I head in the direction of the city center, where the deepest and oldest parts are—the ones I’m most familiar with.
“Do you know where you’re going?” Ren whispers, keeping close.
“More or less.” I try to sound more confident than I feel. “I know that if we keep going in this general direction we’ll hit one of the main arteries. I’ll be fine from there.”
“We tried to map some of it, but it’s a multilevel maze down here.” Jura’s unease is palpable. She’d always hated the tunnels and would avoid them at all costs.
“That’s why the tunnels will keep us safe.”I hope.The path splits, and as I turn, I catch a glimpse of Arina. Her eyes are closed, her breathing shallow but consistent. “How is she?”
“No change,” Gregor says grimly. “But at least she’s with us now.”
I nod. Another turn and I reach a familiar stretch. Mother taught me how to read the different cuttings of the stone to use as markers. “Soon we’ll be—”
The echoing sound of armor in the distance halts us. Breaths held. We exchange tense looks, huddling closer.
“Already?” Panic thins out the single word, pitching Ren’s voice higher.
My attention narrows on Arina.She’s going to slow us down.My mind is made up in an instant.
“Twino, Ren, take Arina.”
“What?” Gregor and Ren say nearly at the same time. Twino’s silence is telling.
I give my instructions to him. “Follow this pathway all the way to the end, as fast as you can. Right. Left. Straight past four openings, then right again…” Twino’s lips move silently, repeating every word. His eyes watch my finger as I draw it through the air, mapping it out for him. I’m trusting his visual memory to get them to the last safe place I can think of. “There’s a stone door that blocks off a little room you can wait in—it doesn’t look like one, but it will open with just an Ace of Coins. You still have one?”
Twino nods.
“Take her and go.”
“I should carry her. I’m strongest,” Gregor objects as Ren stretches out his arms.
“She’s skin and bones. Ren and Twino will manage.” The words are so cruel to say. But they’re the truth. Just looking at her sunken cheeks and protruding collarbones is painful.
“But—”
“I need you here, buying them time.” I speak over Gregor’s objection. As loath as I am to put my friends in even more danger, I know they wouldn’t have it any other way. We’d all die to protect one another.
“I need you, too.” Twino emphasizes with a tap on his bad leg.
“Fine.” Gregor passes Arina to Ren as the distant sounds of armor grow closer.
“Me?” Jura asks.
“With us.” I affirm what I know she already suspected.
She nods, her expression hardening. Jura might prefer to spend her time drying flower petals for scones. But she also knows how to fight when she needs to.
“Clear this passage!” The enforcers are close enough now that a shout echoes down to us. The voice is vaguely familiar and gives me pause.
“Go,” I urge Twino and Ren. As they race off, I pass the lantern toJura. Her confused look prompts me to explain: “I don’t need it. I know where I am now.”
“It is darker than midnight down here,” she whispers.
“I’ll be fine.”
The voice speaks again. This time closer. It bounces off the stone walls until it seems as if it’s coming from every direction all at once.
“Hunt her down!” Emilia’s shout resounds with deadly authority. The eldest Ventall daughter, heir of Clan Tower, was killing to protect me mere weeks ago…Now she’s the one they’ve sent after me. “Leave no passage unturned. Clara Daygar is the daughter of the leader of Oricalis’s greatest enemies.”
