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from a lighted candle onto it. She was muttering continuously at it and Thomas thought she was saying a spell until he was close enough and realized she was cursing.
He crouched beside her and said, "How much longer?"
She tossed her head to get the hair out of her face and said, "Hours, days, weeks, how should I know?"
A bronze crossbow bolt shot through the barricade and clattered off the stone floor between them. They both hunched their shoulders instinctively and Kade said, "Close," in a conversational tone. She tossed her hair back again.
Thomas reached over and tucked her hair into the back of her smock for her.
She muttered, "Thank you," without looking at him, a slow flush spreading up her cheeks.
He said again, "How much longer?"
"Not long. I'm almost done. Listen, what I'm doing is calling a ward." She stopped, grimacing as the barricade shuddered under another onslaught. "Impatient bastards."
"Calling a ward?" he prompted.
"Yes. Its name is Ableon-Indis and it's supposed to be over the St. Anne's Gate but it's lying across the top of the King's Bastion now. I don't know why."
"Someone's taken the keystone."
"Damn. That would be the reason, then. The newer wards float away from their places without the keystone in the etheric structure, but the King's Bastion has the strongest warding spells in the old parts of the palace. It's drawing the drifting wards over to it. Not that it's helping much." Her expression was grim. "Anyway, when I finish this the ward should fall toward us here. If I'm lucky it will come to ground right here along the barricade. When we leave, the Host will surge forward, run into it, and get an unpleasant surprise. But Ableon-Indis will start moving upward again almost immediately. What I'm doing here isn't as strong as the warding spells still drawing it to the King's Bastion."
Thomas nodded. "So we'll have only a few moments at best?"
"Yes."
"It'll be enough."
She looked up qu