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He leaps onto the stage, still he does not use the Amber Blade. He does not want to slice Atticul’s head off with a sword. He is too full of rage for that.

Instead, he punches Atticul in the face, hard. Atticul falls back and away, dropping the sword he holds, Lukas’s sword. The Blue Blade. Damon kicks it to Lukas who is standing up, getting to his feet from where he was kneeling over the block. The guards that held him are approaching Damon. They reach him, grab him and try to hold him. He rips free, spins and fells one of them.

Everywhere people are shouting, screaming. More guards are coming.

There is no sign of Trysta anywhere. This is good. Unless she’s already dead. If she is he’ll, he’ll…

He is dragged back and away from Atticul. He thrashes, fighting. He wants to beat Atticul, kick him in the belly as he lies on the wooden boards of the stage. But the guards hold him fast. Is this it? His great attack. Already over.

He knew, of course, that this was futile. That there would be too many guards. That revealing himself here would just end with his arrest. Him on the block beside Lukas.

Perhaps, even knowing that, he had considered it worth it to punch Atticul in the face on his ascension day.

He is forced to his knees before Atticul, who is getting to his feet, face a little reddened.

Damon looks up at him. He does not see Atticul. He sees the demon. Ur-Durik. He looks into Ur-Durik’s black eyes and snarls.

“Bastard,” Atticul says, then, to the guards, “put him on the block. What a glorious day!”

And then the blast hits. The real attack. Light, heat and sound as the floor erupts beneath him, throwing Damon backwards. He finds himself sprawled on the boards and scrambles up.

There is a huge smoking crater in the centre of the stage. Bodies of guards lie blackened on the boards. Everywhere is in uproar. Damon’s ears are ringing. People flee, scrambling in fear. Damon looks across the crater to Atticul on the other side of it.

His face is white with fear. He does not understand what just happened. Damon barely understands it himself.

Damon looks up. High in the balcony above the temple, Kerik sways from the effort of suddenly creating such a huge bolt of magic. He has got much better at it since he used similar force to kill Jareleezi.

Now is Damon’s chance and he must seize it. Perl had warned him that there would not be many opportunities to use such devastating power.

Someone reaches down to help Damon to his feet. Damon takes Lukas’s left hand and stands.

“How nice of you to come to my execution,” Lukas says as he picks up the Blue Blade.

“Like I said, I wouldn’t miss it,” Damon says, stepping in line with Lukas, shoulder to shoulder.

Lukas raises his blade in his hand and smiles, “Oh, this will be glorious.”

His words are half drowned by a great roar as Tobi races forward with his lycat, Harok behind him, a fearsome sight wielding Tobi’s own blade Demonica. All around them people are cowering away as the three of them leap up to join Damon and Lukas on the stage.

Invited nobles are still fleeing out of the doors at the back of the temple.

The great hole in the centre of the stage is no longer smoking, magic draining away as it becomes just a great maw of jagged wood.

On the other side of it Atticul stands with a wall of guards forming around him. He has Inez with him, his hand tight around her thin wrist.

“Make sure you get the Hare out.” Damon points towards the prisoner unconscious on the bench.

Lukas nods assent and Damon races forward. He leaps the huge hole and starts to fight the guards blocking his way to Atticul and Inez.

But there are so many. More are coming from somewhere.

Behind him he hears another roar as Baby leaps the hole too and comes to aid him. But Damon cannot get near Atticul and Inez. He glances up again at Kerik. He is trying to send another blast of magic, but it isn’t working. He doesn’t have enough power to do more. That was it? Damon knew there would not be many, but only one? So now it is just him. Just him, Lukas Tobi and Harok against the might of the Rose Palace guard.

But he cannot think about the impossibility of that. He needs to get to Inez. He tries, moving forward, he cuts down man after man but feels his strength start to wane.

Even with the advantage Kerik’s magic gave them, enough to stop Damon being instantly overpowered and executed, it’s not going to be enough to get out of this place with Inez.

A tall Plumian man is racing up through the temple crowds. He jumps up onto the stage. Damon squares up to him for a moment, thinking he is one of the Plumians who fight for the Imperial Army. He wears a Mark of Zai and a General’s flash. But something familiar in his eyes makes Damon step back and let the man pass.