Elana paced Dominik’s lab, pausing occasionally to glare at his back as he tinkered with a weapon on the workbench. His lab dwarfed hers at nearly quadruple the size. And it contained far better equipment…

  Elana eyed the polished brass and uzhasgart tools hanging behind the steel workbench that stretched the length of one wall. Spanners, screwdrivers, measuring callipers, clamps, hammers, and more, each in a precisely stencilled position. They stood in stark contrast to the ramshackle chaos of the rest of the room.

  Weapons in various stages of assembly covered the surface of the bench. Beside the workbench, a bookshelf sat, its shelves sagging beneath the mass of books and documents that weighed them.

  The room contained no bed, only a dilapidated mattress stacked on its end by the large gas heater that hissed and sizzled in the corner of the room.

  I’d appreciate you hurrying, the uzhas said. More soldiers are arriving.

  Elana shot a mental glare at it. Then go fight your way out, you’re incorporeal, right? What can they do against you?

  They have flames.

  So? Elana asked.

  I’m gas, flames may burn me.

  May? Listen, I’m giving up everything to help you, you better be willing to take some risks, too.

  “How about a gas-powered grappling pistol?” Dominik asked as he looked at Elana, a compact pistol in hand. A grappling bolt protruded the end, and a blocky cylinder was mounted alongside the barrel.

  “I don’t think that’ll help.”

  Dominik scratched his beard and returned the grappling pistol to the bench. “If I’m to help you, I really need more of an idea of what you’re facing. Not knowing is quite unproductive.”

  “All I can tell you is that a dozen men hold it captive.”

  “Sovereign Sculptor! You want to tackle a dozen men? By yourself?”

  Yeah, yeah, it’s stupid, Elana thought. Wouldn’t it be great if there was some powerful force in the vault that could help… “Do you have anything that could assist me?” she asked Dominik.

  “Well, that depends.”

  “On?”

  Dominik removed his spectacles and rubbed them on his sleeve, smearing the dirt evenly across the lenses. “On whether you’re comfortable killing someone.”

  Elana blanched.

  “Then your options are limited. At least, the options I can provide you with. I develop weapons for killing—killing dragons from beyond the portal gates that is—but I can’t control what, or who, the Warrior Guild and the Sentinels use them against.”

  “All right. Do you have anything that can cut through concrete and steel quickly?”

  “Hmm…” Dominik crouched and rummaged through the piles of gear beneath the workbench. “Explosives are generally the only reliable way of quickly demolishing steel and concrete—depending on their thickness, that is.”

  Uzhas? Elana asked.

  Fifty inches of concrete, the uzhas said. I don’t know how thick the steel is.

  “About fifty inches of concrete, and maybe an inch of steel.”

  Dominik let out a low whistle. “Where is this thing being held? A fortress?”

  “You could say that.”

  “I’ve got nothing that’ll get through fifty inches of concrete, let alone steel.”

  “I need something, and I’m running out of time.”

  “Listen, Koskova,” Dominik said as he pushed himself to his feet, his knees crackling, “I want to help, however, you’re giving me nothing. I understand that you don’t trust me, but I’m an Alchemist, I work with figures and facts—with information. Our job is not a blind one. Without information, I cannot help you. I’m sorry.”

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  Elana pursed her lips and studied Dominik. “All right,” she said at last. “What I’m trying to rescue is stuck in the uzhas vault.”

  Dominik blinked. “Um… Uzhas vault?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why is he, she… it stuck in the vault?”

  “That you don’t need to know.”

  Dominik rubbed his chin and eyed her thoughtfully. “Well, I assisted in the design of the vault. I know every detail of that room.”

  Relief rolled over Elana. “Splendid!”

  “I will tell you everything I know about the vault,” Dominik said, his words carefully measured, “if you tell me exactly what is happening.”

  Elana blew out a sigh. “You first?” she asked hopefully.

  Dominik shook his head.

  Don’t tell him, the uzhas said, he’ll betray us.

  “I bonded with some uzhas,” Elana said. “It’s stuck in the vault, and I’m tethered to it.”

  Elana!

  Shut up, Elana said.

  “I see,” Dominik said. “Uzhas. The stuff Serovnya’s economy is built on, that’s all. I mean, only half the buildings in Kosgrad have uzhasgart frames.” Dominik’s voice rose steadily as he continued, “Couldn’t you have found something to rescue that isn’t going to throw Serovnya into turmoil when it’s gone?”

  Elana offered an apologetic shrug.

  Dominik visibly willed himself to calm then said, “Fine. Who has it captive right now?”

  “That’s irrelevant. Are you going to help or not?” Elana asked.

  “Who is holding it captive?”

  Elana glowered at Dominik. “I don’t see how knowing who the captors are will help.”

  “It’ll help my curiosity.”

  “All right, whatever. Chernov Commander and a dozen soldiers from Voronin Master’s private army are in the vault.”

  The blood drained from Dominik’s face.

  “Now tell me about the vault,” Elana said.

  “Are you serious?” Dominik asked. “You want to try and take something from Chernov Commander? You do know why the Warrior Guild discharged him, right?”

  “Ah, no. Not really.”

  “Well, let me tell you a story: Chernov was the Warrior Guild’s best instructor, but rumours ran thick and fast about his sadistic training methods. One day he returned from a training exercise in the mountains… without the recruits. He claimed there’d been an avalanche, only he had survived.

  “Everyone believed him until three months later when one of the recruits showed up—closer to death than life. The story she told about what Chernov did out there…” Dominik shuddered, a haunted light flickering in his eyes. “Anyway, she was delirious, and the council ruled that due to her mental instability, her word wasn’t reliable enough to convict Chernov. But they gladly took the excuse to discharge him. Voronin Master didn’t even hesitate before recruiting him to train his soldiers.”

  The image of Sofia’s battered face flashed through Elana’s mind. She could all too easily imagine what Chernov had done to those recruits in the mountain. Perhaps this would be harder than she thought. Though surely his soldiers couldn’t be that tough, right?

  “You don’t have a hope of outmanoeuvring his soldiers, either,” Dominik continued. “Nearly every Warrior he trained instantly qualified for the Sentinels. Those that didn’t qualify, didn’t fail from lack of skill—they failed because they were caught abusing other Warriors. The Warrior Guild imprisoned them or sent them to the uzhas mines. And who controls the uzhas mines?”

  “Oh. The Alchemist Guild.”

  “Yes. So where do you think those skilled fighters with an undying loyalty to Chernov ended up?”

  Elana swore softly as her intestines tied themselves into a dozen knots.

  “Precisely,” Dominik said as he walked up to Elana and pulled the phial of healing extract from his pocket. “I’m sorry, Koskova, there’s nothing you can do against him. Take the extract, free yourself from the uzhas and forget any of this happened. Better yet, run away.”

  Elana looked from the phial to Dominik, disdain curling her lips. “Really? That’s your response when an entire race is being slaughtered for our convenience?”

  At least Dominik had the decency to look abashed. But before Elana could react, he dropped the phial into one of her coat pockets and walked to the door. “This fight is suicide, nothing will change. Take care of yourself and forget about the uzhas.” Dominik opened the door. “Please do yourself a kindness and take the extract, Elana.”

  Elana trudged to the door. She couldn’t just leave the uzhas to die, as annoying as it was. She hesitated by Dominik. “Hold on, you haven’t fulfilled your end of the bargain. I told you who was in the vault, now you tell me about the vault’s construction.”

  “Don’t do this,” Dominik said. “Please, you’re putting me at risk too.”

  “If you answer one question for me, Dominik, I’ll go.”

  Rubbing a hand across his forehead, Dominik said, “Ask.”

  “Is there anywhere that the vault walls aren’t steel-lined?”

  Dominik glanced outside then shut the door. “Fine, I’ll tell you this much: there is one other entrance, a little-known one…”

  Elana’s breath caught in her throat. Another entrance? At last, some good luck. She waited, silent, for Dominik to continue.

  The Alchemist took his spectacles off and smeared the dirt around again, all the while frowning pensively at them. Finally, he replaced them and peered at Elana. “There’s a room beside the vault that houses the gas pumps for the heating and lights. You can access that room from within the vault, and also from a Service Guild passageway that runs alongside the vault.”

  “Is that room steel-lined?”

  “Yes, and the outer door is locked. And like the main vault door, it’s tightly sealed. The vault can be flooded without risk of leaks, they can even seal the ventilation shafts on the ceiling.”

  “Does the door have a key lock?”

  “Yes.”

  Elana nodded, a plan forming. “Thank you, Dominik. I’ll not forget your help.”

  Dominik cast a sidelong look at her as he opened the door. “I’d rather you did forget.”

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