“We need to get down there, quickly,” I said, and ran down to one of the closest three-coach trams that ferried people around the city. “Can you make this go faster?”
Harrison prized a panel off the front of the tram and flicked a few switches, causing the tram to speed up and throwing me onto the floor. The bullet-train-shaped tram now officially did bullet-train speed.
“Little warning!” I shouted out as we sped past the scenery far below.
“These can only be modified in an emergency,” Harrison said. “I think this counts.”
The trams followed the same pattern as the aqueducts that had been built around the town, meaning it took a little close to ninety minutes to get from the temple to the palace at normal speed. At the speed we went, it took us a little over twenty agonizing minutes, and in that time more explosions had gone off across the city.
“What is that?” one of the dozen guards who had accompanied us onto the tram asked as he pointed out the window.
I watched in horror as hundreds of blood elves attacked the people of Solomon, the plague of them crawling out of craters in the ground. “My Liege has made his move,” I said. “Get your people ready, Harrison. You’re about to go to war.”
As the doors opened and we all piled out onto the platform, Harrison and his men sprinted off to fight the blood elves. “I’m going with them,” Galahad said. “You’re going after Lee still.”
“Those blood elves came from the ground. Someone said there were mazes of tunnels under the city. If that’s where Lee is, maybe My Liege is using it as a staging area.”
“Go to the palace, get a horse—it’ll be quicker than running. You armed?”
“Not yet.”
He passed me his sword. “Just humor me,” he said when I suggested he keep it. “I can always grab another one. If you use magic down there, you could bring the tunnels down, and probably most of whatever is above us. I’d rather not have a street vanish because you decided to throw some power around.”
I took the sword harness and strapped it on my back. “I’ll behave. Promise.”
Galahad took off toward the trouble, taking a sword from an injured guard on the way.
I ran toward the palace, ignoring the sounds of fighting, and paused. The buildings had started to collapse nowhere near the ruins. I turned to the closest collapsed building and ran toward it, noticing the ragged tear in the ground that led down to darkness below. I looked around for anyone who might need medical attention but found no one. I grabbed some sturdy rope that I found on the street and anchored myself to a nearby metal post before abseiling into the dark chasm.
After about a minute I realized the gap I’d entered was deeper than I expected. I stopped and glanced down into the darkness. I couldn’t use my fire magic, not even to give me night vision. Instead, I continued. I had no idea just how far beneath the ground I was when I finally touched the bottom, and I tried not to think about it. I didn’t need distractions when I was hunting a powerful vampire.
The tunnel I found myself in was lit by dozens of purple crystals, giving my surroundings a strange, unearthly glow. After a few minutes of running, I found myself in a cavern. There was only one other tunnel leading from it, and after I had taken a few steps inside, there was an explosion behind me and several tons of rock fell into the tunnel mouth, blocking my escape.
“Those crystals are so volatile,” Lee said from somewhere further up the tunnel, although I couldn’t see him, even with the light of the crystals illuminating the darkness.
“You came down here to make this place a realm gate, didn’t you?”
“I came here to make sure my allies could do what they needed to do. Thousands of blood elves are currently rampaging across the city, and even more will be coming up through the ruins as we speak. Attacking the enemy on two fronts.”
“You can’t possibly have enough people,” I said, drawing my sword and moving forward, hoping to keep him talking.
“Not to take the realm, no,” Lee admitted. “But to cause devastation and fear? We have more than enough for that. These tunnels link up to the mountain.”
“Asmodeus’s prison.” A thought crossed my mind. “They’ve been bringing people down here for months, haven’t they? They go into the elven realm gate and then climb down by the prison. That chasm takes you down here.”
“Good guess,” Lee said with a chuckle. “You burned me alive. I’m going to feast on you for that. All of your power will make me whole again. It’ll feel so good.”
“You talk a lot. Has anyone ever told you that?” I stopped by a large cluster of crystals. “You blew up the crystals down here to get the blood elves out. Dangerous gamble.”
“Smart,” he snapped.
I continued until I reached a second cavern, and in the center sat Lee, bathed in purple light. His face and arms were still a mass of burned flesh, although he looked considerably less horrific than before.
“Take me in for questioning again, Nate? Is that the idea?” He glanced at my sword. “Or are you here to kill me? That little pointy stick isn’t going to get the job done.”
Lee charged forward, and I moved as if to bring the sword down, which he anticipated, and moved to the side. I stepped away, bringing the sword down in an arc toward where Lee would end up. It caught him just above the hip, splattering blood against the stone wall.
Lee screamed in pain and turned into vapor, moving away from me. I held the sword with one hand, the point of the blade aimed at the floor, and stepped toward Lee.
“That hurt,” he seethed after he re-formed.
“Come get some more, then,” I told him, darting forward and bringing the sword up toward Lee’s chest.
He moved quicker than I’d anticipated, turning into vapor and then re-forming around my arm so that he held my wrist in his hands. A second later the sword clattered across the tunnel as he broke my wrist and punched me in the ribs hard enough for me to feel at least one of them buckle.
Lee was on me in an instant, a snarling rage with nothing close to humanity behind it. His clawlike fingers raked across my cheek as he tried to force my head to the side, exposing my neck.
“I think I might turn you,” he said, licking the side of my neck with his elongated tongue. My neck numbed in an instant.
“Go fuck yourself,” I told him, and drove a blade of lightning up into his chest, kicking him away from me.