Marcus’ words make me feel as though I’ve been stabbed through the heart.Marcus is doing the unthinkable: he’s openly supporting Selene.I can’t believe it.I don’twantto believe that he could ever do something like this.I want to stand up and denounce him as a traitor.I want to demand to know why he’s doing this, and how he could betray his city so completely.How he could betraymelike this.
I want to do all of that, but even as I tense to stand.I’m shocked out of it by the sound of a bell ringing over the villa, filling me with dread as the alarm sounds.
The resistance has been discovered.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The figures below mill around at the sound of the alarm, bodyguards reaching for their weapons, guards rushing into the central space to try to defend those there.I see Thalia staggering into the space, a guard grabbing her arm.
“We found this one outside!”the guard says.
I can’t let them hurt her.I stand, rushing across the roof, but even as I do it, one of the nobles below slams his elbow into the guard’s stomach, breaking his grip and tripping him.Alaric lets go of the illusion that’s been holding his disguise in place, grabbing Thalia and turning to run.
“It’s him!It’s Alaric!”a noble calls out, even as Alaric and Thalia head into the villa, trying to make their way back through it.
“And look there!”Someone’s pointing up at me now.By standing, I’ve silhouetted myself against the moonlight, standing there in a way that I briefly hope distracts those below.
It also makes me a good target.
Several nobles and their retainers raise their arms towards me and a flurry of magic blasts up at me in fire and acid, cold and force.I throw myself flat again, the magic passing over my head, some of it striking the edge of the roof and sending up fragments of slate in a shower that clatters from the roof, stinging my skin as it hits me.
I roll to the far edge of the roof, almost tumbling from it, then hanging there above the outer compound of the villa.There’s a window near me and I can see a resistance fighter in the room beyond, struggling with one of the guards.
I curse and swing through the window, striking the guard two footed as I land.He goes sprawling and I shove the resistance fighter towards the door.
“Go!”I cry out.We hurry through the interior of the villa and I see other resistance fighters coming out of different rooms, clutching scraps of parchment and letters.They obviously decided to start gathering evidence about what’s going on here, and if they can’t put it to the senate, maybe they can put it out around the city for everyone to see.
But now we need to run.I lead the way down a corridor, spotting Alaric and Thalia as they head towards a door.A guard moves into my path, swinging a sword at my head.I duck under it, shouldering him aside and continuing to run.
I burst out into the open air of the villa’s outer courtyard.A couple of guards are struggling to close the gates and I know if they manage to get them closed, we’ll be trapped.We can try to go back over the walls, but doing so will leave us vulnerable for the seconds it takes to do it.
I reach for the minds of the sleeping geese, waking them without slowing as I charge towards the gate.I hear their honking calls as I summon them to me, sending the whole flock of them at the guards on the gates.I thought before that they were hardly as ferocious as the dogs waiting in the kennels, but they’re more than enough to create chaos, making the guards jump back from the gates and cry out as the whole flock attacks them at once.
It means Alaric, the resistance and I can rush out of the gates, slamming them shut behind us.
“Ballas, get over here,” Alaric says.“Use your magic on the doors.”
One of the resistance steps forward, exercising what would normally be a minor magical talent with plants, making the wood of the gates grow and fuse with vines, effectively locking them behind us.
“It won’t hold long,” the resistance fighter says.“Should we scatter into the dark?”
Alaric shakes his head.“We’d be picked off one by one.We stick together and retreat through the woods.It will be harder to follow us through there.”
It’s strange, sometimes, hearing Alaric as a leader.I’m used to him fighting alone, for his own ends, relying on his personal skills to defeat his opponents.Watching him coordinate the dozen of us so expertly is impressive.
We hurry away from the doors, as crashes start to come from within, the guards trying to break the doors open.Blasts of magic hit them, starting to shatter sections of them, and we keep running, back along the stream, towards the woods.
We make it to the trees and I hear the baying of hounds behind us.It’s clear the guards have decided to hunt us down by scent.Will all the nobles at the villa follow us in this chase?I can’t imagine they will.They won’t want to put themselves at risk when they can just send paid guards to do their dirty work.
I borrow the sight of an owl again, needing to be able to see perfectly in the dark if we’re going to escape.The snares are still set out, and I’m grateful for that as I pick my way past them with the others following.It means the guards will be slowed down by them too.
I see Alaric smile in the moonlight, bending to adjust the positioning of some of the traps.
“If they think they know where their tricks are, they’re in for a surprise,” Alaric says.“Can you do anything about the hounds, Lyra?”
I nod, reaching back for the creatures.Through their eyes, I see a large group of guards bearing down on the woods.To my surprise, therearea few nobles with them, ones who look as though they might be former soldiers, and perhaps members of the Salis family, leading the way on the estates they know so well.
Being in the minds of the hounds is to see the world as a thing made of scents as much as sight.The houndshaveour scent, despite our attempt to lose them by going through the stream.I turn the hounds, making them pull at their leashes, dragging the guards in a different direction.
