She had a point, but . . . I clutched PC closer. Stil shaking my head.
“It’s not a bad plan,” Falin said. “Though I suggest we plan to become dragon bait only if they notice PC. Hol y and I can take positions on either side of the clearing and you can send him at the circle from the center. If one of the dragons notices him, the person closest wil attack. I’m sure the beasts are charmed to protect the circle from humanshaped threats, not from tiny dogs.”
His argument didn’t make my head stop shaking. If anything, it made me dislike the plan more. If someone did have to distract a dragon, that someone would be alone. I didn’t like it. Not at al .
I glanced at the circle. The dancers had dissolved to the point that most no longer had eyes, so their faces went up to the center of their noses and then stopped. They were dead. Al of them. Oh, they kept dancing, but there was no saving them now. Of course, there was more than just the lives in that circle at stake. I shuddered, staring at the energy coalescing behind the piper. How much does she need to smash all the planes into reality?
“Alex?”
Death. I spun in my crouch, expecting dozens of col ectors, but found only Death, the gray man, and the raver.
“I was expecting more.”
“More?” Hol y asked, unable to see the col ectors.
“We were the closest,” the gray man said, crouching to stay out of view. Right, Hol y and Falin might not be able to see the col ectors, but the constructs could.
The raver shook her head as she sank into a crouch.
The raver shook her head as she sank into a crouch.
“Damn, those things are huge.”
Falin had clearly figured out that the col ectors had arrived because his narrowed gaze was fixed on the space I was talking to. “Three of them?” he asked.
He was good. I nodded.
Death scoped the clearing, his jaw set hard as he knelt again. “We have to find a way inside that circle.”
And we were back to the circle.
Falin explained the plan currently on the table despite my running protest. He might not have been able to see or hear the col ectors, but he knew they could hear him. And, unfortunately, they liked the plan. I was outvoted five to two
—because I figured if PC understood what was going on, he’d vote against the idea.
But they were right. If one of us tried to run to the clearing and place the charm, the dragons would be on us in seconds. Using PC, we might avoid detection by the dragons until after the barrier was down. Maybe. I hated the plan, but they were right.
Falin affixed the charmed bark to PC’s col ar with a bit of ribbon made from glamour. In theory, since PC was a nul , he would soar through the barrier as though it didn’t exist, but the glamour and the charm would stick and the disruption spel would activate. Or at least that was the plan.
“Ready?” Falin asked.
Hol y nodded, her freckles standing out hard on her pale face. I let out a deep breath that tasted of sour fear, but I nodded. Then the gray man went with Hol y and the raver went with Falin. Death stayed with me.
I knelt in the underbrush, rubbing PC’s head, Death by my side.
“We’re going to watch out for him,” he said, and I nodded again. I noticed he didn’t say that PC would be okay. The same quality that made PC useful for this job would make him hard to keep tabs on once things turned nasty. “They are in position by now.”
are in position by now.”
I know. I crab-walked forward, carrying PC until we were almost in the clearing. If the dragons focused on my hiding spot I was screwed, but PC needed a straight line of sight for the circle.
I placed the smal dog in the grass in front of me. He turned, immediately trying to climb back in my lap. Smart dog. I set him down again and shook my hand like I had a toy. He looked at my hand, his ears pricking with curiosity. I made a soft squeaking noise with my mouth, and PC’s tail lifted, wagging. It took a moment of shaking and squeaking, but I riled him up enough about the imaginary toy that he wouldn’t take his eyes off my hand. Then, in the ultimate act of deception, I reared my arm back and pretended to hurl the toy at the circle.
PC dashed after the imaginary toy. The smal dog was a tiny streak of gray and white crossing the grass. As planned, he charged the edge of the circle. Cleared it. The disruption spel stayed behind. Streaks of red lightning shot through the barrier around the spel , the sparks spreading like a fast-creeping frost.
Come on, PC, come back. He stopped just inside the circle, his tail tucked as the dancers pounded past him, but he was stil searching for the toy, his little head swinging back and forth.