“Wait,” Vegard told me. He scanned the crowd over my head. “Jori!” he bellowed.

Moments later, a young Guardian pushed his way through the crowd to us. His eyes were borderline panicked. “Sir Vegard, what happened? Who—”

“Later,” Vegard yelled over the screaming and shouting people surging around us.

The kid had a crossbow. He didn’t look old enough to use it. I was, and better yet, I had a target. I didn’t need magic to take out Banan Ryce.

“I need your bow,” I told him.

The young Guardian looked to Vegard.

“Give it to her,” Vegard ordered. “And your bolts, too.”

He obeyed. Vegard was getting downright handy to have around.

“Riston and Captain Benares are somewhere behind us,” Vegard told him. “Find them and tell them we’ve gone in there.” He jerked his head toward the alley. “We want backup.”

The young man’s eyes went wide. “Benares?”

“Yes, that Captain Benares,” Vegard barked. “Get over it.”

“Yes, sir. Over it, sir. I’ll find Sir Riston.”

Vegard and I crossed the street and stopped with our backs against the wall leading into the alley. I knew Banan had stopped somewhere in that alley. I could feel him. Turning that corner just might get our heads blown off.

“How many ways out of that alley?” I asked Vegard.

“One exit, one courtyard.”

I somehow knew Banan wasn’t going for the exit. “He’s in the courtyard waiting for something, and I don’t think it’s us.”

Vegard drew his ax off his back. His hands and the ax blade flickered with blue fire. Now that’s what I called backup.

I checked around the corner. The alley was empty. We went in. The entrance to the courtyard was about halfway down the alley.

The heat from two furnaces against the far wall hit us head-on. Leaning against walls and lying on tables were mirrors in various stages of completion. There were piles of sand for making them, and crates for shipping them.