He whipped out his sword.
Flames shot up Dyrnwyn’s length.Neil brought the weapon down between Ellie’s legs—and the ropes fell away.
Adam stared at the perfectly severed strands piled around Ellie’s feet.“How sharp is that thing?”
“Youreallydon’t want to know,” Neil returned feelingly, then cut Adam’s ankles free as well.
Yanking Ellie upright, Neil pushed her into the forest of bamboo.Constance burst through the slender trunks from the other direction, her eyes bright with excitement.
“I had no idea chemistry could be so much fun!”she exclaimed brightly.
“Talk about it after we run,” Adam countered.
Ellie plunged through the leaves and branches, sprinting awkwardly with her hands still bound behind her back.Her boots slipped on moss-covered bones.Adam tripped along beside her, Neil at his heels with his sword now safely sheathed.Shouts rang out from behind as Singh Rao’s men organized a pursuit.
Adam jerked his head toward the silver torrent of the waterfall.“This way!”
They sprinted past the moon-like curves of massive ribs, and the bamboo gave way to tall ferns and woody shrubs.Ellie shoved through them with her shoulder as the air cooled with damp spray.
Adam scanned the cliff that rose in front of them, then hurried toward a spot near the edge of the cascade where the ruddy stone was thickly covered with vines and flowering creepers.He plunged into the foliage—and then through it, to where Ellie now saw a dark opening cut into the face of the rock.She stumbled after him, feeling a chill splash of water as she ducked through the edge of the falls.She pressed herself against the damp wall inside as Neil and Constance followed.
“Quiet,” Adam warned lowly.
Soldiers moved closer, their voices just audible over the rush of the water.The sounds drew near… and then crashed off in another direction.
Ellie slumped with relief.
“Wanna get the rest of these off?”Adam turned to offer his wrists to Neil.
While Neil took out his sword and cut Adam loose, Ellie studied where they had landed.
It was one of the rock-cut chambers of the ashram.The space was sized like a deep, narrow alcove, rich with shadow thanks to the vines that nearly obscured the entrance.In the low light, she could just make out a beautiful relief carving on one of the longer walls, where Vishnu reclined on top of a many-headed serpent as he waited for the moment when he would wake to usher in a new age.He wore an expression of restful peace on his face under his heavy crown.
“Peanut?”Neil offered, Dyrnwyn flickering in his hands.
“Oh!”Ellie turned her back to him.Her shoulders flooded with relief as the bindings around her wrists fell away and blood pulsed back into her fingers.
Now that her arms were free, she threw them around her brother.“I’m so terribly glad you’re safe!”
Neil frantically thrust Dyrnwyn out of the way of her embrace.“Careful of the sword!”
Ellie eyed the weapon skeptically.“Why?Will it set me on fire?”
“Possibly?”Neil hedged.“But I’m more worried about it slicing one of your arms off.”
She froze with a quick jolt of alarm.“What on earth would it do that for?”
“Apparently, Stuffy’s sword is exceptionally good at cutting through things,” Constance answered cheerfully, shaking the moisture of the waterfall out of her hair.“That’s how we got out of the stepwell.Neil carved through the rubble.”
“How about we talk about this after you put the damned thing away so it doesn’t serve as a nice handy beacon telling the bad guys where we are?”Adam suggested.
With a flash of mortification, Neil pulled out his handkerchief and wrapped it around the hilt.The sword snuffed out.
Constance tapped her chin thoughtfully.“You should get a glove.”
“A glove?”Neil echoed.“As in—just one?”
“Then you could put the sword out without needing to dig through your pockets,” Constance elaborated reasonably.
