Sound warbled, and all he could feel was simmering blood pounding through his hands. He hissed through the pain, and as his vision returned, a thin rope looped around Sylendrin’s neck and yanked him toward the elevator dock.
Ryon recognized Lee’s lasso as it hauled Sylendrin over the dock’s rails, flipping his feet over his head like a doll. His body fell into a swing, followed by a sickening snap.
The horizon righted itself as Ryon coughed and pushed himself up. He ran to the edge of the railing.
Sylendrin swung in the lasso like it was a noose. His hands dropped to his sides.
Lee braced himself against the railing and hauled his rope back up as the elevator docked below. Maybe the young cowboy would be useful after all.
Ryon reached for his dagger and squinted through a plume of smoke further below. People swarmed off the elevator, dragging the injured with them and avoiding the blackened corpse behind the hay bales and the gaping hole left by Sylendrin’s explosive.
“Are you okay?” Kira called over the cries of the dying city. She crumpled to her knees next to Ryon with wet trails streaming through a coat of ash on her cheeks. “Your hands,” she rasped.
“Not as bad as it looks.” Ryon searched her for injuries and decided against wielding a knife in his seared palm. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“Ryon!”
The pale mask of a forest demon appeared over Kira’s shoulder. One of Brooke’s favorites rushed toward him, glancing between Ryon and Lee. “What’s the situation here?”
“It’s clear,” Ryon said as two more masks rushed past. “The enemies are Phoera-users wearing hooded cloaks. Don’t let them anywhere near the dock. We lose one more rope and this elevator will be down.”
The Katrosi warrior nodded. “We’ll keep it secure.” The brown eyes behind the mask squinted at Ryon’s hands. “Can you put the fires out?”
“Yes, but I have to stay and protect this lift.” Ryon gestured to the growing crowd of panicked citizens and crying children around them. “The other two might be—”
“Go. I’ve got this.” Lee jogged up behind Kira, wrapping his lasso into a loop between his palm and elbow. “Kira, you’re very brave, but you shouldn’t have come. That guy almost killed you. Let me take you to—”
“No!” Kira straightened her back and brandished her blade. “I’ll stay with Ryon.”
Ryon and Lee both protested at the same time, but Kira interrupted them with, “I’m not going to cower in a root cave while people are dying!”
Cries of panic and agony reminded Ryon of how much time they didn’t have. He nodded to the pale mask and darted toward the nearest inferno, which raged along a cluster of houses up one level.
A deep, hollow dragon’s roar reverberated through the city. Ryon looked in the direction of Jadenvive’s oldest lift, nestled in the city’s northeast trade district. Felix?
Smoke stung Ryon’s eyes. He ducked through the haze as he dashed up a ramp, dodging civilians as they streamed down to the elevator. He glanced over his shoulder to ensure that Kira followed. “Have any throwing knives left?”
“You point and I’ll shoot.”
Ryon pointed above them to a teardrop-shaped leather sack that hung from one of the branches. “Can you hit them?”
Kira aimed at a sack that swayed over a patch of fire, threatening the entrance to a wide rope bridge. Her blade flashed through the air and pierced the leather. Green slime spewed out from the breach, enveloping the platform in a splash of thick goo. A mother gripped the railing in one hand and a baby in the other. As she ran, she scooped up the green slime and lathered it over her child’s clothes.
Bleed you, Lysander. A lot of warning you gave!
The bronze statue of a spear-maiden in the city’s heart stood stoically through billowing smoke. Whatever was fueling the inferno here caused it to burn white and blue.
Ryon sucked in a deep breath and plunged into thicker dark cloud. He held his burned hands out to the flames, and their embers bled from yellow to orange to subdued black.
A mechanical whir exploded to Ryon’s right, and he ducked out of instinct. A Katrosi man had fired a harpoon along the wooden platform’s exterior, sending a thick bolt into the ground far below. The man reeled the rope back until it was taut, clipped a small device onto it, and yelled for people to slide down to the earth.
“Come on!” Kira was already running up a rope bridge to the next level, where