Chapter 73 - Escape (Patreon)

Malia 5

From down in the vault, Malia heard the front door of the magelord’s tower crash open. Somehow, though, the Core she’d just absorbed was a Divination core, and using it had given her memories of different immediate futures. Heart pounding, she acted out the best of the memories that hadn’t yet happened. She double checked to make sure they had all the objects they’d need: the enchanted scarf, tablecloth, belt, shirt, and cloak. The chisel was lying on the ground next to the shattered vase they’d thrown to make sure the traps on the stairs were disabled.

First, they had to clear out evidence of the vase they’d thrown. “Sweep that to the side!” she whispered to Zidon, as she ran up and picked up the chisel. With an underhand toss, she threw it up the stairs. It clattered against the second step. On its way up, lightning crackled out as the traps along the stairs activated again.

She checked to make sure Zidon had swept the pottery all the way into the room with the magic cores, then closed the door grabbed the broom from him and hissed, “Move! Zidon, behind the right door, Kli, with me behind the left.”

The other two slaves were scared, but they moved with her. Malia would have liked to take more things with them, but she had a clear memory of taking extra magical cores and having that give them away somehow.

The three of them ran up to the top of the steps, feet padding to minimize the noise. Up top, she could hear heavy boots echoing in the hall. Malia pushed the doors closed, first fast, then gently. The white torches dimmed.

Here, Magelord Eur’s love of elaborate decorations was a liability. There were little alcoves with statues along the staircase, and there was just enough room for a person to press themselves up into them. When the door opened, they’d be hidden from sight—as long as no one came to investigate.

The moment they were situated, they heard a key in the lock. The doors swung open again, and the torches burned bright.

A heavy boot took a step forward, but Malia heard the clatter of armor. “Wait. The stairs are trapped.” There was a pause. She heard the clink of chainmail and heavy breathing. “The doors are closed. I don’t see them. Check upstairs.”

The doors started to swing closed. If they locked, they’d be trapped—there was no keyhole on this side. Malia waited to the count of three, then darted forward with the broom, placing the bristles just between the bottom of the shrinking gap between the heavy doors. They closed—but didn’t latch. She waited ten more seconds, then whispered, “Move with me, clockwise. Zidon, sweep up our footprints behind us as we move. Keep your footsteps gentle.” She opened the doors, thrusting the broom into Zidon’s hands again. It was enchanted, so it would easily pick up the bits of dirt and dripped water they would leave behind on the otherwise pristine marble floors. Circling clockwise would bring them within view of the front door, but the guards would have their backs turned. Circling counter-clockwise would have them run into a second group of guards searching the lower floor. She knew all this—she remembered it—but there was no time to explain everything. She just had to hope they’d trust her. But she’d seen Zidon and Kli trusting her.

The doors silently swung open, then closed again as the three of them padded out. She heard the whisk whisk of bristles on stone. She saw the back of a guard as he moved around the stairs. They’d be heading up the stairs. If they turned around, the three of them would be spotted. They just had to stay quiet.

“They must have gotten in that way. But the collars are in this building. We know they haven’t left yet. Check the side rooms,” echoed a stern voice.

Heavy boots echoed. The three of them continued around the front of the staircase, heading back into the little maintenance room where the running water drained. Malia put her finger in front of her lips. They had to wade through the water, but in a way that didn’t make too much noise.

At the midway point, where the shadows in the tunnel were deepest, she grabbed both their arms and pulled. Pointing to the exit, she shook her head. Pointing where they were now, she nodded. Then, she unfolded the tablecloth and draped it over their heads, and squatted down in the frigid waters so that only her head was above it. The other two hesitated a moment, then did the same.

The black tablecloth was enchanted. She didn’t know what the enchantment was, only that it somehow helped them stay hidden. The guards would be coming back around to check this spot, then to close the metal grate they’d opened. But the reason they’d left that tunnel open was that there were already more guards stationed by the exit of the outflow, watching over that, the river, and the bridges. They needed to wait.

However, the waters that came down from the aqueducts down into the estate were cold as hell. She remembered them freezing—unless they brought the scarf. The visions hadn’t told her what enchantment the scarf had, but she could easily guess. She wrapped it around Kli’s neck. Immediately, the orc stopped shivering.

They’d have to pass it around, but it would keep them from freezing to death in the waters while they waited.

They also needed to get rid of the tracking glyphs on the collars. Malia carefully got out the chisel and pressed it up against the glyph of her collar, making sure the tip was under the water. If any of the guards had their head submerged, they’d be able to hear the noise of her chipping off the glyph—but none of them wanted to put their head in the water that had been contaminated by human shit. These Hadaun types were obsessed with ‘purity.’ Unless they knew they were in the tunnel with turd-sludge pasted on the bottom, they wouldn’t want to explore it.

Malia heard heavy breathing echoing and a bright light shining through the tablecloth from the entrance.

Someone said something indistinct from a distance. She stopped moving at all. Zidon was struggling to keep the broom from getting swept away by the current or bobbing to the surface.

“No, I don’t see them.”

She heard the heavy clang of the metal grate closing. More indistinct voices.

“Then they must have an illusion. Check the inventory, and get that enchanter.”

A muttered response she couldn’t make out.

“Erashaguul take him if he’s sleeping! Drag his whole bed here if you have to!”

More bootsteps echoed down the tunnel, then faded. Malia released the breath she’d been holding. She pulled at the belt Zidon was holding, then poked her finger at him. Putting it on would help with something—stamina, maybe? If he didn’t wear it, the broom would slip at some point, and they’d be revealed. Then she went back to chiseling.

There were more noises. Another bright light shone down the tunnel, this time, looking from the river towards the tower, but they held still until it passed. The minutes seemed to drag on forever. Slowly, they chiseled out the tracking glyph until each stopped glowing.

Zidon passed the scarf to Kli. Some time later, Kli passed it to Malia, and the relief from the frigid waters was immense. She felt warmth passing up and down her body, and she released muscles she hadn’t even realized she’d been clenching. Her shivers stopped a few minutes later.

The took turns with the scarf. Twice more, they heard voices echoing through the tunnel. Eventually, they faded, and the only noise they heard was the rushing water. It was dark out. Occasionally, they’d see lights moving near the tunnel exit.

“How long?” whispered Kli.

“I don’t know. I only know if we left too soon, they’d catch us.” She had a distinct memory of them exiting the tunnel, only for the guards to instantly find them and draw their weapons. In another, they tried to swim across the river and were pulled over the waterfall. Another memory was of creeping up the bank and hearing the barking of hounds approaching.

Zidon whispered, “But you saw—you got precognition, did you not?”

“I… guess I did. I just pushed… and it worked? But I don’t see anything anymore.”

“You must have pushed your mana through your conduits in a certain way. Shadr can naturally do that with our spectral aspect… but I’m surprised you were able to manage it so quickly after getting a Core. Can you do it again?”

“I’ll try.”

Malia closed her eyes, but the water was growing even colder. She took the scarf back from Kli and tried again. There was that faint star in the sky. She pushed that new sense at it again.

She felt a sensation move through her, and a deep exhaustion.

Again, she felt two presences. One was that sense of the future. Another… it was like she was being watched, like a dark specter in the deep shadows, but no matter how hard she looked for it, it wasn’t there. She felt… sadness. Despair. Then nothing.

Is that part of the spell? What does that mean? she wondered. The exhaustion she could figure out: that was her mana running low. Elspira had told her about that. But her attention was drawn to the surge of new memories. She knew what mistakes to avoid now. She knew what to do.

“Okay, there’s guards all over the estate still, and more in the wilderness, but they’re done searching the tower. We can go. Zidon will take the lead. The belt will help you keep balanced and resist the current. You’ll hold the broom in front of you, bristles up—I think it must clean scents, too, or the hounds will find us. Your skin’s dark enough it shouldn’t reflect in the light much, so we’ll tie the tablecloth around your neck, and then Kli and I will stay under it, holding onto your belt and walk behind you. We have to stay low, and walk along the bank. Keep your spectral form suppressed. Then, there’s a place in the bars that go across the river where the river has eroded down. We dig under that a bit, and we’ll be able to go underneath.”

“What about the enchanted shirt? Why’d we take it?”

“I… I don’t know. I don’t know what it does.”

Kli said, “Plan good. We go.”

“I certainly don’t have any better ideas,” Zidon whispered.

They had to take a moment to stretch after sitting in a cramped position for multiple hours. Then, they crept forward, keeping their bodies low, making sure to move in slowly so the water didn’t splash about.

There were magic lamps all around the estate, but there was no moon above them, so the shadows were long and dark. They moved carefully, but after even just a few minutes, Malia was tired. The current was strong, and even with Zidon taking the lead, each step was a fight. She had to feel each step so she didn’t slip on the rounded stones on the riverbed—some of which were lose.

Twice, guards passed over the different bridges going across the river. They stayed still, keeping only their noses above the water. They passed the scarf around every minute, but even that wasn’t enough; the river stripped all the heat from them. Malia wanted so badly to just climb the bank and be dry.

After what felt like hours, though it certainly hadn’t been that long, they made it to the steel bars across the river that were between the outer walls of the estate. Malia steeled herself, held her breath, and dove down. Down below, there was a gap of a few inches. She pawed at the mud, removed some of the lose stones down there, then surfaced as quietly as she could, taking steady breathes even though she desperately wanted to gasp for air.

The minutes continued to drag on. A guard patrol approached on the wall. They stopped, keeping the tablecloth over their heads. Shivers were wracking Malia’s body. She felt the urge to grab the scarf.

Finally, the patrol moved on.

At last, they’d dug out just enough beneath the bars to be able to swim under. Malia pulled on Zidon’s belt, then pointed to him, then Kli, then her. He nodded.

They took turns with the belt now, and as soon as Malia put it on, some of the exhaustion that was deep in her bones was relieved. She dove down, grasping the bars with both hands, then dragging herself along the bottom.

Then—disaster struck. Her clothes had snagged on the bottom of the bars. She panicked, trying to dislodge it, then felt sturdy hands grip her and pull the cloth off. Zidon, pushing her up to the surface. Malia let out a gasp—then closed her mouth and looked around. The river was loud, but had anyone heard her? They waited a few moments, eyes casting about the night.

Shouting echoed out in the forest beyond the wall. They were out of the estate, but they weren’t safe yet.

“Continue in the river for two hundred more feet, then we’ll climb out and walk along the bank. If we hear them approach, we get back in. Last person in line drags the broom along behind us to sweep up scents and footprints.”

They moved on. When they climbed out, Malia was shivering so badly she wasn’t sure she could walk. Even the scarf wasn’t enough. They had to rest for a few minutes, then she felt well enough to move. The three of them kept the tablecloth over their shoulders and stepped carefully. Zidon could see in the dark better than the rest of them, so he continued to lead them, occasionally bending down to move a stick out of the way so they wouldn’t step on it and snap it.

Finally, they were upstream enough that Malia felt they could relax. “Now where do we go?” she asked. “We have to get through a portal somehow. But I don’t know… and they’ll be guarded. And we need these collars off… also, do you know what your conduits do yet? We might be able to use those.”

She’d bet everything on getting that Portal Core. It had seemed so easy, but of course it wouldn’t be that easy.

“Mine… I think Alchemy,” Kli said. “Would have like Enchant or Metal, but this luck too.”

Zidon said, “No clue on mine. I keep sensing something, but I don’t know what it is. All I know is there was a lot of it by the sewer… but it’s everywhere here, too.”

Malia nodded. “We’ll see what we can figure out. For now, we need to find… I don’t know where we should go.”

“Most orcs dead,” Kli said. “But we find. Circle. Move edgeways. We find. I lead.”

Behind them, Malia heard the echoes of Hadaun hounds barking.

Above, the stars shone, immobile. But in front of them was freedom. Whatever it took, they’d get it. Kli took the lead, and they trekked forward into the darkness.

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