Already? Nisong had given a deadline of morning for Lin’s response. Which only meant one thing: Lin’s construct had been discovered. My throat tightened. If her construct had been discovered, it must not have gotten far in its task. Gaelung couldn’t stand against an army of that size. Not without help. And I doubted Ragan was the help that Lin actually needed.

“We have to hurry.” I picked up my pace to a run, Mephi trotting beside me. “Just don’t go comatose to grow any bigger on me now. I need you.”

“Can’t control it,” Mephi said. “But I don’t think it’s time yet.”

A small blessing, at least, in a time when everything else was going wrong. The hill and the palace looked too far away; I’d never get there in time. My breathing was ragged in my throat, my feet numb from the rain and the gravel. I stopped twice to lean on my knees and to catch my breath, each time feeling like I was wasting precious moments. Even my Alanga-enhanced strength couldn’t force me past my body’s limits. And then I took the road around the hill and saw the lights from the construct army.

There were so many of them, all marching in an inexorable wave toward the palace. They’d started up the switchbacks but hadn’t reached the soldiers yet.

Then who was fighting?

I started straight up the slope, foregoing the switchbacks. Mud slipped beneath my feet as I climbed, the rain in my eyes each time I looked up. Mephi climbed close beside me, bolstering my steps where he could.

I heard Lin speaking through the distance, though I couldn’t make out her words. And then Ragan. Water sluiced over me; I had to cling to the brush to avoid being swept back down the hill. That hadn’t been the rain.

All my fears were right: Ragan had turned against Lin. “We’re too late,” I gasped out, trying to find purchase.

Mephi dug his claws into the dirt, seizing my sleeve with his teeth, pulling me up until my foot met a rock. “Not yet,” he said as he let go. “Still time.”

I barely saw the next wave of water before it hit us. I clung to a rock, shivering, reaching for that trembling in my bones and feeling only fear. This was more than I’d been able to do with water. I simply didn’t have that sort of power, and I wasn’t sure if Lin did either. And still the construct army climbed the switchbacks.

Mephi seized my sleeve again, trying to force me to my feet. “You don’t get to give up,” he said between his teeth. “What would Emahla say?”