Before Ksenia could respond, the only aether light in the laboratory not switched on suddenly flared to life, shining through crimson glass as small mirrors spun around it at the base, eliciting a flashing effect. Then a sound rolled through the underground laboratories like a wave, pulsating in her ears, the tones of a warning siren something Caris knew in her bones.
“It’s an attack,” she breathed.
She didn’t have to think very hard about who must have ordered it.
Nine
BLAINE
Blaine was in the middle of arguing a point—salient, in his mind, about how E’ridia would perceive the wardens’ actions, or lack thereof, when it came to his country’s situation with the Seneschal—when the entire buildingshuddered. He jolted in his seat as the roar of an explosion too close for comfort echoed through the walls.
The piercing warning sirens that ripped through the air seconds after sounded closer, one right outside the conference room, but that felt a little too late in his opinion.
“What wasthat?” Blaine got out as he stood.
No one answered him, most of the wardens already racing out of the room, shouting at each other about things he didn’t understand. Others raced down the hallway outside the room. A warden who hadn’t been in the meeting skidded to a stop in the doorway, looking at him. Raziel waved her hand at him, scowling. “Comeon! You can’t stay in here.”
“Is it revenants?”
“Revenants don’t have bombs” was her acid retort.
He sucked in a breath, hand brushing against the grip of his pistol before he unholstered it. If it was bombs, that could only mean one thing. “Do you have defenses?”
Raziel’s look was scornful. “We’rewardens.”
Who were, to a person, the last line of defense against Maricol and all the poison and spores the planet had to throw at them. He didn’t doubt they’d know how to guard their home. He only hoped it would be enough against whatever force Eimarille had sent east, for it could be no other who would break the Poison Accords so savagely.
An attack on the Warden’s Island would be seen as an attack on all of Maricol. He couldn’t comprehend what had driven Eimarille to approve such a horrific act.
Blaine followed Raziel into the hallway, pistol in hand, and got halfway to the stairs before his televox started chiming on his hip. He unclipped it, thumbing the casing open to take the call. “Honovi?”
“Where are you?” his husband snarled, the sound of explosions background noise for both of them.
Blaine stayed on Raziel’s heels. “Leaving the administrative building. Caris and Nathaniel haven’t returned from the laboratories.”
“I need to launch. There are submersibles in the lake and soldiers on the shores, and I can see two airships flying our way. They haven’t hit the hangar yet, but it’s only a matter of time.”
Blaine knew his position in relation to the hangar and the distance between them. He would not reach the airship in time. “I need to find Caris.”
Honovi grunted, didn’t argue, and said, “Keep your emergency flare on you. I’ll get you when I can.”
“What will you do?”
He could hear the bite in his husband’s words, could imagine the teeth-baring smile on his face. “Shoot those Daijalan airships out of the sky and start dropping bombs of our own.”
TheCelestial Spritewas of military design, even if she didn’t look it. Honovi had left E’ridia with a full compartment of ordnance when he’d flown to Veran, and they hadn’t needed to use it yet. Honovi might not be a military officer, but the air force captain he’d brought along with him as part of the military crewwas, and Blaine had faith in the aeronauts on that lone airship to hold the line as long as they could.
“May the wind steer you true,” Blaine said before he jabbed at a button to end the call. The crystals in the device dimmed before brightening as he put in Caris’ code. It chimed and chimed but didn’t connect, and he swore. She must be out of reach, which hopefully meant she was still below ground. The only problem was the entrance to the laboratories was halfway across the fort from their current location, and the fort was currently under siege.
Raziel burst out of the building, Blaine only a second behind her, both of them racing into summer heat. The sky above was hazed by smoke drifting from several buildings that had caught fire in the immediate aftermath of the first volley from the assault. Blaine didn’t know what the protocol was here, but his best bet was to stick close to a warden until he could make it to the laboratory entrance.
The whistling sound of something cutting through the air made his head snap around. His eyes tried to track the streak of a bomb launched from the shore, but he couldn’t get it to focus. He only saw the aftermath—an administrative building three blocks over exploding into so much rubble, debris and smoke rising into the air.
His stomach lurched, thinking about the wardens who might have been inside, who would’ve been crushed by the collapse if they weren’t dead from the initial hit. But there were wardens running down the street, weapons out, some with wands, all of them shouting—to each other and into televoxes—with automatons scurrying past. Blaine didn’t know where Delani had gone, but he couldn’t worry about the wardens’ governor. His duty was to Caris, and he had to get her off the island.
Somehow.
“I need to get to the laboratories!” Blaine shouted, instinctively ducking as another whistling sound—too close, he thought—pierced the air.
