Page 71 of Vicious Is My Throne

“You see what you missed the first time, what shock and adrenaline initially masked. The second time you miss nothing, and yes, it is much, much worse. Now once the barrier falls, we’ll go around to the alley and through the back door. Let’s hope he left the pendant somewhere we can find it easily.”

Coz caught me by the arm. “I don’t need to tell you, Commander, you can die here, as easily as you can in our present time.”

“Duly noted.” I watched Tavion shift into his wolf and Anaria’s power cloud the air with stars, the shadows beyond the barrier beginning to undulate like ink-stained water.

“The pendant should be somewhere in Trubahn’s front room, on the table by the look of it.”

I ducked down, Zephryn’s roar loud enough to make my ears bleed. Then the street filled with toxic flames, hot enough I wondered how we’d survived. Luck, I decided, as fire blasted down the main street, crawling up the fronts of shops and spilling over rooftops. My past-self’s cursing echoed over the roar of fire as we moved closer, keeping to the shadows.

Trubahn’s barrier gave way with a groan, and Zephryn lumbered down the street, leaving behind a trail of flaming footprints.

“Let’s go while we’re—they’re—focused on the fight.” We worked our way along the shadowed shop fronts, staying to the darkened doorways and alcoves, only darting out when necessary. I glanced one last time over my shoulder and found Anaria staring straight at me, her mouth hanging open.

“This one,” Cosimo muttered, diverting off to the right down a tight alleyway lined with unmarked doors, overflowing with bins and heaps of trash. I gagged from the stench of rotting food. “We’ll have twenty minutes or less to search. We don’t want to be inside when Zephryn decides to incinerate the place.”

The first door revealed a family cowering in the back room, eyes flaring wide when Cosimo flung open the door, the father throwing himself in front of his wife and children. “What do you want?” he demanded. “We have nothing of value for you to steal.”

“Get out of here—that way.” Cosimo pointed behind us as chaos reigned out in front, screams punctuated by the bellowing of what could only be one very pissed-off dragon. “This entire block is about to go up in flames. You’ll have to get three streets over to be safe.”

“What’s happening?” the dazed man asked, pulling his wife to her feet, hefting a small, weeping child into his arms. “Are we under attack?”

“Something like that,” I muttered, lifting their daughter up and thrusting her into his wife’s arms, eyeing the heavy bag the woman was carrying. “Leave that, you’ll need to move fast. Head toward the main market. There are soldiers there who will help you find shelter. Go now.”

We watched until they disappeared, then moved to the next door. I hesitated, my hand resting on the doorknob, heart pumping adrenaline like a fucking bellows as the roaring got closer.

“The Oracle could be inside,” I cautioned. “If she interrogated Trubahn…she might still be here.”

Cosimo ran his hand over the device hanging from the chain, eyeing the door with the same resigned dread as me. “If she is, get yourself to a safe distance. I’ll hold her off as long as I can, then find you.”

“We need the pendant,” I reminded him. “That’s all that matters tonight.”

“We’ll find the pendant.” He shot me a conspirator’s grin. “Or we come back and try again.”

I flattened my back to the wall while Cosimo turned the knob and flung the door wide. It slammed against the inside wall, hard enough to rattle my teeth as I peered inside at nothing but darkness.

“Subtle,” I muttered through grit teeth. “Nobody heard that, I’m sure.”

“No Oracle, so I suppose we’re safe enough.”

We felt our way through the back room, more storage than anything, then finally reached Trubahn’s overwrought bedroom. The front room, with its front-facing windows, was already flooded with golden light from the fires blazing outside, along with flickers of pale-blue magic.

Enough we saw what we’d walked into.

A single chair stood in the center of the small room, coated with blood, soaking the woven rug beneath.

Smears of wetness led to the front room then out into the street beyond. My nose wrinkled at the faint stench of rot still hanging in the air.

“We just missed the Oracle, it seems. Looks like she worked on Trubahn for a while.” I measured the amount of blood left behind. “A long while. I’m surprised he didn’t give up the location of the pendant.”

Coz peered through the front windows with a sigh as dark forms raced past. “What a fucking waste of life. I swear, I’d better live long enough to see that bitch get what’s coming to her.”

“Let’s hope we both do. But without that pendant, we’re dead, so stop worrying about what’s already happened and start looking.”

I eyed the tapestry draped bed in the corner, a sumptuous affair better suited to the king’s chamber at the Keep than a dingy mage’s bedroom at the back of a Southwell alleyway. “The pendant should be somewhere in this room.” My gaze fell on the small bedside table groaning with a pile of books shoved against an oil lamp.

“It’s a wonder this place didn’t burn to the ground years ago.” I yanked open the bedside table drawer. “I’ll start here; you search the dresser.”

In truth, there weren’t many places the mage could have hidden the pendant, given this room was about the size of a prison cell. The brightly painted pitcher filled with water sat waiting on the small sideboard…waiting for the owner who never returned.

---