Euthalia, herself, with the Abiding Ring on her finger, obedient to your command and willing,” I said, though the words felt like glass in my mouth. “I can deliver her to you—for a price.”
Anure considered, tapping his fingers on the throne. Percy slid me a glance from the corner of his eye, gave a slight, rueful shrug. Yeah, we could only buy time for the bomb to go off now. No way were we getting out of here in time to escape the blast.
Vesno yipped, rising from his haunches slightly and giving an excited wag of his tail. I set a hand on his head, quieting him. It took everything in me not to look at the square holding the vurgsten bomb.
The wizard in blue leaned to say something to Anure. The emperor considered, then chopped a hand impatiently. “I weary of talking. And of the stink of you both. Execute them. Starting with my cousin.” Anure smiled thinly. “I should have done this long ago, you presumptuous, arrogant ass.”
The guards seized Percy, and he grimaced at me in resignation. Would he lose his head before the bomb went off? Either way, we were both dead. I opened my mouth to at least taunt Anure—
Then came a blinding flash.
24
Merle moved with mind-battering speed—dragging me with him faster than I could consciously follow—and stopped us with a metaphysical bang! that knocked the breath from my lungs in my faraway body. I caught up mentally and surveyed Sondra and the other captives where they anxiously hid in the stairwell. A guard lay prone and bleeding sluggishly. Two servants had been tied and gagged, propped more gently in a corner. So they’d had company—and had handled it. Merle manifested, appearing before Sondra as the part man, part raven I’d met in the astral realm, wearing the purple wizard’s robes.
Sondra reacted faster than thought, recognizing him immediately as one of Anure’s wizards from the throne room that day, and swung the stick to lash him with it. Merle didn’t move to stop her.
And I understood why Merle had forced me to come along.
“No,” I told her, and in my panic, I stopped her hand. She froze in disbelief—both that I had, and that I could.
“Lia?” Sondra scanned the air in my general vicinity. “Don’t stop me! Look at him! This is one of—”
“I know, but it’s also Merle, our friend. Trust Me. Follow him.”
I felt it, the moment she made the reluctant choice to trust me, and I released her.
“Con?” she asked.
“Alive. I’m going to him now. When you get the captives to the ship, set sail,” I added. “That’s a royal command.”
Merle inclined his head, then pointed me in the direction of the throne room. Casting a purple glow over them all, he opened the door and strode out. After a bare moment of hesitation, Sondra took Rhéiane’s hand. Exchanging a solemn look, they followed Merle, the rest of the captives trotting behind like trusting ducklings.
Hoping against hope that they’d make it, I flew back to Con.
I didn’t bother with subtlety this time, and Ambrose felt me enter the throne room, his blue-robed figure familiar to me from that nightmarish time before. As with Merle, he looked unlike himself as I knew him on Calanthe—but that ancient forest feel to him hummed beneath, like distant music. He gave me a slight nod of acknowledgment. Vesno also lifted his head, giving a yip of welcome, and Con quieted him.
Con, who was chained before Anure. A large and menacing figure, dressed in scarlet leather from head to toe and carrying a large double-bladed axe, loomed over Con and Percy. Anure’s executioner no doubt. I would yell at Con later about his stupid plan.
Ruthlessly shoving down my panic—if ever I needed my icy calm, it was now—I quickly assessed the rest of the scene.
The wizard in purple seemed to be there but stood immobile, a placeholder for Merle who was risking himself to evacuate our captives. Fifteen minutes to get them to the ship. The false orchid ring lay among glass fragments, the square base that held the real vurgsten bomb beside it. I touched it with my mind and found it moments from exploding. Bomb or execution—Con was going to die.
Unless I stopped it.
So stop it I would. I snuffed out the spark, leaving the bomb inert.
Noting my action, Ambrose spoke quietly to Anure. The black and red wizards, standing together, seemed to sniff the air, as if sensing my presence. A lance of glasslike