“Don’t throw spells at him,” the black mage gurgled around Evariste’s arm pressed into his throat. “You’ll hitme!”
“That’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.” Suzu eyed Evariste and summoned more of her magic to herfingertips.
Evariste stiffened, hearing more footsteps echoing down the hall. He shoved the mage at Suzu, making the twocollide.
Suzu snarled as they went down, limbsaskew.
Evariste sprinted past them, running up the passageway that led into thecavern.
The noise of footsteps and other mages grew louder, but Evariste ran headfirst towardit.
This is the only entrance and exit to my cavern. I’ve made it this far; I have to getout!
He blasted out of the passageway and skidded into a large central chamber lit with braziers made of black rock. At least six tunnels broke off from the chamber, disappearing into darkness with no differentiating marks pointing to the wayout.
Unfortunately, Liliane stood at the side of the chamber, a bloodied (and very likely unconscious) Acri heaped at her feet. Already six other black mages careened into the room, their hands glowing with chargedspells.
“Stop him!” Lilianeshouted.
Evariste threw his stool at the nearest one, smacking her in the face with enough force to throw her off herfeet.
Someone tried to chuck a ball of lightning at Evariste, but he ducked it and ran toward the biggest hallway that sprouted off the chamber, hoping it was the entrance to the cavesystem.
A black mage lashed out with ropes, catching Evariste’swrists.
Evariste tried to yank free, but in that time a scrawny, cloaked mage scurried forward and slapped him with a painspell.
Agony raced through his body, eating at his muscles and knifing his head with such force he couldn’t seestraight.
I can’t givein!
Evariste grit his teeth and made it a few more steps, just reaching the largesthallway.
“If you don’t down him now—” Lilianescreamed.
Something thumped the back of his head, and Evariste collapsed into the comfort ofunconsciousness.
Chapter 10
Even after restingin a building for the first time since she set foot in Zancara, it took Angelique three days to heal her injuries and restore herself to fullhealth.
She would have left after one day, but Pegasus refused to take her and knocked her over when she tried to walk the distance by herself. Sullen, but recognizing his wisdom, she returned to the inn and twisted her magic into more healing spells that would speed up the healingprocess.
On the third day she remained on her feet when the constellation tried pushing her, but it still took a lot of strenuous bargaining before he took her back to the spot where she had breached Zancara’s wall. It was to noavail.
No matter what spell she used, she couldn’t trace the blackmage.
It had been a bit of a reach, considering she had met him briefly and knew nothing about him, but Angelique was bitterlydisappointed.
After two weeks of trying and failing to cast any spell that could help, Angelique was forced to recognize that the lead was temporarily unavailable. She wasn’t going to give up, though. After all, the mage had said, “He’s been in our grasp for years.” Using that particular tense implied that if it was Evariste to whom he referred—which was most likely—Evariste was stillalive.
So, Angelique wrote to Clovicus, Sybilla, and Severin of her findings with the hope that they might have additionalinsight.
After kicking up her heels for a day or two without any news or changes, she chose to ride Pegasus back toFarset.
(Officially, it was to inform Neely she had safely made it out, but it also gave Angelique the chance to ask the smuggler if she had heard of anyone else similarly employed who had dropped off a man inZancara.)
Angelique sat on a barrel, her hands clasped in her lap to keep her from impatiently tapping the sides of her perch as she peered up at the dusty cobwebs stretched across the ceilingrafters.
