Fun?
“I can see that.” Mychael gazed around. “Now, how did you end up throwing Carnades through a wall?”
Piaras told him, and I got angrier with every word.
Deidre had at least two traitors in her nest. With goblins’ love of intrigue and complex alliances, it’d have been a wonder if all of her people had been loyal to someone and something besides themselves and their purses. Unfortunately for us, one of Deidre’s traitors was one of Carnades’s guards. Ever the braggart, while Carnades had been hurling slabs of wall at Piaras, Carnades had told him that in exchange for his freedom, he’d told his guard that the all-powerful Raine Benares had been reduced to a magical null.
My stomach roiled at the news.
The Khrynsani had hacked their way through a few strategically placed boarded-up windows and thrown what were basically navinem grenades into the house. More Khrynsani followed with more grenades. The drug-laden smoke spread, leaving panic and then immobilizing despair in its wake. The masked Khrynsani barely broke a sweat rounding up the goblins of the Resistance.
“Talon and Nath? Where are my son and brother?” Tam’s face was stone, but his eyes promised murder.
“I didn’t see Nath,” Piaras said, “but Talon set fire to a pair of Khrynsani dragging Prince Chigaru out.”
Mychael and I exchanged a stunned glance. “Would that have been in the front hall?” I asked carefully.
“That’s the place. When Talon told them to drop the prince, they laughed at him.” Piaras gave a low whistle and shook his head. “That was a really big mistake. Then there was shouting, screaming, and a flash of bright light. Then I couldn’t watch anymore; Carnades was throwing chunks of wall at me.”
“It seems Talon is a little more elf than he appears,” Mychael noted.
“And a lot more talented,” I murmured.
“Since he’s only half-goblin,” Imala said, “the drug would also remove his inhibitions.”
Tam almost smiled. “Talon didn’t have any of those to begin with. Right now, I’m grateful for it.”
“Piaras, do you know where Talon and the prince went?” Imala asked. “Did they escape?”
“Sorry, ma’am. I was… occupied.”
Kesyn Badru sat in the chair Piaras had vacated and took a hit off of his flask. “So we’ve got your boy running around looking for trouble—”
“Nothing new there,” Imala said.
“And he may or may not have Prince Chigaru with him.” Badru turned to Mychael. “You think we need to search the house for this Carnades person?”
“To be on the safe side, yes,” Mychael said.
Piaras kicked at the chandelier. “If he was still here, wouldn’t he have made sure this thing had finished me off? And if it hadn’t, wouldn’t he have taken care of business himself?” He gave a half shrug. “I mean, it stands to reason.”
“Yes, Cadet, it stands to reason.” Mychael put a finger to his lips. I knew that gesture; he was keeping himself from smiling.
Apparently I wasn’t the only one who found Piaras’s casual attitude about his own near death most un-Piaras-like. But unlike me, Mychael and even Tam found Piaras’s newfound badassness amusing.
Men.
Mychael saw my disapproving glance, but it only made him have to fight harder against that grin. “We’ll check the house just to be sure,” he told Piaras.
Piaras nodded in approval. “That would be prudent, sir. Should I check the basement or upstairs?”
“What you should do is sit down.”
Piaras opened his mouth to protest.
“That would be an order, Cadet Rivalin. If I know Carnades Silvanus, and I do, you’ll have other opportunities to settle your score.”
With a happy smile, Piaras plopped down on the floor, sitting cross-legged. “I’ll look forward to it, sir.”
“I’m sure you will,” Mychael muttered.
I followed Mychael out into the hall.
“How long will that navinem stuff last?” I asked.
“Depends on how much he inhaled. If he was exposed from the time the attack started until they left, it could be another whole day.”
I gave a low whistle. “That would be good.”
“That would be very good.”
“Though we can’t have him blasting his way into the temple.”
“No need to worry. Once we’re on the move, he’ll be all business.”
“The things Piaras did to Carnades,” I began uneasily. “He’s never done anything like that before. You said navinem makes elves feel impervious; you didn’t say anything about sprouting new talents.” That twist was way too close to what the Saghred had done to me for my comfort.
“Piaras is still young, just coming into this power,” Mychael explained. “One of the things navinem does for you is makes you willing to try things you’ve never done before. That or simply react on instinct—which is probably what happened with Piaras.”
“So Piaras and Carnades entertained themselves throwing each other through walls.”
“Looked that way.”
“If this stuff made Piaras feel all kick-ass, it did the same to Carnades.”
Mychael nodded, his blue eyes sparkling. “That’s precisely why I’m so impressed.”
“But Carnades is one of the most powerful mages—”
“In the top five percent.”
“That makes Piaras—”
“A diamond that won’t be in the rough for much longer.”
Chapter 12
So far, so good. No Carnades.
Piaras was disappointed. Me? Not so much. Today had been one fight or disaster after another, and I, for one, didn’t want any more excitement, at least for the next hour.
Mychael and Tam had finished searching the house. Tam had run upstairs to make a quick raid on a weapons stash he had hidden in the walls of his bedroom. Mychael was talking in low tones with Piaras, and Imala was down the hall pulling weapons out of her supply pack. Kesyn Badru was standing with me keeping an eye and ear on the front door, on guard for any additional Khrynsani visitors.
Carnades had told one of Sarad Nukpana’s spies that I didn’t have a spark of magic to my name. If that spy had gotten away… and made it back to his boss…
I dropped my forehead into the palm of my hand and groaned.
“Headache, girl?” Badru asked.
“Yes, sir, and his name’s Sarad Nukpana.”
The old goblin laughed. “I’ve had that headache for years. And since we’re probably on our way to get killed together, you might as well call me Kesyn.”
I nodded, then winced at the movement. Great. Now I was getting a real headache. “Though at least I’m still in one piece, and I’m not in one of Nukpana’s cells—unlike Tam’s father.” I shot a quick glance upstairs. Tam was still in his room, but I lowered my voice anyway. “I feel like I know him pretty well, but I’ve only known him for two years. You taught him.”
Kesyn held up a hand. “I tried.”
“He’s a good man,” I insisted.
The goblin mage glanced at the upstairs landing and sighed. “Yes, he is. I don’t want to lose him again.”
“Well, demigod or not, Nukpana’s not the man I’d put my money on in that fight. He’s got Tam’s father, and maybe his mother and brother, so when those two get—”
“That’s what scares me, girl.”
“I hope it doesn’t come to that, either. But if Tam can catch him flat-footed—”
Kesyn smiled sadly and shook his head. “That’s not what I mean. To fight black magic, Tam will use black magic. He’s already admitted to using it once since he got here.”
“On Magh’Sceadu that were about to eat his son.”
The goblin mage responded with silence. “You say you know him,” he eventually said.
“I do.”
“You know about his use of black magic in the past.”
I didn’t move. “Some.”
“This is the most dangerous time in Tam’s rehabilitation, though he believes he’s already completed it. Some of the people he loves most in this world might lose their lives if he doesn’t do something about it.”