Emboldened by the room’s emptiness, Alena returned to the front of the house. A glance toward Azaleth confirmed the front had been quiet. Alena pushed gently on the front door, but it wouldn’t budge. Her guess had been right, though. The door was far thicker than an average door. Alena went to work with her tools, only to realize the lock was already unlocked.
She pushed against the door, but it didn’t give even a hair. She pushed harder, putting her shoulder into it, with the same result.
The door had opened easily for Kye and Jace, which meant it was barred from the inside.
Alena took a few steps back. She studied the building again. Why would an empty house in this neighborhood need such a thick door that could be barred from the inside? Then she noticed the city wall behind the house and cursed her stupidity.
The house was the entrance to another way out of the city.
Alena ran back to where Azaleth waited. “It’s a tunnel out of town. I’m going to follow them. You need to get Brandt and Ana from the front gate as soon as possible. There will be a trail somewhere on the other side of this wall. I’ll leave clues.”
Azaleth argued. “I don’t want to leave you alone.”
He gave her pause. When this was over, she resolved she would accept his unspoken offer. She had been a fool to push him aside as long as she had.
“There’s no choice. I’ll be fine. I’m only going to follow them. I won’t do anything until you all arrive.”
Though he didn’t look convinced, Azaleth turned and ran, leaving Alena alone.
She returned her gaze to the house. She could either break into it and attempt to follow the tunnel herself, or she could make herself light, try to get over the wall without being seen, and find where the tunnel came out. Neither was a perfect idea.
She elected to try the tunnel. Getting over the wall without being observed in the middle of the day and managing to find the exit seemed the more difficult task.
First, she needed to break into the house. She returned to the building, walking around it quickly. The house had a back door that was barred as well. She turned her attention to the windows, quickly discovering that they were sealed shut. If it came to that, she would break a window, but she didn’t want to leave evidence of her passing if she could avoid it.
Her eyes wandered up to the second floor. Perhaps their precautions hadn’t applied through the entire building. She made herself light and climbed up the wall, holding onto the wall with one hand while she pulled out a slim file with the other. The tool slid between the window and the frame without a problem, and soon she was in, crouched down low, listening for any clue her entrance had been noticed.
When she was reasonably certain she was safe, she made her way downstairs. She couldn’t hear a single sound in the house beyond her own breathing. A quick check of the ground floor confirmed she was alone in the house.
Alena opened all the doors, not surprised that none of them led to a secret tunnel. But the floors were bare, so she started tapping on the wood, listening for hollow sounds underneath. It took her a few moments, but she eventually found the secret door under the floor.
Just like Bayt’s.
Another few moments of searching revealed the latch, and less than thirty heartbeats later she was looking into a dark tunnel.
Her foot froze. Sending Azaleth away had been right. His tracking skills far surpassed hers, and with Ana and Brandt, he could leave the city without problem and find her.
The tunnel opening stretched in her imagination, threatening to swallow her whole. She took an involuntary step back, then shook her head at her own foolishness.
By now, Jace and Kye were certainly out the other side. But she had no light, and she would have to walk through the dark tunnel alone.
The temptation to run overpowered her. She glanced back at the front door of the house, the sunlight pouring through the windows. It wouldn’t be hard. She could turn around, make some excuse, and return to the inn. When Azaleth didn’t find her, they would return and they could try again.
She stepped away from the tunnel, returning to the steps she had come down from the second story. She bit her lip as her foot came down.
There might not be a second chance. Brandt believed that whatever the Lolani planned would devastate the empire. If Kye and her brother were on their way to meet the Lolani now, this might be the only opportunity she got. And her family still lived here, the first place disaster would strike.
Alena swore and returned to the tunnel opening. Her arms and legs felt heavy, but she forced them to move, climbing down the ladder that led to the darkness below.
The tunnel was dark. Light trickled in from the opening, but after the tunnel took its first turn, the light vanished. Alena shuffled forward, her hands against the walls on either side. She tried not to think about the weight of stone above her.
Soon, she stopped. She kept bumping into walls and support beams cutting across the tunnel. No matter how she waved her hands about, there always seemed to be some obstacle she missed.
She closed her eyes, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm her pounding heart. As she did, her air affinity became more pronounced. She realized that air moved through the tunnel, ever so slightly. She could feel the objects it brushed past.
Alena worked her way forward, mapping out the objects and creating a mental image of her surroundings. After five paces she was convinced her affinity could be used for the task. Within thirty paces she was comfortable moving in the dark.
Then the tunnel ended, thin slits of light visible above her. She could
