within, the guards trying to break the doors open. Blasts of magic hit them, starting to shatter sections of them, and we keep running, back along the stream, towards the woods.
We make it to the trees and I hear the baying of hounds behind us.
It’s clear the guards have decided to hunt us down by scent.
Will all the nobles at the villa follow us in this chase?
I can’t imagine they will. They won’t want to put themselves at risk when they can just send paid guards to do their dirty work.
I borrow the sight of an owl again, needing to be able to see perfectly in the dark if we’re going to escape. The snares are still set out, and I’m grateful for that as I pick my way past them with the others following. It means the guards will be slowed down by them too.
I see Alaric smile in the moonlight, bending to adjust the positioning of some of the traps.
“If they think they know where their tricks are, they’re in for a surprise,” Alaric says. “Can you do anything about the hounds, Lyra?”
I nod, reaching back for the creatures. Through their eyes, I see a large group of guards bearing down on the woods.
To my surprise, there are a few nobles with them, ones who look as though they might be former soldiers, and perhaps members of the Salis family, leading the way on the estates they know so well.
Being in the minds of the hounds is to see the world as a thing made of scents as much as sight. The hounds have our scent, despite our attempt to lose them by going through the stream. I turn the hounds, making them pull at their leashes, dragging the guards in a different direction.
“What are they doing?” an older man demands.
“They seem to have caught a scent this way, Lord Salis,” one of the guards says.
“Then follow it, man!” Lord Salis says.
“There’s still a chance they’re heading through the woods,” another noble puts in. “They’d be visible anywhere else.”
“Then take half the men and go through the woods,” Lord Salis says. “I’ll be taking my dogs and hunting!”
He goes with the hunting pack and half his men, heading off on the wild goose chase I’m leading them on. The other group has only a couple of the dogs now, but it might still be enough to disrupt them.
“They’re coming,” I say.
Alaric nods. “Then we need to get moving.”
We head deeper into the woods, while I try to lead the half of the guards with the dogs as far away as possible.
The other half are making their way through the trees now, and I hear a snap followed by a sharp cry as one of them is caught in one of the snares Alaric has carefully repositioned.
More cries follow, and I can see through the eyes of the two dogs with them that one of the guards is trying to cut down another from a snare.
The others are moving more cautiously, trying to carefully avoid the traps.
That’s when I set the dogs on them, causing chaos.
There are only a couple of dogs, not enough to defeat the group of guards, but it’s enough to send another of them stumbling into a trap, and to wound the leg of another.
A guard slashes at one of the dogs with a sword and I pull my consciousness back, not wanting to force the dogs to fight to the death.
We keep running through the woods, and a couple of the guards are starting to catch up. Their particular magical talents seem to make them faster than other people, and I move to intercept them.
I’m not alone. Alaric wheels as they approach, slashing a sword across one of their arms, even as I dodge aside from an attack and trip the other man. He’s moving too quickly to stop his momentum and goes face first into a tree, stunning him at least temporarily. We turn and run again.
We burst out of the stand of trees now, and the temptation is to keep running across the open ground, but Alaric directs us to one of the fields filled with vines. We get to it before the first of the guards bursts from the woods, squatting down and moving as quietly as we can.
I direct the owl I’ve borrowed sight from to circle above the guards, looking through its senses to track their progress.
I gesture to the others and guide them carefully away from the group, determined not to give them any chance to catch up to us.
We sneak together, moving as one through the darkness without a sound.
I’m impressed by the resistance’s efforts here tonight.
They… we, worked together in a way that’s a long way from the badly thought through protests of their early efforts.
It’s clear they’re becoming a force to be reckoned with in the city.
Maybe even something that can truly stand up to Selene’s plans.
Not that those thoughts do anything to reduce my tension as we continue to sneak away.
My heart is still pounding, and not just with the possibility the guards might find us at any moment.
I’m still controlling the dogs and the owl, still borrowing night vision from the latter, and I can feel every other animal around me, too.
My body is fighting me, as if it wants to change, wants to shift into something more bestial.
But I don’t dare let go of my control on any of them, not until we reach the edges of the Salis estates and start to run back towards the city.
When I finally let go of my powers, I must force my body to become what it was, force it to fully let go of the beasts I was connected to.
I stumble slightly with the effort, but Alaric catches my arm, helping me.
“Are you all right?” he asks me.
“I was just holding onto the hounds’ minds too long, that’s all,” I say as we keep going back towards the city.
Physically, I’ll be fine. Emotionally… I’m not so sure.
I saw Marcus tonight at the heart of Selene’s plans, urging the others to go along with them, determined to smooth the way for the former arch-magistrate to make herself empress.
I don’t know how to react to that. I feel betrayed in a way that makes my heart ache.
I knew Marcus was in favor of the games, but this is several steps beyond that. I can’t imagine how he could do it.
I want to believe he’s under Selene’s control, but I didn’t feel that kind of direct manipulation from psychomancy tonight. Maybe she’s implanted a few small suggestions in Marcus instead? But such things wouldn’t be enough for him to take a leading role, certainly not with her absent tonight.
“I don’t get why Selene wasn’t there,” Thalia says, as the city comes into view again.
The first rays of morning light are just reaching over the horizon to touch it, bathing its white marble in the bloody red of dawn.
It feels too much like an omen for the city of what’s to come.
The streets will be filled with blood, and Marcus will help bring that about.
I need to understand why. I need to know if anything between us was true, or if it was all just a lie designed to get what he wanted.
As we slip into the catacombs beneath the city, heading back through them towards the resistance’s safehouse, I know there’s only one way I’m going to get those answers.
I need to confront Marcus, face to face.