Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 9 of 86

The mage held the vial back from Zach's hand. "You won't survive what's past that wall," she said. "Not blind. Not alone with a sword." She turned to a doorway at the tower's rear and called a name. "Lyra." An elf stepped out. She was small, with white hair and sharp ears, a robe hanging open over a laced crop top. A blue orb swung at her belt. She looked Zach up and down, then grinned. "So this is the one the stone woke." She circled the sword and whistled low. "He carries that and still needs babysitting?" "Lyra reads the dead through walls," the mage said. "She can tell you what stands behind that door before you open it. She owes me. Now she owes you nothing, so be polite." Lyra dropped into a chair and propped her boots on a table. "I don't do brave. I do careful. If you rush through that stone door, you'll die in three steps." She tapped the orb. "But I can taste what breathes on the other side. Give me the wall, and I'll map it in my head before you set foot inside." Raven leaned forward. "You can see through it?" "Feel through it," Lyra said. "Bodies. Heartbeats. Cold spots where nothing living stands." She looked at Zach. "You pour the drop. I read the room. I tell you left or right, three men or thirty. Then you swing that overgrown letter opener and hope." Zach set the vial in his palm. One use. Once it opened, everyone beyond would know. "If they all rush the door, we're finished before I clear it." "Then we don't go through the door," Lyra said. She swung her boots down. "We go tonight, late, when the guards thin. I feel them first. If the near side is crowded, we wait. If it's empty, you pour, I count, you move. We take the first stair I find and get off the open ground fast." Raven pulled her dagger and checked the edge. "Tonight, then." They came to the wall past midnight. The alley stood empty. Lyra pressed both palms to the stone and shut her eyes. Her lips moved. "Two," she whispered. "Both to the left, near a fire. A stair to the right, going down. Nothing else close." She opened her eyes. "Now, before they turn." Zach unstoppered the vial. One dark drop struck the stone. The wall shuddered and split inward. Warm air breathed out, and a bell began to toll somewhere far beyond. "They heard," Lyra hissed. "Right stair. Go." Zach went. He cut right, dropped into a stone stairwell, and the two women followed close behind. Behind them the wall ground shut. They stood in a dark passage that sloped north, into Darkthorne's road at last. The bell still rang above. Whatever waited below now knew he had come.