I shook all over, but I sheathed my sword, then pushed past him and ran to Jacques. My little batlike friends fluttered down the tunnel toward where the other Dragons had battled past their tiny tormentors and, by the sounds of things, were right around the corner...
Jacques was barely conscious. I got my shoulder beneath his and dragged him down the tunnel. Getting past the hulk of dead Dragon involved me sliding past first and then tugging Jacques after me. By the time I managed that, I was panting, and my legs were losing strength.
Just beyond the body, the moonlight beckoned from the tunnel entrance. We teetered on the edge and looked down—a twenty-foot drop, at least, to the small lake below.
An advancing Dragon called a question to the guy now lying in a heap. I had no time to look for a way to climb down.
Jacques roused enough to glance downward.
“What—” he began, just as I tugged him over the edge.
38
Sebastian
Cara and I had just stepped through the gate into Mierva’s stone-clad alley when Anna’s stab of terror pierced straight through me.
“Sebastian!” Cara’s voice reflected her concern. “What is it?”
I couldn’t answer, caught up in a swirl of flashing swords and snarling sounds. Claws sparking uselessly against scales. Matt, fighting for his life.
I managed to gasp, “Anna and Matt. They’re under attack.” I ripped the map case off Cara’s shoulder and pulled the paper free.
“This one,” she said, grabbing the maps from me. “This is Haki’s copy. He said to use the river tunnel.”
Tunnel. Yes, that where they be. I’d glimpsed the curved walls dripping with moisture. And Anna, swinging a sword?
I fought to clear my head as Cara raised the map against a wall and spread it. The gate guardians watched us with intense curiosity as my fingers traced the estate outlines, finding the river. Then I backed off, following the roads from where we stood.
“If you blast straight in, there will be too many guards to fight through, even for you.” Cara’s voice remained calm, and I seized upon her energy with a sense of desperation. I be not any good to anyone like this. “We’ll have to use the river to get in. And Sebastian”—she captured my gaze—“it’s you Xumi wants. We don’t know why. But we can’t let her get you.”
Talons closing around me, so tight, before the arm swung. Not around me. AroundMatt.I saw the wall coming, but be powerless to do anything about it—and with a flash of pain, everything went dark.
I be halfway to beast in an instant. Too late, I knew it, far too late, but I had to try. Cara crammed the maps back in the case and slung the strap around her neck as she followed me, stripping off her flowing gown to do so.
The gate guards flattened themselves against the stone walls as we blasted out of the alley on eight swift hooves and headed for the river.
39
Anna
Jacques and I hit the water hard.
It was deep and dark. The impact knocked the Satyr loose, but I managed to snag his shirt with one hand. Spluttering, I dragged him to the surface.
He gasped for air, but his eyes were rolling in his head. The moonlight reflected red off his blood, spreading like a pool around him.
As I treaded water, trying to adjust Jacques so I could swim with him, something bumped against us. Once, then twice.
I panicked, one hand grasping for my sword before I used my brain andreachedto determine what it was. And slammed into a lively, highly intelligent life essence. Curious, and eager to bond with me.
Or rather, to do something else. But I capitalized on the attraction, envisioning us being towed through the water...
A tentacle reached up. Jacques gasped and tried to twitch away.
“It’s okay,” I whispered frantically, glancing up toward the entrance above. “It’s a friend.”
“A friend?” Jacques tensed as the tentacle wrapped around us. Then we were moving through the water, faster and faster, across the lake toward the far shore.
