She’d gone back to being hidden from the men, which was how it should be, considering the way some of them had looked at her.
Ryder had decided it best that we not sift to the catacombs, since I knew the Guild had spelled it for sifting, and we didn’t have the time it would take to undo the spell if it was still in place. That meant we had most of the Horde’s Elite Guard stealthily sneaking into some trap.
I waited as Zahruk and Ryder whispered intensely over which would be the best course. Zahruk wanted Ryder to sift out, and I understood his fears. There was only one thing the Mages wanted, and that was to kill the strongest being in Faery, which was Ryder. I wanted him away from here as well, because I needed to focus, and the idea that there was a God down there, waiting to help the Mages hurt him, left me mindless.
“Forget it, not going to happen. I owe Ristan, and I’ll be damned if I hide from a fight.”
We both stared at Ryder, and I got it. It sucked, but I understood his need, and knew how it felt to know someone you loved was in trouble, and the almost suicidal need to sacrifice yourself to save them. Not that Ryder was thinking he’d need to, but he wasn’t going to back down.
“Ryder will be fine. He’s the King, and for all we know, they already know we’re here. If he leaves, who’s to say they won’t just kill Ristan?” I asked; and yes, my heart was in my throat, and I knew they could see the anxiousness in my face.
“We’ll be fine,” Ryder said as he finally agreed to fall back and let his men go before him. “Synthia,” his mental voice flashed across my mind as we fell in behind Aodhan, Savlian, and Zahruk. “I need you to stay back, so that my focus is on Ristan and what is happening when we get there.”
“Don’t do that,” I said not bothering to meet his eyes. “You didn’t leave so your men could focus, so don’t even think of asking me to stand back and wait this shit out. Maybe I should be asking you to stand back, so that I don’t worry?”
“Yes please,” Zahruk growled from the front of our line.
“Shut it,” I snapped at Zahruk’s back, hopping on Ryder’s mental path to his men and watched with an angry glare as his shoulders moved with his silent laughter. “We are facing a God, and neither of us knows how to handle that, but if we get him, Ryder, if we can take away their advantage, we have a huge chance of ending this war before it even begins.”
“Then I want you beside Danu, and we go with her plan,” Ryder said. “I’ll stay with Zahruk and my men, and we both win.”
“I’ll agree to that.” I slipped my hand into his and twisted my fingers around his larger ones. “I just hope we’re not too late.”
We stopped in front of an old tapestry and Zahruk shot me a questioning look. “That’s not it,” I noted, and moved closer to it, as I pointed out one of the other tapestries further down the hall. “The steps at the bottom of that one are in shambles, but we can get to the catacombs faster that way. They also wouldn’t think we’d use these ones. From the bottom it looks like it’s completely destroyed.”
I passed the one we’d been standing at and headed to the secondary one which was never used because of the mishap of a young Warlock who’d accidently blown most of the bottom steps into pieces. I slid the Plexiglas out of the way, and slipped through before holding it open for the rest to make it through.
The staircase was rounded, and the upper half wasn’t as damaged as the bottom. I made sure to overstep the large pieces of stone that would alert anyone with clear hearing of our arrival. At the bottom, I paused and listened. It was eerily silent, and that worried me. The rest of the men followed my lead, and then I fell back to Ryder’s side, and continued to listen.