Page 52 (1/2)

The torture chao check on the situation there, but I’d already deviated fro down the stairs, down to the fourth subterranean level We uards as soon as we headed down the corridor toward the rooifts It was closed with double doors, just as Kiyo had described to ht

"You kno to stop the blight?" he asked me

"I think so"

"Then do it We’ll hold them off"

All five monarchs seemed to be on board now, much to my relief I had to assume their powers, even a little weakened, were more or less comparable to mine and Dorian’s Could the two of us have taken on this force of soldiers? Probably Or at leastThat see

"The room’s at the end of the hall," I said "Come to us when you can" If the incantation didn’t work, I was going to have to try the brute-force method to shatter the enchantuards and ood job covering us Once we reached the double doors, we encountered a few ed elsewhere Jasmine and I easily took this handful out and tried to open the doors Unsurprisingly, they were locked Rather than search for keys on the guards, I simply blasted the doors open It was kind of therapeutic after my recent frustrations

We hurried inside and came to a halt It was exactly as Kiyo had described A wide vault of a rooing from statues to jewels to cloth One collection was quite se Each of those objects represented a kingdodo as badly as my own

Jasmine darted toward them, the desire for destruction written all over her features "Wait--" I called

Too late She hit one of the invisible walls protecting the stash and bounced off it, stuot back on her feet and glared

"It’s really there, huh?"

"Yup" My ability to sense various types of gentry h I couldn’t see it It was strong--very strong I wondered again howfor the scroll in my pocket, I cleared my throat "Let’s hope this knocks it down for us" I had to squint again to read the incantation, e ofhad changed, to ic was still in place

"Shit," I said

"Maybe you didn’t pronounce it correctly," said Jasmine

"Maybe," I said skeptically It ritten pretty much like it sounded, and Volusian had listened tome when needed

"It’s because you weren’t born in the Yew Land," said a voice behindfor the only weapon I had--which was the crappy wand Varia stood in the doorearing a sensible dress for a change, as she regarded us with that annoyingly condescending expression she excelled at So helptheir bows, barking at us