Calin swung his ax, only to find that the metal edge had disappeared, drawn into Bex’s fight, while Kell’s sword held firm, its edge gleaming with spellwork. He brought the blade to the killer’s throat, but Calin only smiled.
“I’ll get that magic out of you,” he said, “one way or another.” The floor rumbled as he spoke, and earth shot up between the slats, turned to tendrils. Kell Maresh slashed through them, but they simply parted and re-formed. One found his wrist, and clamped down, dragging his sword out of the way, exposing the prince’s chest, and throat.
“Stop!”
Four heads turned toward Tes.
She was on her feet, holding the persalis out in both hands.
“This is what you came for, right?” she said. “Then take it.”
Lila Bard looked at her in horror. Bex smiled grimly, and took a step toward her, and as she did, Tes’s fingers twitched, pulling on the strings at the edge of the spell. A light flickered through them like a lit fuse, a spark only she could see. It skated, bright and fast across the surface of the box.
And then, the persalis burned.
IV
“No!” shouted Bex, surging forward, but Lila blocked her path as the object in Tes’s hands went up in flame. It burned fast, far faster than it should—days of work, erased by a single spell—and then the persalis crumbled, like ash, between her fingers.
“Shouldn’t have done that, little girl,” growled Calin.
Bex stared, face going from scarlet to grey.
“You’re dead,” she snarled, metal coiling back around her forearm, but Lila Bard stepped between the killer and the girl.
“So keen to go again?” she asked, a sharp thrill in her voice. “You should know, I’ve been holding back.” The air whipped around her as she said it. The whole inn groaned. The light in the lanterns peeled into ribbons. “And Kell here, well, he hasn’t even gotten started.” Those ribbons of flame circled his shoulders. The wind caught his copper hair. If Tes didn’t know better, if she couldn’t see better, she might have thought the magic was his own.
The two killers finally seemed to take stock of their situation. Blood stained Bex’s skin from a dozen weeping cuts. Smoke wafted off Calin’s half-burned shirt. Two of the strongest magicians in the world stood between them and Tes, and the persalis they’d come for was nothing but a smear of soot on the splintered floor.
Calin flashed Kell a smile that felt like a threat, but said nothing.
Bex’s eyes slid past the Antari, and landed on Tes.
“You and I,” she said coldly, “are not done.”
Lila flicked her wrist, and the tavern door swung wide.
“Run along now,” she said. “Unless you’d like to stay and tell us who hired you. We can pour a pint and talk about the Hand.”
Bex’s mouth twitched, but whatever she was about to say was cut off by Calin throwing his arms wide. His power flared, and every one of the tables and chairs came flying toward them.
Tes flinched, but Kell and Lila moved at once, their hands outstretched, silver magic flaring bright as the torrent of wood splintered and broke apart against a wall of will. By the time the debris collapsed to the ground, the room beyond was empty.
The killers were gone.
Lila Bard sighed, and dropped her hand, but Kell Maresh buckled forward, heaving, sweat shining on his brow. The threads around him spasmed and sparked. Tes was right—something was very wrong with the Antari’s magic.
She watched, expecting Bard to hurry to the prince’s side, to help him up, but she just shook her head and said, “Honestly, Kell.” And then she turned, and grabbed Tes’s arm, fingers vising as she dragged her toward the stairs.
“Can’t stay here” was all she said by way of explanation. Kell straightened, and made his way to the bar, where the innkeeper had risen to her feet.
“What’s wrong with him?” she asked as Lila Bard hauled her up the stairs.
“He’s an idiot,” answered the Antari, glancing back over her shoulder.
“The palace will pay for everything,” the prince was saying to the frazzled innkeeper. “And I’ll send magicians round to fix the damage.”
They reached the landing—what was left of it, the walls cracked, the rug rucked up, one corner quietly burning—and the Antari steered them past a pool of blood on the landing that was definitely hers, and several more that weren’t. She pushed Tes into a bedroom. A chest sat open at the foot of the bed, black clothes spilling out, a ghoulish face jutted up, and Tes recoiled before realizing it was a horned mask.