Page 123 of Rhuyin

His face jerked toward the door where Hel stood, eyes wide in surprise. His gaze flitted over Aurelius, who was now thoroughly encased in stone.

“Nice job,” he said as wed headed out the door.

I looked closely at the two guards in the hall whose bodies were still up right. I saw a glint of stone and metal peeking out of their skin. I shuddered with the realization that they were pierced through with metal or stone, like marshmallows on a stick.

Note to self: Never make your partner mad.

Chapter 37

Luke

Freeing the eunuchs and slaves was the easy part. Convincing them that they did not want to remain in the building once our Fire Mageia began their work was hard.

Smoke had begun to fill the room we were in. Most of the slaves were so traumatized from past punishment that they were literally too terrified to leave the House.

Maia ended up losing her patience and began shooting small fireballs at them to get them to leave the basement through the tunnels I created. Once underground I finally felt like I could breathe easily once more. I sealed the opening behind us so that the fire and smoke wouldn’t follow us.

Shortly after we heard a thunderous “BOOM!” and dust and rocks fell from overhead.

“Luke?” I heard Master B’s voice through the headset. The thing was amazing!

“I’m here,” I responded.

“That was the wagon. You should be safe from pursuit for a while.”

The bottom of Master B’s wagon had been packed with explosives. It had been parked strategically near the building to help cover our escape.

“Meet you at the rendezvous,” I replied.

“There are fire alarms going off all over the city,” Hel said, grimacing. “They’re playing havoc with my sense of hearing.”

“We know where we’re going, don’t worry,” I said, nodding at Elex.

My brother smiled at me.

“All those hours cleaning out the sewers finally pays off,” he said.

I couldn’t help but grin.

Our Fire Mageia created balls of fire to light our way, and we began the trek to the Legion. Shedding the Poseidon persona had been a lot easier than putting it on. Having Rhu’s support had made all the difference to me. He had kept me from freezing up in the Gold Room and I would always be grateful to him for that.

A few blocks away from the House I found an exit that led to the surface. We left Kyris and Stergiou with the other slaves and eunuchs, along with a few Air Mageia to keep the unwilling bound until we returned. We couldn’t take the chance that one of them would alert the Elusians to our plans.

We reached the Legion and paused to consider our plan of attack.

“I can create tunnels wherever we want them,” I said. While killing Aurelius had been emotionally exhausting, physically I was in good shape.

“Do we burn it, too?” Rhu asked.

I shook my head.

“The Legion buildings are primarily made of stone. Unless we went room to room setting fire to combustibles, it would be pointless.”

“So we need a way to evacuate the Mageia and take out the guards,” Elex said. I nodded in agreement.

“Do you think the Air Mageia can silence and control all the guards at once?”

Elex shook his head.