Chapter 45 #2
I nod, then dip out the window. As soon as I’m out, balancing on the edge by my toes, the Nomad closes the window behind me, lest we attract any undue attention of an attendant passing in the hallway.
When he does, I sidle out of view of the window and glance down.
Allow the thrill of the height, the tiny specks below, to tingle through my toes, run up my legs.
Then I jump.
As soon as I’ve cleared a good distance from the wall, I extend my wings, allow them to catch air behind me. They’re still sore, but I ignore the pain and focus on making it to the playhouse roof.
I fly upward, doing my best to keep to the shadows.
When the heels of my shoes find the tiles of the roof, I let out a sigh I’d been holding while I’d expected an alarm to sound, then I discard my shoes and pad across the roof as quickly as I can manage.
Nearby is a sun window, designed to look like a bleeding heart made of glass and wrought iron.
With a blade especially made for glass-cutting, one that Lars gave me, I slice into the glass, following the path of the wrought iron where Lars said the suture would be the easiest to cut.
I’ve about cut through it when, down below, I notice movement.
A guard paces the hall below. He glances upward, and I shoot backward. I can only hope I made it out of sight of the window fast enough. Moments later, I hear his footsteps pad again, not too quick to be panicked, nor so slow to indicate suspicion.
It’s then that the pane of glass falls.
I lunge forward, my fingers grazing the glass on the way down. It slices my fingertip, but evades my grasp.
No.
It’s as if time slows in honor of the fallen piece of artwork.
But once the glass hits the ground and shatters, time zooms back up again to normal speed.
Glass goes flying, peppering the floor. The guard whirls around, glances upward, his eyes going wide when he sees me.
He grabs for the whistle hanging at his neck, but before he can press it to his lips, a prop goes flying toward his head.
The guard slumps upon the prop’s impact. Behind where he was just standing, the Nomad materializes.
I have the urge to catch my heart before it leaps up my throat and out of my chest.
The Nomad beckons me down, and I slip over the edge, my wings catching the air before I fall. I allow myself to glide down, then step carefully on the floor to avoid the shattered glass.
“This is going to be problematic,” says the Nomad.
I point to a nearby storage closet. The Nomad shrugs, and together, we hoist the guard inside.
“He’ll wake up eventually,” the Nomad says.
Then we need to be quick, I sign, and the Nomad rolls his eyes. Probably because I’ve chosen to ignore his implication.
“You haven’t even asked if I made it up alright,” says the Nomad.
I gesture to his perfectly intact body. It was stairs, I sign.
“Yes, but I had to remain invisible on those stairs. Do you know how difficult it is not to trip when you can’t see your feet?”
I roll my eyes. Did you get it?
The Nomad slips his hand into his pocket, then flashes a shiny silver key in front of my face.
“You mean this? Of course I got it. It was a pain, of course. Smart of the Sister to keep it in a room off the heavily guarded stairs. A room that has no windows, no less. Then again, she clearly wasn’t expecting someone with my skills. ”
With Venus’s skills, I correct.
The Nomad’s smug grin falters, but I’m already pulling costumes out of the nearby closet. We change into them quickly, then I prepare for the part I’ve been dreading.
The Nomad takes a step closer, a glint in his eyes. “How do you wish to hold me? Like a lover, or would you rather cradle me like an infant?”
If I had my pick, I’d throw him over my shoulder, but that would make for a difficult flight. Still, I refuse to answer with “like a lover,” so I simply step forward and wrap my arms around his torso, careful to keep my arms hooked underneath his armpits.
“Glad to see we had the same preference,” says the Nomad.
I ignore him and push us off the ground.
My wings struggle against the air, beating against the weight of the Nomad in my arms. A bead of sweat breaks out on my forehead as we ascend, and the Nomad glances down and says, “As someone who would likely not survive a fall from this height, I can’t say I love the look of you straining.
Please, do me a favor and take a break if you need it. ”
I’m not sure where he intends for me to take a break, if not the ground from where we just came, so I simply persevere.
When we make it to the top, he grips the siding of the window and hauls himself up, the muscles of his back rippling underneath his shirt. When he offers me his hand, I take it, and he pulls me through, my wings wrapping me in a cocoon so as to fit through the hole.
“It won’t be long before someone discovers that guard isn’t making his rounds at the correct time,” says the Nomad.
I nod, and we race across the rooftop, the moon a haunting crescent peeking through the clouds.
The next point of breaking in isn’t quite so complicated.
There’s a vent at the top of the theater to keep it from getting overly stuffy due to the number of warm bodies.
It comes undone with a simple turn of the handle, and we slip through, onto the rafters.
Below us, a lighting mechanic works the stage lights from a bridge, but we’re too far up for him to see.
Unless he looks up. But that would make him rather bad at his job.
My hopes are resting on him being good at his job.
We climb the rafters, the play continuing below.
Below, I hear the lead actor cry out, a sound of agony and loss.
A shudder runs through me, but I keep going, slipping from the rafters lithely, treating them like balance beams, until I’m next to the rope that handles the curtain.
It’s thick, and according to the Nomad, it will remain taut so long as it’s fastened to the wheel down below.
I grab on and slide down, the friction from the rope stinging my hands.
My feet graze the ground almost soundlessly, the rope having deposited me behind the curtain. I sidle out of the way just in time to hear footsteps land right where I was just standing, the Nomad having turned invisible.
Just as he said there would be, there’s a trapdoor entrance near where we landed.
Together, we slip through the trapdoor and into the undercroft, and wait.