Page 126 of Keldori By Daybreak

“What?” I asked.

“Your mother,” he said. “I don’t feel her anymore. Her Nightmare is gone.”

“Gone?” I took a stumbling step back towards the bridge, but Ciarán pulled me back and after the others.

“As in she woke up. She’s fine, but Caitria will be after us soon.”

More explosions rocked the Great Willow overhead, but the streets were at least clear as anyone with any shred of sense had long since sought cover.

We moved quickly, dodging falling debris and smoldering vines as we ran through streets and back alleys. A handful of times, Laertes and Montu ushered us back the way we’d just come to avoid the guards prowling the streets and pulling families from their homes in search of us.

“How are we getting out?” Iseult finally asked. “Won’t there be guards at the gates?”

“We’ve had to adapt in the last decade and a half since the Barony arrived. We’re on the outskirts of the Baron’s territory here, and when she relegates guardsmen to the citadel, it is usually as some form of punishment against them. As such, the men she sends are cruel, corrupt, and suffering from lack of immediate oversight,” Montu explained. “And with rotsbane attacks on the rise on steamtrails, Skal is in short supply too, making the guards all the more greedy.”

“It’s nearly impossible to get into the city without being robbed at the gate,” Laertes continued. “Which is why some of us dug under the city walls to create our own way in and out. My wife and I, we tried to make it to the tunnel the other day, but the baby was coming too quickly and we had to come through the northern gate.”

“And they took your pendant,” I said.

“But you got it back,” Montu said. “So we are helping you escape.”

I hesitated, stopping the alleyway.

“But if we escape, what happens to Willow’s Grave?” I asked. “Both Caitria’s army and the Barony guards are blowing it apart looking for us.”

“If you are on your way to do what your friend says you are, and you reseal the Rift, you’ll have saved us,” Laertes said. “Imagine the Highland Army and the Barony with the unlimited magick of Keldori. If Willow’s Grave has to fall to save the rest of Skalterra, then we will do so with honor.”

“But your new baby—”

“Will be fine, Lady Saergrim.” The young father bowed, and the same sense of shame that had plagued me among the inhabitants of Darragh’s Watch rose in my veins. “You worry about the Rift. We will worry about us.”

I nodded, unable to speak through the knot in my throat. I did not deserve these people’s reverence. They were putting their faith in the wrong person.

I thought surely Caitria’s army would run out of Skal as we ran, but the explosions continued overhead, until we reached a darkened shop at the outskirts of the citadel. Montu ushered us inside and past chairs, tables, and a counter to the storage room at the back.

Laertes kicked a rug out of the way to reveal a hidden door in the floorboards. He pulled it open and held his hand out to Orla to help her into the tunnel below. The Skal bottles on her belt cast a blue circle around her feet, and she glared up at us as Iseult followed her into the tunnel.

“It’s a straight shot to beyond the wall,” Montu explained. “Your friends should be there.”

A blast exploded outside the shop, and glass shattered. I spun to face the windows, but Laertes put his arm around my shoulder to usher me towards the trapdoor. I pushed back at the sound of screaming outside, but Ciarán pressed me forward.

“Wait—” I protested.

“We can’t help them,” Ciarán murmured.

“But this is our fault!”

“We aren’t the ones blowing up the streets.”

“They’re blowing up the streets because of us!”

“The Barony guards have been looking for an excuse to ruin us for a while now,” Montu said. “And we’ve been looking for an excuse to fight back. Please. Let us do this.”

He clasped my hand in both of his, and I tried to nod. Another crash overhead rattled the walls, and Montu, in an impressive display of strength for someone his age, pushed me into the tunnel behind Orla and Iseult. Iseult helped me land on my feet, and Ciarán fell next to us.

“Good luck.” Montu looked down at us through the trap door. “And travel quick. Thank you, again.”

A flash of green outlined his silhouette, and he let the trapdoor fall as more crashing ensued overhead.