Chapter 276
Chapter 276
Elara’s POV
“Names to the front, not the back.”
:
Vessa lifted her chin in the blue–lit corridor. “Then watch us work.”
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The citadel hummed. Traps slept in the mortar. Bells we had cut lay like dead fish. Six freed girls pressed close to Serena and Zara. Kaia held my sleeve. Ruvan waited deeper in the core with his ring and his smile. We moved anyway.
“Ilia,” I said. “Find me a roof.”
“On it,” she whispered, already climbing the ribbed wall like it had handles only she could see.
The sight of her boots on stone punched open a door in my head. Not here. Another day. Another wall.
Rain hammered the Direstone tower. Ilia stood below the cracked gutter with her hair matted and her lip half split. Two guards laughed above her.
“Go home,” one called. “We do not hire cats.”
Ilia
spat rain. “You hire liars. I can hear your pockets rattle.”
I stepped out from under the arch. “Show me a climb no one else can do.”
She squinted at me. “Why.”
“Because I need a thief who steals air,” I said.
“Pay is bad,” she shot back.
“Pay is work you can live with,” I said. “You in or not.”
She looked up at the gutter. Then down at her bare hands. “Move if you want to keep your nose,” she said.
She was at the top in three breaths. She kicked the guard’s pouch loose on the way over. It dropped into my palm. I smiled. “Welcome to Gamma.”
–
“Roof,” Ilia called now from the slot above. “Hook set. I see two archers asleep on pride. No bells.”
“Wake them easy,” Vessa said.
Ilia’s rope kissed the ledge. We pushed the girls to the safer wall and slid under the line.
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Chapter 276
“Nora,” I said. “Wire check.”
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“Always,” she said, kneeling at the baseboard. Her fingers moved like she was braiding. Calm, small, sure.
Her voice dragged me back to a kitchen that smelled like onion and loss.
–
Nora’s aunt shoved a broom into her hands. “Stay inside. Your hands are too soft for the fens.”
Nora wrapped her palms with rag. “My hands break easy. My head does not.”
The elder who had taken her listing snorted. “You failed the spear trial. Three times.”
“Because the spear was a joke,” she said. “Give me wire.”
I had been standing at the door, elbow on the frame. She noticed me late, then met my eyes flinching.
“Prove it,” I said.
without
She tied the elder’s sleeve to the latch in two breaths. He tried to move and almost fell. She did not smile.
“What do you cut,” I asked.
“Anything that makes cages,” she said.
“Good,” I said. “Bring your wire. Leave the broom.”
“Two lines,” Nora murmured now. “One to a bell. One to a something I hate.” She snipped the bell first, then eased a wedge under the tile and lifted the clean wire with both hands. “Save it. Might be hers.”
“Leira,” I called. “Door after the bend.”
“Give me a sound,” she answered.
“Wind,” I said.
Her laugh was low. “Pretty”
Her sound pulled a memory as sharp as a pick.
Leira’s mother sold pins at a stall that no one visited twice. Leira worked the lock box, not the pins. A tall man leaned too close and asked for her smile. She sold him silence instead and palmed his coin with the box still
shut.
I set a key on her table. “Open that with your eyes closed.”
Chapter 276
She tried and failed. She opened them, glared, and tried again. The lock clicked.
“You watching for guards,” she asked, chin up.
“I am watching for women who do more than sell pins,” I said. “You in.”
“What is the job,” she asked.
“Doors that pretend to be walls,” I said.
“That is all doors,” she said.
“Then you will eat,” I said.
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Now she slid her pick into the notch. “This bolt listens. Tap it near the middle. Not loud.”
Mira tapped. Leira turned. The bolt sighed and came back. The door accepted us.
“Zara,” I said. “Shield front. No hero runs.”
She rolled her shoulders and took the hall like it owed her rent. Her face woke a day I do not like to
remember.
Zara had been sparring in the Ashfang ring with a shield too small for her arm and a crowd that wanted to laugh. Garron watched with both hands on the rail. She stripped a boy of his spear and sent him into the sand. The rail fell quiet.
“Who told you that you can be here,” Garron asked.
“No one,” she said.
He looked at me. “Make her your problem.”
“I already did,” I said.
I walked into the ring and handed her a heavier shield. She lifted it like it was a promise.
“You will not like me,” I said.
She grinned. “That helps.”
–
“Two steps to the right,” Zara said now, reading the floor. “Loose brick.”
We stepped. The brick clicked where our heels should have been. No bells sang. Vessa’s mouth ticked up.
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Chapter 276
“Serena,” I said. “Count again.”
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“Six,” she said without looking down. “Still six.” She made little notes on her palm with a nub of charcoal. Hands steady. Breath even. The smell of her pack punched another memory open.
The field clinic at Emberhold had ten cots and twenty bodies. Serena stood at a basin by herself. Blood reached her elbows. She washed like the water would judge her.
“Where is the medic,” I asked.
She looked at me over the steam. “They ran when the first man stopped talking.”
“And you stayed,” I said.
She tied her curls up with a strip of bandage. “Someone had to say the hard words.”
“What words,” I asked.
He will not make it.
She did not say it again. She looked at me instead.
“I will not leave a girl alone in a room like that,” I said. “Come with me.”
–
Now Serena drew a chalk line at ankle level on the wall. “If you come back without a girl and without a friend, I close the door on you and you live with it.”
“Fair,” Vessa said.
“Prisca,” I said. “Douse triangles ready. If this blue fuel kicks up, I want a bath.”
“Always,” she said. Her satchel clinked. She had ink–stained fingers and a voice that felt like a match across rough wood. She had burned a banner once more beautifully than any fire I ever saw. That day came back like a heartbeat.
In Thornhaven Square, a parade tried to sell a noble’s daughter to a crowd with drums. They waved a crest that had not been earned with any work I respected. Prisca stepped out in front of the team and lit the cloth from the bottom so the flames climbed slow and sure.
“You cannot burn the house seal,” a guard shouted.
“I did,” she said.
He reached for her. I reached him first.
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“Come write with heat,” I told her when the smoke thinned.
She looked at my hands. “Do you want banners or doors.”
“Both,” I said.
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“Blue fuel burns low,” she whispered now. “It smothers if you feed it right. Do not panic.”
“Eliza,” I said. “Eyes.”
She sighed like she had been waiting to be used. She nocked an arrow and drew the bow half to keep her line tight. Her wrist scar caught the light. Her scar had a story I did not ask for. I had been there when she made a
new one.
A rogue had cornered three girls in a cider shed with a knife that shook. Eliza put herself in the doorway and smiled like the sun was a joke.
“Leave,” the rogue said.
“I have a question,” she said. “Do you bleed faster with the knife in your hand or not.”
“Who are you,” he asked.
“Someone who is bored,” she said. Then she took the knife from him with a move I barely saw and cut her own wrist enough to sting. “Now you have to explain this to me. Or run.”
He ran. She laughed and wiped her wrist on a barrel.
“Why would you do that,” I asked.
“So I stop shaking,” she said. “Shaking feels like losing.”
“You like bows,” I said.
“I like answers,” she said.
“Then rain for me,” I said.
—
“Roof clear,” Eliza said now. “Two down without sound. We own the arch.”
“Good,” I said. “Vessa, take Ilia and Eliza. Cut the light. Mira with me. Serena and Zara hold the girls. Nora and Leira on our hips.”
We turned the last bend. The core door waited with its iron smile. The small slot stared like an eye. Ruvan’s voice drifted through it.
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“Why not talk,” he said. “We both like paper.”
“Paper burns,” I said. “Move.”
He laughed. “It always did.”
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Mira set her shoulder to the hinge. Leira listened for the lever and found none. Nora frowned at the baseboard. “Wire sings here,” she said.
“Cut on my count,” I said. “Three. Two. One.”
She cut. Mira shoved. The door gave a hand. Blue light rolled out like cold breath.
“Hold,” Serena snapped behind us. “Kaia, eyes on me.”
I looked back for one beat. Kaia’s mouth was a thin line. She nodded once. She did not cry. Good.
“Go.” I said.
We slid into the core. The ceiling climbed. The floor was clean. Too clean. The blue bowls made our teeth ache. A chair sat on a low rise. The banner behind it was stitched with a reversed wolf. Ruvan stood beside the chair, ring bright. He clapped like a slow teacher.
“Where is Miela,” I asked.
“She learns to sit,” he said. “You will meet her after you kneel.”
Vessa’s voice crackled in my bead from the roof. “Lights cut at the arch. Dawn holds the gate. Your path is yours.”
“Prize it,” I said.
Ruvan held up a hand. “If you take one more step, a door closes that you cannot open. Blue fire under the floor. Lungs burn. Girls suffocate. You will hear it through the walls.”
“Lies,” Zara growled.
“Truth,” he said. He pointed at a lever near his knee. “Want to test it.”
Ilia’s shadow flickered at the arch above him. She held on like a spider. Eliza lay flat with her bow and an arrow that begged to fly.
“Talk fast,” Vessa hissed. “I have a shot that becomes three if you make him blink.”
“Hold,” I breathed. I did not look up.
“Leira,” I whispered. “Is there another lever.”
She closed her eyes and breathed in. “Metal left. Wood right. Wood makes sound. Metal makes pain.”
“Nora,” I whispered. “Wire path.”
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“Under his foot,” she said. “Into the wall. Out under your hand.”
“Prisca,” I whispered. “What smothers blue.”
“Wet cloth under plank,” she said. “Starves it from below if you find the hatch.”
“Find me a hatch,” I whispered.
She went to a seam with a mason’s eye and set her palm on the stone. “Here,” she breathed.
“Serena,” I said low. “If it goes wrong.”
“I count fast,” she said.
Ruvan cocked his head. “Do you hear the little orders. The girls will not.”
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Kaia stepped past Zara and stood where she could see him. “You smell like my fear,” she said. “It is old. It will not feed you.”
He smiled wider. “You are brave for a small thing.”
“She is brave because fear bored her,” Eliza murmured from the arch.
“Enough,” I said. I stepped forward until I felt the hair on my arm lift with the charge in the room. “You speak of paper. I like paper too.” I pulled the locket from my pocket and opened it enough for him to see the hinge stain. “My mother wrote about men like you. She said you never touch the knife if you can cut with debt.”
“Your mother wrote pretty lies,” he said.
“She wrote that you think I need your chair,” I said. “Watch me build a table instead.”
His smile cracked an inch. Good.
“Now,” I said.
It moved like we had rehearsed a hundred times. Ilia dropped behind his shoulder and wrapped his wrist. Eliza’s arrow pinned his sleeve to the banner post. Mira hit the lever with her shield and snapped the wood into splinters. Nora’s wire whip flicked the cable under his foot free of the eyelet. Leira slid to the panel and jammed a wedge into the metal path. Prisca shoved a wet cloth into the hatch and slammed her boot on it. The blue bowls guttered. The air stayed thin but it did not turn to knives.
Ruvan snarled and tried to pull free. Ilia tightened. He hissed like a burned cat. In the same breath, three rogues burst from the side door. Zara took the first with her shield to the ribs and a knee to the jaw. Serena flanked right and cut the second behind the knee. Nora hooked the third by the ankle and sent him into
Mira’s wall.
“Girls,” Serena called. “Eyes on me. Hands on the rope. Do not look at the floor.”
They listened. They moved. Kaia still watched Ruvan. She did not blink.
Ruvan spat. “You think this hall makes you Alpha.”
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:
“I do not need halls,” I said. “I need women like this.”
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Boots pounded behind us. Dawn Wing washed in with smoke and sweat. Vessa slid off the arch with a grin like she had finally found a fight worth chewing.
“Cut him,” she said.
“Not yet,” I said. I stepped into Ruvan’s space until the ring on his hand touched my torque. “Call off the ones with wires on their necks.”
He laughed. “They cannot hear me anymore.”
“They can hear me,” I said. I raised my voice. “Theo. If you can hear this, your sister is alive. Walk toward my voice.”
Silence held for two heartbeats. Then from the far corridor, a voice cracked back. “Here.”
Kaia’s breath broke. She tried not to run. She failed well. Serena caught her and steered. “Slow feet. Big eyes.”
Ruvan’s mouth pulled tight. “Well then,” he said. “New game.”
He yanked his arm. Ilia let the skin go so the arrow took the rest of the force. He slipped the ring off and dropped it between us. The blue bowls flared one more time.
“Vessa,” I said.
She slid her blade under the ring like it was a snake and flipped it into the wet cloth. The flare died.
Ruvan smiled with blood on his teeth. “Catch me.”
He dove for the side door I had not seen. Ilia snapped at his ankles. He twisted like he had practiced it. He still got through.
“Do not chase,” I said. “We hold the girls first.”
Vessa cursed in two languages. “I hate being right.”
Eliza loosed one more arrow down the door and hit a hinge. The door sagged. It made enough noise to wake half the citadel. Good. Let them come to us for once.
Theo stumbled into the hall with two of Dawn Wing at his back. He saw Kaia, then me. He tried to kneel. I shook my head.
“Keep your feet,” I said. “You will need them.”
He nodded. Kaia pressed her forehead to his and laughed a sound that was half sob. Serena counted again. “Six plus one. Hold.”
I lifted my chin. “We pull back to the ladders with the girls. We close the drain. Vessa, take roof and cover. Mira, rear wall. Leira and Nora, stay on that panel until every last girl is past the hatch.”
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Vessa clicked her tongue. “And you.”
“I make sure he does not shut a door behind us,” I said.
Eliza gave me a look. “You do not like easy things.”
“I like finished things,” I said.
“Move,” Vessa snapped.
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We moved. The citadel woke angry. Boots hit stone. Voices rose. Our marks glowed green in chalk where we had left them. Red where we had not. Blue light stayed low under Prisca’s foot as she rode the hatch like a stubborn horse.
“Last pair,” Serena called. “Two small. One bigger. I have them.”
“Go,” I said. I turned back to the core and stared at the side door sagging on one hinge. Ruvan’s laugh still scraped the air. It made a promise. I promised back.
“Next,” I told the dark. “You.”
The dark did not answer. That was fine. We would get loud soon.
“On my mark,” I called. “We leave.”
“Give it,” Vessa said from the roof.
“Now,” I said.
—
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