Even after he stopped moving, she pounded him with the bonewood. A part of her recognized this was not honorable, it was not how one used a fighting staff, but she did not stop.
She would have pulverized him but for a quiet voice that intruded on her mind. “Galadheon.”
She stopped, backed away from the prone guard, both satisfied and appalled.
“Galadheon,” came the quiet voice once again.
She turned and saw Lhean pressed up against the bars of his cell.
“Lhean!”
“The Silk has fled.”
Karigan glanced around. Sure enough, while she’d been so occupied with battling the guard, Silk managed to escape.
“Damnation.”
She charged out into the corridor, but he was nowhere to be seen. In no time he’d have all of the palace down on them.
Back in the laboratory chamber, she said, “We’ve got to get out of here.”
She returned to the guard to retrieve his key ring. Her hand trembled as she reached to pull it off his belt. She could not tell if he was dead or alive, nor did she check. She saw she had beaten him beyond reason, beyond need. Why couldn’t it have been Silk?
She shook herself and ran to Lhean’s cell, trying different keys in the lock.
“The etherea here is not good,” he said as she worked. “It has poisoned you.”
Karigan thought that was all very interesting, but she was more intent on finding the right key. When one fit the lock and clicked it open, she wasted no time and threw the door open. Lhean emerged looking better than he had when she’d last seen him. The chocolate must have done him some good.
She was ready to run. They had to make for the museum before Silk’s alarm sent hordes of guards after them, but Lhean caught her arm, anchored her.
“We’ve got to—” she began.
He placed his hand on her brow. “The taint has filled your being with darkness.”
“That’s fine, but—”
“Shhh. Peace, Galadheon.”
His touch lightened her, lifted some of the darkness that had been eating at her, soothed her. She thought of the shade beneath the greenery of the summer forest. A quiet breeze, a stream trickling nearby.
He removed his hand. “Now we go,” he said.
She nodded. “Now we go.”
• • •
Karigan and Lhean ran through corridors, she holding on to him to keep them both faded. Somehow his presence, being in contact with him, helped stave off the darkness of before, made her lighter and less weary.
They paused by the dragon fountain, surprised to see it overflowing and no one tending it.
“Odd,” she murmured, stepping around puddles. “I wouldn’t expect such a failure in the palace.”
“It’s not a failure,” Lhean said, gazing at the erratically flowing fountain. “Something has been unleashed.”
“Something has been unleashed? What is it?”
“A power. I have sensed that this empire circulates its etherea through its water systems. These fountains, the lake, the canals in the city, and perhaps to a smaller degree the areas beyond. It is concentrated, however, within the city.”
That explained all the fountains and canals, but she had no time to admire the concept, for she detected the onrush of booted feet pounding marble floors in their direction.
They pelted down the corridor, sliding to a stop at the museum doors. She tried the handles.
“Locked,” she muttered.
Just then she perceived a shadow emerging from another doorway, and she whirled, raising her staff to strike.
“Karigan?” a familiar and very welcome voice queried.
“Cade!” She dropped her fading. “You made it.”
“Yes, I—”
“We have to get in—stand back.” She smashed the handle of the bonewood through the glass, then reached inside to jigger the lock. By the time she tripped it and pulled the door open, their pursuers had entered the corridor.
“In!” she cried, pushing Cade into the museum after Lhean.
She slammed the door shut and bolted it, not that it would thwart anyone for long.
“We’ve got to barricade these doors.”
Cade was already pushing a display cabinet across the floor. Lhean joined in to help, Karigan adding her strength. It effectively blocked the door. They pushed another display case in front of the cabinet.
“Lhean, the moondial is—” she began, but he was already running toward the back of the museum.
As a final measure, Karigan and Cade rolled Ghallos the p’ehdrose across the floor to supplement the barricade.
As they worked, Karigan asked, “Where’s Fastion? And your witch?”
“They went their own way,” Cade replied and then explained.
When he finished, she nodded. Arhys and Lorine would be in excellent hands with Fastion. As for the witch? Who knew?
Just as soon as they pushed Ghallos in place, the enemy began banging on the doors. Karigan and Cade glanced at one another, and then ran for the back of the museum. When Cade vanished from her side, she paused to look back and saw him removing a longsword from a display. He grinned at her and saluted. At the sound of breaking glass, they picked up their pace past exhibits, past the entrance to the museum library, and past the aviary of the hummingbirds.
When they ran beneath the arch into the room of the moondial, Cade halted, a look of wonder on his face. Wan moonlight gleamed down through the dome of glass and across the obsidian floor. The four winged statues gazed pensively into the dark corners of the chamber. It was indeed a wondrous sight, but the lead seams that held pieces of the glass dome in place cast shadows across the entire room like a net that trapped them.