grabbed the ankle and got his own foot around to slam into Niko’s face.
“Get him,” someone yelled from the doorway.
“Niko!” That shout was Tempus.
And something exploded through the window in a shower of glass, something that
existed a moment in midair and then toppled in a tumble of black cloak, black
hair and dusky skin that landed with a thump in front of Molin’s dazed eyes.
Ischade lay on the floor like a dead thing, eyes open, lips apart, a strand of
her black hair lying across her open eyes without a reaction at all, her bare
arm outflung, fingers curled in the light of the broken window. Blood welled up
in cuts on that arm-did not spurt, but only leaked, slowly, to pool under the
arm, amid the fragments of glass. All this he had time to see: Niko had suddenly
gone limp as Molin sprawled atop him. Ischade lay not breathing at all and he
was desperately afraid that Niko was not breathing either.
He pushed himself up on his arms, had help as a strong hand grabbed him and
pulled, and Tempus waded in, shoved the oak desk aside to get room and grabbed
Niko up in his arms.
“He collapsed,” Molin said, “he-just-“
Reason tottered. He felt himself pulled up and set aside like a child, and the
Froth Daughter let him go and sank down to grab Tempus’s arm as he held onto
Niko.
“I can’t get through,” Tempus shouted in desperation. “Dammit, Stormbringer-let
me get to him!”
“You can’t go in there,” Jihan yelled. Her fingers closed on his arm and dented
the muscle. “She’s there, Riddler, she’s in there, and you want it too much-Stay