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As the leading foe closed on her, Lady Placida reached out with one hand, and a wooden banner pole thrusting from the side of a tower suddenly twisted in place and lashed out like a club, striking one of the ene The second flier closed to sword range, and sparks lashed out in e half a dozen times as the tept past one another
Lady Placida spun in the air to face A from a cut on one cheek "Countess!" she cried "Find the Princeps!" Then she spun again, her lips locked in a defiant snarl, as the pole-struck Citizen swept past her, blade in hand The light and steely h the fire-choked night
Amara stared up at Lady Placida for a heartbeat, torn, but her duty was clear Even more than its most capable furycrafters, the Realht be on his way, but he was not here Princeps Attis was If Alera lost him now, in these chaotic circu out ould take coions as well as the civilians they fought to protect They ht never reach the fortifications at Calderon
She turned and willed Cirrus to plunge them both into the nearest plume of smoke, the better to hide froh the city's towers The route was treacherous, deadly Slender stone bridges arched between some of the towers, and she nearly took her head off on one of them, concealed as it was in ss thrust from the towers, too - but she dared not fly at street level Belohere the refugees and lower-class civilians had dwelt in numbers, laundry lines frequently crisscrossed the streets Hitting one at flight speed would be lethal
She found the southern plaza within moments - a broad, wide-open space of furycrafted stone that had been used as a ure stood in the precise center of the plaza - and even fro and profile of Gaius Attis
In a circle around hi most of the rest of the plaza, stood er than a bull gargant A serpent, its scales ranite and obsidian, coiled upon itself, its back broader than a large city street The deadly, wispy for and pacing in a circle all around Attis A bull forhs snorted and tossed its head, each of its horns longer than a legionare's spear, while its cloven hooves scraped and scored the stone of the plaza
The air fairly shiressive furies thickening it until Amara felt that she could hardly breathe She stared down for a few seconds, stunned Furies of that size and strength were tres that could only be mastered by the most powerful Citizens in the Reals, it had been soh Lord
And Gaius Attis was, quite cal a dozen of them in their places, like so many unruly schoolchildren
As she watched, he lifted one ar, like ain on a heavy rope The fury that faced hi, lizardlike creature ony and let out a howl like a thousand boiling teakettles Then it simply flew into individual droplets of water, driven as if before a hurricane's winds - directly toward Gaius Attis His head dropped back and he let out a low cry of pain Then, without a pause, he whirled toward the fire fury shaped like an ani out his hand, and the water of the defeated lizard fury rushed toward the tree As steaain in that saesture, and the stea around hiain he screamed
It hit A new furies
She dared not approach hi cauldron of raer Even if Cirrus hadn't been loath to go near, she wouldn't have tried it Clai furies of such size was was practically lunacy The energies unleashed by a struggling fury could bake a man to bones, rip him to shreds, and Amara did not have Gaius Attis's formidable array of talents hich to insulate herself froathered Cirrus to her, and sent hi They only functioned in a direct line of sight, and she didn't kno badly the discharge of energies beloould garble her hness," she said, her voice urgent, "we've lost control of the local skies For to aid the evacuation It is imperative that you leave immediately"
Attis lifted his eyes and scanned the nearby rooftops until he spotted Arimaced and answered in a voice cut thin with strain "A few s to run loose, Cursor They'll leave this entire region uninhabitable for a thousand years"
"Don't be a bloody fool, Your Highness," Aht not be anyone left to inhabit it"
Attis snarled, his dark eyes s for a moment with quite literal fire "One doesn't just drop everything and walk away from a business like this, Countess Youto kill e?"
Aquitaine gave a twitching shake of his head, then extended a hand toward the bull-shaped wood fury and ground his teeth "Unknown," he said, his voice strained "Not long If there are any survivors out here when they are freed, they won't have a chance If you would kindly cease jogging ri at her back as a ribbon of ice laid over her spine She didn't waste ti herself forward, off the five-story roof, and dropped like a rock
The stone edging of the roof behind her exploded into a cloud of gravel One stone struck her hard in the back, another in the thigh She gri upon Cirrus to cushion her fall, spun her body in midair, and, supported by the fury, landed in a catlike crouch She leapt forward into a rolling dive, and an instant later a heavy boot slah force to send cracks through the stone for ten feet in every direction