We crawled out and ran behind the granary,we crossed a small yard and jumped a fence. A child's toy lay in the mud with a wooden horse with one wheel, there were no people and no lights.
We cut behind a barn and found the start of a drainage ditch,we dropped into it,It ran south behind a line of sheds and past a fallow field. We took it until it turned into a deeper culvert lined with old stone,my legs burned and Vesper's sleeve was red but She kept running.
The culvert turned and a grate blocked it. Rhea put her boot to the lower bar and pushed and it bent. She pulled the next bar and it cracked. She opened a hole big enough for us to slide through.
We went into darkness and the culvert fed into a larger run. The water was ankle deep and cold,the roof was low and the walls were slick but we moved without sound.
The first echo reached us from behind. Boots,metal and men entered the culvert.
Rhea didn't speed up. "They're guessing,keep it quiet,no splashes."
We stepped along the edge stones and kept our shoulders against the wall.
At a bend, voices came from ahead too with flashes of torch and we were pinned again.
Rhea looked at Vesper and Vesper nodded and pulled a ring. She whispered to it and set it on the water and it floated. She blew on it and it drifted around the bend and we heard the voices pause. The ring cracked and a wall of gray dust filled the tunnel ahead.
Rhea moved and we cut through the curtain and shoved past two men coughing and wiping their eyes. Rhea's blade went across one throat and Selendra's tail took the crossbow from the other and cracked it on the wall,he reached for a knife and she hooked his wrist and broke it.
We ran and more voices rose behind us. The tunnel opened into a chamber with three exits and a ladder up. Rhea went to the ladder, climbed two rungs and pushed open the hatch didn't move.
Vesper pointed. "Let's go left because that goes east toward the hills."
We took the left passage and a strong draft hit my face,he air smelled clean and we ran faster.
The passage dropped and narrowed and we had to turn sideways to move. The water deepened to calf and the cold climbed my legs and my teeth clicked. I couldn't hear the men behind us anymore. Just our steps and our breathing.
"Stop," Rhea said.
We stopped and she held up a hand in front of my chest. "Trip line."
A fine wire was stretched at knee height across the passage and Vesper took a flat blade and slid it under the wire. She lifted and held tension while we stepped over one by one and Selendra winked at me and simply stepped that high and clear, light on her feet.
We moved again and the passage opened into a carved room with a low ceiling. At the far end was a rectangle of night. We went to it and looked out. We were at the base of a slope with scrub and rock. The sky was a dull lid,no moon,no smoke smeared the horizon to the north.
Rhea sent Vesper up first,then me,then Selendra and Rhea came last and We lay flat on the slope and listened.
Nothing close,no voices,no metal,no dogs.
Rhea pointed to a shadow line farther south. "That ridge,we'll hold there."
We crawled up the slope, then rose and jogged in a crouch. My legs felt like they didn't belong to me and Alma didn't answer when I whispered to her,the charm just stayed cold and heavy.
We reached the low ridge and dropped behind a jumble of rock. The wind carried smoke smell from behind us and Rhea let us breathe for a minute and then checked Vesper's shoulder. The bolt had grazed and torn muscle. Blood had slowed. Vesper poured a thin line of oil and wrapped it again.
"Does it hurt?" Rhea asked.
"not much,it doesn't," Vesper said.
Selendra watched me. "You are pale."
"I'm fine," I said.
"You are not," she said.
Rhea scanned the dark slopes. "We need one more jump and then we can rest. There is an old quarry beyond this ridge and if it's empty, we stay there till daylight."
We moved again,up and over the ridge,down into scrub. The ground turned to broken stone and the wind dropped and the world narrowed to our footfalls and breath.
We reached the edge of the old quarry,it was a shallow bowl of rock and weeds and broken tools lay scattered. A light wind passed through it and made a dry sound.
Rhea made a quick circle down the near wall, checked the floor, and came back. "we are clear,we go down and tuck in under that shelf."
We slid down the wall and the stone scraped boots,my knees shook and I wanted to sleep right there in the dirt.
We got under the shelf,it was dry and hidden from three sides. Rhea took the outer edge and set her blade across her knees,Vesper sat and closed her eyes for one minute and then opened them again,Selendra set her back to the rock, folded her wings tight, and watched me.
I pulled my cloak around me and pressed my hand to the charm. "Alma?"
I got nothing,I swallowed. "Alma. Please."
A small pulse answered,not her voice,just a tick and the HUD blinked.
[Integrity 18%]
[Borrowed Sets — Locked]
[Anchor Load — High]
[Voice — Offline]
I stared at the numbers until they blurred.
Rhea spoke without looking at me. "She's not gone."
"I know."
"She will be angry," Selendra said. "Leave room for that."
I didn't answer..We kept quiet for a while. Only the sound Wind and dry weeds moving. A rock somewhere fell small and loose and then even that sound went away.
Rhea's head turned. "Do you hear that."
I held my breath and heard a soft scrape at the top of the quarry wall. One,then anothe,not the sound of rock fall but that of boots placed soft.
Rhea shifted her weight. "Positions."
Vesper slid her hand to her rings but didn't lift them,Selendra's tail uncoiled and I gripped the charm and braced to run.
A cloak edge showed at the rim and then withdrew,someone made a hand signal. Three dark shapes slid down the wall with practiced steps and They landed light and spread,tey didn't look at each other,they looked at our shelf,they moved like they already knew where we were.
Rhea stood. "Back," she said to us. She stepped out from the ledge.
"Stop," one of the shapes said. "Captain Voss… By sanction, you are relieved."
"Denied," Rhea said.
They didn't argue,they raised crossbows and fired. Rhea jumped sideways and a bolt stuck in the rock where her head had been. She rushed the nearest man and her blade took his wrist. He flipped the crossbow to his other hand and tried to shoot again but she kicked his knee and the shot went into the floor.
Vesper's ring cracked and a harsh white glare filled the bowl and the two other shapes fired. One bolt hit the shelf and snapped,the other grazed Selendra's wing,she hissed and moved, fast and low,her tail took a crossbow out of a man's hand and cracked his jaw with the return.
More scrapes hit the rim and more shapes slid down, too many of them and it seems like they always knew where we were.
"Out!" Rhea shouted. "Go!....Now!"