by Lisa Shearin
“Because of your ancestor.”
“Who was tortured and killed by the Khrynsani. He never told anyone of the Heart or Nidaar. It was ripped from his mind.”
“If we had killed him then, he wouldn’t have returned to Regor, and our secret would have remained.”
“Yes, your secret would have remained. But for how long? And if not the Khrynsani, then the Sythsaurians, who don’t want to kill the Cha’Nidaar. No, you’re too valuable to them—as slave labor to dig out the Heart for them. They only want the Heart, and if its removal destroys this world, it is of no matter to them. They have other worlds to go to, worlds they have already conquered. Your people, this city, the Heart—all are known, on this world and beyond. To destroy the Heart would be to destroy the world. Our only hope is to bury it beneath the weight of this city and the mountain above it. It is not the ideal solution, but it is the only one we have now. It will buy us something we don’t have, which is time.”
I slowly walked down the stairs to where Karnia stood, speaking as I did. “Your sacred duty is to prevent its use—by anyone. Isn’t that what you want, Karnia? Or do you desire something else? Something more, perhaps?”
“What are you insinuating?”
“I insinuate nothing. I question your motives and actions, directly and openly, here in this place before your princess and ruler. What do you question, Karnia? Her Highness’s fitness to rule? That is a serious accusation, treasonous even. But a more interesting accusation is that I have influenced her thoughts and actions by means of black magic. Where would you have heard that I was capable of this?”
I now stood in front of Karnia, within stabbing distance for either one of us. “Who would have told you that I once practiced the dark arts? Which is true, by the way. I do not deny it. I was Queen Gilcara Mal’Salin’s chief mage and magical enforcer for many years.” I gave him a fang-filled smile. “And I was good at it.” I dropped my voice to a menacing purr. “What did you and Sandrina Ghalfari discuss when you visited her in her cell? Or did your conversations begin earlier? You defy the will of a queen who sacrificed herself to protect you, and now you defy her daughter, your ruler, whose word is law and decisions are final. She does not have a chief mage. I am offering my services here and now. Do you require a demonstration, Advisor Karnia?”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Karnia didn’t require a demonstration. I was disappointed.
And highly suspicious.
That suspicion increased tenfold when he not only apologized to Princess Maralah, but to me as well, going so far as to welcome me as an honored guest.
That sealed it.
In goblin court parlance, that translated to, “You’ll be dead before sunrise. Enjoy the few remaining hours of your life.”
I graciously thanked Karnia for his apology in the true spirit in which it was given.
Translation: Bring it.
Karnia was escorted out of the throne room under guard, to be taken to his home and put under house arrest once there. Maralah wanted to speak to her people before she brought me in. I returned to the anteroom to wait.
“A nice touch with the heir bit,” Malik said.
“Since Maralah was giving Karnia the full litany of my titles, I thought I’d add that to let him know precisely who he was going to try to have killed. Sandrina might not have shared that part with him.”
“I told you we should have slipped a knife in his ribs.”
“Yes, that would have rid us of Karnia, but ruined any chance of gaining the Cha’Nidaar’s trust.”
“Tamnais, please, I’m a professional. They never would have found his body.” Malik flashed a cheerful grin. “Do you think he’s going to try to kill you?”
“I’d be disappointed if he didn’t.”
“When he tries, may I kill him?”
“We’ll see.”
“Talon’s right. You’re no fun.”
“Fun’s not in my job description.”
The Cha’Nidaar were a beautiful people, and disturbingly, none of them looked over the age of forty.
Close to eighty of them had gathered in the throne room at Maralah’s request. The rest were soldiers on duty throughout the city, including guarding the dungeon and Baeseria’s tomb. And I could hardly forget those escorting Advisor Karnia home.
Each one carried a duffel bag. The evacuation bags Maralah had mentioned.
She had ordered her people to come prepared. Smart lady. In having to bring their bags with them, the people were already thinking about what they would be doing in the next few hours. Some kept them slung over their shoulders, others had dropped them to the floor at their feet.
Malik, Agata, Dasant, and Talon with Indigo had joined me in the throne room.
The people listened attentively and respectfully as their princess stood before them and told them the situation and the plan. There was no panic when she mentioned the Khrynsani and Sythsaurians, merely resignation and acceptance along the lines of “Here we go again.”
They were a people who didn’t panic easily. Good. Hopefully that wouldn’t be tested.
Maralah got to the part about them leaving the city within the hour. Then she told them about returning to Rheskilia, being free to settle wherever they wanted, how the Khrynsani were out of power and being hunted down, their temple destroyed.
That part earned the princess some applause. Again, there were no questions, no disagreements. No problems.
I let out a breath I hadn’t been aware I was holding.
When I did, I felt a vibration beneath my feet.
I shot a glance at the others. They were standing straight and still.
“So it’s not just me,” I said. “Is it the—”
Agata was nodding. “Heart. Yes, I believe it is.” She put her hand over the Heartstone pendant. “I even feel it here in—”
The floor lurched, sending us all sprawling.
The door to the throne dais swung all the way open, slamming against the wall.
Inside the throne room, some of the Cha’Nidaar had actually managed to stay on their feet. Maralah was one of them, though she’d had her throne to grab on to. To the Cha’Nidaar’s credit, still no one panicked. No doubt they were used to floors and ground that moved beneath them, whether due to Heart-spawned quakes or rampaging beast feet.
Shouts and the sound of the Cha’Nidaar soldier’s guns erupted from just outside the throne room.
“The city is under attack!” came a shout from the hall beyond our anteroom door.
Malik shielded. “I got that impression.”
Agata pulled her pendant from beneath her armor. The little slice of Heartstone was glowing fiercely. “Whoever they are, they’ve reached the Heart.”
And I got more than the impression that someone was Advisor Karnia.
“Das, do you have your spy gem?” I asked.
He quickly fumbled around in one of his pockets. “Yes.”
“Go with the Cha’Nidaar to the surface and call Calik. If there are Khrynsani or lizard men waiting for us outside, those people will need protecting. We also might need pickup. Talon, go with him.”
“No. Agata might need me, remember? And I need to help. Don’t send me away.” He took a breath and let it out unsteadily. “I’ll do whatever you say—except leave you.”
I nodded once tightly, past a tightness in my chest. I ran in the direction of the throne room.
“So I can tell Calik,” Dasant called after me, “where should I tell him you’ve gone?”
“Hopefully to save the world.”
I went to where Maralah was giving orders to a group of ten men and women. Fortunately, none of her guards tried to stop me.
“Das will go with you and your people to the surface,” I said quickly. “There should be protection waiting for you. He’ll give you the details.”
Her pale eyes were cold with fury as she flipped open a shallow compartment on a gold wrist cuff she wore, exposing several flat jewels. She pr
essed and held what looked like a ruby. Instantly red lights began flashing from all the light sconces.
“He can give these squad leaders the details,” she snapped. “I’m going with you.”
“Your people need you.”
“My mother needs me! You’ll never get to her or the Heart without me.”
I didn’t like it, but she was right.
“Let’s go.”
As we ran, Maralah shouted to her soldiers to fall back to the evacuation route and cover the people’s escape. Within minutes, we had one of the city’s corridors to ourselves.
“Mal, call Jash and see where they are on placing those charges. Then bring him up to speed and tell them where we’re going.”
Malik wore his spy gem on a chain around his neck inside a protective silver globe. “Done, done, and done.”
A young soldier ran toward us, battered and bloody. “Highness, I was sent to tell … the prisoners …”
I swore. “Escaped.”
He nodded once, panting.
Maralah put a hand on his shoulder. “You did what you could.”
“I was told … to stay with you.”
“I am protected. Evacuate the city. Protect the people.”
“But, Your—”
“That’s a command.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” The soldier ran in the direction we’d come from, though it was more of a lurch.
Malik stared after him in disbelief. “The boy doesn’t look like he could protect a—”
The princess scowled. “I sent him away so he’ll survive.”
Once again, Maralah led me down staircases that took us all deeper into the mountain. The difference now being that the sconces that lit our way were all flashing red—and we were running.
When we entered—or attempted to enter—the vaulted antechamber to the queen’s tomb, Colonel Akhai didn’t look surprised to see us. His eyes narrowed and his stance widened.
This was not good.
He barked a command and his men drew crystal-powered guns. I didn’t know what was going on here, but if they opened up on us, we’d be vaporized.
I tried to step in front of Maralah, but she wasn’t having it. She was livid.
“Colonel Akhai, what is the meaning of this?”
“The princess and Advisor Karnia warned me you had escaped and would try enter, Lady Ghalfari. You and your accomplices are under arrest.”
“What? I am your prin—”
I knew. I knew what Sandrina had done.
So did Malik. “Well played, Sandi,” he murmured.
I grabbed Maralah’s arm, holding her back. “It was Sandrina. She’s a shapeshifter.”
She shook me off, crossing to the colonel in long, angry strides. “I ordered you never to allow him near my mother, your queen!”
Suddenly, Colonel Akhai wasn’t so confident. “She said the Khrynsani were attacking. Only because of the emergency was she allowing the advisor inside.”
Maralah’s hand lashed out. Instead of a slap I’d half expected, she firmly clasped the side of Akhai’s head. The mind gaze was immediate, except Maralah wasn’t searching Akhai’s memories.
She was allowing Akhai into hers. Though “allowing” might have been a bit mild. The Cha’Nidaar ruler forced the colonel to look, to know who she was.
When she released him, he all but fell to his knees. To his credit, he recovered quickly, his pale eyes blazing in rage—not at Maralah, but at the woman who had tricked him into betraying his sacred trust.
“Sandi’s in trouble,” Malik whispered in a sing-song voice.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Now I understood the source of Sandrina’s smug satisfaction in the throne room when we’d been brought before Maralah. She was able to watch and listen to the Cha’Nidaar princess unimpeded, memorizing her mannerisms and speech patterns, all to gain access to the queen’s tomb—with the one man who could activate the Heart for her.
My team and I had arrived in Nidaar after flying across hundreds of miles of desert and trudging through monster-infested caverns. Sandrina, her Khrynsani, and the Sythsaurians with them had been clean and rested when we’d encountered them. They’d probably arrived in the city via the lizard men’s portals or teleportation devices. So, Sandrina could have been here days before us or even longer. Plenty of time to have met and made a deal with Advisor Karnia.
I was gathering my magic, letting my anger grow, feeding the anticipation of finally getting my hands on Sandrina Ghalfari. So close now. She’d escaped that night in the Khrynsani temple. She wouldn’t get away this time.
Colonel Akhai couldn’t unlock and get that door open fast enough.
I felt it before I could see it, a prickling between my shoulder blades and down my spine, like a charge in the air just before a lightning strike.
We were under a mountain. This was no lightning strike.
It was the approach of millions of hornets.
Sythsaurians, coming from the tunnels behind us.
I spun, grabbing Maralah and shifting the full power of my magic to my shields, pushing it out in an arch to cover my team and Colonel Akhai, who was working on the last lock.
The Cha’Nidaar guards opened up on the Sythsaurians, vaporizing five of them before they could launch those green nets of pain and death.
The lizard men kept coming.
Looked like Sandrina hadn’t invited them to her party.
Sythsaurians didn’t take rejection well at all.
The colonel wrenched the door open, leveling his gun inside the tomb. It was empty, except for Baeseria’s coffin.
The queen was still inside.
My eyes darted around the room. “Where are they?”
“Already in the chamber with the Heart,” Maralah snapped.
“I failed you and my queen,” Akhai said quickly. “Allow me the honor of defending the door to the tomb. The Sythsaurians will not pass.”
More lizard men arrived—and defense turned into a suicide mission.
Colonel Akhai knew it. He bared his fangs in anticipation of the battle to come.
Maralah gripped his shoulder. “Our people will know of your sacrifice and that of your men. Your names will be raised up and join those of our heroes.”
Akhai gave a quick nod of gratitude, then those sharp eyes were on mine. “Save her, Nathrach.”
The meaning of his words was clear. His tone said that if I failed, he would hunt me down in the afterlife and make me pay and pay again.
“I will. Your sacrifice will not be in vain. I swear it.”
Agata, Malik, and Talon with Indigo clinging to his shoulder passed through along with Maralah. Akhai closed the tomb door behind us and threw all the locks back into place.
We were sealed inside Queen Baeseria’s tomb with only one way out—through the tomb and into the Heart chamber itself.
I ran to the queen’s coffin, Maralah right behind me. “Mal, did Jash say when the bombs would be ready?”
“They were placing the final three when I called.”
“Check again.”
Malik went to the far side of the room to contact Jash.
I had been here before; Agata, Talon, and Malik had not.
“She’s alive in there?” Talon whispered in horror before he could stop himself. “Sorry, Your Highness, I didn’t—”
Maralah waved away the comment. “It has sickened me since the day she sealed herself inside to save us.”
Agata’s eyes darted across and around the coffin. “How does it open?”
“It doesn’t,” Maralah said. “At least not that we’ve been able to find. She and the Heart did it together. Our strongest guards and most powerful mages have tried to move it to no avail. It is sealed.”
“Did you try hitting it?” Talon asked. “Really hard?”
“She and the Heart did this together. It could strike back to defend her—”
“What if we hit it while thinking nice thoughts?”
I kne
lt at the foot of the bier, running my hands around where the base of the coffin met the Heartstone crystal bier. The plan had been to rescue the queen, then get out of the city. Now we had to stop whatever Sandrina and Karnia were at this moment putting into motion.
“Maralah, where’s the door to the Heart chamber?” I asked quickly.
She jerked her head to the left toward a small section of wall, never taking her eyes from her mother’s face. “There’s a crystal that’s darker than the others. Push down on it. The door will open.”
I jumped to my feet and ran to where Maralah said the door was located. If there was a crystal that was darker than the others, I couldn’t find it.
Malik appeared at my side, his voice low, his words quick. “Jash said the bombs are ready and they’re running like hell to their exit point. They need another ten minutes to get there and get clear. I called Das. He said to tell the princess they just passed the stone—”
“Stone falls,” said Maralah from behind me.
“Yes,” Malik said. “What does that mean?”
“It means the bombs can be detonated any time. My people are now in the interior of the next mountain. A targeted explosion in the city won’t hurt them now. They are safe.”
We had ten minutes.
Malik was standing behind Maralah. His eyes darted to the coffin and he shook his head.
No words were needed.
If we couldn’t free Baeseria within the next minute or two, we would have to leave her for now. Sandrina had Karnia to activate the Heart for her. We had to stop them.
“There’s a seam here,” Talon said, gripping the coffin’s edges toward the base. “Dad, Mal, help me move this.”
Malik went to foot of the coffin with Talon. I joined Maralah at the head.
“Shift to the left,” Talon told us. “Now!”
We put all our strength against the moving the coffin’s base even a fraction.
Nothing.
The ground was shaking in waves, going from throw-you-to-the-floor to tremors and back again.
“I won’t leave her,” Maralah said. “Go and stop Karnia.”
“We’re not leaving either one of you,” I snapped, desperately trying to think of a solution.
