Chapter 43: Don’t Knock it Till You Try It

“You’re sure?” I asked the mirror.

My skywhale gave a mournful hum. In the mirror’s surface, I saw the tower we currently stood within. The demon circled above, lower to the ground than usual, but still high enough to be well out of sight.

Besides which, the guards had their hands full at the moment. The streets of the inner city were packed with panicked throngs of people. It looked like Dum had done his job; hopefully he’d be able to make good on his escape.

Less certain was ours.

“No. It’ll be fine. Just keep your eyes open for a little snack, and then don’t stop for anything until you make it all the way back to Lady’s Port.”

Another groaning hum that echoed through my fingertips. “Well.” I smirked. “I won’t exactly have much time to talk, after.”

I clicked the mirror shut, and turned. “We ready to go?”

Electra and Rel had broken down the furniture and grabbed a torch. I wasn’t sure how well the plants would catch—too green—but hopefully some of the leftover dust would prove a strong enough accelerant.

From experience, I knew power-enhancing drugs burned the weirdest colors.

“Ready when you are, boss.” Electra called.

“And not a moment too soon.” Below our feet, the shouts had only grown in volume. Now, I heard the steady crashing of a ram as they tried to break down the door. It seems they didn’t keep spare keys outside. “Light it up, then we’re getting out of here.”

She grinned, setting off a small flame with a spark. Girl Scout that she was, Electra quickly built the ember into a full fire, letting it spread to the hand-carved furniture we’d vandalized. The vines were a different matter, leaves popping and curling at the base of the nearest pillar. With a shrug, I pulled one of the golden vials from a pouch. The others clinked against each other as I pressed my back against another column.

“Bombs away.”

I tossed the vial into the fire. It shattered. The fire whooshed, a sudden gout of heat and light that forced me to cover my eyes. When I opened them again, that half of the room was alight and spreading fast.

I grinned. “Right! That’s what we’re here for.”

“One out of two isn’t bad.” Electra shrugged. “Don’t think they’ll let us go looking for Hawkwright.”

The corner of my lip quirked up, and we climbed the ladder. The last door in the tower wasn’t locked, so in a few minutes, we were on the roof. It was a small circular space with raised crenelations that looked more decorative than functional, not that I’d ever built a castle before.

“We gotta move quick, because I can already feel the stones heating up under my feet.” Taking a long length of rope out from my utility belt, I tossed it to Rel. “Tie yourself and Electra up in that, leave as much slack as you can on one end.”

Rel nodded. “Yes, Mistress!” She made quick work of the rope while I peeked over the parapet.

I saw people craning their heads out of the windows to look up at the tower as smoke started to seep from between the cracks in the stone. I gave them a cheery wave.

“Fire!” I heard someone shout from below. “They set the tower on fire!”

Yes, as a matter of fact, we did.

“What’s the plan, Em?” Electra asked. “Is this some magic teleport-y rope or something?”

“Wrong setting, Electra.” I took my communication mirrors from my belt pouch. The new one that could connect to any other mirror, I handed to Rel. “Listen up: you’re in charge of communicating with our people back home. They need to know when the stampede is going to hit, and which way the monsters are going. Don’t drop it.”

She blinked at me, cupping the mirror with both hands. “Mistress, I—”

I silenced her with a finger to the lips. “This is your chance to fix the mess you made.”

She nodded, passing me the end of the rope.

“Electra! Keep an eye on what’s happening down there.”

She snorted. “Do you want me to get hit by an arrow?”

“Only in the mornings.” With a flick of my fingers, I summoned a small demon made of fuzz, barely more than algae really. It warbled as I tied the other end of the rope around it.

“Lady Via?”

“You know,” I said as I finished my knot. “Lots of my demons can fly, but most of them can’t really carry more than one or two passengers.” I tossed the little ball of fluff into the air, where it lazily floated off on invisible currents of mana. “Especially not if they’re wearing such heavy armor.”

“Shit!” Electra ducked back from the parapet in a clatter of arrows. “Looks like they have a few bows down there after all!”

“Don’t worry.” I heard a crash down below as they finally broke through the doors. “You should be out of here fast enough that it won’t matter.”

“You’ll, wait, don’t you mean—”

The skywhale swooped down, its massive transparent body casting refractions of the sky above. I saw a glimpse of its insides as a mouth opened wide and snapped up the fluffy little demon I’d tied the other end of the rope around.

Skywhales loved eating those things.

“Give the boys my best,” I said.

I had just enough time to laugh at the betrayed expression on Electra’s face before the rope snapped taut and yanked her and Rel off the rooftop.

“I’m supposed to be the heroic sacrifiiiiiiice—!” Electra screamed. Then, they were too far to be heard, rapidly shrinking specks as the skywhale climbed back into the cloud cover. A few wayward arrows missed by miles.

I glanced into my spy mirror, watching Silverwall fall away below, my two dearest friends hanging from beneath the skywhale. Then the rope clasped in its mouth hit the spy scope I’d spent so long painfully assembling, and it snapped loose.

I caught one last beautiful glimpse of the horizon, sun touching the water, before it shattered against the ground. The mirror in my hand went dark, before it returned to being a normal mirror.

“Good, that’s taken care of.” I nodded to myself.

Below, I heard, “Douse it! Put the fire out! Put it out!” That sounded like it would keep them busy for a while.

You might think this was the perfect time to make good on my own escape, but that sounded like a lot of work. More realistically, I did have a few demons that could carry me away, but given how quickly Arlo’s thugs had chopped apart my Gryphons, I wasn’t so sure I’d be able to make it out of arrow range, let alone clear the wall, before my mount was sniped out from under me and I fell about three stories.

My armor was good, but there was still a squishy human in here.

I patted the mirror in my hands once. “You did a good job.” Still, there was some unfinished business for me to take care of. I pulled a vial of golden dust from my waist, weighing it in one hand with a mirror in the other.

“Check the parapets! Make sure the fire hasn’t spread.”

I raised my eyebrows. That sounded like a familiar voice. Not the one I was hoping would show up, though. I let out a sigh.

That meant I had some more work to do.

As the smoke wafting out of the tower turned to steam, I tapped out a long golden line following the circumference of my mirror. Slowly, I spiraled inward, leaving my own little yellow brick road until the entire contents of the vial were used up.

I’d seen what happened to Arlo when he used it, and honestly, I wasn’t looking forward to going batshit insane. Oh sure, if my willpower was strong enough and all of that. Maybe Electra could have stayed in control, but I knew myself well enough to know that I should never be trusted with unlimited power.

Much less whatever this was, shimmering golden in the palm of my hand.

I looked up as the first guardsman hauled himself up onto the roof of the building.

He jerked back at the sight of me, sword practically leaping from its sheath. “One’s up ‘ere still!” Poor man almost tripped back down the ladder when I waved my fingers at him.

I leaned back on the crenelations, unbothered as another three men climbed out of the trap door. They eyed me warily, blades bare, but unwilling to make the first move. Really, who could blame them? If I saw the insane outlander who’d been running circles around me for the past few days standing before me with a mirrorful of glowing dust, I might have second thoughts as well.

Finally, another figure hauled herself up onto the parapet. She was dirty, face streaked with soot and dust, and her arm only bandaged up. Guard Captain Maria glared at me from across the narrow expanse of stone.

I raised the mirror slightly, like a toast in her honor. “Captain, so good to see you again.”

She blanched at the sight of the dust.

What can I say, I have a knack for putting people off balance.

“Who would have thought that we’d end up here, only a scant few hours after I saved your life.” I shrugged. “But that’s just how the story goes, isn’t it? Time and time again, my generosity is betrayed with treachery.” I snorted. “And people wonder why I became a villain.”

“I received no kindness at your hands, blackguard.” She drew herself upright, somehow managing to look almost impressive despite her bedraggled state. “Throw down your arms and surrender, or I shall treat you with far less.”

“Not so much as a clever repartee?” I shook my head. “I can see why Hawkwright gives you all the shit jobs. Man’s probably sitting in his solar, deciding how many lashes to give you for your failures.”

If I wasn’t looking for it, I would have missed how her eyes flicked to the rightmost tower, the one that stood taller than the rest, with arching windows on its highest floor.

Good to know where my target was hiding.

Still, she rallied. “I have no more words for you than this: Surrender! You know not what you hold.” Maria took a step forward. “I’ll not ask a third time.”

“I think I understand well enough.” I looked down at my reflection in the mirror, distorted as it was by waves of gold. “Remember, Via, this is your brain.” My soft whisper disturbed the dust, washing it over the rest of the mirror.

“Kill her.”

“And this is your brain on drugs.”

I pressed my face to the glass and breathed.