Alistair came out on the same balcony that Felix had stood on earlier. The mist he had conjured earlier was mostly gone, giving him a view of the action below.
He used Aerial Burst to leap down to the courtyard, where he immediately triggered Eclipse Claw at an incoming Baronblade, a woman with a rapier. His sudden attack hit her hard enough to knock the woman away.
Alistair turned to his friends.
Juno and Zola fought against the trio who kept trying to break through their attacks. Alistair quickly joined them and hit the three trainees with Rain of Blades.
“Dang,” Juno said as he lowered his wand as Alistair’s attack eviscerated the trio. Desolara, who had climbed up the wall, hit a crossbow wielding Baronblade with her stinger, causing the man to fall to the courtyard and land on one of the other downed combatants.
Squish… Ziggy said, the sound of the slime indicating that it too noticed just how hard that landing had been.
“How did it go?” Zola asked.
“It went,” Alistair told her, who was still processing the sheer amount of people Ghost had just killed. He wondered if the information of what had actually happened would ever reach Juno or Zola. He could only hope that whoever discovered this, if it actually made it to Juno’s father, that the older Stonewind wouldn’t share that particular detail with his son.
“I was wondering when you would come,” Juno said as he kept his wand trained on the entrance to the estate, the boy’s cheeks red from all the action. “I knew you’d kick his ass, though. Wasn’t worried about that.”
“We need to get back to Kanda,” Zola said. “There is a group that left. I’m going to assume they were going for her.”
“Do you think they’ll kill her?” Alistair asked.
“I hadn’t really considered that.” As nonchalant as ever, Zola pointed to one that someone who came out on the wall walk.
Zapp!
“Dang, Zee, you’ve got a killer instinct. You might need a nickname,” Juno told her. “Wraith, Ghost, and…”
“Haunt,” Zola said. “But we don’t have time for nicknames. If we did, Wraith, Ghost, and Haunt.”
Ghost: Good codenames. Approved.
“Works for me,” Alistair said. “Let’s check on Kanda. Should I send her a Spectral Text?”
“Absolutely not,” Juno said. “That would be hella awkward with what we did. Wait for her to respond to you.”
“Agreed,” said Zola.
Alistair glanced around again. “Noctarii?”
“You called?” the fae said as he appeared seemingly out of thin air.
“Fly ahead. Warn us if we are about to come upon something. We are returning to where we left Kanda.”
“I was wondering where Candy was. Sure. I’ll be your scout.”
Squish!
“Hi, Ziggy; bye, Ziggy,” Noctarii said as he vanished.
“Lionel?” Alistair asked aloud.
The Abyssal summon formed out of a pool of darkness. “Everyone here has been incapacitated, in case you are wondering.”
“Good. Stay with us, and only do something if we are attacked.”
“As you wish.” Lionel melted away, and the three left after Juno returned Desolara to his chest.
They were just about to head out the front entrance when Noctarii returned. “People are gathering outside. Which makes sense considering all the noise. We need to find another door, something to circle around them.”
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“This way,” Lionel said, appearing somewhere off to the right. “Some of the assassins used this entrance. I believe it heads underground.”
“Noctarii, move ahead and let us know where it lets out. I’m going to assume it’s in the vicinity,” Alistair said as he repeated Ghost’s words in his head.
“Gotcha!”
The three Fledglings reached a cellar. Upon opening the cellar door, the wide, imposing staircase and the cool draft from below made it immediately clear—this was no ordinary cellar. They moved inside to find evidence of what Lionel had been up to as they passed by several trainees.
“You were busy,” Juno told Lionel, who had apparently spoken with him earlier when the two summons had moved to the courtyard.
“I told you I would be,” came a reply from the shadows.
“What happened exactly?” Zola asked Alistair. “With Felix.”
“Later. We need to get out of the city,” Alistair told her, yet again echoing Ghost’s words.
For once he was glad the assassin fed him answers. So much had happened in such a short amount of time that everything had melded together, all of it another mark on Alistair’s psyche that would never quite scrub away.
“The passageway exits near the water,” Noctarii said as he appeared in front of them. “Not far from a little riverside home.”
“Anyone around?” Zol asked.
“No, but they were once there, at a home right along the water. The fire was still warm.”
“They either came here,” Juno said, “or they joined the others to get Kanda.”
“Just be ready,” Zola said, “the fight might not be over yet.”
The three came to a stairs that led up, where they were immediately greeted by a brisk fall evening, the moon partially hidden by a cloud, stars sparkling above and reflecting off the water. Alistair took a deep breath as it all came to him. It was such a stark change from what he had just seen and experienced at the mansion.
Juno took over from there. “This way. I know a shortcut. I had a friend who lived in this neighborhood, you know.”
“I figured you might,” Zola told him.
“Why? Because of where I come from?”
“Not exactly. Because you are friendly. I actually meant it as a compliment,” Zola told him. “It’s one of your best traits, you know, how friendly you are and easy to get along with.”
“Until I turn into Wraith,” he said, his voice with an edge to it. “Then I’m all business.”
Ghost spoke: “Wraith. We shouldn’t go directly to Kanda. We need to go somewhere that we can get a view of what’s happening. If we move one street over, we will probably be able to find a rooftop. I would send one of the summons ahead, but if Kanda is freed, she’ll have Daisy out.”
“Good call, Ghost. What do you think, Haunt?”
Zola actually changed her voice a little, which sounded funny. “Sounds good to me. Lead the way, Ghost. Or Wraith. Who is in charge here?”
“I got it,” Ghost told her. He led the two on a path that ran adjacent to the alleyway, where he found a rooftop that would be easy enough to scale. Ghost was the first to climb it, followed by Juno, and finally, Zola.
“This is totally some shit Ghost, Wraith, and Haunt would do. Totally,” Juno said as they got on their bellies and crept to the end of the rooftop, which gave them a view of the opening to the catacombs.
The Baronblades were there, and all of them had taken a knee in front of Kanda, who was seething as she spoke to them. Ghost carefully backed away. Juno and Zola joined him.
“What do you think?” Juno asked in his normal voice now.
“I think she is finding out what happened, but they don’t yet know of Felix’s death,” Ghost said.
Zola disagreed. “No, they do. Otherwise they wouldn’t be swearing loyalty. Lionel, did anyone escape? Did anyone know about Felix’s death escape?”
Lionel poked his shadowy head out of the roof. “Actually, now that you ask that, there was a group that managed to get past me in the underground chamber. They were fleeing. I believe they may have been some of the trainees who should have attacked us upstairs.”
“What do you mean?” Zola asked.
Ghost spoke again: “Felix had a bunch of men and women that he had tasked with guarding him. There were also two rogue battledeck mages.”
“You took down two battledeck mages?” Juno asked. “You’re such a freaking badass.”
“It had to be done. So perhaps some of them escaped, and they are telling her what happened. By the looks of it, they appear to have a new leader, Kanda.”
“Does this mean we have a new enemy?” Juno asked Ghost.
“I don’t know. She wanted to be the leader of the Baronblades. Now that she is, she may have different things to focus on. She got what she wanted, even though she wasn’t there when it happened. She probably knows that the card was stolen from her. There will be a confrontation, and I’m surprised she hasn’t sent me a spectral reply, but if it comes, I will explain why we did what we did. And I will let you know what she says.”
“Are you telling me that we might have to come back and deal with her next?” Zola asked.
Alistair shook his head, now back in control. “Hopefully not.”
“Boo.”
“Boo?” Juno asked her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Zola shrugged. “Kanda is a bitch and I never liked her. That’s all it meant.”
Ghost: We can talk shit about Kanda later. Wrap this up, and let’s head to the northern part of the city. We need to make it to Marrowstone by morning.