“What about Olivin, Yonlin, and Noelle?” Cullen frowned. “Are they going to fight, or will they run?”
They hadn’t gone over contingencies before entering the mines. Eira cursed to herself. Maybe Lavette had been right and there should have been a more dictated plan…
“Noelle won’t run until she knows Ducot is safe.” Eira landed on the thought and hoped one of them would contradict her. Neither did.
“Then we fight?” Cullen sought out agreement from them both. Determined nods were his response. Commotion was growing at the entrance of the tunnel that led to the prison. Knights were nearing.
“We’re going out the front. At least until if—or when—we can tell the others to run,” Eira voiced what they all seemed to have agreed upon. “And, remember, we’re not heroes and this isn’t a duel. Fight to kill by whatever means necessary.”
“Eira, I’ve a man’s foot strapped to my back to bring to the pirate queen. We’re in a morally gray area at best; I’m not looking to fight fair.” Alyss’s grin suggested she wasn’t upset in the slightest about that, either.
Discussion ended abruptly as a horde of knights appeared at the opening of the tunnel, rushing down toward them. Alyss wriggled her fingers; the rock around them popped and hissed. Cullen drew in a deep breath, as if he would suck in all the air from the entire world.
And Eira…
“These are mine,” she growled softly and sprang into motion.
She raced upward toward the knights. Skidded to a stop. Thrust out her hands, fingers tense, like claws. Each finger was connected with a knight. They shuddered as her ice grew in them. Their hearts seized and they collapsed.
Eira didn’t even look back, trusting her friends to keep up. She kept running and emerged from the tunnel as aboomechoed across the mines. Cannons shot down from the southernmost tower, blasting into the path along distant rock. Eira could swear she almost heard Yonlin howling with glee.
A group of knights in the opposite tower levied opposing fire. The smaller blasts from the flashfires broke against a massive Lightspinning shield. Eira could feel Olivin’s magic cascading through the air as the shield broke into golden confetti, glittering down like a meteor shower.
“My turn,” Alyss snarled, and planted her feet. With a fearsome grin, she grabbed the open air and yanked, as if pulling an invisible rope. The rock underneath the tower that wasreadying their next volley against their friends gave way, sending the tower careening into the pit mine and knights scattering.
A burst of magic to Eira’s left was followed by the howl of wind. Cullen was a blur as he practically flew. His hand clamped over the mouth of one of the knights as he landed. In a blink, there was nothing more than wind and carnage where a face once was.
“That’s new!” Eira shouted.
“You’llneverbelieve who taught it to me.” Cullen threw a smirk back over his shoulder. Gone was the perfectly polished Prince of the Tower. In his place was a man wielding power and death with the same ease as drawing breath. “Now, I have some business with the men who hurt you.”
Another groan of rock was followed by the sounds of a second tower collapsing. Alyss panted, wiping sweat from her brow.
Fire erupted at the top edge of the mines, underneath the southernmost tower. There was Noelle, fighting from the top down to help clear them a way. Cullen’s path would meet her halfway up. But Eira’s attention was drawn back toward the knights collecting on the lower plateau. Then down, farther still, to where the knights were slowly moving the massive plates of metal she’d seen earlier to enclose the very bottom of the mine. Cart tracks crunched and broke off in their haste to shutter off the most valuable spot. Their frantic rush further reaffirmed that was the core of their refining.
Eira’s attention volleyed between the lowest and highest points of the mine.
They should escape. She should get her friends out. But…if things had already gone sideways…why notreallycut off the supply of Ulvarth’s flash beads? More than a temporary delay as the empress appointed a new overseer for the mines, they could destroy the mines entirely. Then Carsovia would have to focus on their own borders rather than on Meru. They’d be too busynursing their wounds to support Ulvarth, and that would give them time to take him down.
“Hang in there, Alyss.” Eira squeezed her friend’s shoulder and headed down to meet the knights rushing up toward them.
The mines were dotted with water—stagnant, shallow pools that had collected during the last rain, to condensation from the cooling air of night, to water that trickled through deep caverns within the earth. Eira gathered it all, collecting droplets over her shoulders that grew into heavy blobs. She strolled down as the knights ran up. They stopped, levying their flashfires.
“I’ll give you one chance,” Eira called to them. “Drop your weapons, leave, and Imightlet you live.”
They leveled the muzzles toward her.
“Fine.” Eira sighed dramatically. “I suppose nothing can be done with those who trifle with the pirate queen.”
A few lowered their flashfires then. Their eyes widened. Eira could hear a gasp. A few recognized her with expressions of fear and confusion.
With a wave of her hand, the water she’d been collecting condensed into spears of ice, raining down on them, turning the men and women into pincushions.
More knights beyond regarded her with a mix of terror and rage.
She drew the water back to her and was on the move once more. Adela’s training was in every fiber of her muscles. It lived in her thoughts. In her marrow.
Eira hadn’t been crafted in Adela’s image by the womb, but by the hand of the pirate queen herself. And she brought death to all those who stood against her.
