He met her gaze evenly. “Don’t make me embarrass you in front of everyone. I’m quite capable of paralyzing you.”
His sister growled but finally looked away, and he knew then that she had finally given in. Janice looked at them, and a sudden sense of urgency passed over her features. “Bring him back in one piece,” she pleaded.
Will and Tiny answered in unison, “I will.”
Janice smiled at the dual response. “Close your eyes.”
Not sure who she meant, Will complied, but a second later he heard something next to him. Opening them again, he saw Janice stepping back. She had climbed up on her toes and pulled Tiny down a little so she could plant a kiss on his cheek. “For luck.”
Will watched his friend warily, worried he might faint. If he goes down none of us could catch him. Laina let out a sigh of disgust.
They turned away again, and this time they made it out the door of the cathedral, but Will’s embarrassment wasn’t quite over yet. As they started down the street, he heard Laina’s strident warning cut through the night air. “Come back alive, you jerk, or I’ll find your stupid corpse and cut off your balls!”
Chapter 54
They were moving at a brisk pace, though Will wished they could go faster. If he’d been alone, he would have run, but Tiny’s heavy frame made that impractical. The big man was in excellent shape, but he simply wouldn’t be able to match Will’s running pace for very long. It made more sense to stay together and arrive without being exhausted.
“Where are we going first?” asked Tiny.
“The palace.”
“Think they’re still there?”
Will shrugged. “If not, then Wurthaven is right next door. The entire city populace is packed onto the grounds. We should make sure they’re still safe anyway.”
“We just wiped out all the vampires, though,” Tiny reminded him. “Wouldn’t it be better to look for the king before he gets murdered?”
“That’s why we’re heading for the palace first, but the king will be alive. Androv won’t kill him until he’s destroyed the city.”
“Shouldn’t Androv be dead already? That spell in the cathedral seemed pretty intense.”
“He’s a wizard,” said Will. “He’s had centuries to perfect his magic, and he has spells that allow him to survive sunlight and pass as human. For that matter, he’s probably protecting his closest servants as well, like Alexa. I doubt he’ll be alone.”
“You said you had a plan to deal with him.”
Will stopped and gave his friend a long, serious look. “I lied.”
“You don’t think you can win?”
He shook his head. “Not in a straight fight.”
The big warrior shrugged, then started walking again. “That’s all right. This time you have me with you.”
Will watched him from behind for several seconds. Mother, help me if anything happens to him. I’d be utterly lost. He hurried to catch up.
As they got close to the palace, they could see that the gates were open and the sentries were gone from the walls. In the direction of Wurthaven, there were flashes of light and the sounds of fighting. Will wondered if the king had abandoned the palace to assist in defending Wurthaven and the people there.
It didn’t seem likely, though. He thinks the city is lost no matter what, including all those people. He’ll be wherever it is that he plans to enact the ritual. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Androv would be with the king, making sure that no one else could contradict his story.
Whoever was attacking Wurthaven was simply part of the diversion. Lognion wouldn’t be there, and neither would Androv. Yet if Lognion intended to work a massive, city-wide ritual he would need a large number of sorcerers to assist him, and trying to do it from some point on the city’s walls would be needlessly difficult. If that’s where most of his forces were deployed, the king was potentially operating alone.
That meant there was only one possible place the man could be planning to perform his ritual. Will froze.
Tiny gave him a worried look. “There’s fighting over there. We have to go.”
“That’s a diversion, and any vampires over there will be ones that were protected from our ritual,” said Will. He pointed southwest. “He’s that way. If we stop here, we might not make it in time.”
“We still have to help the people,” said Tiny.
Did they have time? Any vampires that had survived the ritual Will had performed would be protected against daylight, so they’d be much more difficult to dispatch. He was pretty sure that Androv wouldn’t kill Lognion until the king’s ritual was done, and the king had told him he would wait until dawn. That was still hours away. “You’re right,” said Will, hurrying forward.
The school gate was wide open, not that it mattered. The stone walls weren’t much of a hindrance to creatures that could leap twenty feet and claw their way up the rest of the way to the top. Dead guards lay scattered about the entrance like broken dolls, and in the distance, Will could hear screaming.
The fox was in the henhouse.
As big as Wurthaven’s grounds were, the populace of the city was sufficient to fill almost the entire place with a light crowd. The vampires, however many there were, were running loose in a giant playground, killing indiscriminately. Will needed to get their attention, for it would be impossible to track them all down in the time they had.
Activating the limnthal, he summoned his shield and handed it to Tiny since his friend had left his at the house. “I’m going to try and attract their attention,” he told him.
“How many do you think will come?” asked Tiny, looking nervous for the first time. “It was pretty intense back at the cathedral, and it’s just you and me now.”
“I don’t know, but if you see more than three or four, maybe you should take the potion.”
“Which one? Oh!” Tiny opened the potion holder and made sure his fingers knew where the appropriate vial was.
“Here we go,” warned Will, then he used one of his prepared spells, Ethelgren’s Illumination. Filling his lungs, he yelled as the balls of searing light soared outward, turning night into day. He didn’t expect it to kill these, since they were obviously protected, but there was no better way to draw attention at night. “Come and get me, you bloodthirsty bug-fuckers!”
Tiny gave him a confused look. “Bug-fuckers?”
Will shrugged. “Would chuckle-fucks be better?”
“You need help.” Tiny’s eyes grew wide. “It’s more than three or four!” He jerked the potion free of the pouch so hastily that it flew from his fingers and broke on the pavement several feet away. Fumbling for the second vial, he slowed down just enough to successfully unstop it and bring it to his lips.