70

You spend as much time as you dare asking the others for advice on what to say. Then, waving the smoke away, you clear your throat. The others take up positions to charge if negotiations go badly.

Suddenly a horn sounds from somewhere nearby. Soldiers below shout. Officers roar orders. Puzzled, you listen alongside the others.

"The False Icon! The armies of the False Icon are here! The Crowned Serpent is coming!" shouts a Cerulean Guard below.

Soldiers flee, abandoning their position.

"Did they all leave?" Control asks. "I think they all left." All of her units except one pad downstairs.

"It looks like they've all been recalled," Control says. "I–wait!"

There's a hideous scream from below.

"Correction—they left one guard. Now we are free to proceed."

Coughing, you emerge from the smoked-out room. Cerulean Guards are running everywhere; cannons thunder above you. Therko fights off a few soldiers, and you steer your group away from more, then find another flight of steps. This one gets you safely to the second floor. Reaching a window in a large room covered in grass bedding and with unfamiliar saddles lining one wall, you look out on the fighting. The Crowned Serpent has indeed come in force, and his arrival has encouraged your warriors to resume their hit-and-fade attacks.

You're turning to find the last stairway up when more guards enter the room, eager to destroy your outnumbered party. Led by the herald, they fan out with professional efficiency.

"Out the window," Vecla says, pointing. "We can edge across the bricks, then climb right up to the top!"

"And leave these villains at our back?" Therko says, settling in to fight even as the herald orders the guards to grab torches from the walls.

"Good luck with the villains!" Alexius says, climbing out the window.

"Actually Therko is right," Control says. "Normally I would prefer to focus on our true goal, but we should strike now instead of letting them hit us from behind."