her, to undo some of the damage she has unwittingly caused.”
But he had already stopped listening. Kashkari and Amara zoomed toward him, pulling up into a vertical climb to check their breakneck speeds. Their carpets circled back and hovered ten feet overhead.
“Get off the ground!” shouted Amara. “Now!”
Belatedly Titus remembered that once the Enchantress’s weapons dropped down, they only became more dangerous. He shook open his carpet, pushed Aramia onto it, and jumped on himself, gaining just enough altitude to avoid being hacked to pieces by a line of rampaging swords.
“That’s the woman who crashed the party,” said Aramia.
Titus ignored her and spoke to Kashkari. “When did Skytower get here?”
“An eternity ago,” said Kashkari. “Or five minutes. You weren’t kidding when you said it was dangerous inside the Crucible.”
He had warned them in no uncertain terms to expect the worst when they got inside. But he had not expected this much trouble. As far as he could tell, the Crucible became more dangerous the longer it was kept open as a portal. When he had reentered the Crucible from the library of the Citadel to find the wyvern he had used for his steed lying in pieces on the meadow, the Crucible had been in use nearly an hour, if not more. But this time the Crucible had been open all of fifteen minutes.
“Praesidium maximum!” he cried, as another swarm of bewitched blades hurtled toward them, razor-edged and sibilant. He turned to Aramia. “Say ‘And they lived happily ever after.’”
“No. I’m coming with you.”
“You are not. Get out.”
“You have to make me.”
Under normal circumstances, he only had to take her by the arm, say the exit password, incapacitate her while they were outside, and then come back in again. But he could not possibly leave the Crucible right now, not when it must be surrounded by Atlantean soldiers on the grand balcony.
Nor could he push Aramia off the carpet and leave her to fend for herself until she came to her senses, not with the forest of hacking broadswords underneath them. And he did not have time to reason with her—Atlantean soldiers would follow them into the Crucible any moment now. But if she left the meadow, she would no longer be able to leave the Crucible at will, no matter how many times she shouted, “And they lived happily after!”
Not while the Crucible was being used as a portal.
“This is your chance to live.”
She shook her head, her face set.
He swore and spoke to Kashkari and Amara instead. “North-northeast. Fast as you can.”
He would just have to get rid of Aramia later.
“Who is she?” asked Kashkari as they sped in the direction Titus had specified.
“Lady Callista’s daughter. She grabbed on to me when I got in.”
“How can we trust her?” demanded Amara.
“If I go back out, the Atlanteans will interrogate me under truth serum,” Aramia pleaded. “And they’ll put me in the Inquisitory and keep me there, because they’ll know that I wanted to come and help you.”
“The Inquisitory is the better option for you,” Titus said impatiently. “Where we are going, everyone will die.”
“And it’s that much worse than spending the remainder of my life in a windowless cell in the Inquisitory, never to see the sky again?”
His answer was unequivocal. “Yes.”
Aramia fell quiet.
They flew at blistering speeds. Already they had passed over the market town from “Lilia, the Clever Thief.” Dread Lake, in the distance, was visible by its waters, which glowed an eerie red. And beyond that . . .
“Where is she?” asked Aramia, shouting to be heard above the rush of air. “Where is the one who is my mother’s real child?”
“She will not be coming with us.”
Aramia’s voice rose. “Why not? Isn’t that why you have protected her all this while?”
He said nothing, but glanced behind. Dozens of wyverns were in pursuit, far enough away that they would not catch up in time.
He turned to Kashkari and Amara. “Remember, when we are escorted into the great hall, make absolutely sure you do not look at the lady.”
“You already warned us against that before we entered the Crucible,” said Amara.
Titus’s grip tightened on the edge of the carpet. “Have I warned you that she looks exactly like Fairfax?”
Several portals had been set up in the Crucible. To go from the monastery’s copy of the Crucible to the copy now in the grand library at Royalis, they must pass through a portal deep inside Black Bastion, the stronghold of Helgira the lightning-wielder and one of the