I scanned the room for Nick, but it was really difficult to make out faces. Casanova started toward the security team, most of whom were over by the moat. Boats poled along by Charons in black robes and death masks usually ferried people back and forth between the entrance and the lobby, but they were beached due to the lack of light, and the drawbridge that served as an alternate entrance appeared to be stuck in the open position.
A couple of impatient types had decided to try wading the moat and found it deeper than they'd expected. The security detail was fishing them out, while preventing anyone else from following. And another guard was forcibly restraining someone who already had one foot in the water.
Someone who looked an awful lot like Nick.
"There!" I pointed, but Casanova was ahead of me. A gesture sent two of his vampire guards to help the beleaguered human, but Nick somehow dodged them, making for the backstage areas and, presumably, the employee exits.
"Tell security to close off the exits," I told Casanova.
"Which ones?"
"All of them!" I wasn't taking a chance on Nick doubling back, something that would be all too easy in this crowd.
Casanova got busy on the phone as I tried to keep track of Nick in the squirming, flickering mass of humanity. For five long minutes I lost sight of him; then one of the pterodactyl things screeched and I looked skyward. I grabbed Casanova's arm and pointed. "Look!"
Several security men's flashlights followed my gesture. The twin beams illuminated the figure of a man, who looked like he was somehow walking on thin air. Casanova blinked. "What's that crazy bastard think he's doing?"
"What is he standing on?" I hadn't thought the mages numbered levitation in their repertoire.
"The catwalks. They're painted the same color as the ceiling so nobody notices them. We use them for making repairs." Casanova grabbed a flashlight from the nearest guard and shone it between a maze of glittering rock formations. I still couldn't see what he was talking about, but Nick was obviously standing on something.
"Why is he up there?"
"He's probably trying to make it out onto the roof, assuming he doesn't break his fool neck first." Casanova cursed. "My insurance premiums are going to skyrocket if he falls."
"Why would he?"
"Because the catwalks also serve as support for the larger stalactites, with the rocks protruding right down through the middle of them!"
Nick had stopped in front of a rock that looked too wide to reach around, and I was sure he wouldn't make it. But I should have known better. Nick might look harmless, but he was a war mage. Luckily, so was Pritkin, and he'd seen him, too. The flashlights illuminated a bright blond head scrambling to catch up, but Nick had a good lead. He thrust a dagger into the side of the fake rock, making an extra foothold for himself, and used it to hop around the obstacle.
"Can he really get to the roof?" I demanded, clutching Casanova's arm tight enough to make the beam wiggle. I knew he couldn't reach the level with the turrets, where I'd been two weeks ago, but the lower one over the entrance would be even better from his perspective. It was tantalizingly close to the ground.
"If he gets all the way across, yes. There's an access hatch onto the roof for repairing the main sign." Casanova glanced at me. "How badly do you want him down?"
"Bad. Why?"
"Because some of my guards are armed."
"You can't start shooting in a roomful of people!"
"We can pass it off as part of the show," he said, gesturing around. Most of the trapped tourists had decided that this must be unscheduled entertainment and had paused their complaints long enough to crane their necks upwards, straining to see through the gloom.
"Will you pass it off if someone dies? Bullets ricochet!"
"My boys are good shots."
"And he's a mage. None will get through his shields. Can you get someone outside, to intercept him?"
Before Casanova could answer, Nick spotted his pursuer and threw a spell, just as Pritkin was edging around the fat stalactite. It hit the mass of fake rock dead on, causing it to crack down the middle and sending a rain of plaster into the watching crowd. That was followed by a shower of sparks as Pritkin and Nick simultaneously threw spells at each other. The audience cheered, but it was the final straw for the pterodactyl things, who launched themselves into the air and went screeching toward the fight.
"Casanova!"
"I can't call them off—don't even ask."
"What do you mean? Are you in charge around here or aren't you?!"
One of the creatures targeted Pritkin, clawing and pecking at his shields. The other creature went after Nick, but he fired a spell at it that singed one of its batlike wings, sending it wheeling away over the crowd. It was soon back for more, but in the meantime he'd made it to the next stalactite.
"Not when it comes to security," Casanova said rapidly. "The wards are designed to act independently. There's nothing I can do as long as those two keep tossing magic around!"
I bit my lip and watched the creature attacking Pritkin make a vicious jab with its beak. It penetrated halfway into his shields, then stopped as its head became stuck. It began thrashing around, forcing him to drop to his knees and clutch the beam to keep from being pulled off by its attempt to free itself. Meanwhile, Nick was getting much too close to the exit.
Pritkin managed to focus despite the beating he was taking from the giant wings, and threw a spell at Nick, collapsing the section of catwalk he was standing on. It fell into the moat with a splash and a sizzle, sending up a cloud of steam in its wake and barely missing a Charon that had been a little late docking his boat. I looked up in time to see that Nick had somehow snagged the next section. He pulled himself onto it while fending off his creature with a few more spells, heedless of the crowd watching raptly below.
Pritkin was handicapped by trying not to hit the crowd, but Nick felt no such compunction. Sooner or later, he was going to miss and send a deadly spell into the mass of tourists. I couldn't do anything for Pritkin; I wasn't a mage. But I could possibly get the lights back on and help security clear the area.
"Let's go." I tugged on Casanova. "The kids are probably in the kitchens."
He grabbed me by the arm and we muscled our way to the stairs, since the elevators weren't working. At the bottom we paused by a stained-glass window where a little weak light from outside was leaking in. It didn't help visibility much; I was mostly looking at a long black tunnel where I should have been able to see bright medieval banners overhead, a line of armor going down either side and the room-service kitchens off to the left.
I'd started toward the kitchen door anyway when, out of the darkness, there was a low, slow hiss, like scales sliding against the floor. I froze. I didn't know what it was, but that sort of sound is never good. It coiled along my nerves, making the hairs stand up on my arms.
"I've seen this movie," Casanova said tightly. "Everyone dies in the end."
"Shut up!"
"You don't understand—I know that slither!"
A black mist began sending dark fingers running across the stone of the floor. And everywhere they touched, what little light there was went out. "What is it?"