Crap like this happened often enough that I needed it, sadly.
“Enterprising.” Zrakovi stared at the light a moment, then around the room. “Let’s see if we can get the door open to the hallway and find our way out of here.”
I did a quick rundown of who might be left in the building.
“Alex?” I stilled, straining my ears for a response, but crackling wires and shifting rubble was all I heard. He’d probably been gone long enough to transport out before the explosions, or whatever they were. But my elf probably hadn’t.
Rand! I felt a mental stirring through the pain that stabbed through my temples, but no answer. Rand—are you okay? Are you still in the building?
His answer was faint and sluggish. I’m stuck near the transport. I need help getting free.
We’re on our way. Have you seen Alex?
He left before the explosion.
I hoped he was right. “Rand is stuck between here and the transport; he needs help getting clear.” I held the light nearer the door, from which Zrakovi was methodically clearing rubble. “That’s too slow. Stand back.”
He gave me a sharp look, probably not liking my pushy attitude, but moved to the side. I pulled Charlie from my bag and pointed the staff at the door. I couldn’t shoot it full force or I’d start a fire, so I fed the tiniest trickle of magic into it I could, and willed it to singe rather than flame.
The end glowed like the tip of a lit cigarette, and I touched it to the door, moving it in widening circles until there was a big, round scorched hole in the middle. Then I punched my fist through it. It wasn’t pretty, but it was big enough to climb through.
Or it would have been for anyone not wearing a freaking elven hippie dress.
“Damn it.” I used the staff to burn a hole in the dress about mid-thigh and ripped off the bottom. Once my legs were freed, I stepped through the hole in the door and was glad to see the hallway beyond wasn’t nearly as wrecked as the meeting room.
I looked back to find Zrakovi examining the hole in the door and stepping cautiously through it. “Enterprising,” he said again.
Yeah, well, some of us were working wizards whose skills hadn’t rusted from too much political nonsense. Zrakovi was Green Congress, and had to be a strong wizard to have made Elder. Or maybe not. Maybe one only had to be ambitious and politically savvy.
The ceiling hadn’t collapsed in the part of the U-shaped hallway leading to the elevator, but the walls had lost their plaster and part of their lathing. The footing was tricky, and we moved slowly over land mines of nails poking out of wooden strips and enough white dust that it was hard to tell the floor from an uneven invitation to a sprained ankle or pierced foot.
Rand, where are you?
About six feet ahead of you to the left, I think. I’m trapped.
With Zrakovi crunching behind me, I held the light up and began searching for my elf. I finally spotted him against the wall with some kind of support beam over his legs. It had to be heavy. Elves had a brutish, preternatural physical strength. I’d seen Rand pick up a sofa without straining.
“You can’t kick it off?”
“Sure I can. I just wanted to see you try to lift it.”
“No point in being a smartass.” I settled the light onto a pile of rubble and studied the beam. Wooden, solid, thick. “Did you see what happened?”
“I’m not sure. Bombs, maybe. The first blast was back where you were; the second was between here and the transport. I saw Jake Warin just before the second blast.”
A chill stole across my shoulder blades. Why was Jake still here?
I turned to my silent accomplice. “Elder Zrakovi, could you dig through some of that blockage while I try to free Rand? Jake Warin might be over there.”
He didn’t respond, but walked toward the cave-in a few yards in front of us. I didn’t think Zrakovi appreciated me barking orders at him, but he’d proven himself fairly useless so far. Not that I’d be sharing that opinion.
I saw somebody else, Dru.
Who? Obviously somebody Rand didn’t want to identify in front of Zrakovi.
Garrett Melnick. He was fighting with your loup-garou friend.
Another chill stole across my scalp. The thought of Jake with that bloodsucking freak made me ill, but if Jean had taught me anything, it was that Jake could take care of himself.
I think Melnick was trying to take out Zrakovi, and maybe you and probably me. There’s not much he can do to Lafitte.
Wait. That didn’t make sense. How could Melnick be here? It’s daylight.
“What in thunder’s name are you two doing?” Zrakovi abandoned his excavation job and stepped up beside me. “Are you so besotted that you can’t take your eyes off each other? We need to get out of here.”
Zrakovi didn’t know Rand and I could communicate telepathically, and that was for the best, even if it meant he thought there was besottitude at work. “I’m trying to figure out the best way to move that beam,” I said.