She had no more than reached Ahn and Duck when a soft scrape came from the ceiling in the corner of the big lift room. There was a square hole there that she hadn’t noticed before. It looked like some kind of vent or duct entrance with the grate removed. Ah, there was the grate lying on the floor. Ahn and Duck were both aiming at the hole.
Ridge was asking something, and Sardelle was about to answer when a tin canister dropped through the hole. Duck fired.
“Wait,” Ahn whispered, “we don’t know what it is.” The warning came too late. The bullet took the canister in the side, and smoke poured out of the hole.
It was a different color than the earlier smoke weapon, a reddish-pink this time, and Sardelle’s stomach roiled as soon as the first fumes reached her nose.
“Hold your breath,” Duck said. He kept standing there, like he meant to hold his breath and shoot whoever came out of the duct, but Sardelle’s senses screamed that this was more dangerous than the other smoke, that it had toxic properties.
“Get back,” she whispered. “Both of you.”
She could have made a shield, an airtight bubble around herself, but she wouldn’t be able to attack through it, so she pushed past them and focused on the smoke billowing from the can. She drew air from the room behind her and pushed it against the air in that corner. Her churning stomach made it hard to concentrate, but she managed to squash the smoke into a small area for a moment.
She was debating on how to destroy the canister and the tainted air completely when the first guard dropped through the hole. Well armed—and wearing a mask—he landed in a crouch.
Sardelle waved her hand and ripped the mask from his face at the same time as a second guard landed, this one aiming straight at her. A shot came before she could raise a shield to protect herself. But the shot came from behind her, not from the man. Ahn had leaned around the corner, risking the smoke. The man in the mask pitched to the floor.
The guard who had dropped into the room first had fallen to his knees and was clutching his neck. Eyes huge, he reached for the mask Sardelle had ripped off, but he collapsed before he touched it. She didn’t know whether he was dead or unconscious, but the ramifications horrified her either way.
“Get back,” she repeated to Ahn and returned to trying to confine the smoke. Sticking it back into the canister was impossible, but she did what she should have done immediately. Using the surrounding air again, she pushed the smoke up to the ceiling and into the hole—she could sense more people in the ductworks up there, now that she was looking for them. She tried to usher the gas toward them. It was like trying to throw sand through a hole, but if she could at least get most of it out of their space…
Her stomach interrupted her fight. Clutching at her gut, she ran from the room. She could have vomited right there, but she didn’t want the people in the duct to hear her and believe they had affected her. Instead she ran back to the first observation room, just managing to pass through the doorway before heaving her dinner all over the floor. She gripped the wall, her sides and chest aching from the effort even as she was unable to stop the spasms. What was that gas? She thought of the inhalant Tolemek had created. It couldn’t be related to that, could it be? If it was, would she die in seconds?
Don’t die. I’m working on the door. Getting through it.
Sardelle finished throwing up, but she couldn’t manage the mental energy to respond. Her body was shaking, and sweat poured down the sides of her face. She wanted to collapse on the floor, but that was a mess now, and her dignity overrode her physical weakness. She staggered toward the hall, hoping to find a clean place to slump against a wall. She also hoped nobody would notice the mess she had made if she closed the door behind her.
But Duck was standing in the corridor outside. His face was flushed red and bathed in sweat, and he looked like he had thrown up somewhere too. He gave her a lopsided smile, though.
“You’re human.”
Yes, sorcerers could vomit, the same as anyone else. All she said was, “Apparently so.”
“That’s not.” Duck stepped aside to nod toward the back of the corridor.
Jaxi lay on the floor, where Sardelle had left her, but a bright two-inch-thick orange stream of energy shot out of the tip of her blade, flames dancing along the beam. Sardelle didn’t think the flames were necessary. Jaxi had probably added them for flair.
“No, that is a special soul.” Sardelle turned toward the open end of the corridor. “Ahn?”
“Here,” Ahn called softly. “There are more vent grates in that room. I’m watching them, but we should check in those little rooms too.” Her face was also flushed, and her hands shook, but she hadn’t dropped her gun, and she looked like she would die there in the mouth of the corridor rather than leave her self-assigned post.
“Ridge and Tolemek are alive,” Sardelle said.
Ahn glanced back at her.
“Apex too. I thought you should know before you decided to get suicidal defending us.”
“Good.” Ahn didn’t deny the suicidal bit. Hm.
“I’ll watch with you,” Sardelle said. “I’ll know how to react now. Canister goes back up into the hole before it explodes.”
“Or some idiot shoots it,” Duck muttered from behind them.
“I’m sure it was designed to spit the gas out anyway,” Ahn said.
Sardelle’s stomach gave another little twinge. She wasn’t sure if she had gotten enough of the gas out of the room to keep them from suffering further deleterious effects, but she hoped so. That guard still wasn’t moving. The first one had been shot dead, but she felt compelled to check on the second. If he was still alive, she might be able to do something for him. But he must have caught an entire lungful of that gas, or maybe his body tolerated it less well than others. Either way, he was dead.
Remembering that she had been communicating with Ridge when all of this had started, Sardelle reached out to him again. Ridge?
Sardelle, you’re all right?
She decided not to mention the vomit. Or the fact that her belly was still shivering with the aftereffects of that vile concoction. Tolemek must have a like-minded soul here. She shuddered, imagining going up against that person.
For the moment, we’re fine. Still stuck, but fine.
Good. We’re trying to get to you. We’re—
Busy? Sardelle guessed when a moment passed without a response. She stretched out, trying to find him in the maze of a mountain, but she ran into the Cofah first. There were more guards moving around in the ducts above the front room, and a pair of them were crawling along on elbows and knees, making their way over the laboratories. They must be angling for a vent in one of those observation rooms.
She almost missed Ridge’s response of, Yeah.
We have more trouble to deal with here, she told him. Be careful. I’ll check on you as soon as I can.
Wait, Ridge added. Do you know how those soldiers blew up your mountain three hundred years ago?
What? I mean, why do you want to know?
I’d like to do the same thing here, if possible. After we leave.
Sardelle shuddered at the idea of collapsing the mountain with people in it, even if they were Cofah soldiers and scientists making deadly weapons to fling at her homeland. She didn’t have an answer for him anyway. I don’t know what they used exactly. It was all a blur of running to the meeting point and assuming others would make it too. I didn’t see any of the detonations myself and don’t even know if it was some form of magic or not—though it seems strange that they would have used magic against the very magic users they feared and wanted to destroy.
All right. A determination accompanied his words, like he meant to succeed with that plan, one way or another.
She trusted he would warn her in advance, so she would worry about the most pressing problem first.
“Ahn,” Sardelle whispered, “two are trying to come in behind us. I’ll be right back.”
Ahn gave her a quick salute. T
here wasn’t likely any thought behind it, beyond acknowledging her words, but it made Sardelle smile anyway. It was as if she had been accepted as part of the squadron. Who knew vomit would do that?
She walked back toward Jaxi. Heat was rolling off that vault door, and noxious smoke as well—their lungs would all need the attention of a healer after this—but Sardelle couldn’t tell if the soulblade had broken through yet. She would ask for an update after she dealt with the two guards.
She slipped into an unlit observation room. Whatever lay beyond the glass in this one, it was too dark to tell. What lay above the ceiling was more concerning. Enough light seeped in from the corridor that she made out a vent in one corner. She closed her eyes and once again located the approaching men. Inspired by Jaxi’s heat wave, she applied some energy of her own to the bottom of the duct, close to the vent. Her mind ached, and her eyes felt gritty, like she needed to close them for a few hours—or a few days. She had been expending too much of her power and feared her muscles were trembling from more than the effects of that poison. Still, she managed to heat the thin duct metal nicely and was rewarded with a yelp of pain when the first man reached it, placing his hand on the hot spot.
He shuffled back in a rush, bumping into the guard behind him. They were right above Sardelle, with tools in hand to remove the vent covering. She wasn’t going to allow that. In fact… she examined them more closely until she found another of those canisters. She yanked it from the pouch where the second man had it stored. If the vent grate had already been removed, she would have pulled it down into the room with her, so she could stuff it in a cabinet somewhere the Cofah couldn’t use it. Instead she hurled it down the duct behind the guards. She sensed other men nearby, all jerking their heads up in alarm at the sound of the tin can clattering toward them. She contemplated puncturing a hole and letting that gas spew forth, but not when someone had died after exposure to it. She couldn’t do that, even to her enemies. With luck, simply hearing the canister clanging around would distract the men for a time. They would wonder if it might have been triggered, and they would have trouble finding it in the dark.
Good plan. Jaxi sounded tired, exhausted. Even if a soulblade had no physical body that required food and rest, its stores of power weren’t unlimited. Jaxi, too, would need a break to recharge.
When Sardelle returned to the corridor—it was like stepping into a sauna—the increase in energy crackling in the air told her that the vault had been breached before her eyes did. Her own weariness combined with the intensity of the power almost forced her to her knees. She braced her hand on the doorjamb. It wasn’t malevolent power or benevolent power. Just power. A lot of power.
I’m done. Jaxi’s beam winked out.
The light level fell, but there were enough lanterns lit in nearby rooms that Sardelle could see the end of the hall. And she could see a giant hole in the door, its ragged sides melted like candle wax with drops of molten steel spattered on the tile floor.
“That’s impressive,” Sardelle murmured.
Thank you.
“What’s going on up there, Sardelle?” Ahn asked from the front of the corridor, jerking her chin toward the ceiling. Duck stood next to her, frowning upward too.
“A little confusion. We should have a moment before they try anything else.” Sardelle walked to Jaxi, intending to sheath her, but so much heat radiated from the blade that she was afraid the hilt would burn her hand.
Give me a moment to cool down. I’m sizzling. You couldn’t handle me.
No surprise there. You need a dragon to handle your heat.
Jaxi snorted. Alas, he’s not here. Just his blood. And considering how much blood has been carted in here, I doubt he’s in very good condition wherever he is.
“Is it safe to go in?” Ahn had crept up beside Sardelle. Duck remained on guard, or maybe he wasn’t comfortable walking past a naked soulblade and into a vault filled with magical blood.
“Should be.” Sardelle had already searched the area around the door thoroughly and didn’t think any traps had eluded her. “Just watch out for the dripping steel.”
The drips were already hardening, creating a strange image, almost like the top of a cave with numerous small stalactites dangling down. The Cofah would doubtlessly wonder what had happened to their technologically superior door.
When Ahn didn’t rush inside, Sardelle grabbed a lantern and went first. Entering the hole was almost like walking underwater, pushing against the current of power. For her anyway. Ahn breezed inside as if there was nothing abnormal about the place.
There wouldn’t have been room for anyone else in the small vault. A wooden crate in the center took up most of the floor space. It was covered with FRAGILE warnings and shipping labels. The back wall held shelves, mostly empty, with one supporting a rack of test tubes filled with blood. Several empty racks occupied other shelves.
“Does that mean they’re almost out of their supply?” Ahn pointed at the empty racks.
“I don’t think so.” Sardelle touched the crate. “Most of the energy is coming from here.”
“Energy?”
“Yes, I can feel it. It’s very intense.”
“Should we open it?”
Sardelle knelt and examined the shipping labels. It had been checked in at Port Krunlow and Bekany Bay, both along the Cofah coast, but the label that would have mentioned its origins had been ripped off.
Ahn lifted one corner. “The crate is heavy, but two of us could carry it. Maybe we should just take the whole thing.”
“Carry it where? We haven’t figured out how to get off this floor yet.”
“The Cofah are getting here through the vents.”
Yes, and she would have to tell Ridge about that possibility as an access point. And about the canisters. She shuddered at the idea of him running into that smoke.
“Guess we can’t carry this box through a vent though,” Ahn said.
“No. Let’s open it.”
Ahn slung her rifle onto her back and withdrew a big utility knife. Though it looked like a simple shipping crate, Sardelle tried to sense the insides before Ahn broke in. If there was a trap, she couldn’t tell. She had a vague sense of numerous tubes of blood, but their power distorted their surroundings. At the moment, Sardelle would have a hard time sensing her own gender.
Fortunately not something that’s likely to have changed in the last five minutes.
Let’s hope so.
Unless that smoke had some very strange side effects.
I see you’re recovering well from your ordeal, Jaxi.
I’m exhausted. I’m going to need you to carry me out of here.
Sardelle snorted.
At the noise, Ahn paused in the middle of sliding her blade into the crack under the lid and looked up.
“Just… soulblade humor. Carry on.”
“Uh, all right.”
Ahn popped open the crate and pushed aside the top. Inside, packed in wads of dried foliage, lay racks of test tubes. There must have been two hundred and fifty vials, all full of blood.
“Huh. I was sort of expecting them to glow or something,” Ahn said.
“Energy doesn’t glow. It just is.”
Ahn sniffed. “Smells good, though. I assume that’s this stuff and not the blood.” She picked up a handful of dried leaves and flowers.
Sardelle stared at the foliage. It had clearly been used for nothing more than insulation, to keep the tubes from breaking, but that purple flower… She plucked it out of Ahn’s hand.
“Something wrong?” Ahn asked.
“I’ve seen this recently,” Sardelle whispered.
“Where? It looks tropical.”
“On the wall of an asylum room two hundred miles from here.”
* * *
They found a third dead Cofah at the top of the last set of stairs. The man had been killed in the same manner as the others, with a slit throat. Ridge, Tolemek, and Apex had already fought their way past a group of scient
ists whose hearts hadn’t been in the battle. They had hurled a few flasks of smoking compounds at them, but the men and women had looked like they had been in the middle of packing. Either way, they hadn’t been trained warriors and had fled as soon as Ridge’s team proved capable of putting up a fight. Not wanting to shoot civilians, Ridge had let them go. He hoped he wouldn’t regret that later.
As they stepped over the body, Ridge wondered once more who was inadvertently helping them storm the mountain. All of the kills had been recent.
“I wonder if we’ll stumble across our ally soon,” Apex said.
“I’d like to stumble across the rest of our squadron first.” Ridge led them down a wide corridor with glass-walled labs on both sides. These were similar to the ones on the level below, and though he didn’t see anyone scurrying around, there were also boxes and bags out, half stuffed with equipment and notebooks. “Were they packing because of us? Or do they know something we don’t know?”
A soft clank came from above. Ridge jerked his rifle upward. There were no floating lanterns on this level, and shadows cloaked the ceiling. A long moment passed, and nothing moved. He lowered his weapon, but vowed to glance upward often. At this point, Ridge wouldn’t be surprised by anything they crossed. In addition to the laboratories, they had passed chambers full of half-assembled fliers and unmanned craft, along with rooms full of devices for containing and studying the steam and hot water from the geyser field.
Tolemek walked to a lab table full of beakers and a complicated maze of glass tubes—Ridge couldn’t guess what it was for, though some green liquid rested in a spherical ball in the middle of it. A notebook open on the table was what drew Tolemek’s eye. He stared at the page, then flipped to the front, then glowered at the glass apparatus.
“Something important?” Ridge wanted to keep going, to find the others and the blood and to figure out a way to escape, preferably while destroying most of the scientists’ work on the way.
“I thought so,” Tolemek growled, sounding more like a riled bear than a man.
“What?” Ridge asked.
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