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the mirror and bit back my own verbal contribution.
    The tip of a crossbow bolt protruded from the mirror’s surface. The mirror itself was cracked, broken, worthless. Cracks radiated out from the bolt like a spider’s web. Carnades’s word choice confirmed loud and clear that we had no way home.
    Instead of punching through the mirror, that bolt could have just as easily punched through any one of us. When Carnades had slammed that mirror shut behind us, the bolthad been trapped like a fly in amber. There was definitely a cracked mirror here and most likely a destroyed mirror there. Neither one could get us out.
    Tam, Imala, and Chigaru were home. The rest of us were trapped in Hell.
    I didn’t know about everyone else, but my morale had just hit an all-time low.
    Chigaru was speaking in low hissing tones with Imala. Without his bodyguards—or at least the one who hadn’t tried to kill him—the goblin prince no doubt felt as naked as the day he was born. He’d been on the run from his brother for years, and every second of that time he’d been surrounded by guards and armed courtiers. Now he was within ten or so miles of his brother and his army—without any guards. I sympathized and could have told the prince that I knew exactly how he felt. I was in a similar predicament without my magic. Since Carnades didn’t know that, I kept my mouth shut.
    “Jabari would never betray me,” Prince Chigaru was saying. “It was chaotic; he must have—”
    “It was no mistake, Your Highness,” Imala told him firmly.
    “I don’t believe it. I can’t.”
    “Well, obviously you’re wrong,” Carnades snapped.
    Chigaru growled and lunged for the elf mage. Fortunately, Tam got the prince by the arm as soon as he saw Carnades open his mouth to speak. A wise man, Tam. At this rate, Carnades would be lucky to make it out of the cave alive.
    “Are there any unbroken mirrors nearby?” I asked anyone who might know.
    “In the city,” Imala replied.
    Tam released the prince’s arm, but kept his eye on him. “There are dozens… in the palace.”
    Lovely.
    “Say we destroy the Saghred and find a nice, big, intactmirror.” I was looking at Carnades. “Could you get us home with one of those?”
    “Of course.”
    “Details of how you can accomplish that would be nice.”
    “There are four blanks in the citadel mirror room,” Carnades said. “I have one in my home, and another in my Conclave office.”
    “Blanks?”
    “A mirror that is not linked to a specific destination.” Carnades’s words dripped with contempt, presumably at my ignorance.
    I ignored it and him. I could always punch Carnades later. In fact, that image was going to be my happy thought for the entire trip.
    Mychael shot a warning glance at Carnades. “The four blanks in the mirror room were against the opposite wall from ours,” Mychael explained. “Their surfaces were flat, no ripples, no reflections of the people in the room. They could be our way back.”
    Mychael left “if they weren’t destroyed” unsaid. My low morale appreciated that.
    “We would need to locate either a blank or active mirror in Regor,” he continued. “Carnades would redirect it to one of the blanks on Mid.”
    “How long does that take?” Piaras asked.
    “About half an hour for most mirror mages,” Mychael replied.
    “I could do it in fifteen,” Carnades said disdainfully.
    A jerk, but a talented one. “That could be fatally slow if we’ve got half the goblin army on our collective ass,” I noted. “Do you think you could speed it up?”
    “That is as quick as
anyone
could link two mirrors,” Carnades hissed. “I have just as much motivation to escape Regor as you do.”
    That statement couldn’t be more true. Sarad Nukpana hated Carnades as much as he did me. So hopefully there’dbe plenty of potential getaway mirrors to choose from—and Carnades would be plenty motivated to break his own speed record when we found one of them.
    I knew I