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Cade did not argue Could not, for now Arhys would have a true Weapon to protect her They halted near the dragon fountain Water was slopping over its sides as well, but the slaves had not gotten to it yet They must have been overwhelmed elsewhere

"I will leave you here," the Guardian said, then told hio to the princess and her governess now, before the whole palace is aroused"

They clasped one another’s wrists in a warrior’s leave-taking "My thanks," Cade said

"Just see that Rider G’ladheon succeeds"

Cade nodded, but the Guardian was already away, trotting back down the way they had co the corridor that would lead to the museum Perhaps it was his exhaustion froo to Yolandhe’s cell, it had seeendary warriors

INTERLUDE

As Yolandhe the sea witch, unfettered after her long irand corridors of the palace, the turbines far below spun out of control with the force of water Fountains overflowed, pipes burst, and the strea toward the throne room rushed The very foundation of the palace trembled Outside, waves swelled on the lake that surrounded its island as though driven by a storhout Gosshaes and smaller boats to buck and capsize

All the way to Mill City currents ran wild and high The Amber River threatened to pour over its banks It churned into Mill City’s canal syste currents led the mills to shut down their turbines to protect their machines from the unprecedented force of the water Those who oversaw the locks and dams feared they would not hold and the city would flood

Standing in the execution yard of Mill City’s prison, Mirriam, former head housekeeper for Professor Bryce Lowell Josston, and conspirator against the eainst a wall blindfolded and with her hands tied behind her back The yard sunsmoke, but even as the commander prepared to order his squad to fire, a sniff of the airrains The daht her so to stor out and the last she kneas thunder and smoke

Up in the Old City, where the best engineered drill in the whole eh the remains of the old realm’s castle and deep into the royal tombs, the drill’sdown in Mill City, worked the steaine that powered the drill at its utazes of overseers and archeologists, sorted through the tailings for artifacts The bits and pieces of jewelry, ceraood, but the ultimate prize would require the exploration of the realh, the archeologists would go below to search for the dragonfly device Dr Silk so coveted

Dust fogged the corridors in the sacred depths of the royal tos and queens, princes and princesses, the treasures that had been interred with theht of his taper Joff found hi behind ray robes flapping behind her He had tried to reason with her, then argue against her heading into the sections of the tombs compromised by the accursed drill, but she had not heeded him, and only replied with, "I must try All my research has led to this"

There had been cave-ins where the drill ground through bedrock and corridors It had desecrated ently tended by caretakers, and protected by Weapons, for so many centuries But they, the tomb Weapons, had been unable to protect the to Silk’s drill

As if the drill was not threat enough, Serena had reported sudden flooding in the lowest levels of the to inhabitants to the Village, for safety’s sake The dead were left to fend for themselves, their halls left unlit for the first tiy in place against those ould invade the toainst the power of the ee if it proved no longer safe, with the aid of helpers who lived in the outer world This would go against everything caretaker society believed in It was taboo for the sun Joff did not believe rew heavier the closer they got to the area where the drill drove into the earth The ground beneath and above theeall the cracks in the ceiling, walls, and floor Chelsa surveyed the dae, too, and he hoped she would see reason

"I think I can clih the hole near the ceiling"

No, she had not seen reason "Chelsa, please This could all collapse at any ti yourself" As if to augrit out of her eyes "Joff, I have to This could end everything--the eo"

"I don’t think you’ll fit through that hole Besides, I have to see the artifact for oogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">