Bernt was stunned by the sheer amount of magic being flung around in such a small space. Enemy mages and warlocks tried to hammer through their defenses with force, fire, and lightning, but nothirated. The lightning was drawn down into Kustov’s ruhe fire spshed against Bernt’s heat barriers, and the force was tered directly by Ed. While the archmage held his position, the duergar troops couldn’t advance, hemmed in by his magic.

  Only Bernt’s perpetual fme could cut through the noise, burning through magical barriers as if they were dry tinder. It didn’t go out, either. Small white fires burned on corpses all around the room, occasionally interfering with spells that passed by too closely aing iackers‘ way. After taking out two more enemy mages and a few fighters who had apparently been wearing heavily ented armor, his and Jori’s fires were beginning to take their toll. The tunnel was starting to get too hot, despite the heat barriers he’d cast a to protect them.

  As the battle progressed, the heat circuted around the barriers and began to radiate from the walls themselves. In the end, it forced them back. Beringuished his own fmes relutly with an effort of will, but the temperature kept rising even after Bernt stopped adding to the problem to focus entirely on shielding himself and his fellow Underkeepers. The enemy warlocks threw hellfire around as if colteral damage wasn’t an issue. The Duergar didn’t seem to be affected – maybe they had heat resistaions or some other kind of prote from ambie.

  But that didn’t matter now. They o back up. Ed’s unit had been blog the upward end of the tuhat led toward the surface. They’d been exposed to the worst of the heat, and were forced to move first. They filtered around Kustov’s wall, heading down toward their defe the Uy Market and leaving the way out to the surface clear. Ed, Fiora and Dayle stayed behind, c their retreat as best they could.

  They were already bag up wheunnel wall crumbled once agaiheir inal position. A mole’s weird snout emerged and then withdrew, repced a moment ter by an armored duergar who stepped into the tunnel, shouting something down to the batants and lifting an odd traption in his hands and training it on them.

  Kustov cursed and smmed his hammer down on the ground. The tunnel shook and rocks rained down from the ceiling up ahead, f the duergar to move and ruining his aim. The area they stood in was entirely ued. That seemed to surprise Kustov as much as it did Bernt, and he hesitated for a moment before shouting at the es. “Move it! They’ve got your fnk!”

  They didn’t o be told. Moments ter, they were bag dowunnel in a fightireat, with Ed, Kustov a providing the rearguard. Ed maintained his powerful force shield to physically hold the enemy as well as most of their attacks back while Bernt blocked ining fire a. Unlike Ed, who could move his force shield as he walked, Bernt’s temperature barrier was statid he had to recast it every ten seds or so to keep it ahead of the advang enemy. Kustov, for his part, was stantly casting to ter whatever the enemy’s geomancers were doing to get around them.

  Bernt wasn’t sure how good duergar geomancers were, but Kustov was better. Every so often, a tunnel wall would start to shift, or a crack would form in the ceiling, but the dwarf was always on it before it could get any worse than that. Stone resealed, shaking quieted, and bands of runes appeared on the walls and ceiling to redirect further spells meant to reshape them. Runes carved into stone would only do the job once or twice against a skilled geomancer, but it was still impressive.

  Bernt stepped on something soft and he spared a quice down. There was moss growing oone floor. The tunnel walls were covered in thick vihat looked nearly bck, with dark green, red-veined leaves. Rindle’s work, Bernt guessed.

  As they tiheir retreat, the attacks suddenly lessened, and then stopped entirely.

  “Quickly! Get inside!” Someone called. It was ing from the walls – one of the defensive slits.

  “Back up and seal everything!” Someone else shouted.

  Bernt coughed. Some of the vines further up the tunnel were smoking. That was strange, He hadn’t cast any fire spells.

  But no, wait. The duergar had mages and warlocks, too.

  Bernt ughed.

  Why was that so funny?

  He made it through the door, followed by Ed and then Kustov. As soon as they were through, the dwarf set the head of his hammer down, clearly casting something, though he didn’t move his hands to do so. One side of the tunnel began to shift, closing the narro like a gigantic stone door. A moment before the crack sealed, one of the solicitors – a prim-looking man who had gone bald prematurely – slung hellfire out into the tunnel with an unnecessary flourish of his wrist. A moment ter, both sides met aed together to create a smooth, unbroken surface.

  “That should keep them busy for a little while.” He grinned and wi Josie, who was standing nearby, catg her breath along with the rest of their unit. She iredly and didn’t respond. Bernt hadn’t seen her fight, but she had blood running down her arms.

  It looked too vivid. Why was it so red?

  A moment ter, Bernt realized that he was sitting on the ground. That wasn’t right. He looked up to ask Ed what was going on, but the archmage was looking a little green around the gills himself. Kustov cursed loudly.

  “Where is that witch?” the dwarf grumbled. “Godsdamned druids. Has anyone seen Lin? I’ve got a job for her!”

  ***

  Bernt obediently sipped on the co that Lin had made for him a his mouth shut as Ed and Kustov got the test update from Palina. Ed didn’t seem to be affected by the smoke in the same way as him, though he didn’t look like he was enjoying it, either. The archmage held a cup of the same remedy. He looked as though he might throw it back up at any moment a suspected he only drank it because Lin was sitting there watg him.

  “About four hundred people have made it down from that little Crafters’ District stairwell so far.” Palina was saying. “They’re being funneled into the empty portions of the neighborhoods first – so far the dwarven and the crafters’ quarter has mao aodate everyo's slow going – they destroyed a buildio the stairwell with some kind of artillery spell just as I was leaving. They're digging it out now. It's not all bad, though – it'll vince people to evacuate. We expect things to speed up in a few minutes. Last that we heard, the guilds were mobilizing to take a defensive posture at the Uy Gate, but I doubt they'll be able to bottle them up that easily. The Padins’ Hall is closest, and I ’t imagihat they would ighis, but It’ll still be a mess. Besides, I’ve seen berserkers fight before, and a lot of adventurers aren’t aer. The colteral damage alone...”

  “How many we take?” Ed asked, looking at Kustov.

  The dwarf shrugged. “Space isn’t really an issue. With Janus to help, we managed enough room to house maybe six thousand people. Temporarily, the space hold three times that, enough for the ey – not that we have time to evacuate everyone. Ventition would also be an issue. We’ve got pretty good systems in pce, but it’s not desigo hahat many people. Still, it’s nothing to worry about in the immediate term. We take everyone who make it down here.”

  Ed nodded. “Good. Is there any word on what’s going on with Arice? The army should have been here by now. Even if they’re fighting, they ’t afford to have the enemy in their rear.”

  Palina shook her head. “I haven’t heard anythiher the dwarves broke through, or maybe they intercepted our messenger.”

  In the silehat followed, Bernt cleared his throat. “So. What exactly was that iunnel? With the vines, I mean.”

  “Rindle’s idea!” Lin said proudly, as if he were her own son. “Very clever. It is an intoxit, use it sometimes for medie to help pain. It has side effects.”

  “That’s great.” Bernt said, impressed. “So, when the vines got burned, everyone iunnel was dosed, and si slopes upward, they got the worst of it. Does it wainst demons?”

  Lin shrugged. “It is hard to say. The dark spirits are not like us.”

  “Whatever the case, it doesn’t look like they want to try knog on our door for the time being.” Palina said. “They’re probably happy to leave us bottled up here, anyway. They’re trying to get into the soft underbelly of the city before anyone stop them, and that’s not here.”

  Ed grimaced. “Nothing to do but hope that they have their end covered up there.”

  ***

  Iria watched as the Duergar poured out of the Uy Gate. She was sitting in her office, but her gsses provided her a top-down view of the entire Crafters' District. She could see that the defenders weren't quite in positio.

  How had they made it into the city so quickly? The duergar had broken into the main access tunnel somehow, between the Uy and the army. Doing so without prematurely tripping any wards would have required some creative tunneling, but they'd do. Still, Ed's people should have been able to hold them lohan this. She scried the tunnel down to the Uy and found it filled with Duergar. There were some bodies, but most of those were Duergar — nothing like an Underkeeper rout. It looked like the Underkeepers were bottled up below, safe for the moment. What had forced them back?

  Switg back to the Crafters’ District, Iria's eyes widened in surprise at what she found. Nearly a quarter of the district was already burning. The enemy was ireets, setting fire to buildings and trying to pee the haphazard barricades the defenders were building on the fly wherever they could. For now, though, it looked like they'd mao respond quickly enough to keep the enemy somewhat taihanks in no small part to her efforts in coordinating their initial deployment.

  Righmond and his guards were still on the wall, which she supposed was just as well. They o be wary of aernal assault plig the situation further, and she certainly didn’t want him down here making a mess of her work. She had enough worries.

  As she monitored the battle, Iria hat the duergar’s rapid advao the city had made them vulnerable. While they were far more disciplined aer armed than the kobolds had been a few months before, the guilds were prepared and mostly ready to face them. Experienced parties of adventurers held individual streets and alleyways, backed up by padins, berserkers, and mages. Rangers hid on rooftops, taking out enemy mages, warlocks and anyone who looked like they might be an officer.

  The duergar were taking losses, and Iria could see that unicatioween the enemy units was breaking down in some cases, with some overextending themselves and paying the price. Other times, though, the duergar were hiding surprises – hidden war mages, warlocks with unfamiliar abilities, alchemical ons. They were taking losses.

  Then Iria saw something new. It came rolling out of the Uy Gate in a cart hauled by a hellhound of all things. The rough, unworked crystal loaded on it must have weighed as much as the cart itself. She didn’t reize what it was at first, but the nine robed figures walking alongside it were a pretty clear hint.

  She wasn’t really sure why warlocks were so obsessed with that here were nine hells, supposedly – but they could only i with the denizens of five of them. As far as she knew, a demon of the sixth hell had only been summoned once, on the isle of Harrowick, to the sorrow of all who lived there.

  Regardless, a lot of warlock rituals required exactly nine partits.

  They unhitched the cart and took up positions in a precise circle around it before raising their hands to t something. Iria wasn’t sure what kind of ritual this was, but it couldn’t be good. Sure enough, a light ignited ihe stone just a moment ter, fring briefly, then again and again in an uable rhythm. She reized the crystal, o was lit from within like that. It was a gigantic soulstone, colleg souls as people died – probably their own as well as those of the people living here.

  Iria gestured to one of the messengers she had lined up, even as she searched for Ambrose ireets, adjusting the sg spell in her gsses as quickly as someone flipping through the pages of a book. Ign the various other small emergencies she saw, she finally found the colossal man resg a team of advehat had gotten itself surrounded.

  They had lost their healer to a hellhound and been cut off wheried to retreat. The duergar were closing in. An experienced adventuring party wasn’t easy prey in any situation, but surrouhe dwarves had them dead thts. Then Ambrose ehe fray, diving headlong into the tihat had cut the party off. The usually even-tempered man was screaming, though Iria couldn’t hear it, and spittle flew from his mouth in a froth. A heavily armored dwarf moved forward to intercept him, holding a heavily rune-engraved shield and a one-handed axe. It didn’t help.

  Quicker than a snake, Ambrose ripped the shield away from the dwarf, arm still attached, and rammed its edge straight through his armor and into his chest as though it were made of paper.

  In seds, the entire ti was down and Ambrose was moving in on the pursuing group. It happened so quickly that it was difficult to process just what he’d doheir bodies were crushed. Blood and worse leaked out of what was left of their armor and dripped from the walls of nearby houses.

  But it was war, and the enemy had brought monsters of their own.

  Iria turo the messenger.

  “Message to Branchmaster Ambrose on Tailors’ Lane, moving toward Marin’s Bakery. The enemy has a device that o be destroyed at the Uy Gate, ’t miss it. Tell anyone who looks important that you see on the way. Go!”

  Radast had warhem something like this was going to happen, but seeing it was something else. If this Nuros actually mao bee a greater demon, Besermark’s tributions were only just beginning. Iria couldn’t allow that to happen.