"Something with some power," Kaanyr answered. "Flashy, potent. That's what I like. Oh, and I need a reliable means of flying. It's become an issue of late."
"I think I can accommodate you," the mercane said, smiling.
Kaanyr found the grin a bit predatory, and he fought the urge to shudder.
Later, after concluding his business-and after cursing himself for spending so much-Kaanyr worked his way back to the Palace of Myriad Amazements. He was still thinking how best to sneak back inside when he spotted Micus.
The angel walked on the far side of the street with another angel alongside, one that Kaanyr recognized as his jailor. Garin, he thought. I think that was his name. The sight of those two made him draw up short and want to vanish into the crowd.
They strode with purpose between a pair of utterly strange creatures. The creatures reminded the cambion of centaurs, though they were certainly not of flesh and blood. In some places, he could see alabaster skin, but in between, gears, pistons, and tubes of brass and steel shone through. The creatures wore golden armor, and they walked with the same sense of urgency that Micus and the other angel displayed.
Kaanyr followed them from a distance, but he already knew where they were headed. When they reached the steps of the Palace of Myriad Amazements, the cambion knew it was time to clear out. He turned to flee, to leave Dweomerheart by whatever means he could find, and then his mind betrayed him.
If you don't do something to warn Tauran and the others, you're putting the entire mission at risk.
That was all it took to force Kaanyr to try to help.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Aliisza sat bolt upright and reached for her blade. That innate sense of danger pounded, warning the alu to get out. She had her sword drawn and was on her feet before she even remembered where she was.
A quick check around the room told her that Kaanyr was gone and that Tauran and Kael still slept. The absence of her lover troubled Aliisza, but not nearly so much as the impending sense of a threat. She fingered Pharaun's ring and activated its arcane powers, seeking some evidence that her internal warning was justified.
The entire room erupted in a blaze of magical resonance, as if the whole chamber, including the air she was breathing, was highly magical. It made her worse than blind; it dazzled her with its intensity.
Fool, she told herself. You're at the very home of magic. What did you expect?
Dismissing the power of the ring, she concentrated on her other, more natural senses. There was nothing amiss as far as she could tell, other than the cambion's absence.
Then she noticed the food was gone.
She padded softly to the couch where Tauran slept, his breathing slow and deep. Getting one hand near his mouth, Aliisza reached down with the other and nudged him with a finger against his shoulder.
"Mmm? What?" the angel mumbled.
Aliisza clamped her hand over his mouth and put her other finger to her lip. "Shhh," she whispered. "Something's wrong."
Tauran's eyes widened for a moment, then he recognized her and grew still. Finally, he nodded, and Aliisza took her hand away. "What is it?" he asked.
"I don't know," the alu replied "I just get a sense sometimes, and it's telling me that we need to leave."
Tauran sat up and looked around. "Where's Vhok?" he asked in a soft but urgent tone.
Aliisza shrugged. "Nothing to deal with right now," she said. "First, we need to get out of this room."
"Don't wake Kael," Tauran said as the alu stepped toward the knight. "Let me do it."
She glanced back at the angel, then shrugged and nodded.
Tauran moved to one side and leaned over the sleeping half-drow. He whispered something in Kael's ear then shifted back, out of the way. In a single smooth motion, Kael bolted upright. The knight had his sword up in both hands and was staring hard at the door. Aliisza gaped at her son. She had no idea where he had been holding it beforehand.
Kael got his bearings and caught her staring. "I inherited more than just your good looks," he said softly with a grim smile on his face.
I'll say, she thought. Remind me never to wake you up.
She moved to the door and placed her ear against it. She heard footfalls growing louder from the opposite side of the portal, and her sense of threat grew more intense as she stood there. Whatever was spooking her, it was coming through that door, and soon.
She wove a simple spell upon the door, sealing it.
"What do you sense?" Tauran asked, freeing his own mace from the loop on his belt. "What's coming?"
Aliisza shook her head. "I don't know, but I don't really want to wait around to find out."
"Can you whisk us away through one of your magical doors?" Kael asked.
Aliisza shook her head. "I can sense that something would prevent it from working," she replied. "We can't escape, but maybe we can hide."
"Hide? How?" Kael asked, his tone filled with doubt.
Aliisza thought for a moment. "Like this," she said, and she grabbed one end of the couch where she had rested. "Help me," she urged the knight, and when he'd grabbed the other end, they pulled it a little less than a pace away from the edge of the room. "Get against the wall," she ordered, even as she moved there herself. The other two joined her, and she pulled a small block of granite free of a pocket inside her bodice. Chanting, she gestured with the tiny block where she wished to spring her spell.
A wall formed there.
Aliisza had conjured the wall so that it ran parallel to the one against which the three of them pressed themselves, giving it the coloring and texture to match. She left a hole in it near the middle and at the floor, large enough that they could crawl through it but hidden from the other side by the couch.
Aliisza put her fingers to her lips to motion for the other two to remain quiet, then she squatted down next to the hole and cocked her head to one side, listening. Tauran and Kael joined her.
For several agonizing moments, the alu heard nothing. Then, though she wasn't sure, she thought she detected the creak of the door opening. She held her breath.
"They're not here!" The voice was muffled, but the voice uttering those words was unmistakable.
Micus.
"You told me you had detained them!" the angel said.
"We did," came an unfamiliar voice. "They must have slipped out magically. I expected that they would still be asleep, after what we dosed them with. I don't understand."
Aliisza heard footsteps enter the room and begin to pace.
"Do you see them in here?" Micus asked. "Are they hiding from us magically?"
There was a pause, then a third voice spoke up. "No. They are not employing magic to hide within this chamber." The sound of that third voice was odd, mechanical.
"But you can still sense them?" Micus pressed.
"Yes," the mechanical voice replied. "They are somewhere in that direction."
"You know how they did it, Micus," came yet another voice, one that was vaguely familiar to Aliisza, though she could not quite place it. "The alu and her magic doorways. That's how she managed to escape with Vhok right out from under my nose."
Of course! Aliisza realized. That's the angel that had been guarding Kaanyr!
"That's impossible," the second voice insisted. "We have the room warded against that."
"Then they probably used another method to get past your sentries," Micus said. "They must have slipped out of here just before we arrived."
"They must still be inside the building," the second voice said. "I can have my sentries begin searching."
"Yes," Micus said. "Please do so. What a shame. So close…"
The sound of footsteps retreating was followed by the slamming of the door.
Aliisza listened for a moment longer, fearful that it had all been a trick and that Micus knew where they were hiding. Tauran and Kael remained still as well, as if sharing her thoughts.