Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,81

feet after that. The door to a building had been kicked in, and a man and woman lay dead on the floor. From the positions of their bodies, it appeared the woman’s throat had been slashed as Lamashtu had rushed through the door, the man’s as he stood in her way of escaping.

I continued after Lamashtu and spotted her heading up the hill toward the temple. When I got there, the soldiers inside were unarmed, and the realm gate was just closing. “That woman,” I said. “She used the gate?”

“Yes,” a dwarf said, someone who worked with Orfeda.

“Did you need her?” Zamek asked. “Piper was just heading back to Avalon Island.”

“Wait, what?” I asked him. “Piper went through the gate?”

Zamek nodded and then looked confused. “Was she not meant to?”

“She’s at the mountain,” I said. “The woman’s name is Lamashtu.”

“Open the gate,” Zamek said.

Nothing happened.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

The dwarf at the gate looked back at us. “There’s a problem with the realm gate. I don’t think it’s working anymore.”

“How is that possible?” I asked him.

“It’s not,” he said, clearly worried.

“Unless the other side has been damaged,” Zamek said, heaving a sigh. “I guess that’s the work of your fugitive.”

I nodded. “Get it working as soon as possible; we need to know just how bad it is on the island.” I turned and walked out of the temple, looking back down at Camelot. Lamashtu was a dangerous enemy to have running around. But Arthur was more urgent, so Lamashtu would wait. For now, anyway.

Chapter Nineteen

NATE GARRETT

It took a while to sort everything out from the fallout of Lamashtu’s attack. One shape-shifting psychopath had done a lot of damage. She’d separated us, hurt us, killed innocent people. And there would be recompense for that.

Jinayca was like a bear with a sore head after the attack, which had left her with a bruised sternum and a bad case of being pissed off.

I found myself sitting on a park bench overlooking a familiar stream, where I’d once fought an evil man.

“The Atlantis realm gate works differently,” Lucifer said as he sat beside me.

I nodded. “I’m sure it’s fascinating.”

“Not really,” he said. “It’s really dull. But apparently it’ll expand to take everyone in the dungeon at once. No need to go through the gate itself.”

“Expedient,” I said. “So basically it’s what Zamek turned the realm gate on Avalon Island into?”

Lucifer nodded. “It seems the Atlantis gate was created by forward thinkers. Zamek and Jinayca have discussed the merits of such a device for all realm gates, and I snuck out. I think Mordred’s asleep.”

I smiled for the first time in a few hours. “When are we going?”

“A company of dwarves will be first through, along with Tarron, because if anything goes wrong, they can actually get back here. They go through, activate the gate at their end, and we start filtering in. We have several thousand people to send to Atlantis. It’s going to take a while, no matter what we do.”

I nodded.

“You’re angry and anxious, and I get that, but people need to see you,” Lucifer said. “You’re a damn talisman to some of these people. The boogeyman on their side. You can’t come out here and mope.”

“I’m not moping,” I said, sounding petulant even as the words left my mouth. “Okay, I’m having a momentary mope. Lamashtu escaped, she has a basilisk blade, and we have no idea where she’s gone next.”

“You don’t have any ideas at all?” Lucifer asked.

“She pretended to be the president; she escaped and came here. But there was a rebellion here, too; she escaped, and then we all turned up, and she had to escape again. She’s going to go somewhere safe and regroup. If Mordred was the target, she would have tried to kill him, surely. I think I was a target of opportunity. All of this happened because we caught her in DC.”

“She’s reacting,” Lucifer said.

I nodded. “I get she was the president. She was there to make sure that Arthur’s agenda was followed. Much easier to use a tame shape-shifter than a human who may not play ball. But what’s her plan now?”

Lucifer shrugged.

I had a thought. “Any idea where Chloe and Layla are?”

“Chloe is with Piper in the hospital,” Lucifer said. “Piper will be fine. She’s hurt but healing quickly.”

“Good,” I said, relieved that Avalon hadn’t taken someone else from us. “Layla?”

“Realm gate temple, I think,” Lucifer said. “You’re going to send her after Lamashtu?”

I shrugged. “Thinking about it. Chloe will want revenge,