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A fresh wave of guilt, sadness, and warmth surged through Lily—a bright, sun-kissed swell that threatened to pull her to the depths below the surface.
Maude exhaled, loosening her posture. “Town hall would be the most likely place they’re keeping him.”
Tentative surprise tickled against Lily’s skin. “Maude—”
“Don’t you dare apologize to me,” she spat out. “I still don’t want it.”
“I was going to thank you.”
Maude rolled her eyes. “Kyer was livid when he found out I lied to him. I can’t begin to think about the storm coming for me if I let you walk out of here by yourself.” She signaled to the soldier to bring her a map, and Lily moved to her side as she spread it across a table. “There are the tunnels we dug under the city that connect to the sewers. If we do manage to get to him, we can use one to get us out. The artificer’s shop, here. There’s a tunnel in the cellar that leads toward the eastern orchards. It’s the closest to town hall. We can get in, and sneak out, hopefully undetected.”
We’d leave Markoth’s people behind to get ourselves out. I’d be running away, and leaving them to take the fall. Again. “The general. Whart. What are his defenses? Jarek mentioned he had two specters. What else?”
Maude exhaled sharply. “Now’s not the time for that.”
“This is what you wanted me to do, right? Liberate Markoth? Luka is my priority, but if he’s close to Whart, we have to try and end this.”
Maude stayed quiet, and when Lily looked from the map, she met Maude’s soul. “He has the two specters and a handful of soldiers,” she said. “I don’t have enough men for a full-frontal assault.”
Lily paused to think. “Is the camp still intact?”
“Yes. The Stalker was alone. They killed Mia, and we assume they took her form to get close to Luka. Some soldiers were injured, but there were no other casualties. I rode out as soon as it happened. Kyer said he would mobilize the rest of the camp afterward. They should’ve been here by sundown, but Whart’s got the town locked down tight.”
“Then let’s rely on who we have inside already.”
“I’m telling you, it’s not much,” Maude said listlessly.
“It’s enough.” Lily’s voice held a fragile confidence. Arming even a small number of men with ghosted weapons would make this doable. The odds were stacked against them without those guns, and Lily was relying on Jarek for his help with the specters. He’d quickly realize she was gone but had no way of knowing where.
She and Maude were on their own.
Maude nodded, uncertain but approving, nonetheless. “There are only two specters. One’s scouring the streets. I presume the other is with Whart and his soldiers, six in total. I don’t know how many Stalkers are in his immediate party, but we can assume each will have a ghosted gun.”
“And us?”
“Mostly handheld. Knives, spears, swords. There are blasting stones hidden at the entrances of the tunnels throughout town. A few of the Terin soldiers have steel pistols.”
Lily stared hard at the center of the map where Luka was most likely kept. It was crowded, dense, surely guarded, and difficult to sneak in, even with the tunnel.
“It would be easier to draw him to us,” Maude said. “At least the Stalkers to clear out some problems.”
Lily’s lip ticked. “I was thinking the same thing. Any ideas?”
Maude stifled a smile. “One.”
An overcast sky obscured the moonlight as Lily cautiously delved into the innermost section of Markoth. She moved slowly over shattered glass from the bent and broken lampposts, waving away any curious heads poking out of their cracked doors, but as she got closer to the center of town, the buildings began to crowd together. Less and less townsfolk made themselves visible.
The knife from Maude offered no more comfort than the steel pistol from one of her soldiers. The blade was cavernbone, sheathed tightly in a bracer on her forearm. Even with it and the Wraith, to say Lily wasn’t happy with this plan was an understatement.
A clatter rippled through the air. Lily stiffened, terrified to make a sound.
The only solace was trusting that Maude and her men were close behind on the rooftops above. She’d handle the specter, and they’d handle its entourage.
When everything stayed quiet, Lily moved on, the crunch of glass lightening as her creep grew to a hustle. Ahead was a violent necro aura spilling from the crack of a door hanging on by a single hinge. It followed the faint gleam of blood dripping down and pooling at the bottom of a short stoop.
Gods… The specters were responsible for all of this?
She took the fiery aura into her skin.
