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The field that Arvil had chosen to display ay from where the brown and dry-leaved drakus plants were Not that far, really, but none of his guests would be seeing any of that Farzi, Nenzi and the others had gotten away--I saw the top of the vehicle as Nenzi drove them at a reasonable pace toward the plantation

The plants were as high as my shoulder in the field--they were scheduled to be harvested in two days More than tall enough to hide eight lion snakes as they made their way toward an old bus I was thankful for that I’d found a planet not far away--one that held le around the equator Farzi and his brothers could live there until so any of them to Lendill Schaff or Norian Keef

"Of course you uest’s pretty companion "What you hold in your hand is worth one hundred thousand Alliance credits," Arvil went on when the woman broke off a branch of a plant

"This one branch?" She sounded surprised

"Just that branch," Arvil chuckled His chuckle was cut short as bullets sprayed around us and shouts and screahtened out ofstraight for the plantation I had to do so fast to keep them occupied and pointed in a direction away fro the brown-leaved plants were nearby and lay in the proper direction Everyone aroundas bullets continued to fly around us I expected the Hardlow’s warlocks to send blasts toward the Alliance attackers or the hovercopters I was shocked when nothing of the sort came as I skipped away

"ASD!" Arvil shouted at those around him, "Get down Head toward the buses!" His words were proven useless only ticks later as all nine buses were firebo from the hovercopters too, as Wilffox and his brother looked around for their warlocks This should be a simple matter for those four, except they couldn’t be found

Wilffox was shouting for Astralan, even as he died in theand running nohile bullets brought anyone doho ran at the rear of the fleeing crowd Expensive heels were sucked into da fro the pistol he’d carried inside his jacket when he was hit in the chest He fell, bleeding froerously close to his heart More hovercopters ca the crowd before the to keep as

I was turned to Thifilatha as soon as I landed in the field What I reached out for after turning was the heat beneath the ground It leapt to do as I bid--a volcano in its infancy Lava would have taken perhaps ten or twenty turns to make its way to the surface, but some power I held while Thifilatha reached out toward it, calling it to the surface in aas the cone rose aroundit to answerme with it I could feel the molten rock and ash beneathoverhead as I commanded my volcano to erupt

I didn’t know until then that heat, even the heat of a volcano, cannot hurt any High Demon in their other form Ash and fiery, molten lava spewed fro the hovercopters to veer away I could hear the screa toward et away

Night was falling aroundout tonore the call, I focused on the reason I’d done this in the beginning--et back to them Take them to safety before the ASD came and took them away It made my heart sore to think of Farzi and his brothers, locked inside a cage

The kitchen was quiet as I landed inside it My clothing had been burned away the moment I turned, so I stood naked upon the tiled floor The staff must have run the lasses were everywhere, tossed aside by servants in favor of saving their lives I couldn’t bla one of the white coats the pastry cooks had left behind, I tied it around myself and went to look forquickly frohtened tears away, I frantically searched for et them away; the Alliance and Lendill could co they’d gone there to wait for reeted me instead shocked me to my core

Chapter 15

Astralan, Celestan, Galaxsan and Stellan all stood beside Teeg, who held a pistol in his hand What truly shocked me, however, was that Galaxsan and Celestan had Farzi and his brothers gathered and held in a tight knot The tarlocks disappeared with the reptanoids as I skidded to a stop insidethe checked the charge of his ranos pistol, his face an expressionless one cold Was he going to kill ainst the warlocks I had nothing against a ranos pistol I wondered if turning Thifilatha would do any good, but Teeg’s next words stopped me