But touching the gold ring was like touching a miracle.She’d done this.And it was new.Entirely new, not a bit of steel left in it.
And not a bit of setting liquid either.
Stone was almost on her, both hands reaching out for the transmutation device.
She grasped it and threw it into the hungry fire.
First, silence like death.
Then, the crackling break of metal in the flames.
Finally, a wail like madness itself, and Stone lunged for her.
Apollo shoved her behind him, and when Stone hit, he hit Apollo instead, the weight of his hammer into his skull.
Apollo dropped, and Sybil dropped to his side.“Apollo.Apollo!”
Stone yanked her up by the arm, and something in her shoulder popped.She cried out, and he dragged her toward the fire.
“You are going to make me another one,” Stone said.
No, she wasn’t.She slammed her fist into his face with her good arm, the other tingling toward numbness.
Stone howled, and she grabbed the closest thing she could find—a long limb of iron, cold and waiting to be shaped.She swung it at him.
He dropped as soon as it hit his head, and she ran to Apollo, kneeling beside him, patting his cheeks.“Wake up.Oh, wake up!”His head was bleeding, and his blood was warm on her fingertips.She grabbed him beneath his armpits—though one arm was all but useless—and put all her weight into pulling him toward the floating chambers.He was so heavy.One step barely moved them an inch.“Please, Apollo.Please wake up.”Another laborious step, another few inches.
“Leave me.”The words escaped on a groan.Apollo’s head rolled from side to side.
“Absolutely not.”
“Run while you can, Sybil.”
“No!”
Across the room, Stone was rousing, stumbling to his feet.
She pulled harder, her pulse banging like a symphony of drums.“Get up.Get on your feet and come with me.You say”—she grunted, pulling and pulling—“that I can do whatever I want, and you’ll take care of the rest, well this is what I want, Apollo.Listen carefully.Get off your arse and escape with me!”
He chuckled, a faint sort of sound that gave her hope, and then another groan as he rolled out of her hold and onto his hands and knees.
“Yes!That’s it.”She helped him to his feet, and he leaned hard into her.Together, they lurched toward the floating chambers.
“If you ever wondered,” he said, voice strained, almost rusty, “what it feels like to be brained with a hammer?—”
“Tell me later.After it’s healed.”They stepped into the floating chamber together.Free.So close to freedom.They’d made it, and Stone would never be able to turn lead to gold.He’d never be able to… because maybe he couldn’t.All these years of training, and he’d never figured it out.Neither had Temple or her father.But she had.She almost laughed as she pulled the floating chamber lever and it began to rise.Chambers above and beside them were working their way down slowly.What time was it?
“The apprentices,” Apollo whispered, sinking to the floor, his feet flirting with the edge of the chamber.“Only a few left”—he winced, touched his temple—“but they’re early ris?—”
The word turned into a startled cry as a hand reached over the edge of the chamber and grasped his ankle.
Stone.
Apollo tried to kick himself free, but Stone held on too tightly.Then he yanked, and Apollo slid right off the edge and into darkness.
Sybil screamed, slamming the lever in the other direction, and the chamber screeched to a stop before clinking downward.
Stone and Apollo were tangled in a heap on the forge floor, and when she was low enough, Sybil jumped, landing beside them.
