inside the cage. She could see a guard at the entrance to the main cavern, but he had his back to her and didn’t seem to have heard anything.
Tash dropped back down to Geratan.
We’re in. There’s one guard at the entrance.
He squeezed past to take a look and then dropped back down, touching her shoulder.
Can you make another tunnel to come up just behind him?
Tash did as she was asked, thinking of a place a few paces behind the guard. As soon as the stone opened fully, Geratan moved past her with three of the other crimson-hairs. Tash didn’t want to see what they were going to do. Whatever it was, they did it silently.
Geratan dropped back down to her again.
Ambrose will start the attack on the main cavern soon. Stay here until the fighting’s over.
Almost immediately there was a distant sound of clanging. The attack had begun.
Stay safe, Tash!
Geratan and his men ran up the slope and into the cavern, out of sight.
Tash went back along her tunnel and climbed up into the smoke store. She couldn’t fight, but there was something just as important she needed to do. She picked up the nearest bottle and pulled the top off. The smoke escaped out of the bottle and swirled around her, but then it seemed to choose a direction, sinking to the floor of the tunnel and flowing out to the main cavern.
Tash put the bottle down, picked up a second and released its smoke, which again swirled down the tunnel and out. She opened a third bottle, and a fourth. But there were still so many. It was taking too long. She picked up a fifth and dropped it. Then a sixth—dropped. Seventh and eighth—smashed against each other with a laugh. The ninth she threw at the bars of the cage.
Glass and smoke flew around her. She could hardly see the bottles at her feet for all the purple smoke. She kicked at them as it swirled around her, getting in her face and up her nose, into her head. She was surrounded by it, breathing it in as she threw and kicked and laughed and shouted.
AMBROSE
DEMON TUNNELS
AMBROSE CREPT along the terrace, keeping low against the walls, his men silently following. Across the cavern Anlax mirrored him, moving down toward the unsuspecting Brigantines. Glancing up, Ambrose saw several demons peering down from the higher terraces—they had noticed something was happening, even if the Brigantines hadn’t.
Well then, thought Ambrose, let’s give them a show . . .
Giving the signal to attack, he ran at the nearest Brigantine, drawing his short sword. The blade sliced into the man’s neck, blood spraying onto Ambrose’s hands and face, but he was already on to the next Brigantine and thrust his sword into the man’s shoulder. Clanging noises rang out, reverberating around the cavern. The Brigantines grabbed their arms and raced up to join the fight. Ambrose leaped down the ramps to meet them, cutting down two more men and was then in the clear. He ran along the terrace and down another ramp, checking his men were following, then glancing across to check on Anlax’s progress. That was when he saw Frost, the girl Tash had spoken about, racing into a tunnel, leading some Brigantines.
She knows the tunnel network, Ambrose thought. They’ll try to come at us from behind.
He signaled five of his men to go back up to intercept Frost, as a group of Brigantines charged up to him. The man in the lead was huge and Ambrose couldn’t match his strength, so he dodged to the side, slicing at the man’s legs as he jumped down to the terrace below, two Brigantines immediately coming after him.
His fighting was pure instinct now. His eyes saw and his body reacted. He cut into the neck of one man, used the Brigantine’s body to shield himself for a moment, then rolled low to slice at his next opponent’s legs and up into his groin. Ambrose rose to his feet again as his men leaped down to join him.
Purple smoke was flowing out of one of the lower tunnels and swirling around the cavern.
Tash! She’s destroying the smoke store.
He caught sight of Frost again, higher up now, above Anlax. Following the girl was a stream of Brigantines, racing down to attack Anlax’s men from the rear. But the men Ambrose had sent up to intercept them were already there, ambushing the Brigantines from the mouth of a tunnel.