Suddenly it all makes sense. Alagai Ka might not have scrambled Arick’s brains entirely, but he left a little trigger, ’case he was ever threatened.

  Arick lunges, attempting to grapple, but I’m slipperier than a fish flopping in the mud. I slide around him easy, getting behind his back and catching his head and one armpit in a hold. Then I suck in.

  “You should have let me jump!” Arick’s words come in a choked gurgle as he struggles, smashing me into the floor, a wall, a stalagmite. But I’m tough when I suck in, and the bumps don’t keep me from tightening the hold. This move worked on Olive Paper, and she’s a lot stronger’n Arick.

  “Core with that talk!” I snap at him. “Said yourself it ent you!”

  “Kill me,” Arick growls, even as he pulls at my arm with all his strength.

  Means it. See it in his aura, and it breaks my heart. How many people I love gotta die, before this is done? Well not this one. No, ma’am.

  “Ent you we need to kill to fix this, Arick.” In close, I can read Arick’s body like it’s my own. Feel his pulse, his breath, I can sense right down to the oxygen in his blood. Moment Arick passes out, I ease up and wait for him to unconsciously take a breath. Drag him over to Rojvah and Kendall, laying him between them and covering him with his motley cloak. Won’t be but a few minutes before he wakes up, but by then this should be over, one way or another.

  I yank my nose straight, pressing my nostrils one at a time to blow out the blood. Hurts like the core, but I can smell again. Should heal quick enough. Nose might end up lookin’ different, but it’ll do its job.

  Mam and the demon queen are still fightin’. Mam’s got cuts all over, but her aura is bright, and there’s hot ichor sizzling on her knife. She’s cut off one of the queen’s legs, using it to bat away the deadly tail stinger. Both of them are already healing, but the queen’s missing leg doesn’t grow back.

  I catch a whiff of Selen’s blood, and turn to see her lying on the ground spewing a stream of cusses as she tries to set her own broken leg. Wonda lies next to her, facedown with blood pooling around her head. Her aura is dimming, but she ent dead yet, for what that’s worth.

  I can smell the blood spattered on the knob end of Cavivat’s staff. The grubby priest is strong as a wood demon, quick as a flame. He’s drawin’ wards in the air with his staff, blasting Aunt Leesha with heat, wind, and bolts of lightning. This ent like Arick, or even the demons in the chamber. Either Alagai Ka’s controlling his priest direct, or as good as.

  But Aunt Leesha’s still angry and stands her ground. Wards on her arms and legs are so charged she’s moving as fast as me, drawing siphon wards to dissolve and absorb Cavivat’s spells same as the queen did by flappin’ her wings.

  Aunt Leesha scribbles offensive wards of her own in between defenses, using indirect attacks that are harder to siphon. Impact wards explode the stone at his feet, sending him stumbling back onto a patch of black ice from her cold wards.

  Cavivat’s feet go out from under him, but he’s quick enough to keep from falling. His staff flares with magic, and he slams it down, sending a shock wave that sets Aunt Leesha stumbling in return.

  It’s Mam I’m really worried about. Most of the time growin’ up, she went out of her way to hide her power. Folk could sense it, though. Never say it, but she made them uneasy, just like I did.

  Now she’s shining like the sun, but it’s just a fraction of what the queen’s holdin’, with more comin’ every second through the tether to Alagai Ka. I can actually see the queen growing, even as she and Mam try to rip each other’s throats out.

  Want to help, but what can I do but get in the way? Mam’s misting keeps her from being stung, but she needs to get in close if she’s going to finish the job. Already her knife is looking tiny in comparison with the demon queen. How’s she going to stab deep enough to do damage beyond the queen’s ability to heal?

  I can see Mam knows it, too, but it doesn’t stop her going in close for another pass. The queen meets her head-on, but at the last second Mam stops and draws a queen ward, stopping her cold. Like Leesha’s, it doesn’t have power to hold her more than a second, but that’s time enough for Mam to thrust her knife, all the way to the length of her arm, into one of the queen’s giant, lidless eyes.

  The queen shrieks and rears, taking Mam with her as she thrashes back and forth trying to shake her off. Mam’s feet kick wildly, trying to keep away from the queen’s snapping teeth as she twists the knife and tries to drive it deeper. Sharp, clawed legs puncture her body, but she lets it happen, not misting until the tail strike comes.

  She stumbles when she rematerializes, and I notice she ent got the knife anymore. Looking back, I can see why. Queen’s clawing her own eye, tryin’ to dig it out. Mam draws queen wards in the air to hold her back while the weapon does its work, pumping killing magic into the queen’s brain.

  Kendall and Rojvah are doing brilliantly, but the demons are in a frenzy, and getting closer and closer. I spot my pipes on the ground where Arick kicked them. Not too late to stampede them toward Alagai Ka. I go for them.

  “Darin.” There’s something off about Mam’s voice. I turn and see her skin blackening around a scratch the queen’s stinger left on her shoulder. It was only a little thing, but it’s spreading, the poison eating Mam’s magic and using it to make more poison. Already her arm hangs limp.

  “Mam!” I run to her, getting under her shoulder as she stumbles. “Mam, tell me what to do!”

  “Steer clear of that wound,” Mam says. “Ent no cure for queen venom.”

  All the chaos and noise around us seems to quiet at that. All I can see is Mam. All I can think is this is how Da died.

  “Been thinking a lot about how he did it,” Mam says, like she read my mind. “Think maybe I can do it, too. Maybe get to see him again, on the other side.”

  Her words are slurring. She’s delirious. “He’s gone, Mam. Burned away.”

  “Oh, Darin.” She gently touches my face with her good hand, but it’s weak, shaking. “Now who doesn’t believe?”

  The tears are cold on my cheeks. “No. Wait. Please. You can’t just…”

  “Got to.” Mam turns to look at the queen just as she digs the knife from her ruined eye, sending it clattering across the ground. I can sense her anger, her hate, as she moves to claw down Mam’s wards.

  “Love you, Darin Bales,” Mam says. “Proud of you. Don’t you ever forget that. And when I see your da, gonna tell him, too.” She sobs, putting her forehead against mine. “Gonna say, Look up at our boy, ent he perfect?”

  I choke, my face twisting so much it hurts.

  “See you there, too, when it’s your turn,” Mam whispers, kissing just above my broken nose.

  “How?” I cling harder as she starts to let go. “Can’t dissipate like you.”

  “Oh, Darin,” Mam says. “ ’Course you can. Just like swimmin’. First lesson is stop bein’ scared of the water.”

  I scream, clutching at her as she starts to go slippery. I go slippery with her, and somehow it lets me hold on, like when I melt my fingertips into crevices on a wall. She dissipates further, but I hold on with sheer will.

  A sound fills my ears, thrumming, piercing, deafening. It makes me feel like my head is going to split open, but I can’t block it out, because I am the one making it. I won’t lose her. Not after all this. I can’t.

  Sometimes Mam would grab hold of me and force me to dissipate, dragging me along with her as she rode currents of magic at the speed of thought. Ent nothin’ in the world scared me more, but this ent like that. She’s tryin’ to cut me off, to leave me behind, but I ent lettin’go. Forcin’ her to stay corporeal.

  But Mam’s stronger’n me. Pull as hard as I can, but I feel her…stretching. Thinning, until the bonds tethering her to the physical world begin to tear.

  Her arm falls to the ground, dead and lifeless, along with a big infected chunk of collar and chest. I wonder if she could even survive if she re-formed, but the true Mam, the aura at her center, breaks free of that dying material form.

  Somehow, I’m still holdin’ on. Feel myself stretching, pulling apart just like she did. Terrified I won’t be able to suck back together if I do. I can stop it anytime. All I have to do is let go.

  I hold on tighter, if that word even means anything anymore. It’s a choice.

  Can’t live my whole life too scared to go in the water.

  Just like goin’ slippery, but I don’t stop, letting my very cells rend apart, then the molecules themselves, first from each other, and then from their own particles until nothing physical of me remains. There’s a flash of intense pain, like walkin’ through fire, but then I’m on the other side, a being of pure energy, of magic itself.

  Still me. I can think and feel. Aware of everything around me, but no longer a prisoner to my senses. Any other time, it might feel…nice.

  Immediately, I feel the pull of the well. The room, the hive ward itself, is designed to Draw and store ambient magic in the well, the central connecting line of the greatward. The only output is the line through Alagai Ka himself to the demon queen.

  The moment we misted, it started suckin’ us in. Feels like it’s happenin’ slow, but I think it’s the other way round. Everything around us seems frozen in place as the well drags us like water to a drain.

  Darin, let go! Still connected, auras touching, Mam can speak to me like she’s in my head. I know everything she’s thinking, everything she’s feeling.

  Mam is frantic. Desperate.

  No! I holler back, even though I ent got a voice. I know what she’s going to do. I felt it in our link.

  Can’t let them come back, Darin, Mam says, and I know she means it. Not for anythin’. Not even for you. Go. Get the others and you run.

  She gathers her will and breaks my hold, flinging me upstream before she turns and dives into the well.

  Immediately, I feel the change as Mam diffuses into the well of power, becoming a part of it, and imposing one last wish on the near-limitless power.

  Then she detonates, and takes the whole thing with her.

  * * *

  —

  Still caught in its current, I feel the explosion like a bucket of hot water to the face. Reflexively I turn and flee.

  Mam was right. Moving as mist is a bit like swimming, but also a bit like dreaming. I have to navigate currents and push against resistance, but it’s all done by will, not arms and legs.

  Pullin’ myself back together ent as hard as I feared. Got incentive, with the currents of magic burning like lamp oil. I suck in, and suddenly my feet are back on solid ground, and I’m screaming with my throat and lungs and not just my thoughts.

  The ground shakes violently, cracks appearing in the stone. They run up the walls, and chunks of stone start raining down. I look at the well as it begins to collapse, its spent magic shattering the tunnels below. Mam kept the worst of it away from us, but that don’t mean we can’t be squashed by a falling stalactite or fall into a fissure.

  The queen shrieks as the tether to the well breaks and she’s no longer drawing power. Ent as big as the mimic queen was, but she’s forty feet long if she’s an inch, and she clears the chamber in a single bound.

  She pounces on Alagai Ka, still frozen with that ugly tree sticking out from between his legs. The queen mounts him in a quick, violent motion even as she encloses him protectively in her folded legs. Reckon she’s lost interest in fightin’ with the place falling apart all around us. She spreads her wings and takes flight with her consort, mating even as she flees through a tunnel high above us.

  As one, the demons around us flee into the tunnels as well, swarming after their queen.

  Ent hard to guess where they’re headed, but I got other lookouts right now. Cavivat’s fighting by himself now, but he ent letting up, even as the chamber rattles like it’s about to come down around our ears. Aunt Leesha’s staggering, and the others ent in a position to help.

  It’s easier this time, dissolving into mist. I cross the distance before the priest knows I’ve moved, re-forming inside his guard with a choke hold that’s less gentle than the one I used on Arick. He stumbles to one knee, and Aunt Leesha knocks his staff away with a flick of her pen and an impact ward. Then she sucks the excess magic out of him and Cavivat hits the end of his strength, collapsing.

  Aunt Leesha is already using her pen to tend to Selen and Wonda. Rojvah and Kendall are supporting Arick as they come to join us. I spot my pipes and Mam’s knife lying forgotten amid the dust. I snatch them up as I hurry over to help my friends stumble into the smaller tunnel we came from. No stalactites to fall there, and the floors are more stable.

  By the time they’re safe, Selen limps in, followed by Leesha carrying Wonda in her arms like a baby.

  “Oh, Intended!” Rojvah throws her arms around me. After being scared I might never be solid again, it’s the best feeling in the world. I inhale her scent and hold tight, knowing it might be my last chance.

  “Your mother?” Rojvah asks.

  All I can do is shake my head. Ent ready to talk about it. Can’t even let myself think about it. Not now, when there’s still work to be done.

  “We need to get out of here,” Leesha says. “Darin, can you guide us…?”

  I’m already shaking my head. “You can do it. Reckon it’s night outside if you can make it to the gate, but there ent any demons to stop you.”

  Aunt Leesha’s eyes narrow. “And what will you be doing?”

  I squeeze tight one more time, putting my mouth close to Rojvah’s ear. “Love you, Rojvah Inn. Honored to be promised to you.”

  Then I let go and step back. “Demons can’t mist while the queen is vulnerable. Swarm’s headed straight for Olive, and someone’s got to warn her.”

  I expect Aunt Leesha to try to stop me. To tell me I’m being foolish or it’s too dangerous. But we’re past that now. She’s as determined as Mam was, and Olive’s her own child. “Tell Olive I love her, and I’m proud of her. And for the Creator’s sake, be careful.”

  I nod, casting a last look at the others. Arick meets my eyes and gives no more than a tilt of his head, but I can smell all the many meanings hidden behind it. He’s barely holdin’ it together after that happened.

  “Ent your fault, Arick. Goin’ to make sure you’re free once and for all.” I turn to Selen, not knowin’ what to say, but I don’t need to say anything. She throws me into a hug, squeezing the breath out of me. “Make a necklace out of his teeth, Dar.”

  I squeeze once in return before I melt away.

  There are currents of magic everywhere. With the greatward broken, the flows are in chaos. Deep below, I can sense the Core, beautiful and terrible as the sun, callin’ to me like a supper bell. Da’s there, and maybe Mam, too. I could be with them, if Mam was speakin’ honest word.

  But first, as always, there’s chores.

  Vents of magic flow up from the Core tryin’ to find their way to the surface. I plunge into one, going down, down into the surface of the world, far below Safehold. There I find flows heading upward in the direction I want to go, and pick one, following it to the surface in less time than it takes to blink an eye.

  Ent an exact science. Mam used to do this all the time, and even she needed a few extra hops when she was goin’ someplace new. I end up in the mountains, but looking at the settin’ sun, they ent the mountains I just left. Up near Miln, I reckon.

  I look around for the highest peak and mist up there. Clear night, and I get a good lookabout. Can see for hundreds of miles, watching the flows of magic venting up from the Core.

  Don’t really know where I’m going, even if I was born there, and saw a bit of Bloodfather’s maps. But I know more or less where the Mouth of the Abyss is, and after starin’ in that direction a bit, it’s easy enough to spot the glow of that giant vent.

  Fastest way is to go back down, try to find a vent that gets me closer. But I ent eager to risk another mistake. Instead I try a trick I seen Mam play, misting just enough to be lighter than air. Then I hold my breath and take a flyin’ leap, willing myself toward the vent.

  Slower than ridin’ currents, I guess, but still faster’n I’ve ever gone. I’m so insubstantial I barely feel the wind, speedin’ frictionless through the night at the speed of thought.

  Hard to keep time when you’re moving fast in the night sky. Might be a couple hours or just a few minutes before I make it to the demon’s mouth cave. Don’t know how fast the queen can fly, or her demons run, but it ent this fast. I can get to the fortress first, but speed ent much if I can’t find the rippin’ place.

  There’s guards, and a sealed gate, but I dissolve into mist and they don’t see me as I slip past. Once I’m through, I Draw in some of the magic venting up from the Core, and Read it.

  Waystations reveal themselves down below like torches in the darkness, leading a path all the way to the Spear of Ala. It shines like a Solstice bonfire as I slip into the current, swimmin’ upstream.

  And just like that, I’m drifting before the walls of the great csar of Kaji, and it’s even more amazing than in Mam’s ale stories. Gates are sealed so tight even I can’t mist or slip through, but that ent a problem. Weightless, I rise above the walltops. Ent a demon, and the greatward does nothin’ to stop me as I cross over and drop down the other side.

  When I’m misting, none of my regular senses work. All I can sense is magic, but it tells me more than the other five ever did. Like the hive ward, the Spear of Ala is full of controlled flows of magic. Wardwork scrolls along the walls and streets, doing everything from securing the walls to purifying the air.

  But it’s all comin’ from one place, and it’s simple to just slip into the wardwork and follow it back to the source. Olive’s there, in the throne room, and she ent alone.

  Ever since we were kids, one of my favorite games was to sneak up on Olive and Selen, settin’ down beside them and waitin’ for them to notice me. Don’t even think about it as I do it now, materializing atop the dais beside Olive, standing at my bloodfather’s right hand as he sits the Skull Throne.