Chapter 10
“Damn it,” Gregor grumbles. “They’re always faster than we expect.”
“What’s the plan?” I ask, assuming they have one, as I shift, testing my muscles and feeling out my magic.
Everything still hurts. But seeing them come for me—for my sister…
that has strength returning. Strength enough to see us through to safety before I collapse for what promises to be a really, really long time.
“Back into the tunnels,” Twino says in a begrudging manner that tells me they’ve been using these tunnels with little success for however long I was in Halazar. Arina and I were always the ones who navigated them the few times we took our crew below the city.
Using magic to move the water around and against the vessel, Jura guides us to the cliff face. Tucked within the rock is a large opening—an outflow that thankfully looks like it’s been used only for rainwater. It’s just beyond reaching distance from the water’s surface.
“Hurry,” I urge as Twino shifts in his seat. “They’ll be in range soon.”
“I know.” With an Ace of Coins, Twino makes a stone ladder for us to climb up to the entrance. And no sooner has he done so than magic flares above us. The enforcers are leaning over a balcony, cards balancing on outstretched fingertips.
“Escapees here!” one of them calls. A pause. Then, louder, more frantic, “It’s her!”
Her. How I hate my infamy.
A flash of gray light. A Swords card. I cast the Seven of Wands on instinct.
Every tongue of flame explodes with a blaze of golden light, shielding me from the brunt of the attack.
A single sword of light makes it through, pinning me to the vessel by my forearm.
He cast the Eight of Swords. If not for my reaction, I would’ve been stuck.
Jura lets out a noise between a shocked gasp and a pained yelp on my behalf.
“Go.” I grit my teeth and yank my arm free. The sword is spectral—not solid. And one alone isn’t enough to keep me here. The pain barely registers among all my other aches. “Get Arina inside!”
Gregor is passing Arina up to Twino and Ren, who have already scrambled up and into the opening.
Jura jumps from the vessel, narrowly avoiding a burst of flame that turns the water to steam beside her.
I instead choose to jump against the rock wall just out of sight of the enforcers, using an Ace of Coins to give myself a secondary path up.
Jura is right behind me, pulling herself onto the ledge.
“They’re in the water system!” is the last shout we hear from the enforcer, echoing down from above.
We huddle inside the entrance. Then we all spend a single breath to heave a momentary sigh of relief. I’m the one to push off the wall first.
“Let’s go.” Adrenaline is overpowering my exhaustion once more: I’m going to make it through this. I have no choice. “They’ll be finding a way down here soon.”
“Here.” Twino hands me a lantern. “We planned ahead.”
“I expected no less.” As I take the lantern, Twino lights it with an Ace of Wands. The small flame does little to ward away the heavy darkness that perpetually slumbers beneath the stone of Eclipse City.
I start ahead, and the rest follow.
I’ve never ventured this way before. The tunnels under Eclipse City are vast and ancient.
Some are naturally made—as this one appears to be, its water-carved stone smooth under our feet.
Other tunnels had been cut out of the rock with tools and magic, the walls jagged from the markings of human hands.
And some, the deepest and hardest to get to, run like streets between ancient buildings that serve as the foundation of modern-day Eclipse City.
A forgotten underworld of crumbling stone and darkness.
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 to Jura. 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.”