“You will see soon enough,” Hoel said.
A ripple of unease ran around the room, echoed in Hallie’s chest.
He was entirely too confident for Hallie’s liking. Underestimated by the other members of the Conclave, and it seemed she’d underestimated him equally badly. He had other layers to his plan. More things in motion that she could not guess at.
“Everyone clear a space,” Peredur ordered. “Get back, away from him.”
Hoel smiled. It was not a pleasant smile, matching the cold hatred in his pale blue eyes.
As the Conclave members and aides began shuffling out of the way, clearing a wider space around Hoel, Hallie heard the faint sounds of running feet. She kept her gun pointed at the floor, looking around. She wasn’t the only one who’d heard the noise. An uneasy ripple moved through the room. The Conclave members and their aides were all terrified, even those who had been close to Hoel. Hallie guessed that Hoel hadn’t filled them in on the extent of his plans for violence.
The emergency exit door, the one that Accalon had been unable to open, flew off its hinges with an impressive bang, provoking a few cries of alarm among the Conclave members and aides. Rather than the further explosion that Hallie was braced for, the doorway filled with black-clad, armed figures that filed into the Conclave chamber. They were dressed the same way as the attackers that Hallie and Girard had encountered twice now, all of them carrying automatic weapons and moving with enough coordination to demonstrate that they’d had some training at least.
Hallie’s mouth went dry again, her pulse picking up and her palms warming around the butt of her gun. She and Girard had encountered two groups of five attackers before, and all but one of them were out of action, either dead or imprisoned. But there were easily twenty masked and armed people in the Conclave chamber just now. Which meant that Hoel had somehow managed to gather at least thirty people and provide them with training and weapons. That wasn’t just personal security, in Hallie’s view, that was an army. An army of trained humans, who would be expendable in Hoel’s eyes. He would have no hesitation in using up humans in his quest for power.
Even as she tried to make an accurate count of the newcomers, and not to draw attention to herself by moving, another twopeople entered the room. Although they were dressed in black as well, they werehochlen, their heads left bare. They could have been Hoel’s brothers. They had the same tall, muscular build, pale blond hair and even across the room Hallie could see that they had pale eyes.
“Hoel, what is the meaning of this?” Nanters spluttered. “Armed thugs in the chamber? This is not what we discussed.”
“It is what I planned,” Hoel said, still with that sharp, dangerous smile.
“Now, see here,” Nanters began, taking a half-step forward.
“No,” Hoel said. The word was soft, but it stopped the other Conclave member in his tracks. “I’ve listened to you quite enough. All of you,” he added, with a sweeping look around the room. “All the talking, all the posturing, all the petty politics.” The words snapped in the air, hanging for a long moment, Hoel’s contempt now turned on his fellow Conclave members. He cast another look around, blue eyes full of cold hatred. “I have listened. For far too long. I’m done listening. And now I have made my decision.”
“And we are all supposed to just go along with what you want?” Hallie asked, her voice tight and hard. “This isn’t your land.”
“Not yet, no,” Hoel agreed and turned away from her.
Out of the corner of her eye, Hallie could see Nanters and the two Conclave members beside him - Cladas and another long-established member, Echoid Bondar - growing pale, exchanging frightened looks.
“Hoel, please, be reasonable,” Echoid said. Hallie had to give him credit for a steady voice. “We’ve all heard your views. We share many of them. We had agreed a way forward. I am sure we can work this out.”
“I’m done listening,” Hoel repeated. He still had his sword in his hand and with one fluid move he swung it, in an almostcasual arc, slicing across Echoid Bondar’s throat. Blood spurted out and Echoid’s body fell, twitching, to the ground as Cladas and Nanters backed away, crying out in alarm and horror.
Hallie wanted to be sick. Of all the deaths she’d seen today, the swift, brutal and callous way that Hoel had killed Echoid made her feel cold and hot and profoundly ill.
The cries were echoed around the chamber. At least two people screamed.
“Hoel Buchanan, you have committed murder in front of witnesses,” Peredur said, his voice firm and full of authority. “Drop your sword and surrender immediately.”
Hoel gave the director one brief look, then turned his eyes to the rows of armed men. They all straightened a little as his attention came to them.
“Your orders, sir?” one of the blondhochlenasked.
“Kill them all,” Hoel said, in a calm, almost casual tone, moving further along the great sweep of the table so he was closer to the windows. Getting out of the way of the bullets, Hallie realised.
The masked, armed men didn’t hesitate, just all raised their weapons to their shoulders and started firing.
But there had been enough of a pause for Hallie and thezauberto react. She raised what little magic she had left, thezauberin her pocket screaming fury and pain as both of them drew on almost non-existent reserves of energy. Holding a defence against the attackers at Zurine’s apartment had been agony. This was worse. There wasn’t enough for a shield. Even as she reached for her magic, she knew she couldn’t hold a shield. All she could do was deflect. So she sent the bullets flying sideways, away from their targets, so that the lethal rounds slammed into the vast expanse of tempered glass. Even though she wasn’t trying to hold back the assault, she could still feel every single bullet as a stab into her skin, chest constricted,breath coming in short, shallow gasps. She was on the floor, unable to spare the energy to even hold herself upright, and felt someone move nearby. Girard, she was quite sure. She heard the steady cadence of gunshots all around her as the investigators fired back, and shouts from Peredur, calling all the members of the Conclave and their aides to huddle together as close behind Hallie as they could. She felt another person’s magic slide over her, easing some of the pain, and realised Cotovatre was there as a bit of healing crept through her body, enough to let her draw a deep, horrible breath. Then Emmet was there, too, his long fingers curling around her wrist, helping her reinforce the magic, the deflection, to stop the bullets from hitting them or anyone else.
It couldn’t last. Hallie knew it couldn’t last. She was almost out of energy, a dark void opening in her mind. Thezauberwas all but gone, and even Emmet was fading in her senses, the fingers wrapped around her wrist cooling rapidly.
“Get everyone out,” she said to Girard. Or tried to. She thought the words were too loud in her ears but she couldn’t be sure that any sound came out.
The world was slowing around her, breath harsh in her ears, the sounds of gunfire impossibly loud.
Then there was more gunfire. Different. Not the same weapons. She knew these new weapons. She’d heard them before. They came with booted feet, moving across the marble floor of the Conclave chamber. She knew the pattern of those feet as well. Not more enemies. Relief made her weak. As if from a great distance she heard familiar voices giving orders in calm, controlled tones. She couldn’t make out the individual words or voices, just knew that they were not hostile. There to help.
