stuck their hands into my pants and found the charms I’d snagged, the lock-picker and the one that let me see in the dark. But it probably didn’t matter. Seeing my end wouldn’t be helpful, and I doubted the other charm could unlock magical bonds.
Murmurs came from the corridor, the dark elves out there looking back toward the ramp. I imagined the two males I’d sneaked past charging up to report on the alchemist’s dead assistant. That would only make Synaru-van more furious.
She strode toward me, holding the inhaler up, and said something in her language.
“Your thugs took my charms. I can’t understand you.”
So much for the questioning.
“The Ruin Bringer needs drugs to breathe?” she asked in English.
“I was holding it for a friend.”
“I hear the rasp in your voice.”
“Because your buddy threw some deadly red crap in the air, and I caught a whiff.” Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned her assistant. Maybe she hadn’t known about her yet.
Voices rose in agitation in the tunnel. Yes, they had to have found the body.
Synaru-van squinted at me. “Then I will let you breathe something else for a while before I question you.” She smiled. “If you survive to be questioned.”
She plucked a container off the shelf, opened it, and dumped beads on the floor. They looked like bath beads, but I knew they weren’t. When they shattered, a hazy green smoke wafted into the air, immediately stinging my nostrils. I tried to hold my breath, but there was no point. I couldn’t do that forever.
Synaru-van smiled and backed away, leaving before she was affected by her own poison. Tears were already streaking from my stinging eyes.
I watched bleakly as she stepped into the hall, where she would soon find out I’d inadvertently killed her assistant. She didn’t shut the door, but she turned her back. I was screwed, and just as bad, Sindari was now in the hands of assholes who sacrificed children.
22
The acidic smoke wafted up, tearing my eyes and making my nose run. Worse, it was making me wheeze. I’d never had a serious asthma attack, nothing I had to go to the hospital for, but I’d also never had an alchemist dump toxic bath beads at my feet.
A shout came from the tunnel, and Synaru-van stepped out of sight. For a moment, I couldn’t see any of the dark elves.
I closed my eyes and concentrated on the lump of the lock-pick charm against my skin, then mentally willed it to deactivate the bonds. I didn’t truly believe it would work, but I had to try.
The charm grew warm against my skin, as if it was doing its best to help me. But the bonds remained intact, crackling bars of energy wrapped around me, stealing my ability to move. I focused harder, seeing the charm in my mind’s eye even as I imagined the magical bonds breaking.
“Work,” I rasped, voice as raw as my breaths. “Work.”
The charm grew even hotter, almost burning me. I imagined smoke wafting up and my underwear catching fire. What a way to go.
“No, focus.” I poured all my mental energy into the charm, imagining the bonds breaking. Snapping like breadsticks.
A surge of energy seemed to pour from me. Not from the charm but from me.
The magical bonds pinning me against the wall disappeared so quickly that my knees almost buckled as my weight settled onto them again. I lunged and caught the counter for support.
Confusion washed over me as I shook the feeling back into my legs. Had the charm done that or had I?
Beyond my innate abilities to sense magic and heal, I’d never been able to summon a lick of magic in my life. My ragged breaths echoed in my ears, reminding me that my healing ability wasn’t helping now. I had to figure something else out.
As quietly and quickly as I could, I scrambled away from the vapors wafting from those beads. But getting away didn’t improve my breathing. I struggled to get enough air into my lungs, and panic made my hands shake. The dark elf had taken my sword, my gun, my sample kit, Sindari, and even my cursed inhaler. How was I supposed to get out of this mess?
Maybe I should have accepted Zoltan’s offer to make me a lung-clearing concoction. Not that the dark elves wouldn’t have taken it when they searched me.
Wait, what had he said would work? An aerosol of manticore venom mixed with… what had it been? Magnesium sulfate. That was Epsom salt, wasn’t