The inner wall rose before Aureum and Hiems soon enough. It wasn't as wide or as tall as the outer wall. Neither wall's height was a true obstacle for a powerful sorcerer.
For Aureum it was another matter.
Despite the urgency of their task, they had to stand waiting in the shadows. Aureum knew not what for, but Hiems squinted into the darkness. He desperately tried to see a head nod off into the night.
"Gurrrgh, gah!"
Gemmo gargled something into Hiems' arm. It was too much. If this kept up, something would go wrong.
"Let's get moving."
Aureum stood to attention, jerking her head from the shadows in the corners. Not that she had a clue on how to get moving.
It was just a moment for her before the answer became apparent. Hiems ever so carefully started growing lumps of ice out of the wall. What started with what looked to be a trick of the light soon became something large enough to step on. A little hissing of the sound of cold came from it.
Hiems could have done it faster, but it would make more noise.
Will it break?
Aureum swallowed that thought. She went to climb up it but was stopped.
"Let me form a few more before you start."
"Isn't it hard to form all of these?" Aureum asked.
He didn't usually use his mana in this way. Even when he did make ice on the ground or for jumping off of, he didn't have to hold the form for long amounts of time. They could shatter or melt into nothing after the moment.
"It'll be easier if you don't stand on it."
Aureum heard some of the strain in his voice.
"Of course."
She shut up after that.
We have to get past the outer wall after this. Is this his plan for that too?
It was a nerve-wracking thought, but not as nerve-wracking as climbing up those glossy steps. Finally, they got to begin climbing them. Hiems went first, and Aureum followed.
Each step was a terror.
To save his strength Hiems left large gaps between each one. Not to mention they were slippery. And the constant thought they might crack if his concentration slipped.
Aureum felt sick.
I can make it. He'll hold them up. We'll be fine.
THUNK.
She looked back. The step of ice they'd started on had slid down the wall.
That… must have been intentional.
She looked ahead but couldn't see his face or any indication he'd noticed the fall. She felt herself start to sweat.
Between telling herself, constantly, that it would be fine, she panicked.
Was that step that clear just a second ago?
It's fine.
It feels wet. By Bonum, what would I do if I slipped?
It became the quiet struggle of the two unnoticed figures and the labored breaths between them. The ground was only a brutal fall away.
The noise it would make—
I won't fall.
I won't fall. I won't fall.
She kept her eyes on the wall, taking slow and awkward steps up against it. If the steps were too big, they'd draw attention, and Hiems would have even greater difficulty holding them up.
Aureum slipped.
She clamped her mouth shut almost faster than she grabbed at the wall. Not a cry, but as her horror subsided, she felt sharp new pricks of pain.
She'd accidentally bitten herself, as well as scraped her chin, arms, and palms.
She looked over at Hiems. He was struggling with carrying Gemmo. She could put the spear in the ring. He could not.
The kid was trying to make some gurgling noises, and with one arm Hiems was silencing that mouth.
It had been a quick moment. Easy not to be noticed.
She carefully took another step. Actual clear thoughts were almost too much effort at this point. The painful, tedious struggle went on.
"Awghoo! Ahhhh—
Gemmo, who had gotten tired of what he had thought was a game, changed tactics and began bawling.
Hiems re-clamped a hand firmly down on that little, noisy mouth, but it was too late.
Aureum's and Hiems' horrified glances met each other.
"A baby?"
They were close enough to hear the guard above them shift around. Aureum's eyes widened.
As she watched, Hiems jumped the yard left for him to get up the wall.
"Argh!"
"Waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!"
She heard the guard's cry of surprise, alongside Gemmo's wailing.
She needed to get up there now.
She dashed up the last few steps before her, and then, with a bit of help from the wind, she half-climbed, half-pulled herself into grabbing the edge of the wall.
By the time she had struggled herself to her feet, Gemmo was quiet and Hiems was still. He was looking over the edge of a distant wall.
Aureum could sense it too. The guards, like little torches of mana, were moving quickly.
They had definitely noticed this.
"Where's the gate?" Aureum asked.
Hiems pointed, and Aureum started running. He was right beside her.
———————————————————
"Heheheh…!"
Spesavia cackled.
She wasn't in a particularly jovial mood, being further interrogated by Mors, but there was joy in it that he couldn't force her to stop.
"Yes, the egg is hatched! How grand! How many moons did it take you to figure out that no egg means the egg hatched!"
Mors ignored her provocations. For the first time in a while, he felt progress. His victory was nearly complete, and with a little patience her whole cloak of ragged deceptions would be in tatters.
"…I just can't remember why you didn't claim you destroyed it," he said. "Or did you even come up with that excuse, old woman?"
Spesavia's bulbous eyes peered up at him from where she was forced to sit.
"I cannot fabricate reality that much," she said. "There's nothing that deep about it. I'm just not that good of a liar."
Mors' hand slammed the book of Aureum's notes of Gemmo into the table, knocking off and breaking a few vials.
"You're going to tell me everything about how this kid came from the egg."
Mors wasn't the least bit worried about time. Aureum had run off with the child, but what were they going to do?
Even if they teamed up with the traitor, they wouldn't have much chance getting out. Mors had already heard about that one's deficiency. It seemed like he had skills and experience, but years of ill use were catching up to him. He chose to press Spesavia for information before she wriggled her way out again.
Not that he had left them unattended. As soon as he learned the kid was what broke from the dragon egg, he sent a few guards.
He sat across from Spesavia and relaxed. Any moment Maledic's guards would return back with the girl and the egg, and—
"Lord Mors!"
It wasn't what Mors usually went by, but he responded all the same.
"Yes?"
"They're gone!"
"Gone?" Mors repeated.
"A ha ha ha ha ha!" Spesavia let out a real cackle this time.
"What happened?" Mors said, his tone darkening.
———————————————————
"WAAAAAHHHHH!"
In the meantime, Aureum and Hiems ran as fast as they could. The sounds of their footsteps pounded against the stones of the wall. Of course, no matter which direction they ran, there were guards.
Unlike before, they couldn't take them by surprise. Hiems tried thinning them out where he could with his daggers of ice, but he got one man, and then three were upon them. Aureum wasn't getting anyone else's throat, but her spear at least helped keep them from swarming her.
"Ah!"
Not that she wasn't getting her fair share of cuts and gashes. Another spear sliced her cheek.
They were different from a group of disorganized thugs. But… she wasn't the same either.
She stabbed, she parried, and she dodged.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Little Gemmo continuously wailed his heart out.
If this was all Aureum and Hiems could do, they would have gotten swarmed already.
"Eyes out!" Hiems said.
Another wave of ice jutted into the guards. Aureum and Hiems dashed up it.
It didn't last for long, but it allowed them to propel themselves over the guards' heads.
Then it was back to dashing forward as fast as they could with each step, with each breath. Her lungs ached, but Hiems, who should have taken the lead, was falling behind her.
Aureum had no time to think of that. The guards caught up to them already.
"That roof is close!" She said.
Then she jumped and rolled onto it. It hurt her back and shoulders.
"AAAAAGH! Ugh, uh huh WAAAHHHH!"
Hiems followed. They jumped again to the ground, though Hiems had to pull Aureum one-handed back to her feet.
The guards did try to follow, but this is where their numbers impeded them, and some of them didn't make the first jump.
It slowed them down at least.
"…The gate!" Aureum said, after taking another gasping breath.
There it was, the gate to the second wall. And there were more guards in front of it.
Hiems didn't reply. She heard his ragged breathing, sounding worse than her own. The guards' echoed steps and shouts behind them kept getting closer.
What are we going to do?
Aureum felt Hiems gathering mana. She followed suit without much thought.
"WAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
A few more seconds of chaos. A few more feet closer. Some of the guards in the front began charging them.
"Help me!" Hiems said.
He grasped her hand and released the mana through their clutched hands.
It almost ripped apart the mana she was trying to hold onto, but she managed to twist her control with the weight of his.
BANG!
A large wave of ice hit past the guards and burst open the gate.
Aureum was shocked at the force of it.
Her wind helped little with that. Yet, almost as soon as that spike was formed, Hiems shattered it.
"Cut them!" He said.
Aureum caught the wind around the bursting ice shards and directed them to those guards she could see.
"Now…!"
Hiems' tired voice rang out, and in this moment of confusion, Aureum and Hiems ran for their lives.
She saw the unshaven face of one man lunging for her, but she bent her body forward, and his spear missed. She was past him.
Aureum saw Hiems using a shard of ice as a substitute blade to slice one guard's throat. There were still too many.
We need to… hide…
Despite her scattered thoughts, her actions were quick. She used the wind to kick up the bits of ice at first. Then just grasped anything loose and swirled it around her.
"Ugh!"
The trouble was the dirt got caught in her throat as well. Gemmo was quiet.
Aureum reached out for Hiems. He had the baby's mouth covered.
They exited through the gate of the second wall.
And it hit her as Hiems pulled her to exit the gate at an angle towards the nearest thicket.
We're gonna have to keep running, aren't we?
Despite all her desires for freedom, she might have accepted death and dropped to her knees right there except.
"Hah… Hah… Hah…"
There was Hiems, with each breath rasping beside her.
I think I can spin up some more dust.
Just a little more, another trick, a little miracle. Just one more damn step.
———————————————————
"Grandpa! I don't wanna go to sleep! Let me stay up with you and hear your stories!"
Vitreum whined, with a much larger, majestic Snowfluffles himself in her arms.
"Mreoow."
"See? His majesty Snowfluffles agrees with me!"
"I do not recognize Snowfluffles' kingly authority on my own lands. He must keep his opinion to himself, as any other guest," Lord Maledic replied.
He was in his chair while the little girl stood in front of him. They were nearly at the same level of eyesight, this battered ancient man and this little, energetic girl. Maledic's small room was very cozy in front of the fire.
"He isn't a guest in his own home, Grandpa~!"
"Yet, he is not king over me," Maledic said. "So he must be far from home if he is a king."
"Where do you think he's from then?"
"I—
Before Maledic could tell Vitreum a bit about Snowfluffles' most majestic heritage, the door burst open.
"Lord Maledic!" Mors snarled. "The girl and the traitor have fled!"
Vitreum looked at Mors in alarm and immediately quieted down. She clutched Snowfluffles and backed away from him, behind Maledic's chair.
Maledic took a hand and stroked Snowfluffles' white coat.
"Don't be afraid," he said to her.
To Mors, Maledic's tone was not soft.
"The girl? You mean Spesavia's apprentice? Why are you so concerned about it?"
"Aureum?" Vitreum said, but clamped her mouth shut as Mors looked at her.
"Lord Maledic," Mors began through thin lips, "I have finally found out Spesavia's secret. That girl's 'son' is what hatched from the missing dragon egg!"
Maledic's head lifted.
"That's a wild claim. Is there proof?"
"Yes. Her own notes, and her reluctance, speak loudly."
"Then we must—
"Aureum and Mendax ran away?" Vitreum said. "From what?"
Maledic turned to look back at his child.
She was his, not from blood but more by duty, for it was his lack of care that resulted in this child's pain. He would not shy away from that. If he had made past decisions differently, perhaps she could have been spared much.
Yet, it was equally true that from the moment good Aes had brought the young girl to the manor, sending the little girl away would cost a good chunk of Maledic's own heart. Not just the hearts of everyone else in the manor.
A feeling rose up inside him.
"Vitreum," he said, "I have to insist that you go to bed now. Please, take her."
A woman in yellow from the edge of the room nodded and lifted Vitreum up.
"But—! Aureum! Mendax! Are they alright?"
"But it's past your bedtime, my lady."
The woman closed the door behind them softly.
Maledic turned his head towards the flames. There was much left to discuss for those who weren't little girls.