“She does?”
Vi ignored the woman’s shock. “She does. When you get her stable, meet me at the entrance to the dungeons.”
“Very well.” Deneya was clearly still skeptical about the whole plan—which Vi hardly blamed her for—but she didn’t question further.
They parted ways and Vi returned to her room, rummaging through it for a pack and two bags. She loaded the pack with basic clothes and supplies. On the way through the castle, she ran to the guards’ storerooms for a few salves and potions, then the kitchens for rations, filling the other two bags with as much as they could carry.
Vi headed for the dungeons next. She cursed her luck that the same elderly man as before wasn’t stationed at the entrance. It was a young guard whose name Vi couldn’t remember. She stashed the bags behind a sculpture two hallways up and then sprinted back down, gulping air to catch her breath so she wasn’t winded.
“Report,” Vi commanded as she strode into the room.
“Captain!” The man jumped, stuttering over his words. “Nothing new to report. All is quiet.”
“How many do we have jailed?”
“Currently, just three here.”
“Their crimes?”
“Unruliness… a servant charged with castle theft… one of them is suspected of being a Knight of Jadar.” He read off a list.
“No issues from them?” The guard shook his head. Vi forced a gentle smile. “Then I think you should go upstairs and enjoy the festivities.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s not every night an heir is born. Go, celebrate with the rest for three hours.” She hoped it’d be enough time to get Fiera through. If not, Vi would figure out something else when the time came. “I’ll take care of things here.” Vi punctuated the sentiment with a conspiratorial wink.
“Are you sure?” The man was already headed for the door.
“Absolutely. Go on, have fun, time’s ticking.” Vi glanced at her watch for emphasis, and when she looked up, he was gone. She counted down a minute before following behind him, backtracking to her supplies, and then returning to the dungeons.
Down into the darkness, Vi wound through the mazes of cells. Even though she’d only been down this way once, Vi walked with confidence. Her mind had instinctively made a map of the area.
With the key Zira had entrusted her with, Vi opened the cell door and pushed the cot aside. She summoned a mote of flame, and her courage with it, before stepping down into the inky blackness of the underground tunnel.
The rapid beating of her heart slowed as Vi ventured further down the path. The tunnel was rough-hewn—cut out from the rock in some places and mortared with stone in others. Every now and then she had to duck underneath a rotting support beam, or side-step so her and the bags could fit through. But the pitch black of the tunnel’s entrance was far more intimidating than the tunnel itself.
There was only one path and it felt like forever. Eventually, much as it had with Erion’s escape route, Vi saw the first traces of pale moonlight on the rock. She extinguished her flame and stepped out onto a wide ledge that overlooked a small ravine with the ocean on the other side.
To her right, the cliff stretched upward, peaking at the rich area of town. To her left, the path continued down and away from Norin—out of sight, thanks to the large wall that still bordered the sea on this side. The walkway would be wide enough for a horse, Vi decided as she made her way quickly along it.
She went down far enough that she could see how the path wound through the rocky outcroppings of the cliff, hidden by archways and overhangs, twisting around large boulders, before the path finally blended into the open Waste at the far southern edge of the city.
Armed with this information, Vi sandwiched her bags between two large rocks and sprinted back the way she came.
By the time she arrived at the stables, her side ached and her lungs were burning. Even having worked to keep up her stamina by training with the soldiers, Vi could tell the past few months had been relatively easy on her. She felt soft in places she hadn’t in what seemed like years.
“How to get the horses…” Vi murmured, hovering in the shadows near a side door to the castle.
People streamed in and out of the main hall. There were guards everywhere. She could go into the city and steal a random horse. That would certainly be easier.
But Vi didn’t want any horse. She needed a warstrider—no,twowarstriders. The beasts were bred for long, hard rides through the Waste’s sands. They had the size and stamina to support two people and supplies with ease. They were her best chance of getting ahead of the Knights.
Vi had a black and white warstrider mare named Midsummer she’d inherited from Zira. The woman wasn’t able take the horse with her, given the circumstances of how she’d left the castle. The creature had been a gift from Fiera and was almost as impressive as the Empress’s all-black stallion, Prism.
“All right,” Vi said with conviction. If she couldn’t convince herself this half-baked lie would work, then how could she expect anyone else to believe it? “Let’s do this.”
During the next lull in the flow of people, Vi strode out into the stables focusing on one boy who was busy keeping up the tack room.
