Along with any students and mages they could get their hands on.
Mychael’s knights were good; they were the best, but outnumbered was outnumbered, and with attacks coming from all over the city—
“They’re going to be fine,” Piaras said quietly.
I gave him a sidelong glance. “So now you can read minds, too?”
“No, I’m just worrying about the same things.”
“Is Katelyn evacuating with the other students?”
Piaras nodded once. “I put her on Phaelan’s ship myself. She didn’t want to go, and neither did a lot of the other girls.”
Katelyn was Katelyn Valerian, Piaras’s girlfriend—and Justinius Valerian’s granddaughter. I’d met some of Katelyn’s friends. Those girls could sling spells faster and fight better than half of the Guardians’ cadets. Ever since their inception when the Isle of Mid was founded over a millennia ago, the Guardians had been an all-boys club. Since coming to the Conclave college, Katelyn had been a thorn in her granddaddy’s side about changing the rules to let girls compete for places in the Guardians’ cadet corps. If I made it back to Mid in one piece, I’d be having a chat with Justinius on those girls’ behalf. They deserved the chance.
Piaras was smiling. “And I told Phaelan if he didn’t keep his hands off Katelyn, I’d fix it so he’d turn into a sea slug at every high tide.”
“You don’t know how to do that.”
“Phaelan doesn’t know that.”
“He bought it?”
Piaras flashed a grin. “Hook, line, and sinker.”
Priceless. I’d loved to have seen Phaelan’s face.
If my cousin so much as looked at the girl wrong, he’d better hope Piaras got to him first. Justinius actually could turn him into a sea slug.
“He’s too quiet,” Piaras murmured.
I didn’t have to be a mind reader to know he wasn’t talking about Phaelan.
Carnades hadn’t uttered a word since we’d left the cave. Surrounded as he’d been the entire time by armed goblins who knew how to use what they carried, even Carnades must have realized the smartest thing he could do was to keep his mouth shut. I didn’t know if being manacled and surrounded by armed goblins was his worst nightmare, but it had to rank up near the top, though you’d never know it to look at him.
Carnades saw me looking at him. His eyes glittered, then reverted back to studied neutrality. If the elf mage was shaking in his designer boots, he’d decided he was the only one who was going to know about it.
Piaras was right. A quiet enemy was a bad enemy. Quiet tended to mean plotting, and eventually one way or another, plots bore fruit. I knew that Carnades Silvanus was hoping to harvest an entire orchard.
A piece of dark peeled away from the shadows just ahead.
I sucked in a breath and held it like it was my last. Considering what blocked the passageway ahead, it just might be.
A Magh’Sceadu.
It was tall, almost hobgoblin in shape—if hobgoblins were made of black ink. They were blink-of-an-eye fast, with bodies warm and pulsing, like living quicksand. Any part of you that a Magh’Sceadu pulled inside its body stayed there. I’d seen one of them just flow right over a Khrynsani black mage trying to contain it. One glide, one gulp, one gone mage. Magic attracted them and magic fed them, and mages were meals. The more magic you threw at them to defend yourself, the tastier a morsel you became. Khrynsani black mages created Magh’Sceadu to absorb and store magic. They then harvested the power for other purposes.
Like fueling the creation of a giant Gate.
Or feeding a certain starving rock.
Piaras and I had once faced six Magh’Sceadu in an abandoned section of Mermeia appropriately named The Ruins. The only reason we’d survived had been the Saghred. It’d used me as a conduit to force-feed all six more power than they could hold.
I didn’t have the Saghred now.
“That’s new,” Nath commented, without moving anything, including his lips.
“And that’s why there aren’t any guards down here,” Mychael murmured.
I swallowed hard. “Maybe it ate them.”
“Why is it just standing there?” Piaras asked.
Talon’s eyes bulged in disbelief. “Why are we?”
Tam slowly maneuvered toward the front. “It’s not attacking, so it’s probably full.”
My stomach did a slow roll. “Full?”
“Though if we ran, it would chase us down.” Imala said. “Do you have sentries in these tunnels?” she asked Jash.
“Not in this section.”
“It’s standing there as a beacon to other Magh’Sceadu,” Tam said. “I can feel it.”
“Ringing the dinner bell?” I asked.
“Jash, is there a way around that thing?” Mychael asked. “A quick way?”
As if by some silent signal, the Magh’Sceadu turned and flowed quickly down a side tunnel.
As a second one rose up right behind Talon.
The only thing between Talon and that Magh’Sceadu was about ten feet of space.
And me.
Talon just stood there, frozen in terror and disbelief. The sound that tore its way out of his throat tried to be a shriek, but the kid choked on it.
It moved. I didn’t have time to.
The Magh’Sceadu passed me by, ignored me completely.
I didn’t have magic. Talon did.
And now everyone knew that I didn’t.
Including Carnades.
Piaras’s dark eyes met mine for a split second. He’d seen me not use magic in the mirror room or in the cave against the Khrynsani, and that the sensors in the city walls set for the Saghred hadn’t detected a thing when I’d passed through.
There’d been nothing to detect.
Piaras knew.
Disbelief and terror flashed across his face and hardened into determination. I couldn’t save Talon, so Piaras would. He wouldn’t fare any better than Talon. He knew that, but he was going to try anyway.
I wanted to scream in frustration, but I couldn’t even get the thing’s attention. To the Magh’Sceadu, I might as well not even exist.
It shot straight at Talon.
Chapter 6
Talon knew defensive magic, but none of it was going to work.
Everything slowed down to the speed that meant it was all over except the cleanup. Talon’s lips formed the first word of a shielding spell. All it’d do for the Magh’Sceadu was coat Talon in a magical powdered sugar topping.
And I couldn’t do a damned thing to stop him from being dragged inside of a nightmare.
I’d seen it before on the streets of Mermeia. I’d been trying to locate a missing elderly street magician. I’d found him through a seeker link, but a Magh’Sceadu had found him first. The old man had tried to fight back, his fists sinking into the Magh’Sceadu’s towering mass like black quicksand. The rest of him followed. The thing hadn’t taken him quickly. No one had been on that dark street corner that night. As the Magh’Sceadu had wrapped itself around the old man’s head, I could hear his muffled screams coming from inside.
I wouldn’t let that happen to Talon.
Tam lunged forward and threw Talon behind him, thrusting his hands palms out toward the Magh’Sceadu.
The thing stopped.
Tam and his power didn’t.
Black magic was about as close to the Saghred as mortals could get. However, the power of the strongest black mage was a grain of sand on the beach compared to what the fully fed Saghred could do, though the penalty for using that magic was the same. You used it, and it used you. The payback wasn’t immediate, but the magic would get what it wanted. Like borrowing money from loan sharks—when it came time to pay, you could run, but you couldn’t hide. They’d get back what they loaned you, with interest, and they’d be perfectly happy taking it out of your hide.