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  There were several nods, no doubt from people thinking of the woman who had eluded him. “To do this, amusingly, we will start at the bottom.” The nods stopped and turned to confusion that spread through both groups. He watched it flow with amusement. “Underground, in fact. We will invade the Stonesreach kemana during their night.”

  The shock that circled the room was a wonderful thing to behold. I’ve been among alleged equals for too long. It’s kind of nice to actually be in charge of those who are clearly inferior and know it, rather than merely acting as designated leader. He smiled. “When we do, a group will cause trouble at the palace to draw attention there, but that is not our main objective. Instead, our goal is threefold. First, we will show those in the kemana who have been too afraid to join our cause that they have support and should emerge from the shadows. Second, we will upset the delicate throne Lady Alayne rests upon. When her citizens are in crisis, she will have little energy to spare to assist our enemies on the surface. Finally, we will strike at the one person who is most pivotal in the equation governing the balance of power in this city.”

  He gestured at the two groups below. “Prepare. We will move in several hours. Summon those who are not present and collect all the simple weapons you are able to acquire. Technology can't be relied upon below, so we will use what we have and trust in our magic to make the difference.” He pointed at the two who led the rabble. “You two, upstairs. Now.”

  He reclined in the chair behind the desk when they arrived after a short delay to give an initial set of orders to their followers. Sarah took the single remaining seat, which forced Marcus to stand. The man leaned against the closed door with his arms folded and tapped his fingers in an irritating fashion. Dreven decided to let the petty insult slide. There are bigger concerns.

  “The first thing you should both know is that my superior has demanded results and informed me that lives will be forfeit if there is any failure. Rest assured, yours will be spent before mine. I suggest you consider that when you lead your people in the battle to come.” Both nodded in response but neither seemed to truly grasp their subordinate positions. Again, he decided to delay disciplining them. If he was not forced to sacrifice them in the fight under the city, he would deal with them thereafter.

  “The second thing to know is that we will burn this city to the ground, if required, to accomplish my master’s objectives. I care not for what priorities you've had before. You now serve his will by serving mine. Have no doubts about the relative importance of our goals. Mine are paramount and yours are secondary at best.” Again, they nodded without speaking.

  “The last thing is that we have multiple targets to take care of tonight. We can hope the move on the palace accomplishes something useful, but I doubt that it will. There’s a reason they built the city center like a castle, after all. But there are several places that require our attention.” He flicked his wand, and all the objects on the desk swept aside and shattered on the floor. A wave summoned an illusion that displayed an overhead view of the kemana. Four locations plus the palace were aglow, surrounded by featureless blocks representing the other structures. “Three of these buildings are important simply for what they hold. We will break in and steal the weapons and items within to use to our advantage.”

  He tapped the wand on one of them, and it grew to show a two-story shop with windows on all sides and an entry on street level. “This one, however, is the real prize. We want what’s stored within here most of all, as they are some of the rarest items to be found in the kemana. But more, we want the woman who lives and works there.” He dismissed the image and looked at his underlings. “You failed to look behind the curtain. Diana Sheen and her team would not be nearly as successful as they are without the guidance and assistance they receive from the Drow, Nylotte. She has been seen traveling with Sheen several times and is thus our enemy as well.”

  Dreven rose to his feet and stared at the two people in his office. Each wore a bloodthirsty grin appropriate to the upcoming event, and he couldn’t bring himself to care about what personal desires or characteristics drove them. It was enough that they anticipated the chance to wreak havoc in Stonesreach. “Go and prepare. There’s no time to waste.”

  Chapter Thirty

  The telepathic message from her teacher was an absolute shock and she actually dropped the bottle of beer she’d carried into the living room.

  “Diana, Stonesreach is under attack. Get here as soon as you can.”

  She looked down with an open mouth at the shorts and t-shirt she wore, then yelled, “Rath, come to me.” She activated her comms and sent out a general alert to the team, calling for them to gather at headquarters as fast as they could get there. Rath arrived at her side as she reached the bedroom, and they portaled to a disused corner of the bottom floor of the base.

  They headed to the lockers as the others reported in. To the non-magicals, she instructed that they should gear up and hold awaiting further developments. She told Cara and Hank to get there as quickly as possible. Each gave an ETA of less than ten minutes, which was reasonable. She donned her equipment and shoved extra potions into her belt, then holstered the Glock and her Ruger and retrieved spare magazines in case the battle ranged beyond the magical city. She snagged the Bowie knife from Tony’s kit and set it on the bench, making a mental note that they should have some additional ones around in belt sheaths for moments such as this.

  Rath hopped up beside her, already geared up and carrying his batons. Even without the shock function, he was impressively skilled with the weapons. A trio of throwing knives was strapped at his left and right ribs, angled for easy draws. She grinned at him. “You’re like a walking arsenal, these days.”

  He laughed. “Say hello to my little friends.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Can’t you stick to the bubble-gum action movies?” He shook his head, and she sighed. “Fine, be that way. Make sure they’re sharp because this one will be tough.” Hank and Cara burst through the door from the parking garage and rushed to their lockers.

  Kayleigh followed them in. “Any word from Sloan?”

  “I assume this either happened so fast he couldn’t alert us or he’s been under the eyes of the boss guy the whole time. He might have been too successful at infiltrating the group.”

  The tech grimaced. “What do you need from me?”

  Diana thought about that for a second. “Let’s position drones near the tunnel exit. You know where that is, right?” She nodded. “Also, keep an eye open around the city. It’s always possible that they’re making a move down below as cover for an attack on the surface. God knows, they love their distractions.”

  “Gotcha, Boss.” She jogged over to the core and began to punch the buttons to bring it to life, already deep in conversation with her AI, Alfred.

  The slamming of a locker caught her attention, and she turned to find that the others had dressed in record time and were almost ready to move. “Remember, tech’s not a thing. You’ll have to rely on magic, magic weapons, and things that cut or strike.”

  Hank grinned. “I’ve wanted to say this since I got here. Hank Smash!” He imitated the giant green superhero and inspired a gale of laughter from Rath.

  Cara rolled her eyes. “Honestly, if the macho in here gets any thicker, I’ll find it hard to breathe. Can we go?”

  Diana nodded and summoned a portal to Nylotte’s basement, and they sprinted through as soon as it materialized.

  They raced up the stairs to where the Dark Elf stood with her arms folded and looked out the windows of her shop’s first floor. She turned as Diana emerged from the staircase. “These have to be Remembrance people. There’s no other explanation.”

  “No one on Oriceran would be interested in attacking the kemana?”

  “There’s no reason for it. Plus, there are humans here.”

  She laughed but it carried little humor. “That’ll annoy Lady Alayne to no end.”

  The Drow nodded, but there was no mirth in
demeanor. “What I can’t understand is why. I can’t see what they could possibly hope to gain.”

  Diana shrugged. “We don’t need to know their objective to stop them. Will you stay here, or will you come to fight?”

  Nylotte looked torn, then visibly forced herself to choose. “I’ll stay here. There are things in this shop that I wouldn’t want others to have.”

  “Good deal. You’ll come if I’m dying, though, right?”

  Finally, her teacher’s mouth quirked in a hint of a smile. “Maybe.”

  Cara laughed. “If we’re in trouble, I’ll call. She likes me better.”

  Diana yanked the door open and raced into the avenue. There were sounds of explosions and bright lights from the direction of the palace, but she immediately rejected that as a location where they could make a difference. Lady Alayne has more than enough defenders. The rest of the city doesn’t. She led the others through the nearest cross street to enter the main thoroughfare.

  It was absolute chaos. She stared for a few seconds and tried to make sense of it. The impression was that it was civilians, shopkeepers, and residents who happened to be nearby who now engaged the attackers. She wondered why the entire city wasn’t up in arms but assumed there was probably a magical veil hiding the action from those not already involved. Or something. What the hell do I know about large-scale magic? Clearly, anyone with the audacity to attack the kemana would have a plan in place for that.

  An explosion sounded from a couple of blocks distant and smoke billowed into the air. A surge of people screamed and ran from the noise, and Diana began to push her way toward it, her team close behind. When they finally reached the area, they saw that the entire facade of one of the buildings had been blown away and the front rooms on both floors were visible from outside. Humans scurried around inside, carrying duffel bags that resembled army surplus. Diana yelled over her shoulder. “It looks like they’re robbing the place, let’s get in there and—”

  Her words were cut off by another explosion, almost identical to the first, that echoed from the parallel street. Smoke rose over the top of the roofs nearby, and a flickering glow suggested fire. She growled, struck with indecision.

  Cara solved it for her. “Hank and I will go and investigate. You deal with these assholes.”

  Diana watched for a moment as the other two bolted toward a cross-street, then tilted her head to look at Rath. “Ready, partner?” Amongst the chaos, his normally happy personality had been replaced by as serious a demeanor as she’d ever seen him wear. He nodded and stared ahead at the entrance to the broken building. She promised herself that she’d make whoever created the situation that stole the troll’s smile pay. “All right. Let’s do it.”

  She ran toward the house and yelled once more. “You go low, I’ll go high.” She triggered a blast of force and sailed toward the second-floor room and its two suddenly concerned thieves.

  Cara led Hank onto the next street, where they immediately found a cluster of people running together and carrying matching machetes. What the hell? Did they rob an army-navy store to prepare for this adventure? The weapons would have been enough to indicate that they were on the wrong team, but the way they laughed and swung them at any non-humans in range verified it. She wondered for a moment where the magical component of the attack was but decided that such questions were incidental. You didn’t ask about dessert when your steak dinner arrived. She targeted the one at the rear and launched a handful of fire darts at his legs. They struck true, and he fell but his screams alerted his comrades.

  They turned, and she made a quick count. Seven left. Huh. That’s hardly fair. Despite having two each of healing and energy potions, she didn’t want to waste her power on the trash mobs. Heh. Kayleigh and her video game terms. It fits, though. Hank bolted past her and advanced at a run toward the lead invaders. He’d explained once that his magic was different than most, starting out weak but strengthening as he used it. He shifted direction to the left, and she angled to the right. The enemy had fanned out into four at the front and three at the back and stupidly, remained close enough that they’d be in the way of each other’s weapons. That proved to be a problem for them as Hank went all the way left and so positioned the enemy’s body closest to him as an obstacle to the one nearer the center.

  She’d seen her partner display his skills several times in the fight club, but to watch him go all out was something entirely different. He lashed out with a low kick that hammered his armored shin against his enemy’s unprotected one. When the man bent involuntarily, he raised his left fist high and brought it down onto the back of his neck. He crumpled without ever completing the machete attack he’d started. That left two in Hank’s range, and she noticed that both looked nervous before her own adversaries claimed her attention.

  As she closed the final feet separating her from them, she drew her daggers. A woman was closest and she snarled at her and whipped the machete around in a strong horizontal chop. Cara ducked to let it pass over her head, then darted up and kicked her overbalanced opponent in the ribs. The force of it shoved the woman to the side as she flailed in an effort to regain her balance. The man beside her swung his weapon, aimed at her skull, and she caught it on crossed daggers and delivered a front kick into his groin. He grunted but didn’t go down, and she gave him a point for wearing protection. It failed to save him from her next attack, which was to guide his machete past her with one blade while she thrust the other deep into his thigh. He collapsed, dropped the machete instinctively, and clutched the wound as she turned to face the third.

  He was already running away down the street, along with another who had chosen not to tangle with Hank. The big man had an enemy at his feet and looked disappointed to see the next one fleeing. Cara grinned at him and tilted her head at the runners, and he nodded, shouting, “Race you.” He sprinted in pursuit an instant before she did.

  Diana landed cleanly on one side of the large room. The looters had seen her coming, and she was immediately under attack. The one closest swung a baseball bat at her head, and she leaned back to avoid it, pushed forward before he could bring it around, and prevented him from doing so. She punched him in the solar plexus and he folded as she brought her hands down on the back of his head at the same time that she drove her knee upward. His nose shattered and he collapsed, then flopped over and rolled out of the building.

  She was already on the move toward her second opponent. He’d brought a sword that looked like something out of Kill Bill and held it in a stance that conveyed some mastery of the weapon. She shook her head. “No time. Sorry.” She thrust her hands forward and seared him with a cone of force that hurled him through the wooden railing and down the stairs. The sword spun free to clatter on the floor. Diana charged through the other rooms on the second floor but found no marauders. Dammit, I should have thrown Rath up here and stayed downstairs. She dashed to the first floor and narrowly avoided a high-speed lamp. You have to be kidding me. What is this, amateur hour?

  Rath was ahead of her with two bodies at his feet. The troll swiped projectiles out of the air with his batons as he walked toward the last enemy in the room, a woman who had apparently lost her weapon—to judge by the baseball bat lying behind his position—and had resorted to whatever the environment could provide. Seeing that he had the situation in hand, she cleared the first floor quickly as well before she hurried to the basement. It, too, was empty. She returned to find Rath standing over the unconscious woman, shaking his head.

  The reason for the mostly vacant building dawned on her as another two explosions resounded from other parts of the city. Diversions, and enough of them that we can’t know what’s real and what’s not without investigating. And maybe the soldiers don’t even know. Damn, this is bigger than I thought. What are they up to?

  The runners were fast, Cara had to give them that. They took an unexpected turn and ran into a shop, and she and Hank followed. They waited inside and put up what was probably the best fight they could
but fell quickly. The two exchanged glances, and Hank got as far as saying “What the hell?” before the building exploded around them. The detonation hurled them out into the street, and they landed hard, slid across the stones, and thunked painfully into the structure on the opposite side of the lane. Cara coughed and blood emerged from her mouth. She couldn’t move, and the pain in her skull was almost unbearable. She tried to speak, but it only came out in a whisper. “Hank. Help.”

  An eternity later, he crawled into her visual field and tipped a vial to her lips. It coursed into her throat and she swallowed reflexively, then gulped about half, knowing what was coming next. She screamed as the potion did its work to repair her insides. She handed the flask back to him, and he drank the rest, managing to rise as he healed. He extended a hand, and she used it to climb to her feet. She shook her head. “So, that sucked.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t expect a trap.”

  “No one expects one. That’s why they’re called traps.”

  A familiar, unexpected, unwelcome, and satisfaction-filled voice sounded from the empty street nearby. “Ah, but smart people are always on the lookout for traps.” Marcus appeared with a skinny wizard at his side who was lowering the wand he’d used to conceal them. Behind them were a dozen of, presumably, Marcus’s best fighters. She saw Sloan standing beside the man in black like he had at the football stadium. His face was a study in neutrality, but there was fear in his eyes. Probably for her.

  Cara didn’t waste words and leapt into the attack.

  More explosions detonated in different places around the kemana, including the one that was the trigger for his group to move. So far, the random detonations had seemed to serve their purpose, providing cover for the actual thefts. The first team had already returned and been portaled away ahead of schedule. All according to my plan.