Page 136 of Fortune's Blade

The same feeling of utter uselessness that had plagued me this whole trip came back with a vengeance. I wasn’t used to standing by and just watching carnage happen. And Louis-Cesare clearly felt the same.

I saw his jaw clench, and his hand reflexively reach for a sword that wasn’t there because he’d lost it in the battle to get here. Not that it mattered, as this was beyond even a master’s abilities. We didn’t lead armies; that was father’s job. We were a surgical strike team and we needed a job we knew how to do.

And Ray provided it.

He grabbed my arm, but when I turned toward him, he spoke mentally, because there was no way else to be heard. We gotta go!

Go where? I gestured at the apocalypse outside. Steen’s people are all over the place—

Well, we’re gonna hafta figure it out! Dorina’s not all here—

I know, you said—

No, listen. I mean she’s not all here. Her body is, but her mind, the conscious part anyway, went on walkabout—

What? Louis-Cesare interjected. Make some sense!

I’m trying! She can do that here. It’s a new thing. It’s like she throws her consciousness outward and hitches a ride with someone else—

With who? I demanded.

Don’t hate me, but I think it’s Marlowe—

Kit Marlowe? Louis-Cesare said. What the devil is he doing here?

Looking for Mircea. He said—

Mircea’s here, too? In the city? That was me, trying and mostly failing to keep up.

Will you two stop asking questions? Ray screamed, probably because a huge black dragon had lost a fight and been whipped this way, its limp, burning body speeding at us across the fiery city.

We hit the ground, even though it was too late—and it would have been, except that another couple of brawling beasts fell in front of us at the last second, taking the hit. Which resulted in all three slamming into the side of the building, only at a much-reduced rate. That still left the two who remained alive brawling half in and half out of our room, having obliterated the balcony with tearing claws and snapping jaws, and a tail that whipped across the small space and only missed us because we were flat on the ground.

Then they were gone, taking a third of the room with them, because this battle was measured in split-seconds with no time to breathe in between. Or to think about anything but getting the hell out. But Ray wasn’t finished yet, and he grabbed me by the collar of my shirt.

“We have to reunite her with her body!” he screamed, practically in my ear, since none of us had enough concentration left for mind speak. “Marlowe just went through some kind of portal with her still attached!”

“What?” Louis-Cesare said.

“I can see flickers of what she’s up to if I concentrate,” Ray said, obviously trying to do just that as his eyes went vague and almost crossed. “I can’t see everything, but I know enough to know that! And it’s not good on the other side! It’s not good at all!”

I could see that from the expression on his face, but Louis-Cesare was having a little trouble keeping up.

“Portal?” he said harshly, and then I realized that I was one not keeping up, as I recalled what Antem had said. But there were bigger problems right now, like trying to save her body—and ours.

“We’ll worry about it later!” I told Ray, but he wasn’t having it.

“We’ll worry about it now!” he screamed, pointing at Dorina. Who had collapsed beside the bed and was no longer moving.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

“Where is this portal?”

“Back of the cavern, but it’s a long way! Damned thing goes halfway through the mountain!”

“At least we have a job now,” Louis-Cesare said grimly, staring out the window at the battle, which . . . yeah. We weren’t getting through that.

“We’re getting through,” he told me, reading my mind or maybe just my expression.

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