Elrick flipped his hands, muttering an incantation, and vines sprouted out of the obsidian floor at Stella’s feet and grabbed her, wrapping around her ankles, wrists, and waist. She pulled against them, but she was bound tight. The skeleton holding Tarant adjusted its grip to hold him tighter.

“No, I didn’t expect you to be an assassin,” Elrick said, “though I suppose this explains why you never seemed to pay any attention to the reports I gave you to feed the fanatics. And your father?” He nodded. “Yes, it all makes sense now. How pitiful.”

“How much did you hear?” Stella asked.

“Everything.” Elrick gestured to the skeleton. “They don’t just lift things, you know.” He shook his head, an amused smile pulling at his lips. “But an assassin! Don’t you know who I am? Haven’t you heard that it’s been tried a dozen times?”

Stella’s knees shook, her breath a ragged, frosty wind. “I have. Are you— are you going to execute me? The way you did to them?”

Elrick shook his head. “Maybe someday, but I don’t have the time right now. You see, I have just about enough energy stored up to finally get rid of this pesky cult. And that’s largely thanks to you, Stella. So no, you’re too useful for that.”

Stella stared at him. “Get rid of the cult?”

Elrick smiled, a demonic expression on his face. “Yes. I would have done it long ago if I had enough energy. Now I do. I’ll initiate the volcano’s eruption. Lava, smoke, and ash will fill the valley, and the village will be extinct. The only survivors will be those in this tower or the prison, and their energy should be sufficient to help me kick off a comfortable life as a hermit.”

He sighed wistfully. “Sit tight. You’ll be perfectly safe here. There are a few last preparations before I can start the spell, but I’ll be back for you soon.” With that, he turned and went back downstairs.

Tarant squirmed. “I was too late! He’s going to kill everyone, then eat us for dessert.” The skeleton holding him didn’t budge, and he fell limp in its grip, hopeless.

Stella was ready to droop, too, but then she noticed the difference between her vines and Tarant’s captor. The vines were strong and tight, but they weren’t stiff. She could move her limbs as much as she liked, within the limits of the vine’s reach. That gave her an idea. A crazy, dangerous idea. Goodbye, subtlety, she thought, then drew on the well of energy in her diamond and shot the skeleton with an ice bolt.

The ice hit the skeleton right in the earhole, then expanded to encase the skull in an inch of cloudy ice. The skeleton brought one hand up to its face, alarmed, and Tarant made another bid for freedom. But the other hand still didn’t budge, and Tarant remained stuck in place.

“Nice try,” he said. “But I’m not sure how it would have helped if it worked. We’d still have to get past Elrick and all of his skeletons before getting out of here.”

“That was just to blind it,” Stella said, snapping her fingers to make a little fireball. She used the fire to burn through the vines. When she was free, she hurried to her sleeping area. Beside the mattress lay the rabbit scroll. She grabbed it and returned to Tarant.

“We can get out with this. It can take us to town, and we can warn the people.”

Tarant smiled. “Excellent.”

She held it out. “Take hold of it, then I’ll—” She reached for her store of magic, then froze. She’d thought it an immense storage, but those two spells had nearly depleted it. Igniting the rabbit scroll would use up the last of it.

“What?” Tarant asked.

She pulled the diamond out from under her chiton to find its glow diminished almost to imperceptibility. “If I light this, I won’t have any magic left to face Elrick.”

Tarant regarded the gem for a moment, then nodded. “We need to warn the people as soon as possible. Everything else is secondary.”

He was right. Stella gritted her teeth and snapped her fingers under the scroll. It caught flame and pulled them into the void.

They popped back into existence in the town square. Tarant rolled his shoulders, smiling. The skeleton had been left behind. “Perfect,” he said. He ran to a decorative rock and climbed on top of it, giving him a couple extra feet of height and attracting the attention of nearby villagers. “People of Vulcan!” he shouted. “We must evacuate the village! The volcano is about to erupt and destroy everything!”

Everyone in earshot stopped to listen, but most were unalarmed. Some even seemed excited. “Elrick wants to save the whole village!” Cheers erupted, celebrating their impending doom.

“No, no!” Tarant said. “He’s not trying to save you. He wants to be rid of you. He doesn’t care about your petitions, and he doesn’t even want your service. He’ll leave your skeletons to rot beneath a river of lava and ash!”

The cheers didn’t subside. Instead, they spread, and people began trekking up the mountain, eager to expedite their fiery demise.

Tarant kept shouting, growing dismayed, but not losing his determination.

Stella decided to take a different approach. She ran for Vulcan’s Hearth.

The inn was quiet. It was still early morning, and the noise of the crowd hadn’t yet reached it. A few tables were sparsely occupied with people eating breakfast, and Ladon was quietly sweeping between the tables.

Stella spotted Claude sitting at a central table with Promitto, and Audacio at a corner table, his head bowed over a tankard. These might be convinced, she thought. She asked the first two to join her over at Audacio’s table. Promitto agreed immediately, eager to please. Claude shrugged and followed.

It occurred to her when she sat down that Audacio was not there for breakfast. All he had before him was a large tankard. He stared glumly into it, his beefy hand wrapped around it instead of using the handle. The scent of sweat and stale beer hung about the table.

“I need to talk to you guys about something,” Stella said.

Stolen novel; please report.

Claude furrowed his brows. “I thought this was an intervention. Audacio hasn’t left this table all week.”

That caught Stella off guard. “What?”

Promitto nodded. “That’s right, my lady. He’s been sitting here moping ever since the day Fidus died in the fireball.”

Audacio started, only just noticing them. He groaned. “Do you come to gloat? It’s true. I am the shame of Leona. Not that it matters. Leona is finished. My people will be cut to pieces, and the survivors will be shaven and enslaved by those barbarian Scorpons. Leave me to drown in my defeat!” He turned to lean against the wall and took a pull from his tankard.

“That’s not what this is about,” Stella said.

“Then leave me to dwell on my disgrace!” He waved the tankard, sloshing beer against the wall. “I deserve it. I was supposed to die a hero. Instead, I live on, and my people will be destroyed because I couldn’t save them.”

Stella grabbed onto that. “What if you could save another people?”

He glared at her. “I would never join those bald-headed Scorpons. They—”

“I’m talking about the people here in Vulcan.”

Audacio cocked his head, and the other two shifted with renewed interest.

“But isn’t Elrick supposed to save us?” Promitto asked. “I mean, that’s what the priests—”

“No,” Stella said. “He isn’t. He doesn’t want to, and he never has. It’s all a trick.” She turned to Claude. “Remember Tutelan and Dein? How they left after they got word that their ‘petitions’ were fulfilled?” Claude nodded, and Stella continued, “After they left, the cultists went after them, captured them, and threw them in prison to offer to Elrick in a secret sacrifice ritual. Elrick has already killed Dein, and Tutelan is rotting in prison. If he’s there long enough, the fanatics intend to drown him.”

Promitto frowned. “But… the gang in Saiph. The gang disappeared.”

“The cultists captured them. Several of them are in prison now, but Elrick’s killed some, and I’m sure the fanatics have drowned others.”

“But why?”

“Magic. Elrick has been storing up magical energy that he harvests from corpses, and now he’s going to use it to make the volcano erupt. He’s going to destroy the whole valley and everyone in it unless we get them out or stop him.”

“Is that so?” Stella froze at the voice behind her. She turned slowly and found Lucinus standing there, one hand resting on his sword, the other balled into a fist.

“Thuban’s whiskers,” she swore softly. Lucinus was Vatran’s son. Would he report this to the cult? Or would he take her directly to the Well to silence her?

“You were saying?” Lucinus asked.

Instinctively, Stella reached for her magic, intending to freeze his sword in place, but it was empty. She considered lying, telling Lucinus that her words to the other men were nothing of consequence, but his posture made it clear he’d heard everything.

Audacio took another drink as she thought, then banged his tankard on the table and said, “She said the sorcerer wants to destroy us all. Perhaps he is feeling genervous— generous tonight.”

Stella paled, but Lucinus didn’t move against her. Instead, he looked around the room. At first, Stella thought he was looking for other witnesses, but then he asked a question, anger tinging his words. “Is it true? Elrick is going to destroy the village?”

Stella nodded. “It’s been his goal ever since the cult started.”

Lucinus scowled. “Not if I can help it.” He went to Audacio’s seat and opened his balled fist, letting something fall on the table. It looked like a discolored lemon peel, rolled into a ball. “You’re going to want to take that, big guy.”

“But wait,” Promitto said. “This can’t be right. Please, my lady—”

“Stop calling me that.”

“But—”

“Listen,” Stella said. “Everything the cult has told you was a lie. Everything I told you about them was a lie. They have my mother in prison, and they’ve been holding her life over my head this whole time.”

Claude jumped to his feet, knocking his chair over, his expression dark. “Monsters.”

Stella nodded. “If they knew I was telling you this, they’d kill her without hesitation. But I’ve been lying for them for too long. This is too important. We need to act now, or everyone will die.”

“But isn’t that—”

“No, Promitto,” Lucinus said. “Stella’s right. It’s all lies. That gang in Saiph you heard about? Two of my brothers were on the team that brought them in. They took them straight to a secret prison, and no one gets out of there alive. Those hunters were responsible for getting rid of the gang, not Elrick’s magic.”

Promitto looked down, crestfallen. “But they still solved the problem.”

“One problem of hundreds brought every week,” Lucinus said. “They only acted on it because it benefits them. Capturing the gang gave them lots of extra people to offer to Elrick, and it also gives them a story to tell people like you, luring you into their mass of followers. They didn’t tell you Tutelan’s story to give you good news. They just wanted you to come here and get yourself burned to a crisp.” He crossed his arms. “And if you decided to leave before that happened, they probably planned to nab you and throw you in their prison to kill you later.”

Promitto paled.

“But Elrick is about to do something much worse,” Stella said. “He’s been storing energy for a spell to blow up the volcano and destroy the valley, and he’s close. He might start the spell any minute. We have to act fast to save the people.”

Audacio lowered his tankard. “We need… to save them?”

“That’s right.”

He stood and slammed the tankard down on the table again. “Then let’s away!” He started to get up but stumbled.

Lucinus grabbed the lemon peel thing and shoved it into the burly man’s hand. “What did I say?”

“We must save them!” Audacio punched the air. “We shall be heroes, glorified over all!”

“Eat the chew, Audacio.”

The warrior finally complied, his gaze clearing even as he chewed. “Very good,” he said, his enunciation more precise even around the chew. “Now we go slay sorcerer?”

Lucinus nodded. “That’s the only way. There’s no way we’ll convince the people to evacuate. If anything, they’ll climb the mountain and ask for it to happen sooner.”

“They’re already doing that,” Stella said.

“But he’s invincible,” Promitto said. “I’ve heard all the stories. He’s survived five different attempts on his life.”

“Twelve,” Stella said. “But they didn’t know what I do. He’s hidden his heart somewhere. If we can find it, we can kill him easily. It should be somewhere in the tower.”

Audacio smiled. “Good thing you recruited me! I am the best hunter in all of Dracon! I can sniff out a hidden heart!” He sniffed, flaring his nostrils, but Stella wasn’t convinced. Even if Audacio could smell that well, Elrick’s heart would be hidden from all five senses.

“Very nice,” she said, “But I think we should get some more help. I’m sure the people in the prison would be willing. I’ll show you where it is, and you can help me free them. That’ll give us a better chance at finding the heart before Elrick blows up the volcano.”

Stella left to get Tarant. He’d managed to convince four other men of the truth, but the rest were heading up the mountain in a deluded crowd. Stella filled Tarant and his recruits in on the plan on the way back to Vulcan’s Hearth, where they picked up the rest of the team. Each man armed himself with a sword, and then they all followed the crowd up the mountain.

A hand touched Stella’s elbow, and she was surprised to find Ladon joining them. She turned away. “You should leave, sir. This is going to get ugly.”

Ladon smiled. “Don’t try to deny me this worthy effort, lass.”

“It’s not the worthiness of the effort I’m thinking of.”

“I know, but you’re trying to make up for it, and that’s enough for me.”

Stella bit her lip. Did that mean it was good enough for Thuban, or was this cleric just being overly forgiving? If this mission went bad, she was very likely to find out what Thuban thought of how this tiny effort compared to the last several weeks of compromise.

“Anyway,” Ladon said, “I have some special help to offer.”

“If you say so. We’ll need all the help we can get.”