Page 173 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
“Most likely,” she agreed, “but maybe not. It might just drain him of the power he should never have had in the first place.”
“Then respectfully, I will have to decline.”
“Min,” said Venus, her voice unusually soft, “come. This is forClay.Clay for a boy you’ve only known a few months.”
“And how long did it take you to realise that you loved Clay?”
Venus went silent.
“I thought so.”
Venus stepped towards her. “Min, think about this. You’re outnumbered. You’re unarmed. You don’t have a choice.”
The guards closed in around her. Aislinn looked desperately towards the balcony railing. If there was any kind of distraction, she could get there. A few seconds was all she needed.
Minerva caught her eyes. Aislinn nodded.
“The odds have often been stacked against us,” Minerva admitted. “And never more so than now. But foolish, dear sister, to think I come anywhere unarmed.”
She extended her metal arm, winding a tiny lever in the elbow, and a blade shot from her wrist. She plunged it into the soft underbelly of one of the guards, wrenching away her weapon and flinging it towards Bell.
The guards were armed—but they weren’t in full armour. It was hot, it was a ball, they were supposed to look the part.
They were exposed.
Aislinn raced towards the baluster, leaping up onto the smooth stone and summoning fistfuls of fire.
She could not do magic inside the castle.
But she could fling fireballs inside it.
Beau understood her tactic in seconds. He vaulted up after her, summoning a hot carpet of flame. Their party hit the floor just in time as he swept over the balcony, covering anyone not pinned to the floor.
Venus scuttled back inside, hissing and cursing.
More guards broke into the room.
“Stop!” Prince Tiberius raced forward, holding up his hands. “Don’t hurt them!”
“Guards, ignore the Prince!” Venus screamed from the throne room. “Take him away, and catch the others!”
Leaving Beau to handle the fire, Aislinn scanned the gardens, searching for a way out. They were swamped with spectators and guards—dwarf and mortal. They were beyond outnumbered. It would be a massacre.
They had to get out.
Think, think.
The others scrambled for weapons as Beau’s heat raged overhead, picking off any guards foolish enough to move towards them. Aislinn spied other forces marching into the castle, determined to defend their queen. Beau couldn’t fight them forever. There were too many of them.
So make it less.
How to incapacitate hundreds of people—when many of them were just innocent bystanders? How to get out of here when a fall from this height was certain to seriously injure, if not kill, most of their party? If only it were dark—
Dark.
Dark.
Of all the people here, only three of them could see in the dark, and she didn’t think Aeron would be much of a threat on his own. The crystals that lit most of Avalinth had been muted for the party. The sconces were all that remained.
