Free Skybuilders (Sorcery and Science Book 4) by Ella Summers Page A

door, heading back to the first room. He seemed to be following the flow of his thoughts, racing to wherever they brought him. His eyes scanned back and forth across the floor as he walked. He stopped close to where Silas had found the bloody ponytail, then bent down to brush his fingertips against the floor. Ariella caught the faint after-scent of pepper as he lifted up his red-powdered index finger.
    “Marin had the Selpe brothers continue to spray the assassins outside the window, while she opened the door just long enough to throw chili pepper bombs at the assassins approaching from the inside. She always did love those chili pepper bombs. She thought she was being so clever.”
    Ariella remembered Marin’s chili pepper bombs. She’d used them at the Solstice Games to infect five people with a chronic case of sneezing, causing them to drop from the treetops. Since those bombs had saved her and Silas from poisoned bolts, Ariella actually did find the trick quite clever.
    Leonidas rose and indicated the black hair on the table. “But it looks like at least one of the bombs was more potent than Marin had intended.”
    Ariella nodded in agreement. Marin might have enjoyed the thrill of the Solstice Games, but she definitely preferred amusing pyromanic displays to dealing actual damage. She would have made the chili bombs to incapacitate, not wound or much less kill. She must have been so rushed that she mixed one overly strong. Ariella guessed the bearer of the purple-black ponytail, clearly an Elition, had probably survived. But she didn’t want to think about how much it hurt to go around with bits of her scalp hanging off, at least until the injury had healed.
    Leonidas had already returned to the back window, and Ariella followed. Silas stood with his back to the wall, his eyes sliding across the room from window to door, taking in everything around him. Ever the threat seeker. Ever the bodyguard.
    “And this is where the trail of clues effectively ends,” declared Leonidas as he stared at the window.
    Ariella noted the frustration on his face. Now they were getting to the perplexing part.
    “Marin and the Selpe brothers just disappeared.”
    “Surely, you have just missed — ”
    “No,” he interrupted her, pointing at the window. “Look there. The assassins were attempting to cut a hole in the glass to get inside. The start of the hole is jagged, as though the cutter had been frequently interrupted in his work. That would be the burning window spray. But then see that? The last third of the cut is neat and smooth, work completed without any such interruptions.”
    Ariella took a closer look at the patched hole. Leonidas was right. And if the assassins inside had captured Marin, there would have been no need to continue the tedious task of cutting into the window. They could have just gone back the way they’d come.
    “Marin and the Selpe brothers disappeared. Suddenly.” Leonidas began to pace. “As though the floor opened up and swallowed them whole.”
    “No, not the floor. A portal,” said Silas.
    Except that portals did not randomly appear out of nowhere and suck people inside. Portals were permanent. Ever present and always in the same place. Peek-a-boo portals would not provide a very useful form of transportation, now would they?
    In response to her unvoiced protestation, Silas added, “There are tales of vanishing portals, Ariella. Portals that appear only every few hours or even days.”
    She cringed. Perhaps, he’d read the skepticism on her face, or perhaps he’d just read her thoughts. She hated not knowing which.
    “Those are old stories, Silas. Just whimsical fairy tales.”
    “Perhaps.” He shrugged. “Or perhaps not.”
    “No one has ever seen one of these vanishing portals. No one can even create any sort of portal anymore. It’s a magic long since gone from this world.” And the last time she’d seen someone try, it hadn’t ended well.
    His face remained set. There was no