They emerged from the gossamer path into a room that smelled of brine and old stone. There was some awkward bumping as the party stepped through, since Kieran had concealed the artifact behind some barrels of arrows and not left much room.

  Raith stood with his back to a stack of salt-stiffened crates and rolled the rope dart once around his wrist, feeling the familiar drag of cord across calloused skin. The fae-wrought head whispered as it circled, low and patient, like a predator that knew it would eat.

  Above them, the Templar Fortress slept beneath a black sky.

  He glanced around the cramped storage room. The Myth Seekers waited in silence. His family. Nyhm crouched next to a barrel, eyes half-lidded, as though meditating. Blue sigils crawled up his tattooed arms like veins of light beneath the skin. When he flexed his fingers, faint claws shimmered in and out of existence.

  Thea stood nearest the cellar door, shield slung over her back. Roots had already crept up her arms and across her shoulders in anticipation, forming barklike plates along her flanks. Her hooves were planted wide, steady. She caught Raith looking and gave him a crooked smile, pulling out her puzzle box and summoning Murder and Mossy, who sat like obedient dogs and waited patiently for instructions.

  Tolliver leaned against a pillar, pale as candle wax, adjusting the cuffs of his nobleman’s coat as though they were about to attend a dinner instead of an assassination. Zinny hovered near the ceiling beams, bow across her back, whispering to Phineas. The fairy dragon’s butterfly wings shimmered in low light. He gave a small trill, then wrapped his tail around her ankle. Hob wore a simple paint stained tunic and carried a rapier on his hip, looking determined.

  Myst stepped through last, to the rasp of her blades leaving their sheaths. She gave them each a dexterous spin and offered Raith a wicked smile. He wondered how she could seem so relaxed before what they were about to do.

  Tolliver’s voice slid into Raith’s ears like silk drawn across skin.

  Whisper network is active. All channels open.

  Myst’s voice came clear through the spell.

  My team will engage the traitors and draw their attention. Wait for my signal.

  Raith puffed up his cheeks and let out a long slow breath. Thea spoke softly to her golems.

  “You two are going with Myst. Follow her instructions.”

  The two constructs trotted to Myst’s side and resumed their sitting. Myst nodded to Durnam and Relk, and without another word the group bolted from the door into the courtyard.

  Above them, a dull boom shook dust from the ceiling.

  Then another one, louder. Steel rang. Shouts echoed through the stone walls beyond the storage room.

  Myst’s voice sharpened.

  Go. Go. Go.

  Phineas inhaled, and a sphere of distorted air expanded outward, swallowing the Myth Seekers whole to cloak the team in invisibility. Tolliver followed with his own spell, a gentle suffocation of noise around them. Footsteps became ghosts.

  Raith pushed the cellar door open.

  The courtyard beyond churned with chaos. Firelight flickered against the fortress walls. Templars loyal to Venton poured toward the main gate where Myst and her warriors had crashed through like a falling star. Raith winced as the beams from Durnam’s eyes incinerated a group of charging warriors to dust in an instant.

  No one looked at the invisible shadows slipping along the base of the wall.

  Raith moved first.

  He sprinted low, vaulting a stack of supply crates, landing in a roll that brought him to the shadow of a buttress. The others followed in staggered intervals. Nyhm a flicker of movement, Thea’s bulk surprisingly quiet, Tolliver a blur that shifted briefly into a bat and flitted overhead before rejoining them, Zinny atop her trusty steed. Hob determinedly trying to keep up with the adventurers.

  North entrance is clear, Tolliver whispered.

  They slipped through a side door and into the keep. Inside was worse. The clash of steel form outside reverberated through corridors as the enemy scrambled to awaken and organize against the surprise assault. Shouts overlapped. Somewhere above, something exploded.

  Venton had fortified the inner keep like a nest. Raith’s jaw tightened.

  They moved through servant halls and storage corridors, hugging shadows. Twice they flattened themselves into alcoves as squads of armored Templars rushed past, unaware of the silent assassins brushing their shoulders.

  Raith’s heart beat slow and steady. Not fear. Focus.

  Tolliver darted ahead to scout as a bat.

  Two ahead. Guarding a stairwell. They’re too close together to slip past them.

  Raith signaled halt.

  The invisibility sphere wouldn’t hold forever anyways. Phineas was strong for his size, but maintaining it drained him. Raith hoped they could make it further before a confrontation, but it was inevitable.

  We remove them as quietly as possible.

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  Nyhm gave a grim nod, and Thea tightened the strap on her shield as the roots climbed over her head and face to complete the armor.

  They moved in perfect understanding.

  Raith slipped wide, rope dart uncoiling from his hand. Nyhm [Flicker Stepped], one moment crouched beside Raith, the next reappearing behind the nearer guard. Blue claws manifested in silence tore brutally into the man’s throat.

  Raith’s dart snapped forward, [Piercing Shot] blasting into the second guard’s mouth and dropping him to the ground instantly. Raith felt queasy at how simple that had been, and paused for too long watch blood pool on the stone floor at the base of the stairs. Thea quickly stepped forward, pulling the bodies into a nearby room.

  The Myth Seekers ascended.

  The higher they climbed, the more the air seemed to tighten around Raith. Before long he recognized that they were nearing the inner sanctum.

  A corridor opened into a long gallery lined with stained glass windows depicting Templar victories. Moonlight filtered through shattered panes, painting the floor in fractured color.

  Halfway across, Tolliver stiffened.

  Magic ahead. Warding pattern.

  Raith’s eyes scanned the hall. Nothing moved and he activated [Read Enchantment], eyes now clearly seeing the ffaint shimmer across the far archway. A detection lattice.

  Can you break it? Raith asked.

  Yes. Quietly? Uncertain.

  Raith considered.

  Time pressed. The noise from below had reached a fever pitch, but he knew that Myst’s assault would not hold forever. He nodded.

  Do it.

  Tolliver flitted forward, shifting into human form. His hands traced delicate patterns in the air. A low hum vibrated through the corridor, almost below hearing.

  The shimmer wavered.

  Raith held his breath.

  The lattice unraveled like mist burned off by the sun. As the last wisp began to vanish, a thread whipped through the air with a sputtering spark on the end. Tolliver shut his eyes and cursed.

  Shit.

  A single note rang out, high and sharp.

  “INTRUDERS!” a voice bellowed from beyond the archway.

  “So much for quiet,” Raith muttered.

  Phineas hissed in alarm as three figures charged into view.

  A mage in crimson robes, hands already glowing with gathering force. Two Templar warriors in heavy plate, shields raised.

  The corridor became a battlefield.

  The mage’s first spell shrieked toward them, a twisting spear of electric force.

  “Scatter!” Raith shouted.

  Thea slammed her shield down. Roots exploded outward, forming a living barricade. The spell struck and detonated, splintering bark and hurling her backward.

  Nyhm vanished and reappeared atop the left warrior’s shield, claws flashing. He raked across the visor, sparks flying, then flickered away as the second warrior swung a blade through where he’d been.

  Another bolt sped towards Raith, but Hob stepped in front of it as was blown clear down to the other end of the corridor.

  Raith’s could only hope the man’s [Divine Skill[ worked as promised as he turned his attention to the knights. His rope dart sang.

  He hurled it low. The weighted head wrapped the right warrior’s ankle. Raith yanked hard, using the man’s own forward momentum to send him crashing through a stained glass window to plummet into the courtyard. Shards rained down, following the man’s cries to an audible thump on the stones below. Raith hadn’t intended to do that, but was not unhappy with the result.

  Tolliver transformed mid-sprint, bat wings snapping wide as he dodged another blast from the enemy mage. He landed behind a column, shifted back, and loosed a concussive blast. The air compressed and struck the mage square in the chest, driving him backward with a grunt.

  Zinny rose above the fray.

  “Behold my cyclops arrows,” she whispered, loosing a crackling arrow. The tiny bolt struck the left warrior in a gap beneath his arm. Lightning spidered across his armor and he fell to through ground spasming to little bursts of electricity.

  “Ha!” Zinny crowed.

  Thea didn’t waste the moment. She sprinted across the corridor, and launched herself over the dancing warrior. Midair, she grabbed her heavy enchated shield in both hands and brought it crashing down onto the man’s helm while landing heavily with both hooves on the breastplate. The helm and armor crumpled, and the man’s twitching ceased.

  Raith got off and [Acrobatic Dodge] just in time to avoid another lightning bolt from the [Mage]. Nyhm spun and unleashed Fang Reach. Blue claws lanced forward like spectral scythes and tore at the spellcaster from thirty feet away, rending through his robes to draw deep cuts across his chest.

  Thea followed up immediately and hurled her shield. It ricocheted off a pillar, struck the [Mage]’s wounded chest, rebounded off the wall, and smashed into his head from behind.

  He fell like a felled oak. Raith thought the man was dead, but he fumbled a potion from his robes and quaffed it down before anyone could intervene. The mage screamed in fury and unleashed a spell similar to Tolliver’s thunderclap. The blast hammered the corridor. Stone cracked. Raith felt his ears burst with pain. He hit the ground hard, vision swimming.

  Through ringing silence, he saw the mage gathering power again. Desperate.

  He’ll bring the ceiling down, Tolliver’s voice cut through the haze.

  Nyhm flickered forward.

  The mage prepared to unleash his spell...and Nyhm flickered forward. Blue claws punched through crimson robes and rended his flesh, but the healing potion continued to work through the damage.

  Nyhm hissed.

  The mage spat blood and tried to speak another incantation.

  Raith’s dart struck his temple.He crumpled. Silence fell but for their ragged breathing.

  The corridor was wreckage of splintered roots, shattered glass, dented armor. And blood. Raith closed his eyes and caught his breath.

  Thea hauled herself upright, bark armor cracked in places but already knitting back together.

  “Everyone breathing?” she asked.

  “One moment,” Tolliver muttered, swaying slightly before steadying himself.

  Zinny landed and frowned. “That was loud.”

  “Yes,” Raith said dryly. “It was.”

  Boots thundered in distant corridors. Raith wasn't sure if they were coming for them or to join the fray below, but it sounded like more than he wanted to handle.

  Side room, Raith whispered.

  They dragged themselves into a small antechamber and barred the door with a fallen cabinet.

  For a moment, none of them spoke. Raith pulled a healing vial from his belt and uncorked it with his teeth. The liquid burned down his throat, warmth spreading through bruised ribs.

  Across from him, Nyhm sat cross-legged, blue claws fading as he exhaled. Blood, mostly not his, spattered his tattoos.

  Thea’s roots withdrew from her head, revealing bleeding ears beneath that slowly stopped thier trickle as the healing potion did its work.

  Tolliver leaned against the wall, eyes closed, conserving what remained of his power.

  Zinny hovered low, stroking Phineas’s snout as the fairy dragon trembled from exertion.

  Raith looked at them all. They had come this far because he had asked.

  Venton waited ahead. The betrayer. The architect of a coming war. Raith tightened his grip on the rope dart.

  Through the whisper network, faint and distant, Myst’s voice crackled amid the chaos.

  We’re still holding, but not forever. By the way, these golems are awesome.

  Raith smiled and stood. The thundering steps had passed them by, and the corridor beyond was quiet once again.

  “Then we don’t keep her waiting.”

  He opened the antechamber door. The corridor beyond led upward, toward the heart of the keep. Toward Venton and whatever waited with him.

  The Myth Seekers moved as one.