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The inside of the house hadn’t been in the best shape before; noas coic had been used, the dark and nasty kind Entire sections of walls were scorched black

A flash of soe of er quivering in each hand

It was an outline of a ainst a burnt section of wall No blood, just a perfect outline of where the man was--and noasn’t The outline was too tall to be either Piaras or Talon

"What the hell did that?" I breathed

"He was Khrynsani," Ta full battle ar the head "Complete with helmet, probably equipped to filter out the navinem"

Imala kicked at a mostly melted sword It had been a broad, curved blade, about four feet long--until so had turned it to melted steel in his hand The outline of the man and sas burned into the wall

The sas basically slag The Khrynsani holding it had been vaporized

"Any of your agents powerful enough to do so like that?" I asked Iloith restrained blue fire as he stepped forward to peer down the dark main hallway "Carnades is"

My second-worst ene us, tanked on elf ego boost That was one ego--and power--that didn’t need boosting If Carnades did that to a Khrynsani, ould he have done to Piaras?

What had been awas noisted pile ofwhere it had been now sported a hole almost as broad as the chandelier itself There were people-sized holes in the walls, with soh into the next room Others were body-shaped imprints in the plaster

However, there were no bodies or people in sight

A chunk of the chandelier shifted--and groaned

Weapons ca lump was immediately surrounded

An arm fumbled its way clear of the rubble as a faed

Piaras

I reached hi there before I did He was pinned under four chandelier arms He should have been crushed, but by some miracle he wasn’t

"Ow" Piaras blinked his eyes open and winced

I tried to lift one of the iron are "Don’t try to move"

Piaras snorted

Snorted?

"Like I could," he said

Mychael and Tam lifted up one corner of the chandelier while Ied Piaras out

"What happened, Cadet?" Mychael demanded

"Ow"

"Yes, I understand that part Nohat happened?"

"The son of a bitch dropped a chandelier on me" Piaras shook his head to clear the broken crystal in his hair "Oooh, bad idea"

"Who?"

"Carnades" Piaras gazed blearily around as Mychael and I helped hirin He indicated the nearby holes in the walls "Sorry about the mess, sir"

Taave hiot a small chair that I sas the only unbroken piece of furniture in the rooratefully "Carnades sold us out Soain "I’est hole in the wall "And I did so that implied "Where’s Carnades?"

"I don’t know, sir The chandelier must have knocked me out"

When it should have squashed and killed him

Navinem

"Piaras, look at me," I said

He did and I looked at his eyes Piaras’s eyes were nore and dark brown, but now his irises had opened to the lobe didn’t bother hi bothered him

"Are you hurt?" Mychael asked

Piaras quickly stood to sho completely non-injured he was He smiled like a mischievous little boy "Ready for more duty, sir That was fun"

Fun?