“The Enclave,” he rasped. “May the Goddess forgive them.”
“The apartment is still almost two kilometers away,” Shaedra told him. “We need to keep moving. This is going to get worse. And quickly.”
Maltus took a deep breath and dismissed the spell. A mage flashing his powers like that would have normally drawn the attention of everyone for several blocks in either direction, but right now the people were more concerned with running for their own lives.
And they had every reason to be. Shaedra was right, probably in more ways than she knew.
“They were waiting until Karyn and Janel were in the city,” he said softly. “They wanted them all to be here when they struck.”
Jean’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“He means they’re not just here to stop Chaval anymore,” Shaedra said grimly. “They’re here to take over the country.”
***
As it turned out, the difference between knowing something was coming and actually being there for it was about as wide as the Chasm of Gurai, Gregori Danev thought to himself. He stood looking out at the curtain of flame slowly stretching across the eastern horizon, and he curled his fingers tightly about the metal railing on the apartment balcony. The seeds of this war had been sewn a long time ago, long before even Kalavan, but somehow a part of him never expected them to actually sprout. Poleria had proven that war was obsolete, or so the saying went. His was the generation that had grown up at the end of that darkness, and they’d silently promised never to commit that same mistake again.
And yet here he was now, watching the factory silos crumble as panic gripped the streets of the nation’s most populous city. This was war, and it was his people who had started it.
He blew a thin stream of air out between his teeth. It wasn’t clear what the Enclave’s goal here was yet, either. Would they be willing to stop their assault after surgically destroying the city’s factories? Would they level the great hall at its center or just raze whatever buildings they felt like? He had no clue. No one outside the Magister’s Council knew the Enclave’s exact strength or what they were truly capable of, and right now it seemed like their attack had caught the local authorities and Steamworks mercenaries completely off-guard.
The door behind him burst open and Zach raced inside, sweat dripping off his brow. Normally he was as poised under fire as a military man should be, but something had clearly changed. When Eve didn’t rush in right behind him, it wasn’t hard to figure out what that something was.
“I don’t know where she is,” Zach stammered. “I woke up and she was just…gone.”
Danev spun back around to look over the railing but didn’t say anything. It was dark now, and even with the street lanterns and rising columns of fire in the distance, it would be difficult if not impossible to identify a specific person.
“She’s smart enough to stay close,” Danev said. “Let’s just give her some time. Shaedra should also be back here anytime.”
Zach paced nervously about the room for a few minutes before walking out to the balcony and squinting to try and make something out. The normally empty alleyway below was flooded with locals screaming in panic. The police would have their hands full trying to deal with the actual assault, and the crash of breaking glass and the flickering of small fires in the distance told Danev that the opportunistic looting had already begun. If Eve was out there somewhere, even nearby, she wouldn’t be safe for long…
When ten minutes had passed and Danev was reasonably certain Zach had already worn through the soles of his boots, he finally strode towards the door and decided they couldn’t wait any longer. He didn’t understand where she could have gone, or why in the Goddess’s name she would have left the apartment building at all—
The door burst open again just before he reached it, and Shaedra stood there staring at him. Behind her was a middle-aged man in good shape with a balding head and two-day stubble, and next to him was a woman the same age with bright eyes and a trim figure.
For perhaps a solid minute the three of them just looked at one another, and it was like they were all standing outside their dormitory together, waiting for the others to meet them before they went out for a night on the town. Age might have whitened their hair and creased their faces a little, but somehow, in that one moment, it felt as if he’d suddenly come home.
“We picked a great time for a reunion, didn’t we?” Danev muttered.
“You could say that,” Glenn managed.
“It’s good to see you, Gregori,” Jean said with a faint smile, offering him her hand.
He took it and nodded. There were, he estimated, about a thousand things he wanted to say just then, and a hundred questions he wanted to ask both of them. But all of that was going to have to wait.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” Danev said. “And we have another problem.”
“Eve is gone,” Zach told them. “I have no idea where she went.”
Glenn seemed to freeze solid. “What? What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know. I was taking a nap, and when I woke up after the explosion she was gone.”
Glenn grimaced and turned to Shaedra. “Can you sense her nearby?”
Shaedra half-closed her eyes like she was going into a trance. “Too many people. I can’t pick her out of a crowd like that.”
“Well, where in the void is she then?” Zach snapped. “Where would she possibly go?”
The Vakari pushed past him and stepped out onto the balcony. Her eyes narrowed as she swept them back and forth across the alleyway. “She made a choice.”
“And just what is that supposed to mean?”
Danev frowned. “You don’t mean…”
“She’s gone after Chaval,” Shaedra said.
“
What
?” Zach and Glenn blurted out almost simultaneously.
“She’s convinced it’s the only way to end this—the only way to protect the people she cares about.”
Zach stepped closer to her, his hands balled into fists. “What did you do? What did you tell her?”
Shaedra grunted and turned towards him, but for once her face lacked its omnipresent sneer. “I showed her how to dig inside herself and trigger her power,” she said softly. “I showed her how to confront it.”
“You did
what
?” Glenn hissed. The ice in his glare could have frozen even a Highlander solid.
Shaedra sighed. “She’s been running away from it all week. Denial doesn’t solve anything—in fact, it usually makes it worse. She needed to face the truth of what she was—what she is—and learn to control it.”
“And you made this decision all by yourself?” Glenn pressed, taking a single, menacing step forward. Even Danev found himself instinctively stepping backwards.
“She’s been spouting that poison ever since she showed up,” Zach snarled. “I figured it was your idea.”
“Eve didn’t need all of you trying to coddle her,” Shaedra snapped back, drawing herself up to her full, impressive height. “If you were going to do that, you might as well have locked her away somewhere like the monster you’re afraid she’ll become—or just killed her. This way, at least
she
gets to make that choice…and you get to find out if she really is worth protecting.”
“I told you to keep her safe,” Glenn whispered coldly, taking another step forward. “I told you not to interfere.”
“I know exactly what you said. I also know—”
The words died on her lips as she froze in place, her arms crushing against her sides. The air rumbled, but this time there was no distant explosion sending shockwaves across the city. There was only a magister and his power, summoned without even the slightest gesture.
“If she comes to any harm because of you…” Glenn threatened. His voice died off as he shook his head.
“Glenn, this isn’t helping,” Jean whispered, placing her hand on his arm. “She’s still out there somewhere, and we have to find her.”
He kept his eyes locked on Shaedra, and she stared right back at him. Glowing blue blood had begun to seep from her nose, and Danev wondered if it was even possible to kill a Vakari this way. He knew that some magi had the ability to manipulate gravity to vault themselves upward or even move objects, but to actually weave it in such a way as to physically crush someone…that he had never seen in person.
And it made him wonder—or perhaps dread—what other tricks his friend had learned in his years with the Enclave.
Finally the rumbling stopped and Shaedra let out a gasp of air. She wiped the back of her hand across her nose to gather up the blood.
“If you’re finished, your Sister friend is right,” she spat. “We know exactly where Eve is—it’s just a matter of getting there before the Enclave reduces the building to rubble.”
Zach glanced between Glenn and Shaedra, and Danev had the distinct impression that the young man was trying to decide who he should trust more....or less. His eyes finally stopped on the Vakari.
“You think she was actually going there to confront him? To kill him?” he asked.
“Or die in the process,” Shaedra said. “Either way, she’s able to keep you safe.”
“Me?”
She snorted. “Silly boy. She’s a teenage girl who’s in love. Who do you think she’s most worried about hurting in all of this?”
Zach started to reply, but nothing came out. Glenn placed a hand on his shoulder.
“We need to get to her,” the magister said, “and we also need to find Karyn. She’s not safe here, either.”
“You said before she didn’t want to help you,” Jean pointed out. “What if she knew about this attack all along? What if she’s a part of it?”
“She’s not. The Council gave up on her candidacy months ago. I doubt they would try to harm her intentionally, but she might get caught in the crossfire. They’ll definitely be after Janel.”
Zach frowned. “Why would the Enclave go after—never mind, I don’t even want to know. But we need to do something. Now.”
“Simon will have likely put them up in one of the hotels near the Hall of Innovation,” Danev reasoned. “Their conference was scheduled to last through tomorrow.”
“That should give us some time, then,” Glenn said. “The Enclave will likely target the Hall and the surrounding area last, if only to force Chaval to see his city burning to ashes around him.”
“Well, no offense, but I’m going after Eve,” Zach said. “Your friend can wait.”
“We should split up,” Shaedra suggested. “The boy and I can go into the Hall and find Eve. The rest of you can go and find your friend.”
Glenn shook his head. “No, we stay together. There will be troops scattered all throughout the streets. It’s far too dangerous to—”
“You said yourself we don’t have time, and right now we’re standing here wasting it,” she countered. “Look, it’s simple: we stick together until we hit 3rd, then we’ll branch off. We can converge again as soon as either of us is finished.”
Glenn took in a deep breath and rubbed briefly at his brow before turning to Zach. “We’ll go as fast as we can, Zachary, so don’t do anything stupid. Shaedra can protect you if you let her.”
“Yeah,” he said roughly as he un-holstered his pistol and moved towards the door. “I’m sure she can.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Cadotheia burned, and Simon Chaval didn’t seem to care. He stood stoically in his arboretum, hands clasped loosely behind his back, passing leisurely from flower to flower as if it was a boring summer afternoon and not the start of a civil war that might eradicate his country.