Gan—fully visible now, Lily assumed—was chattering away at Ah Hai, who seemed bemused. Rule was persuading the Kanas to move in close to the tower. A tricky bit of persuasion, that, when he didn’t speak their language. Li Po was flat on the ground next to the Fist he’d sent to disperse the Kanas. The First Fist was still unconscious; his subordinate had come around, though he seemed dazed. Both were tied up. Rule had worn a length of rope around his waist under his tunic.
Lily tuned all that out and focused on Cynna’s magic. It was a complex riff of textures—the fingerprint-y feel of Cynna’s original magic, the fur-and-pine needles that meant lupi . . . which Cynna wasn’t, but as Rhej she shared in the clan’s magic and could draw on the clan’s power.
She wouldn’t. Not this time.
Lily had only used her Gift this way a few times, but it wasn’t hard. Not for her, that is. It was going to be hellish hard on Cynna, whose every instinct would be telling her to fight, to get away, to reach for clan power to replenish the terrible emptiness. But Lily’s part just took focus. Grandmother had that in spades. “I do not understand why Grandmother couldn’t have done this.”
“Just do it,” Cynna said.
All right, then. One moment she was touching Cynna’s magic. The next she was sucking it up.
Not all of it. And okay, that was a little tricky, but only a little. She had to go slowly, that was all. The tangle of looped-spell-plus-magic was separate from the rest of Cynna’s magic. That was the whole point. The magic cage couldn’t access that looped power, so when Lily drained all the other magic from her friend, she wouldn’t destroy her friend’s Gift. Cynna would still have the power caught up in the no-pain spell.
Even going slowly, it wasn’t a long process. A couple minutes after Lily sat down and began vampirically draining her friend, Cynna’s eyes rolled back in her head. She toppled over. Lily continued to grip Cynna’s hand with one of hers and started running her other hand all over Cynna. Head, neck, feet . . . a whoosh and sudden blast of heat made her focus wobble for a second, but she got it back and kept pulling, going very slowly now. Had to be sure she got every drop.
She touched Cynna’s other hand, ran her fingers up her forearm as much as the sling allowed . . . there it was, the spell-tangle. Intact, as far as she could tell. Leave that. Push up Cynna’s shirt. Check to see if . . . yes. Lily peeled the golden spiderweb off Cynna’s skin.
Cynna didn’t stir. Didn’t wake. Lily frowned, dizzy. She felt odd, almost drunk. Buzzed on power? “The operation was a success, but the patient died.”
“What!” Gan squawked, looking away from Ah Hai.
“Sorry. Bad joke. She’s out cold, though. Grandmother—”
“In a moment,” Rule said, squatting beside Cynna to touch her cheek. “She’s busy.”
Lily blinked and looked around.
The Kanas were all bunched up around the tower now . . . where Grandmother stood, eyes closed, arms outstretched on either side, looking as unmovable as the stone tower behind her. A ring of fire about thirty feet in diameter had sprung up, encircling them, the tower, Lily, Rule, and Cynna.
As Lily watched, the flames winked out. A pearly light slid up from the burned ground to meet overhead in a perfect dome—then it, too, vanished, leaving only a faint iridescence lingering in the air.
Cynna groaned. “My head . . . God, what a headache.”
“Cynna.” Lily started to touch her, hesitated. “You’re okay?”
“No.” She sounded cranky. “I’ve got the mother of all headaches. Otherwise, though, I feel like I’m dying. Did you get it off?”
In answer Lily held up the delicate artifact.
“Thank God.” That came out not cranky at all. More like a prayer. Cynna closed her eyes, grimaced . . . “Okay, that helps a bit.”
“Did it work? Did you shut the spell off?”
“Of course it worked. I still feel like shit, but it worked.”
“Can you draw on the clan’s power?”
“Could. Will if I have to, but I’d rather not. We don’t know what’s happening back home.”
“Bring her to me,” Grandmother said. Her voice sounded odd. Distant, as if she spoke from the bottom of a deep pit.
Cynna sighed and reached up to take the hand Rule stretched out. “Feels like my head’s about to . . .” She moaned as Rule pulled her to her feet. “Give me a minute. Trying not to barf here.” And added in a mutter, “Don’t see why she couldn’t come to me.”
“Because I am balancing the node’s power before feeding it to the ward,” Grandmother snapped. “I cannot move from this spot.”
Cynna’s eyes went wide as saucers. “Son of a fucking bitch!”
Lily gave her a glance. “You knew she was going to make a ward.”
“I didn’t know she was going to use the damn nodes for it!”
Rule was frowning now, too. “I understand that node power is dangerous, but Cullen has used it.”
“No, Cullen has used ley line energy. Even he wouldn’t try to use the power from a node directly—and sure as hell not on a ward.” She took a wobbly step, leaning on Rule. “And that, Lily, is why your grandmother didn’t try to do what you just did. You don’t use an A-bomb to pick up a book. It’s hard on the book.”
Lily unwound that and guessed Cynna meant that Grandmother was good with big doses of power, not small ones.
Rule helped Cynna walk to Grandmother, who said, “Give me your hand.”
“Are you going to feed me node power?”
“Yes.”
Cynna swallowed and held out her hand. Her eyes went wide again. “That’s—”
“Incoming,” Rule said.
Lily turned and saw six figures leaving the Home of the Seven: five Fists in their leather armor . . . and Alice Báitóu.
THIRTY-ONE
ALICE stopped a foot short of the iridescence that hung in the air like fairy dust, barely perceptible. “Quite nice work,” she said, “especially considering you had to erect it so quickly. I have never seen a ward of this sort. What does it ward against?”
“Magic.” Lily stood just inside the ward, her weapon drawn and aimed. Rule stood beside her.
“Ah.” Alice gave the gun a glance. Her lips turned up a fraction. Being held at gunpoint apparently amused her. “I perceive that the magic cage has been removed, Cynna. I would like to know how you managed that. I assume the ward is your work?”
“Nope,” Cynna said from back at the tower. “Hers.” She nodded at Grandmother, who stood beside her in front of the door to the tower. Her arms were lowered now, her gaze abstracted.
For the first time, Alice looked startled. “Who is that?”
“My grandmother,” Lily said. “Madame Li Lei Yu.”
“But you are human and she is . . .” Alice shook her head. “I don’t know what she is. Never mind. Do you realize she has powered the ward from the nodes? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”
“As I understand it,” Lily said, “it means that if the ward gets knocked down, there’s a good chance the nodes will explode.”
“Which would destroy the city, killing thousands.”
“Better not try to knock down the ward, then.”
“I won’t. The Zhuren may, however, and they will be emerging from seclusion very soon. If I cross the ward, what will happen?”
“It will stop you.”
“You said it blocked magic, not people. And indeed, I do not perceive anything in it that would stop living beings.”