Page 125 of Keldori By Daybreak

“Go. The exit is open.” Taj looked up at me. “Be safe, Lady Saergrim, whatever it is you are trying to do. Willow’s Grave stands with you.”

Iseult led the charge up the spiral stairs, and I hurried to catch up. Orla, however, hesitated at the bottom, still looking at Lysanor.

“Orla!” I called. “Come on!”

She turned to look at me, her face unreadable, and then started after us, taking the stairs two at a time with her long legs.

The willow vines visible through the glass ceiling burned with green fire, and bits of rock and rubble pattered over the panes. Iseult’s cloak billowed out behind her, and her stolen Helm of Lyria reflected the emerald hues of the firestorm outside.

Another distant, monstrous roar echoed behind us, but I forced myself to keep moving forward, through the entrance hall to the exit, past the marble cat statue, and into the smoke-filled streets.

“Wren!” Ciarán’s voice called from the bridge, his eyes casting an orange haze through the smoke. I ran to meet him, but Orla sprinted past both me and Iseult to meet him first.

She shoved him hard in the chest, and Ciarán’s eyes widened in shock.

“You ass!” Orla drew back a fist as if preparing to hit him, but I grabbed her cocked arm and pulled her away. She twisted and shoved me next, knocking me back against the stone railing of the bridge. “You’re an ass too!”

“What’s going on?” Ciarán hissed.

“She found out about the keep flood,” Iseult explained.

“You lied too! And then kissed me!” Tears streamed down Orla’s face. “You’re all liars!”

“If you want me to feel bad about trying to kill Ferrin, try again. This is all I have left of my parents because of him.” Ciarán shook the bottle of ashes at his belt. “Tiernan was perfectly fine with drowning his sister if it meant saving the worlds, so why can’t you be okay with killing Ferrin?”

“First of all, I’m not Tiernan. Second, I’m not angry you tried to kill my uncle!” Orla yelled. “I’m angry none of you trusted me enough to tell me the plan!”

“You almost got Ciarán killed in the Second Sentinel when you chose Ferrin’s life over ours,” I pointed out. “You haven’t given us a reason to trust you.”

Something broke on Orla’s face, but a green blast overhead sent us diving for cover against the bridge railing while bits of rock and opal fell from the sky.

When the debris stopped, a new voice spoke.

“Perhaps this is something that can wait?” An older gentleman with an impressive beard of white and gray waited on the other side of the bridge with a second, younger man.

“Who are they?” I asked Ciarán as he helped me to my feet.

“Our escape plan. We can trust them. They already got Tiernan, Fana, and Jonquil out.”

“You may call me Montu, Lady Saergrim.” The older man bowed and then gestured to the man beside him. While Montu’s light robes looked like the robes I’d seen all over Willow’s Grave, the younger man wore simple leather armor over a vest and pants. “And this is my son-in-law, Laertes.”

“You told them who I am?” I glared at Ciarán.

“Your secret is safe with us,” Montu promised. “We will get you out of the citadel and to safety.”

“Why?”

“You returned my grandmother’s pendant to our family after it was taken at the wall.”

“And you are an enemy of the Barony.” The younger man, Laertes, grinned. “Which makes you a friend to us.”

“The pendant?” I looked at Ciarán. “The one we took from the guard and you returned?”

“Yes, Blue, try to keep up.”

“Quickly,” Montu beckoned us into an alley, “before more guards arrive.”

We followed them into the shadows, but Ciarán halted with a wince, and turned to look back across the river towards the library.