Page 24

“If they’re not leading us straight into the Circle’s clutches!That close to the wards, we’ll almost certainly be—” he broke off abruptly and then forced me into a crouch behind one of the few walls still partly standing.—seen,” he whispered as something came rumbling down the road.

Chapter Eight

Isquinted, but all I could see was a bunch of glimmering lights, which I finally recognized as torches smearing across my vision.I didn’t think whoever was carrying them could see us with all that brilliance in their eyes and with us crouched in the dark.And we didn’t have to worry about being heard because they were ridiculously loud.

But before I could relax slightly, shots rang out, some singles and others that were more like short bursts of machine gun fire.Men were cheering, sounding more drunk than the witches, and not all of them were on the road.Some were riding on top of what appeared to be a truck as it rumbled closer or, in one case, from on top of a cage the truck was carrying.

A mage was rhythmically beating the top of the cage with the butt of a gun, adding a metallic clamor that was loud enough to wake the dead.Or to get our group’s attention at least, as they had joined us by the time the cavalcade came into clear focus.And when Pritkin’s hand clenched on my arm, something I barely noticed because I’d just seen who was in the cage.

“Caleb,” we whispered together.

It was undeniably him, a war-mage friend of ours, although I wasn’t sure how I knew.

The cage was rusty and poorly welded into place on the back of a flatbed truck.It looked like it had been used a lot, like the truck itself, which rattled badly enough to make it seem like it would fall apart at any moment.But as bad as the vehicle appeared, it was nothing to the man inside.

Goddamn.

Just goddamn.

I had no idea how I’d even recognized him, as the face had almost been obliterated.Something had gotten through his formidable shields and scorched it up one side, peeling back the skin to show the charred, raw meat inside, along with a flash of bone.And the rest looked like it had been put under a pile driver or, more likely, a lot of fists and boots, turning it into a fair approximation of hamburger.

And yet, despite all that, he was somehow still conscious and more alert than his captors because he recognized us.The dark head lifted, causing torchlight to gleam on the bald head as he stared into the darkness straight at us.I didn’t know how he could see out of those eyes, which were so bruised and swollen as to look completely closed, but he knew we were there.

Which meant that others might!

“Steady,” Pritkin murmured, his hand on my arm.

“He saw us!”

“No, he didn’t.”

“He looked right at us!He’s looking now!”

“He’s responding to the message I’m sending.”

“What message?If you try to contact him, the others will notice!”There had to be forty mages on and surrounding that slow-moving truck, and no way could we take that many.I could feel the magic coming off them from here, a constant barrage like getting splattered with old, rancid oil, and they weren’t even targeting us.

But Pritkin didn’t seem worried.“No, they won’t.Not unless they’re wearing a coat that I spelled.”

That was when I noticed his other hand making small gestures in the air by his side, and caught a clue.He and I had accidentally caused the demise of Caleb’s treasured former coat, the long trench type that might as well have been the official war-mage uniform.They almost all wore it as camouflage for their weapons, and because of the spells they’d layered on the leather to resist hexes and serve as a backup to their shields.

Pritkin had promised to enchant one to replace what we’d ruined, but I hadn’t thought he’d gotten around to it.But I guessed so.Because this one had started to waft about in a non-existent breeze, going on the alert like the man himself.

They both knew we were here, but the question was, what could wedo?

“This is it!”Grizzled Topknot said, clutching Zara’s arm.“We can get the cloaks while everyone’s distracted!”

“Are we going or not?”Zara asked me.

“You could wait for your people to find you,” I said, wanting to hear what she’d say when she couldn’t risk attacking me.“You don’t need to go in there.”

Her lips twisted.“My people aren’t coming.”

“The faction opposing us is in the ascendancy now,” Butch Cut said.“Assuming they didn’t get found out after another portal was activated hard on the heels of the last!”

“If so, they’d scatter and run to the rendezvous points,” Zara said.“If they’re discovered, there’s no reason not to use the other portals to escape.”

“And if they aren’t, they won’t open another gateway, not ‘til the coast is clear, and that could be days,” Topknot agreed.