Karigan did not pause but dashed past Lhean who was studying the moondial. In the captain’s riddle, she was to seek the scything moon. She hoped Lhean knew which of the crescents was the scything moon. She halted at the display case that held her saber. She broke the glass and lifted out the weapon that was as familiar to her as an old, broken-in pair of boots. She swept the blade through the air, joyful to have an old friend in hand once again.
A screech and crash, and shouting at the museum entrance, brought her back to the present. Cade was already trying to push a display case beneath the arch, but the span was too wide—they’d never be able to block it adequately.
“Lhean?” she asked anxiously.
“It is a puzzle,” he said, his voice and demeanor strangely calm. His gaze followed the phases of the moon laid out on the floor. “I cannot read what pieces of time these lead to. It may be that their having been moved from Castle Argenthyne disrupted—”
A sense of discord rippled across Karigan’s flesh, raising the hairs on her arms, like a god’s hand sweeping across her mortal soul.
“Lhean?”
“Yes, I felt it.” He was now kneeling by the moon phases, hovering over one of the crescent moons. He remained unperturbed by that strange sensation, as well as by the commotion at the museum entrance. “Whatever was unleashed earlier is expressing its—herself.”
“You must find us a piece of time,” she said. “They’re going to be on us any minute.”
“I know.” He remained impossibly serene.
Karigan trotted to where Cade was moving another case and helped. They exchanged worried smiles.
“Is the Eletian going to find our way out?” Cade asked.
Karigan wished she could be as calm as Lhean. “I don’t know. I really don’t.” She glanced back at Lhean, kneeling on the floor. Beside him stood the ghostly figure of Yates, gazing back at her. The residue of dream came back to her, of when she was last in this room. “Laurelyn!”
“What is it?” Cade asked.
“A gift—the ice-glazed moon!” she cried at Lhean. “The ice-glazed moon!”
“An elder name,” he said. Beside him, the ghost of Yates faded away.
“Do you know it?”
She did not hear his response for there was another great crash near the entrance. She peered through the gloom to see that the enemy had toppled Ghallos and were leaping over him.
“Do not break anything else,” came Silk’s anxious voice. “Just get the prisoners!”
Cade had a gun, which he aimed out into the museum. The silver of the weapon flared, hurting her eyes. He’d leaned his longsword against their barricade, close at hand.
“About half a dozen of them,” he said, “plus Silk and a pair of Enforcers.”
Not good odds. “I’m going out there,” she said.
“What? No!”
Shots rang out as Silk’s men ran toward their end of the museum. Karigan faded out and climbed over the barricade. When she landed lightly on the other side, bullets whizzed by her. She crouched to make herself as small a target as possible. They might not be able to see her, but she understood that even wild shots could hit a mark.
Her saber in one hand and the bonewood in the other, she ran toward the enemy. So only six men and two Enforcers, which meant that although these were not good odds, the emperor’s guards did not rate them so great a threat that more had been sent. The first man she encountered, she tripped with the bonewood, and his cry caught the attention of the others. They swung their weapons around in her direction.
Uh oh. Silk must have informed them of her ability.
A shot rang out from behind her and one of the men dropped. She glanced back and saw Cade toss his gun aside and pick up his sword. She ran to the next closest guard, and her sword, like a song in her hand, took him down. The remaining men shouted in confusion, but were more disciplined in their shooting than Mr. Howser had been. They did not take down any of their own.
Karigan’s blade passed through the rib cage of another guard. As he slid off her sword, the lights were thrown on, and she found herself surrounded and very visible. Cade had also climbed over the barricade, his ancient sword held in a position of readiness, a hard gleam in his eyes she had never seen before. He was prepared to die in this fight. She could sense it. She knew it.
“We can see you, Miss G’ladheon,” Silk called out from his location near the light lever.
Guns and the eyestalks of the Enforcers, were aimed at her and Cade. She dropped her fading. It would not aid her now. Though her sword and staff were useless against the firepower of the empire, she did not lower them.
Acceptance descended on her. Like Cade, she realized this was the end. She wasn’t going home, it was going to end right here. A bead of sweat trickled down her temple as she stared into the barrel of the nearest gun. She would, she decided, die fighting.
One of the Enforcers sprang over bodies and landed in front of her. It opened a hatch and ejected a net. The weight of it threw her down.
Damnation! She frantically tried to pull it off, but every movement just entangled her further. The mechanical held Cade off with one of its legs, using it like a sword to parry his blows.
“Hold fire,” Silk ordered as his men advanced. “We’ll take them alive if we can.”
Cade’s longsword clattered against the Enforcer’s leg even as the mechanical dragged Karigan closer. She poked the bonewood through the net and whacked it against the central orb with a resounding clang. The mechanical paused, swiveled its eyestalk toward her, and appeared to be opening another hatch.