Chapter Nine
The primary market in this area of Tartarus was a rabbit warren of goat trails through what looked like a magical shantytown.A big cavern had been carved out of the earth and shored up with wards that everybody who wanted a place in the market had to help maintain, as part of the rent for their spot.Yet despite that, space was usually hard to come by, as this was one of the biggest and best bazaars in the entire complex.
But today, there were a lot of empty spots, like spaces in a gap-toothed smile, with the missing merchandise having been shoved into some of those madly squeaking shopping carts and whisked away by the fleeing mob.But plenty of tents, booths, and workshops were still in place, although most had been abandoned, their owners having fled.The few people who remained had hunkered down and were watching us from inside tent flaps and from under counters, their eyes huge.
They didn’t know us, but they knew what we were.And while war mages weren’t usually popular around here, it looked like we had gotten upgraded.One guy even gave me a thumbs-up as we passed.
At least, I hoped that’s what it was.
But all I cared about was that nobody yelled out a warning that we were here, and that the remaining structures gave us cover as we crept through the big space, hearing the chaos ahead before we saw it.It seemed to be clustered near the biggest tunnel out of here, which made the one we’d just come down look tiny by comparison.Screams, cries, and people pleading echoed around the cavern, along with harsh voices issuing orders, and the sound of vehicles with big engines growling a pulsing rhythm in the background.
I figured that that was why the Black Circle had decided to come here specifically.The market had a tunnel that led into one of the 677 miles of runoff channels under the city, specifically one wide enough for maintenance vehicles, as it moved its stock that way.That had allowed the dark to bring in trucks to transport the people they planned to take.
Portals would have been an easier method, but they were far more expensive magically, not to mention bringing the Circle running whenever a new one tore through metaphysical space.Trucks, on the other hand, were invisible to the Circle’s detection wards, which was why I guessed they were being used.And then I found a view through the gap between two tents and confirmed it.
Warded pens held what looked like hundreds of people at the far end of the cavern, and behind them was a line of old army surplus trucks, big and having cloth covers over the backs, making it impossible to see inside.Or to judge how many enemy combatants we had to worry about, although it didn’t really matter.Those I could see already fell under the heading of “way too fucking many.”
“Shit,” Caleb summed up softly.
“No way backup gets here in time,” I agreed.“Not before those trucks start leaving.”
The dark knew they had missed Gerald and Kai, as their buddies hadn’t returned.So they had to know they had maybe half an hour before the Corps came down on their heads in force.They weren’t going to waste time.
“We could collapse the entrance to the tunnel,” I murmured, “and trap everyone inside—”
“Or kill them all,” Caleb pointed out.“You know how shit the wards are around here.We try anything, and the whole ceiling could come down.Better to find the boy and run—”
“And leave everyone else?”
“What else can we do?There have to be fifty goddamned Black Circle soldiers, and probably more on those trucks.”
I crouched there, my mind spinning with options, all of which were bad.Letting those people go meant that many of them would be killed by the Black Circle, culled as so many others had been who didn’t turn out to have useful attributes.And those who did pass muster wouldn’t be any better off, being flung against us in battle to spare better troops.
Either way, they were dead if they left here, but how were a handful of us supposed to stop them?And then my thoughts cut off when I saw a familiar face.
Freaking great.
“There.”I pointed at the brown-coated mage off to the far right.“That’s the bastard from last night.The leader.”
“Him?”Caleb frowned.The nondescript brunet didn’t look like a leader.More like a bored bank teller waiting for lunchtime.Despite the chaos, his couldn’t-pick-him-out-of-a-lineup face was just annoyed, to the point that he should have had a toe tapping impatiently.
But looks could be deceiving, and his definitely were.“He packs a punch.”
“And we care about that because?”
“We can’t just leave them.”
“Lia—”
“You have a better idea?Find and free Jace.I’ll distract the mage and try to keep those trucks here—”
“How?”
“By standing in front of them?”
“He’ll kill you!”
“No, he’ll killyou.He wants something from me.Maybe we can negotiate.”
