“Third level,” he replied.
“I thought we said we would try the second level first?” I asked, not wanting to continue up the stairs.
“We did,” he confirmed. “But with the increased guard presence, I’m thinking the third floor is a better starting location.”
I paused, playing out the options in my mind, but ultimately found myself following after the male and toward the thirdfloor. It didn’t take nearly as long as I’d believed it would to scan the third floor for my sister.
Orela wasn’t there.
In fact, we didn’t even find a single being. The entire floor seemed as though it had been vacated. The lights flickered, casting ominous shadows across the floors. Doors were thrown open, bedding askew throughout the rooms we’d passed by in our search for my sister.
The fourth floor held the same eerie, deserted feeling as the third—each room abandoned. As though the occupants had been forced to move under duress.
Meals were left untouched, devices still playing, beds half-made in haphazard manners.
Something had happened . . . only we didn’t know what exactly we would be up against.
“I’m not getting a great feeling on this.” Finn’s voice interrupted the silence of the empty corridor.
“You don’t say,” I bit back, my voice a low whisper. “We should have just started with the second floor like we said we would?—”
“Let’s keep moving,” Iver interrupted as we began making our way back toward the stairwell. A door slammed shut in the distance, and every one of us froze in our tracks, pressing ourselves against the wall as we looked around in confusion.
“We just checked this floor?” Finn’s voice was a low whisper. “Did we miss a room?”
“Shut. Up.” Iver’s voice was a dangerous hiss as he motioned for us to follow after him. Cautiously, we followed his movements, creeping our way through the darkness as we carefully retraced our steps back to the stairwell.
Iver began to slow his pace before me. My own footsteps halted as we approached the stairwell. He turned, motioning for us to remain silent before the door softly clicked open and we snuck into the stairwell.
Finn had just made it through, the door firmly shutting behind us, when a voice broke through the silence.
“Took you long enough.”
I nearly shrieked as I whirled around. Iver had his pistol raised and aimed, the red laser pointing directly at the voice that spoke in the dimly lit space before I took in who it was.
“Orela?” I questioned, confusion seeping into the word. My eyes tracked up and down my sister’s form, scanning her for injuries, ensuring she was unharmed.
“If it took you a minute longer, the floor would be flooded with guards,” she stated as though we were having a friendly conversation at a café, rather than sneaking through the back stairwell of the High Temple in a rescue attempt.
“How are you—What are you—” I couldn’t even finish my sentence as I stared at my middle sister in shock. The lines beneath her eyes were more visible in the low lighting, dark purple bruises that sank into her cheekbones. Her hair appeared more brittle, her nails a mess of jagged, picked skin.
What had happened to her?
“We need to get going.” Her voice was weak but resolute. “There are still too many paths, too many options, too much that could go wrong.”
“How are you here?” I asked. “How is no one looking for you? What is even happening right now?”
“I’m sure they will be looking for me soon enough—they’re rounding all the seers, transporting them somewhere. I slipped into the stairwell when the RSG wasn’t looking. They are bound to notice their count is off soon enough.”
We heard a shout in the distance, and Iver began motioning for us to hurry down the steps.
“We’ll go out the way we came in.” His voice was low as we began to wind our way down the stairwell. “If that closet is still unguarded, that window will be our best option.”
The three of us only nodded, following Iver’s lead as weclung to the outer wall of the stairwell, moving through the shadows at a hurried speed. I noticed my sister limping slightly as we moved down the stairs.
“What happened, Ore?” I asked as I stood beside her, letting her lean slightly against me as we hurried past the third floor.
“It doesn’t matter,” she answered, her head turning upward as we heard shouts from the door we’d just passed.
