A spotlight stabbed through the night, blinding Klara. She threw her arm in front of her eyes, squinting. Where had the light come from? Boots pounded through the rubble towards her as the soldiers sought to take advantage of the blinded group.

  She dropped her arm, her eyes watering in the light, and saw the sharp outline of a figure barrelling towards her.

  Reflex triggered.

  Then she noticed the long, wicked looking sword in his hand.

  A sword versus a knife. A broken knife. Not a good combination. She drew her own sword as the man reached her.

  Clang!

  Their blades met, and Klara slipped sideways, intent on letting his sword slip past her. But he pulled away and swung low, nearly out of sight. Even with reflex triggered and speed extract, she barely stopped his blade from slicing through her thigh.

  His attack changed, and Klara backed up, struggling to fend off the man’s attacks. His blade glittered in the light, slicing the air at impossible speed despite reflex slowing the world.

  A pit opened in Klara’s stomach as she realised this soldier was no fresh recruit. He had skill. Skill that far surpassed her own.

  She continued to back up, trying to angle around so she could put her back to the light. But the soldier anticipated the move and sidestepped to block her.

  Desperate block after desperate block, she fended him off. Each time, though, his sword edged a little closer to the holes in her defence. It was only time before she failed to catch his blade with hers.

  Sweat trickled from her hairline, freezing before it even reached her brow. She finally ducked clear of the soldier’s sword and leapt backwards, strength extract putting several yards between them. In the barest of seconds she had, she glanced around.

  Mikhail was gone. Nika held her own against a soldier. Ruslan fought two. And Elana stood behind a strange, gaseous creature barely taller than herself that shimmered in the icy mountain air. The creature held a giant black war hammer that swallowed the light.

  Two soldiers systematically attacked the giant, looking like they were seeking a way by it to reach Elana.

  A crunch of broken stone caught Klara's attention, and she swung back, ducking sideways in time to catch a blow to her left shoulder.

  The soldier’s blade sliced through her coat at an angle, shaving a piece of skin with it.

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  Klara screamed as blood slicked her left arm. Curses! Pay attention to your own fight, fool!

  Without pause, the soldier swung again. Klara caught the blade with hers, and pushed back, knocking the soldier off balance for a split second before his reflex triggered and he jerked forwards, relentless.

  Then a huge war hammer swung by her head, nearly taking her out.

  The soldier dodged, growling, as Elana’s Sila loomed above them, the black hammer coming around for another swing.

  Klara staggered away, happy to retreat from that fight. She needed that Sila.

  “Time to leave,” Mikhail said, appearing beside her and grabbing her arm. “Matvei is nearly at the tunnel.”

  “Where were you?” Klara asked as she followed Mikhail through the rubble to where the tower’s entrance had stood.

  “Staying alive.”

  Elana and Nika joined them, followed a moment later by Ruslan. The enormous man had several blood stained slices in his left coat sleeve, and someone had knocked his hood back, revealing a nick in his left ear. Otherwise, he appeared unharmed.

  “Where are the other soldiers?” Klara asked.

  “I’m distracting them,” Elana said, her voice strained. “But I won’t keep all their attention for long.”

  As if the magic word had been spoken, one soldier yelled something, pointing past the Sila creature at them. Two broke away from the Sila, sprinting towards them.

  Klara swore as her squad lurched into a run, stumbling over broken stone and chunks of shattered concrete.

  They reached the entrance and sped up.

  Blood pounding in her ears, Klara pushed everything into her run. No time to risk a glance back. She couldn’t stop moving. But where? They couldn’t go back to Vera’s Revenge, not with their pursuers. “Any ideas?” she yelled.

  “Just one,” Mikhail said from beside her, his breathes quick gasps. “Koskova Alchemist, Uzhasgart them?”

  “Huh?” Elana said. “Oh.” She was silent a moment, aside from heavy breathing, then said, “Keep going. I’ll handle this.” She stopped, disappearing behind Klara.

  They were nearly at the cliff they’d climbed up less than an hour before. Klara pulled out her grappling pistol.

  “What’s she doing?” Klara asked, aimed at the edge of the cliff.

  “You’ll see,” Mikhail said, he’d also pulled out his grappling pistol, as had Nika and Ruslan. As one, they fired, cracks ripping through the night air. Their bolts slammed into the stone.

  Klara reached the edge of the cliff and threw herself into the air, twisting around as she left the ground until she faced the way they’d come. Reflex triggered as she flew through the night, the cord for the grappling pistol unspooling.

  Elana stood less than a dozen yards from the edge of the cliff. The soldiers converged on her, hulking thugs next to her short, wide frame.

  Before Klara’s eyes, a strange mist coalesced around Elana, enveloping her and the four soldiers. Klara frowned as she slowly fell, trying to understand what her mother was doing, what Mikhail had suggested.

  Then, with a crack, the mist disappeared. In its place, four humanoid statues, each a strange, glistening black, stood around Elana, swords raised.

  Klara’s jaw sagged. The woman had just encased the soldiers in uzhasgart. She shuddered, trying not to imagine what it’d be like to be trapped inside a metal shell, unable to move, unable to breathe, but alive. For a time.

  Then something far more horrifying caught her attention. From the direction of the ver-train tunnel she saw three figures in black coats, lit by the powerful spotlights the Alchemists had brought. Two heavyset soldiers dragging the limp form of a wiry man wearing a large pack.

  The men disappeared from view as Klara plunged below the cliff edge, her hearts sinking with her.

  They’d caught Matvei.

  The mission had completely failed.

  She’d failed.