“We have much to do, yet, and the Plan is still underway. Star, I know that every Doll is free now, but if you all wouldn’t be opposed, I’d still like your help.” Star nodded, so he continued. “Release the vrondi from the Trap, then break the damnable thing for good. Get the prisoners on their way. Release every prisoner held in the dungeons and holding cells, and get them to safety. And—let’s take everything in here that’s magical. Same for the Imperial quarters. We may need their power to fuel the Gates. Get them to Valdemar.”
He looked at Merrin. “If you approve, Duke.”
Merrin allowed himself a chuckle. “I’m a feather pulled along in your wake at this point, Kordas. Am I going to oppose the man who killed an Emperor?”
Kordas glanced to Beltran and replied, “We all got our shots in.”
Beltran still wore the bracers and had the pair of Spitters tucked in. “Might just keep these, if there’s no objection.”
Kordas said, “I don’t know. Last time you fired them, you shot an Emperor.”
“I’ll be more careful next time,” the Herald replied.
Kordas dropped back into himself now that he’d rested a little. The surge of energy and excitement that came with being under pressure renewed him. “Top speed, full strength for all the Dolls now. Get everybody innocent out first, like grocers, Healers, and shopsmiths. Elderly and children, and if there are any pets left, them too. Clear the mews and stables out, and key all the Gates to voice command. No talismans needed except for the refuge. Anyone who doesn’t have a home to go to, take them to Valdemar to be looked after there.”
What he was about to unleash—he suddenly realized it would cause what the Foreseers had warned about. The Palace, and the Capital, destroyed in a hell of fire and lava.
There were a lot of innocent people in the city. And a lot of not-so-innocent people in the Palace, but a lot of innocents, too. Kitchen staff, guards, and maybe there were more nobles like Merrin had been. Maybe more than he would have thought.
He turned to the nearest Doll. “Is there any way we can announce something to the entire Palace and City?” It seemed wildly unlikely, but . . .
“Of course,” the Doll said, and produced a golden cone, open at both ends, from a drawer behind him, while other Dolls emptied every hidden cache and display case in the office. They moved so swiftly now that there were actual breezes. The Gate in the room alternated between Dolls leaving with their arms laden and new ones coming through an instant later. “Just speak into the narrow end. Your words will be repeated all over the Palace and City.”
“I could have told you that,” Merrin said, looking at him with a hint of reproach. “He used to use it all the time to announce a parade when he was sufficiently bored.”
Kordas took a deep breath. “I’m going to release the thing in the Chamber of the Beast,” he said, wondering if Merrin knew what he was talking about.
Merrin went white. “But—”
He nodded. “I know. It’s going to wreck the entire City, and what it leaves standing, its parents are going to destroy.”
“But—”
“It’s a child. And it’s been tortured for decades.” He looked at the nearest Doll again. “About how long after I order it released do you think people will have to get out?”
The Dolls all froze. Finally the one he was talking to spoke again. “Earth Elementals move slowly. The Child will flee, most likely, and the elder ones will move toward it once they can detect it. Then, we expect, they will move to take revenge on the City. Based on the measurements the mages have made of the elders’ movements, three candlemarks.”
Kordas took a deep breath and tried to steady himself. This was going to be the hardest speech of his life. He was about to tell people that they had just enough time to grab what was essential, what was closest and dearest to them, and abandon their homes. “People of the Empire,” he began, and heard his own voice booming outside the office a moment later. “The City and Palace are in danger. An evacuation is ordered immediately. Take what is vital to you and get through a Gate to anywhere but here. Dolls will assist you at full strength and speed if you wave them down. One candlemark remains. Evacuate the City and Palace. Expect nothing to remain here.”
Then Merrin grabbed the cone out of his hands and shouted into it. “The Demons are free! Run for your lives! The Demons are free! Run for your lives!” Merrin operated some sliding pins on the cone, and the device repeated what they’d both just warned—and shouted.
“Why did you say ‘demons’?” Kordas asked.
“Because everyone knows what a demon is,” Merrin said, with impeccable logic.
Faintly, sounds of screaming came from outside the office.
The Palace began to shake. The last glimpse Kordas had of the Imperial office was a rain of plaster and gold leaf heaping onto the carpet. There was no value to gold when the world was disintegrating.
Kordas and his companions got their footwear and other gear back on in the Records complex; one of the Dolls jammed paper talismans in their pockets for the foot-Gate at the refuge. Star accompanied them, snapping off information and updates as quickly as raindrops came in a downpour.
The Regatta’s warships came in to dock and took on passengers.
Dolls used their tremendous strength and speed as polemen to get boats and barges through water-Gates.
Civilians turned up street- and canal-side, and in more than a few cases, their tools, belongings, and trade-carts were tossed into barges by Dolls.
Some of this, Kordas got glimpses of; some, he only heard from Star. The false Golds! They’re at the chariot down by the waterfront!
Kordas bolted out through a Gate to the Imperial Chariot; Merrin followed. “Damned if I’ll let my horses burn,” Kordas growled, while he and Merrin released them from their harness. They weren’t Chargers; the ground shook beneath them, there was fire in the air, and they reared and stamped with growing panic, but Kordas tore off his coat and threw it over the head of his, and it calmed immediately. They knew; they’d been trained. If they had been “blinkered” like this, they were with a human who would care for them and they’d be safe. Merrin fought with his for just a moment, saw what Kordas had done, and did the same, grabbing the halter just under the chin as Kordas had. “Gate!” shouted Kordas, and they made for it, as the ground shook and a hot wind began to blow.
Behind him, the warships cast off after the first loud crack sounded from somewhere in the Palace compound. “Take them,” Kordas told Merrin, and when the new Duke had hold of both horses and was through the Gate to the refuge, Kordas stepped aside to help people escape. The destruction escalated over the next candlemark, and with Star beside him, Kordas stood and watched the Capital die. Jets of steam and smoke erupted from around the City, accompanied by more booms. One very large jolt sent a powerful enough shockwave to knock Kordas off his feet. Still Kordas stayed, coordinating the last rescues with the Dolls that remained.