Page 35 of Knightfall
The rug burst into flame.
“Sard! It’s a fire salamander!” I screamed.
The flaming lizard flicked its tail and then ran, directly at my sister.
Fear turned my stomach. I felt light-headed. Sick. No! Was this the creature? The one I’d heard about in the forest? Had someone sent this thing after Avia? “Run!”
My sister turned on her heel and ran, her blue skirts billowing out behind her, chocolate curls streaming through the air like ribbons as she rushed away, screaming.
I tried to run toward her, but the stupid distance spell yanked me backward. I landed flat on my back, hitting my head. Hard. I clambered to my knees, woozy. Where had Avia gone?
I spotted her at the far end of the room, waving the fireplace poker wildly.
The salamander was scuttling toward her like some evil, enchanted living torch. Its nose touched the edge of a tapestry and flames shot up the wall hanging. Smoke started to coat the ceiling in an ominous black cloud.
“Move! Move!” I screamed. I grabbed the nearest thing I could find, my empty wine glass, and threw it in between them. The glass shattered on the floor, startling the creature for a moment.
Avia darted toward me. “We need water.”
I glanced at the pitcher on her washing table. It was across the bed. I leapt onto the bed, hoping I could reach without—I strained. My fingers were just shy of touching. Sarding distance spell! I screamed at the wall. “Come on!” But whoever was behind the wall moved the wrong way. I was dragged backward over the bed.
I looked toward her servants’ entrance. The creature was scrambling toward us. Where were Avia’s handmaids? Why hadn’t anyone come?
Shite. Another rug was set ablaze.
I scrambled all the way off the bed and shoved Avia behind me; I pushed her toward the far wall. “Go through the secret passage. There’s nothing but stone there still, right? Nothing can burn?”
“But—”
“Do it!” I shoved her again, not hard enough to trip her, but hard enough that she ran as I’d said.
Avia activated the secret seam the palace mage had created by tracing her finger over the stones. A door handle appeared. She pulled open the door and turned back, “Come on!”
I didn’t bother to tell her I couldn’t, that I was tied to a stupid husband on the other side of the wall who was clearly oblivious to our screams. I was too busy staring at the sarding living flame darting toward her. The animal was clearly fixated on her. That’s exactly what those men had been plotting. They’d said the beast would go straight for her—
Fury rose in me like a storm. I fought against it. I couldn’t react the way I had with Ryan. I couldn’t blast power. This was one tiny creature, not a part-giant. My heart didn’t care. This thing had threatened my little sister. I reached out my hand. I’d never tried to stop a creature before. Only humans. I struggled internally to control the dose. I pushed out a small pulse of peace and the lizard swayed, as though dizzy—
The door burst open.
“What the hell is—” Declan’s scolding tone cut off when he saw the fire.
Avia froze in the doorway of the secret passage.
I looked back at Declan and yelled, “Multiply sand!”
At the same time, he called out, “Water!”
It was as if someone dumped an entire rainstorm on us at once. The water gushed down in sheets. The fires were doused, and the orange fire salamander went limp; a little hiss of steam escaped him as the fire on his body went out. The water swept him up in a wave. Rather than let him disappear, I scooped up the little monster. He was still so hot he burned my hand.
“Ah!” I dropped him back into the puddle. And, as if he were a sentient creature, not simply a stupid lizard, he ran right for the fireplace and scurried up inside the chimney.
I turned slowly to Avia. Her hair was plastered to her face. Her brown eyes were wide and fearful.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’ve just been nearly burnt then drowned. I think I need a minute.”
“Fair enough,” I turned back to Declan, who had taken a few steps forward and now stood at my side. I looked up at him, his straight, perfect blond hair was bedraggled. His grey velvet coat was ruined.
