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“Look,” Gullie said, tugging on my left earlobe. “The door is closed, and I think I just heard it lock.”
My blood drained from my face and my heart started to pound. I had been too busy listening to the conversation between Rolan and Valerian to have noticed anything else. Gullie, on the other hand, had been quietly observing the place. “Valerian, we need to leave,” I said.
Valerian looked at me, and the moment he saw the pallor of my skin, he turned to Rolan and grabbed him by the scruff. “What have you done?” he snarled.
“What I had to do to ensure the survival of my guild,” Rolan simply said.
Valerian pulled Rolan closer to him. “I should kill you where you stand,” he said, his voice low and filled with lethal intent.
“Do it. I deserve nothing less for what I have done.” I heard the outer door open, now, and the clanking of metal boots entering the building. “I’m sorry, Valerian. It was the only way.”
“Amara, get away from the door,” Valerian barked. “And you, give me the key to the underground passage. Now.”
“It’s no use. They have every exit surrounded. There’s only one way out of here, and it’s bloody.”
I heard the inner door unlock. As soon as it did, I rushed toward a nearby table, flipped it onto its side, and shoved it toward the door, doing my best to keep it notched between the door handle and the indents in the stony ground so that the door wouldn’t open.
That was when I heard a metal fist slam against the door. “In the name of Queen Malys Wolfsbane,” someone yelled from the other side, “Open this door!”
“This won’t hold them forever,” I called out to Valerian.
Valerian let Rolan go. “You have killed us, then,” he said, shaking his head. It wasn’t anger I heard in his voice, but an intense kind of sadness laced with disappointment. Rolan had meant a lot to him. There may even have been something fatherly about their bond. Whatever it had been before, I watched it shatter, now, because Rolan had sold us out knowing full well who Valerian really was; he hadn’t been enchanted, or under a spell.
The worst part was, I couldn’t blame him for putting himself first. Hadn’t I done the same?
“We need to get out of here,” Gullie said. “How are we going to do that with all the exits blocked?”
“They aren’t all blocked,” came a voice from behind the bar.
“Irena, what are you doing?!” Rolan hissed.
Irena came striding out from behind the bar, a dagger held in her right hand and a ring of keys in her left. “We can’t stand here and watch them get taken away,” she said. “I won’t be able to sleep at night, and neither will you. It’s not too late to fix this.”
Rolan shook his head. “Either they get taken, or we get killed. Don’t you see?!”
“Let the soldiers come, then. We’ll buy time for Valerian to escape along the rooftops. Those clanky soldiers won’t be able to reach them up there.” Having said that, she handed the ring of keys over to Valerian. “Go,” she said, “And make this all right again.”
“Irena, wecan’t!” Rolan said, backing away from Valerian and appearing like he was ready to draw one of his blades.
Irena aimed the tip of her dagger at him. “We don’t abandon our own,” she said. “Those were your words before they were ours.”
“Alright, break it down!” I heard one of the soldiers on the other side of the door yell. Not long before that, the door started to shake, and thud, and splinter in places. When I saw the tip of a sword poke through it, I knew, it was time to go.
I raced around the table where Valerian stood, grabbed his hand, and pulled him toward the stairs. “Thank you,” I said to Irena. “I won’t forget this.”
“I don’t think that matters much,” she called out. “We may well be dead by the time you leave this building. But on the off chance we survive this, I appreciate it.”
Valerian looked like he wasn’t done with Rolan, but when the door began to break apart into smaller pieces of itself and the first soldier tried to squeeze his way through, it was clear even to him that we had to leave. So, as fast as we could, we made for the roof, and prayed we would find away out of this.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
The keyring we had been given came in handy when we reached the door that led to the rooftop. Not only had that door been locked, but so was the trapdoor at the top of the ladder that would take us outside. We crammed ourselves into the room with the ladder, shut the door and locked it, and then made our way up and outside.
As soon as Valerian pushed open the trapdoor above us, I heard the sounds of shouting, yelling, of heavily armored soldiers moving around to gain a better position. From somewhere underneath us a soldier called out,they’re on the roof! I thought of Irena, and hoped she hadn’t been killed for letting us escape as I made my way outside.
I was about to run over to one of the rooftop’s edges, when Valerian grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me back. “If they are smart,” he said, “There are archers waiting for us to do exactly what you were about to do.”
“I don’t which way to go,” I said, “How am I supposed to jump off this thing if I don’t know where to jump to?”
