I dragged my gaze away from the awful sight and studied the guards again. They were evenly spread around the chamber, and every one of them had one of those strange metal staffs at their back.
There really was no way I was getting across this room without either being spotted or attacked, even if the air did project me across. I also had no doubt that the minute I did appear, the whole damn apiary would come alive and I’d be swarmed—and dead—in minutes.
Which really only left me with the one option—I needed to create a distraction.
It was time to make some noise.
13
I bit my bottom lip as I mulled over the best way of doing that without getting myself killed, and then carefully backed up the tunnel again. I swung off the pack and unwrapped the timers. The waterproofing had worked, because even though the M185 blocks showed signs of having gotten wet, the timers were all dry.
I set two of them—one for five minutes and one for ten—and then carefully placed them into the blocks, just as I’d been shown.
Right, I said to the air, could you please put the five-minute bomb on the roof between the two Adlin nurseries, and the ten-minute one in that first wall fissure in the old mining tunnel?
Hopefully, it would keep the multitude of Irkallan out there in the main shaft occupied with the damage and searching for a nonexistent attacking force, and give me some sort of chance to get through the breeding chamber without backup being called.
As several fingers of wind picked up the bombs and whisked them away, I pulled out two NP10 balls and carefully placed the pop cap primers into them. Apparently, once I flicked off the orange tab at the end of the primer, I had ten seconds to get the hell out of the area before the explosion happened.
But ten seconds was really all I needed if the wind assisted me.
I slung the pack over my shoulders again and then pressed back against the wall and waited. Tension wound through me as the minutes ticked by. Then, with a muffled whoomp that seemed to shake the whole mountain, the first bomb went off. As shrill alarms began to sound, I thrust to my feet, an NP10 ball in each hand, and said, “Wind, get me across to the other side of that breeding chamber ASAP.”
Even as the wind swung into action and picked me up, the walls around me began to shudder and a grinding noise bit through the air, one that was barely audible over the shrieking of the alarms. Up ahead, two vast metal doors appeared from each side of the cavern wall and began to slide toward each other.
Hurry, I said to the air, rather unnecessarily. We were already speeding toward that ever-decreasing gap.
As I was rushed through the door and up toward the ceiling, there was a screech from below. I flicked the orange cap off the first bomb and tossed it down into the leading edge of the breeding area. Several of the nearby Irkallan immediately flung themselves upon it, even as the guards lifted their weird staffs and pointed them at me. The metal immediately began to glow and, with an odd sort of coughing pop, globs of what looked to be pale mucus were fired my way. The wind batted them away, but there were so many guards and so many weapons aimed at me that it was inevitable one got through. The mucus hit my right shoulder, and immediately began to burn into my flesh. It tore a scream from my throat, but I nevertheless flipped the cap off the remaining NP10 ball and threw it down into the midst of the breeders—and, I suddenly realized, directly into a section that held the bulk of the stolen witches. They, like the first witch I’d seen, were little more than skeletal figures that only vaguely resembled the vital beings they must have once been, and they ranged from looking old enough to be menopausal to so young they barely looked more than fifteen or sixteen. These latter women were badly stained, which made me think that perhaps the Irkallan were rebreeding with their witch offspring in an effort to strengthen the inherited magic.
It was a sight that made me angry—made me want to kill every last one of the Irkallan. Which was stupid and not what was I was here to do, but acknowledging that certainly didn’t stop the desire to do as much as damage as I could for as long as I could.
Even as the air switched direction and we began to plunge toward the second large archway and its closing metal door, I grabbed a gut buster with my good arm and fired at the guards. One, two, three went down, and then the first NP10 ball exploded. The force of the blast was so strong it sent me tumbling through the air. I hit the far wall hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs and split the back of my head open, but the wind snatched me up again before I could fall and sped me toward the narrow gap into the tunnel leading into the queen’s quarters.
In the breeding room, there was chaos. As fire took hold and screeches of fury and pain filled the air, the ceiling began to fissure. A multitude of seams raced across it, with huge chunks of black stone falling down each time two of them met, crushing anyone who might have survived the initial blast in that section. Several bloodied guards were trying to keep the metal door from slamming shut, but with little effect.
The air spun me through the second set of doors, but it was so damn close that my breasts brushed the metal as we squeezed through. The second ball exploded, and its fierce fingers of heat and destruction chased us into the darkness.
Then the doors slammed shut with a sound that rather reminded me of a death knell.
Is there a door into the queen’s chamber? I asked the air.
Yes. It closed when the alarm sounded.
Meaning I had to now figure out a way to open the damn thing. I hesitated and then said, Where are the children kept?
In the rooms that feed off this hall.
Are they awake?
No. They, like their mothers, have tubes running into the veins. But there are only twenty-nine here. The earth says five are missing.
Does the earth also tell you where they are?
The air hesitated, and then said, They are being escorted into the tunnel beyond the queen’s quarters.
Is that tunnel also being sealed?
No.
Then at least I stood a chance of going after them—if I could get into the queen’s chamber, and if I could then survive another encounter with her guards.
Drop me down near the children, and then go steal their breaths. But do it quickly—I don’t want them to suffer.
The air deposited me close to several small archways. They, like the Adlin pens, were barred, but the metal here was dull rather than silver. Thankfully, I couldn’t see inside and I didn’t want to, even though I was well aware I’d have to go into each cell to find the bracelets once death had made its call.