Then I heard it, and my body went rigid. Footsteps wereapproaching, the sound bouncing off the stairwell visible at the end of the hall.
Skye swiveled her head toward me, eyes wild. My mind whirred as I ran through possibilities. It sounded like one set of feet, but there was no way of knowing how armed the person was or how big. We’d overpowered the guard, but only because we’d tricked him. We wouldn’t be able to do that again.
Making a split-second decision, I took Skye’s hand and pulled her with me as I hurried toward the footsteps. I didn’t have a solid plan yet, but my gut told me that the further from the cells, the better. Skye made a frustrated sound, but she didn’t argue as I tugged her behind me.
We’d barely reached the opening to the stairwell when I glimpsed the tips of dark boots and flattened myself to the wall. I stretched my arm across Skye to hold her behind me and backed us both away from the entrance to the stairs as a Zagrath guard burst from the opening.
He didn’t break his stride or look to either side as he emerged from the stairwell and continued toward the cells. I only had a few moments to decide if we should dart up the stairs or follow the guard, and I had no memories of what I’d done in the past to help me.
Tvekit, I thought. The second he sees the guard unconscious in our cell, he’ll raise the alarm, which means we won’t make it far.
I released Skye’s hand and took a few long strides to reach the guard walking away from us. Then I struck him fiercely in the side, knowing instinctively where to hit to do the most damage. Once he’d fallen to his knees, I curled my arm around his neck and squeezed until he lost consciousness, ignoring hishands as they scrabbled at my bare arm or his desperate gasps for air.
“Holy hell,” Skye whispered as she came up behind me. “You’re great at that.”
My chest swelled from the compliment, but I didn’t pause to thank her. Instead, I dragged the second guard back through the door to the cells, depositing him inside, taking his blaster, passing it to Skye, and closing the door. It wasn’t the best place to hide him, but I didn’t want to waste more time by taking him all the way to our old cell. Besides, I didn’t know when either guard would wake. We needed to put significantly more distance between them and us before that time.
I ran back down the corridor on my toes so I wouldn’t make too much noise, and I grabbed Skye’s hand on the way, pulling the first blaster from my waistband. “Let’s go.”
Her jaw was hanging open, but she didn’t protest as I ran up the stairs, with her one step behind me. At the top step, I paused with my blaster at the ready. I didn’t hear more boots slapping stone, which was a relief. But when I emerged from the staircase, I stopped.
We were in the middle of a hallway lined with doors, but I had no idea which way to go. We’d no doubt been brought this way when we arrived, but I recalled none of that.
Skye saved me by yanking my hand and whispering, “It’s this way.”
We reversed roles, with me following her as she led me down the hallway and through an arch I hadn’t seen from the stairs. That led us up more stairs and past more closed doors.
I tried not to focus on the low hum of voices behind the doors or the fear that any of them could open at any moment. But Skye paused outside one door that was cracked.
“As soon as the Vandar come, we will destroy them.”
Cold dread slithered down my spine, and Skye’s hand jerked in mine.
“We know they will come?” a voice asked.
A chuckle. “We’re tracking them through one of the rebels they so bravely rescued.”
Skye slapped a hand over her mouth, and I pulled her away from the door before her shock could give us away. There would be time to discuss what we’d learned once we were free.
She let herself be pulled the rest of the way down the hall and then up a short flight of stairs. As we went up in the building, the ceilings got higher and the light brighter. Even the air was cleaner; the scent of grime and damp replaced with a pervasive aroma of citrus and baking bread. Was there a kitchen nearby?
My stomach growled in response, and I tightened it to quiet the rumble. There would be time to eat later—I hoped.
At the top of the steps, Skye hesitated. I wondered if she was still upset by what we’d heard, but the expression on her face was pure determination.
“If I remember correctly, the next floor is the way out,” she said in such a low voice I could barely hear her. “But there are guards at the front. At least there were when we came in.”
Behind us voices echoed, and doors opened and closed. We would have to make a run for it soon, even if that meant running through armed guards.
Skye poked her head around the corner and then squeezed my hand. “There’s an alcove close to the stairs. If we can get there, we can hide and regroup.”
I returned the squeeze in agreement, and she glanced back, smiling. Then she turned back, took a breath, and dashed from the stairwell. I was right behind her, slipping into the alcove just as shouts bellowed from a level below.
The shouts increased in volume and were joined by the thundering of feet. I slunk farther into the alcove, my body shielding Skye’s as some guards ran by us.
“I think they’ve discovered the guards in the cells,” she said between quick breaths.
“That means we have little time. We need to run for it.”
