Page 113 of The Vanishing Throne

Then it’s as if time stops. The wall of water slows to a standstill, everything quiet above us. People splash and shove their way through the water to escape, some shouting orders and encouragement.

‘Can you keep hold?’ I ask Kiaran.

He looks like he can barely manage his answer: ‘For now.’

I use the lull to yank at my dress, tearing the top layer the way Derrick showed me. Then I quickly discard the petticoats, flinging them into the flooded street. The remaining fabric fits like a long coat over my trousers, hanging all the way down to my boots. If we’re going to have to fight, I want to be ready.

Kiaran’s face is a mask of intense concentration, his eyes glowing that uncanny vibrant lilac. ‘They’re fighting me,’ he says. ‘I won’t be able to prevent them all from coming through.’

I nod and race through the water to Gavin and Daniel, who are helping Catherine in her heavy, waterlogged dress. People have stopped to stare at Kiaran, at the frozen wall of water. ‘Go!’ I urge them.

Daniel looks up at me as I approach, then glances at thepeople rushing out of the cave. ‘The tunnel leads to the underground river in one of the deeper caves. It opens to the sea. The fae built us a ship there for emergencies.’

‘Take it,’ I say. ‘Don’t stop for anything. We’ll hold them off.’

Then I hear it, the distant rumbles I’ve been dreading. Themortair. They’re coming, pounding through the surf overhead. A massive piece of rock falls from the top of the cave and slams into the water a few feet away.

Oh,hell.They’re breaking the top of the structure so they can fit inside.

‘Kam!’ Kiaran’s warning shout echoes through the cave. ‘They’re starting to slip through!’

A buzzing draws my attention and Derrick flies from the upper balcony. ‘Aileana,’ he pants, flying to my shoulder. ‘Lonnrach’s destroyed the crystals. I can’t reinforce the wards—’

‘I know,’ I say, gritting my teeth. ‘I couldn’t hold them.’ I can’t look at Derrick’s face, not when I know his home is being destroyed again because of me. ‘Help the others get to safety.’

‘But—’

A cracking above us makes me jump. Another massive chunk of the upper rock dislodges and slams into one of the tenements, sending a wall crashing to the ground. Then water explodes around me, splashing high. I can’tsee—

The water settles, and a giant cat-like metal creature rises to its full height. It’s sleek and shining silver, dripping with water as it towers over the tenements across the square.

‘Run!’ I shout again.

Thecat-likemortairbarrels toward us. Its sleek metal body cuts through the water like a blade, sending crashing waves around the city. Its interior gears turn and twist to drive its shining limbs forward at a breakneck speed. The others will never outrun that thing. They won’t make it to the ship unless I do something.

I draw the sword from its sheath in my dress-turned-coat and rush forward to meet themortair.Aithinne appears alongside me, as if from nowhere. Wearing trousers and a short black jacket, no less.

‘Hullo!’ She grins. ‘I didn’t miss anything fun, did I?’

‘Where on earth have you been?’

‘I had to make sure the other fae got out safely with the humans. Now if you’ll excuse me’ – Aithinne winks – ‘this one’s mine.’ She holds up a sword I haven’t seen before, golden and gleaming. ‘I’ve a new weapon to test.’

Before I can protest, she takes a running leap forward to land on themortair’s body. As sleek and quick as a predator, she leverages herself onto its back and hacks off its head in one single swipe of her new blade.

I pause to admire how efficiently she kills.Job bloody well done.

My admiration is short-lived as anothermortairleaps through the ceiling above, and another, and another. I can’t keep up with them. Waves splash high and drench me in frigid seawater. I can barely stay on my feet through the deluge; the spray is so overwhelming that I can’t see the metal creatures through it.

Once the onslaught stops, I barely have a moment to recover before I’m sprinting between the massive feet of twomortair. I arc my sword to cut them down at the ankles. The blade slices through them easily; the scent of scorched metal overwhelms my senses.

Metal groans above me as themortairfall, their limbs thrashing in the water. I shield myself to block the water, the salt searing my eyes. Too late I notice amortairraising a paw right at me. The light of its weapon whirls fast in its palm.

Damnation! I dive for the water, rolling hard across the wet cobblestone street.

BOOM. The tenements above me shatter and fall. Rock slams into the ground around me. Someone grabs my arm from behind.Kiaran. He shields my body with his as a wall of the building breaks over his back.

He lifts it off with an irritated groan. ‘Ihatethese damn things.’

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