That tunnel led to the harbor and freedom.

“Piaras?” I whispered.

Silence.

“Piaras!”

“I’m right here.”

“Why didn’t you answer me?”

“You told me not to talk.”

Couldn’t fault his logic. “We need to cross—”

Sirens wailed and lightglobes set into the walls flashed red. Prison break discovered.

I swore. “Take my hand. I can’t see you and we can’t get separated.”

He did and we ran.

Shouts and the pounding of booted feet joined the sirens. One voice bellowed over the chaos.

“Lockdown! Lockdown!”

The sirens went ominously silent, though the red lights continued to flash. Then I saw them, descending from the top of every hall opening and doorway. Gate wards. Glowing green and nasty. They looked like the bars of a jail cell, except these bars made sure magic users stayed put.

We ducked under one gate ward and ran faster.

“One to go,” I panted.

It was on the other side of an open office area. It was going to be close, too close.

“We can’t make it holding hands,” came Piaras’s voice from beside me. “Let me go.”

He was right. I didn’t like it, but I did it.

I dove under the ward and it hissed when it reached the marble, leaving black scorch marks on the floor.

“Piaras?” I whispered.

The sharp point of a blade pressed into the back of my neck. I froze. I was still on my belly. Two pairs of black boots stepped into my line of vision.

“Put your hands behind your back,” ordered a deep, male voice from above me. “Slowly.”

I couldn’t see the speaker, but both sets of boots were military issue. One of those boots planted itself in the middle of my back, knocking the air out of me, and pinning me to the floor like a bug.

“I said hands behind your back!”

I heard two sharp thumps of a blackjack, two grunts, and then two unconscious embassy guards were sharing the floor with me.

“It was the least I could do after punching you in the balls.” Piaras sounded pleased with himself.

I wanted to smack him. I wanted to hug him. I couldn’t see him, so I couldn’t do either one.

I got to my feet. “We’re almost there. Stay close.”

Set into the wall just ahead was a curved alcove with a bench. Cozy. According to the blueprints, that coziness came complete with its own concealed door. Tanik said the trigger looked like a knot in the wood. There it was. I pressed and a small section of the bench and wall opened into darkness. I might just have to start liking Tanik Ozal.

We went through and the wall clicked securely closed behind us.

“Will they look down here?” Piaras asked almost too softly to be heard.

“I don’t know, but let’s act like they will.”

I had to risk making a lightglobe. It was completely dark and a light would announce us to anyone lurking down here, but I’d take that over falling and breaking a leg.

I focused on my palm. A spark bloomed and wove itself into a sphere. I could see Piaras now. “Your fifteen minutes of invisibility must be up,” I told him.

Piaras looked down at himself. “That timed out right.”

“Yeah, it did. Take off the pendant and put it somewhere safe. You should be able to use it again in another hour. Hopefully you won’t need to.”

I smelled damp earth, wooden crates, and not much else. I shone the globe in an arc in front of us to get my bearings. I saw something on the floor and stopped.

Piaras saw what I saw and went for a dagger. I thought it was a good idea and joined him.

A dead elf was sprawled on the edge of the globe’s light. We moved closer. Oh yeah, he was definitely dead, and from the blood still pooling around him, he hadn’t been that way for long. He was lying on his side. I used the tip of my boot to roll him the rest of the way over. Piaras sucked in his breath.

I recognized him. He had been one of Banan Ryce’s boys. A Nightshade.

He’d literally been sliced to ribbons.

The first cut hadn’t killed him, and neither had the next dozen or so. I thought it was a safe assumption that the slit throat had done the trick. From the angle of the cuts, the blade had been razor sharp and curved. Someone liked to play with their prey first. I increased the globe’s glow. Farther down was another corpse.

The lightglobe would announce us to what was down here, if it hadn’t already. Dousing it would leave us fumbling in the dark; and the dark would just make the things that’d killed the Nightshades more comfortable while they killed us.

I exhaled. We’d probably be safer back in the embassy. Taltek Balmorlan was the lesser of the evil that was down here with us.

Playful, sadistic bastards with curved blades.

Khrynsani.

Chapter 24

Piaras swallowed hard and stared at the body. He didn’t know what had killed the Nightshade, and I was going to tell him. He needed to know. From talking to Tanik, I knew there were two ways into, and out of, the embassy basements— through the embassy itself or through the harbor tunnel.

Khrynsani goblins certainly hadn’t strolled in through the front door of the elven embassy. That meant there was an undetermined number of Khrynsani between us and our only way out.

I had plenty of questions, no answers. One question rudely elbowed its way to the front of my mind. What the hell were Khrynsani doing under the elven embassy?

Piaras started to say or ask something.

I shook my head with the least motion possible. Piaras remained absolutely still, his dark eyes intent on shadows where there could be anything or nothing.

I dimmed the lightglobe and motioned for Piaras to follow me. There were two crates stacked on top of each other that would give us some cover but still let us see anything coming at us. Maybe. Goblins were fast, especially these goblins.

I stood on tiptoe, my lips next to his ear. “Khrynsani.” I said it in a whisper so light that I barely heard it.

Piaras’s only sign that he’d heard was a single nod. I was impressed. Though after being arrested, kidnapped, imprisoned, charged with murder, and interrogated, and escaping in the span of just a few hours, being told there were murderous goblins in the basement couldn’t come as that big of a shock.

Time for a brilliant plan, Raine. Problem was, the bad guys were sitting back with the good cards and a heaping pile of chips. We were stuck with a really crappy hand and were down to our last, lousy chip.

I was at the top of the Khrynsani’s most-wanted list, and worse yet, their boss wanted me alive. Rudra Muralin had used Piaras to attack Justinius, but I didn’t know if he had an interest in Piaras beyond that, though Muralin knew that gifted spellsingers like Piaras were rare and highly prized.

Highly prized for their voices—the sweet magic.

Oh hell.

I knew why the Nightshades were down here.

I knew why the Khrynsani were down here killing Nightshades.

I knew Piaras and I didn’t need to be anywhere near here.

Sarad Nukpana said Muralin had come to Mid to reclaim what my father had stolen from him. Muralin had no use for the pitiful efforts of a starved Saghred. He needed it at full power, and for that he needed sacrifices. And the Saghred liked nothing better than spellsingers. Banan Ryce and his Nightshades had been gathering spellsingers. Tonight they’d captured three more. What better place for the Nightshades to keep their growing collection than under the one building on the island that Mychael, his Guardians, and the city watch couldn’t legally search.

Banan Ryce had done the work; Rudra Muralin was moving in to reap the benefits. When the Nightshades had stormed the dressing rooms at Sirens, Muralin had said that once again elves were unknowingly doing his work for him.

Ugly didn’t begin to describe how bad this was going to get. Bloodbath sounded about right. Me, Piaras, and those spellsingers were going to be caught in the middle.