Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Five - Panic at the Ball

Bastion threw me to the ground.

My breath left with a whoosh, cutting off any protests I had to the rough treatment. And then the sylph jumped up onto me and covered my torso and head with his body just as bits of masonry and wood started to rain down around us.

The noise wasn’t as loud as I would have expected, more of a muffled thump followed by a heavy shift from the ground under me, as if it had dropped down half a foot.

Harpies all around us squawked and screamed, and the band's music ground to a discordant halt amidst the shattering of plates and glass.

The moment the worst of it was done, the crowds across the dance floor started to shift and move, rushing towards the exits. Some had gashes and cuts from the stuff falling from above.

“Are you well?” Bastion asked.

I nodded and pushed him off me so that I could breathe. “What happened?” I called back.

He looked up again. I could see the horror in his gaze as he took in the location of the explosion.

The third floor, where the Sylphfree delegation was sitting. “I need to get up there!” he said.

I nodded and jumped to my feet before scooping him up. For all that he was pretty well muscled, and wearing armour, he was still a very lithe man, and short at that. It was no harder to pick him up than picking up a kid.

My legs bunched up under me while he started to protest, and then we shot up and towards the third floor.

I was worried for my friends, but they had all been below, near the dance floor, and they had each other. Rosaline and Awen would look after each other, and I didn’t doubt that Amaryllis would find Clementine and make sure she was okay.

All those worries faded back as my jump carried me and Bastion into a thick cloud of white-ish smoke that obscured everything.

I pushed some mana into my cleaning magic aura and the smoke receded away from us with a wave just as I landed.

“Thank you,” Bastion said as he regained his feet. The paladin didn’t wait so much as a second before rushing towards the back of the room.

The smoke was thicker there, so I followed close after him.

We only made it halfway to the back before Bastion paused.

It didn’t take much to see why. There was someone on the ground. A familiar sylph face, with unseeing eyes looking towards the ceiling.

Bastion paused and fell to one knee next to Countess Evalyn. He closed her eyes while I watched. I... I didn’t know how to act, what to do.

“Captain?”

I’d seen dead people before. In funeral homes and in movies, but those had always been at a distance, far away and...

“Captain Bunch!”

I snapped around towards Bastion who was looking at me. “Can you clear the air some more?”

I nodded. The dead could wait for the living. There could be others who were hurt.

A bit of concentration later and I pushed a good three-quarters of my mana into a burst of Cleaning that pushed out of me like an expanding bubble. The dust on the ground faded away, the smoke cleared, and soon we could take in the scene in full.

It wasn’t nice.

There were sylphs tossed about all over and more than one was obviously injured.

Inquisitor Storm stumbled our way, somehow still graceful despite being quite bloody and disheveled. “Bastion! That one!” She pointed.

Bastion and I both turned towards the far end of the balcony where a dark-feathered harpy was running towards one of the little exits meant for the serving staff.

“After him!” Bastion cried.

I didn’t need to be told twice and kept after the paladin to charge across the dining area after the suspect.

The door was slammed shut before us, but Bastion removed his sword from his side with a flourish. He spun while still running, and sliced up. The door burst apart into heavy wooden chunks.

The harpy was in the middle of a long corridor, shoving a pair of maids aside so that all the plates and platters they were holding crashed to the ground.

“Halt!” Bastion roared as he shot ahead. His wings beat at the air, giving him more of a lead.

I started to bounce after them, wishing I had my spade.

On the way past the maids, I grabbed a platter. It was a big thing, made of silver with about as much heft to it as a plate and with rounded edges. It wasn’t the perfect weapon, but it would do.

The harpy got to the end of the corridor and turned.

By the time we rounded the bend, he had disappeared around a fork. “Left or right?” I asked.

“World dammit,” Bastion swore. “Go left!” he said before he darted to the right.

I shot towards the left and down another passageway. There was a door at its end, left ajar and leading into a much fancier part of the building with large windows and nice vases on pedestals.

The harpy was there, running down the end and towards a large set of French doors leading to a balcony.

“Stop!” I shouted as I pushed some stamina to my legs and rushed forwards.

The harpy shoved a no doubt expensive vase down behind him, letting it smash against the ground and filling my path with porcelain caltrops.

I hopped over them and swung the silver platter forwards like a frisbee.

It scraped against the floor, skipping once before sliding under the harpy’s taloned foot.

He went sprawling forwards, into and through the glass doorway with a crash and a roll, but he was spry and ended his roll by jumping to his feet.

That was just in time for me to arrive on the balcony too. “It’s over!” I said.

He looked up to me, surprise registering on his features before he brought an arm up and swung it my way.

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A heavy gust of wind came out of nowhere and slammed into my chest, sending my right back and almost into the corridor. It was only grabbing onto the door frame that stopped me from being swung all the way back.

“You surprised me there, Miss Bunch,” he said.

I knew that voice.

It had been a long time since I heard it. Maybe a week or two, but I still knew it. “Mister Rainnewt?” I asked.

The harpy grinned. “Of course not,” he said. Reaching into the back of his servant’s jacket, he pulled out a small knife. “I do apologize,” he said as he started to walk towards me.

And then thunder came roaring out from the clear sky.

Rainnewt screamed as a jolt of lightning hit his side and made him writhe.

I looked off to my left, and through the lightning blindness, I could make out Amaryllis on a balcony one floor down.

I gathered mana into my hand and stamina in my legs. I wasn’t going to be caught flatfooted.

But before I could do anything, Rainnewt's body transformed before my eyes. One moment he was a harpy, the next a dark-haired sylph in the centre of a growing windstorm. “Well played,” he said before flinging off his too-small jacket to reveal wings that spread wide. “The world won’t thank you for that sacrifice,” he said before jumping backward.

He darted just out of the path from another bolt of lightning.

The winds were carrying him up and away when I formed a set of nine fireballs and let them loose.

Rainnewt merely flew around them, then dipped down and over the fence between the mansion we were in, and the next.

I got ready to jump after him, but the wind turned ugly and I found myself with an arm raised to cover my face as it whipped around.

What had happened?

I stood panting as Bastion barged onto the balcony and looked around. “Did you see him?” he asked.

I nodded, then pointed off in the direction he went. “He left that way,” I said. “He can shapeshift, and control the wind.”

Bastion paused. “Shapeshift?”

“He turned into a sylph, then said something about the world and flew off.”

Amaryllis was the next to burst through the doors. She looked miffed. Not angry, just annoyed. Probably because her spells hadn’t taken Rainnewt out. “Did that bastard turn into a sylph?” she asked. “Or was that an illusion?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I... didn’t you say that illusion magic isn’t that good?”

“Not usually,” she said. “But most people who dabble in it are assassins and the like, so who knows what kind of skills they have?”

I swallowed, the image of Evalyn still fresh. “Oh, yeah, I guess.”

Bastion hissed and turned back towards the exit. “Thank you, Captain, Lady Albatross, your aid won’t be forgotten,” he said, before stomping off.

Amaryllis watched him go, then allowed herself to slump a little. “You see anything about the assassin?”

“It was Rainnewt,” I said. “The voice...and he recognized me.”

She blinked. “Huh. Well, that’s unexpected.”

“The others?” I asked.

“Fine. I was coming back from finding Clementine when I heard glass breaking. I figured it was worth investigating.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“No problem. Now come on, I’m certain we’ll have plenty of curious stickybeaks asking all sorts of questions before the night is out. Maybe this ball is more amusing than I first thought.”

“People died,” I said.

Amaryllis winced. “Ah. I didn’t know.” She sighed. “Well, that makes it an absolute mess, doesn’t it?”

I nodded. “Yeah. We... uh, I guess we should go see the others? Or, do you think we could help?”

“There are some healers around already, near the duel grounds, and I don’t doubt that the sylph delegation have their own. They do have a reputation for having the world’s greatest healers.”

“Oh, okay,” I said.

I didn't know why, exactly, but I was hit by a wave of tiredness that just dragged me down. So I moved over to Amaryllis and wrapped my arms around her shoulders and stuffed my head into the crook of her neck.

“What are you doing, you idiot?” she asked softly as she returned the hug.

“Recharging,” I said.

She snorted. “Idiot.”

I nodded into her side and just let the stress ebb away. “Hugging makes things better,” I said.

I couldn’t see it, but I just knew she rolled her eyes. “You are far too affectionate for your own good. We should go see the others. Awen was worried about you.”

“Right,” I said as I pulled back. “Thanks for the hug.”

She shook her head. “Don’t mention it. Literally. Don’t. I don’t need a reputation.”

“It wouldn’t be that bad,” I said. “A reputation of being a caring and loving friend.”

“Of being a soft-hearted fool, more like. Speaking of, that Bastion man, what do you think of him?”

“He’s a bit, uh, formal. But I think he has a good heart. He tried to shield me when the explosion went off, and he seemed to care for the others in his group.”

“Hmm,” Amaryllis hummed. “That’s not much to go on. I suppose we’ll have to see. Now come on, I suspect that this party is over.”

“Not the nicest way to end a party,” I said.

“No, no it truly wasn’t. I expect the city guard to be crawling all over the place being ineffective in no time. We should see about getting back home before that. And perhaps we ought to get ready to move sooner rather than later. I have the impression that things are going to take a turn for the complicated, and I left the world of politics and backstabbing for a reason.”

“I bet you were really good at politicking,” I said.

She rolled her eyes, this time right in front of me. “Come on, idiot.”

***